Open Letter Condemns UChicago Dean-on-Call’s ‘Clear Bias’ During Disruptive Pro-Palestine Protest
Student journalism on potential bias in university handling of Israeli-Palestinian conflict
By Perry Zhao for the Chicago Thinker
On October 19, pro-Israel and pro-Palestine students held competing protests on the University of Chicago’s Main Quad, and minor conflict ensued after the groups encountered each other. Now, hundreds have signed onto an open letter calling one administrator’s response to the competing demonstrations “completely unacceptable.”
The 19th’s pro-Israel demonstration was organized by the UChicago chapter of Chabad and joined by other Jewish student groups. Gerald McSwiggan, UChicago’s associate director for public affairs, told the Thinker that “Chabad requested a reservation on the main circle of the Quad for its event on October 19, which was granted.” Meanwhile, the pro-Palestine side was led by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which “did not make a request for space on that day.”
McSwiggan informed the Thinker that three deans-on-call (“trained University administrators who . . . serve as points of contact for students”) “were present at the [October 19] event.” One of them—Shevy Booze—expressed overt partiality for SJP, a student affiliated with Yavneh (an Orthodox Jewish intellectual community) alleged to the Thinker.
Dean-on-call Booze, an associate director of residence life, “arrived wearing red, green, black and white: the colors of the Palestinian flag,” and was “seen—and photographed—standing with SJP protestors,” the student told the Thinker. Additionally, the student alleges that she “was seen marching with SJP protestors” on October 20.
Aggravating the situation on the 19th was the “uneven enforcement of supposedly content-neutral restrictions” on the demonstrations. Here, the student mentioned Booze’s inaction when “SJP protestors aggressively approached the pro-Israel students and ripped up pictures of hostages” as well as the university’s “immediate demand that [the pro-Israel demonstrators] silence [their] speakers at exactly 1 p.m.”