In one of the more public sets of disciplinary proceedings in recent memory, eight students are currently facing possible separation from the University because of their conduct last month at a Students for a Democratic Society protest outside a Corporation meeting. Several other students had run onto the Main Green with a ladder, apparently planning to climb up the side of University Hall and into the meeting of Brown's highest governing body. As police officers scrambled to stop the climbers, the eight students facing disciplinary charges used the diversion to enter University Hall and disrupt the meeting, allegedly injuring three Brown employees in the process.
SDS has asked that the University punish the student group rather than prosecuting its individual members. In a recent letter, several members of SDS alleged that "the demonstration was planned by SDS with wide support across the University" - citing a petition signed by more than 1,000 members of the Brown community. While we wouldn't be opposed to sanctioning a student group that spends its time figuring out how to break into board meetings and career fairs, it is difficult to imagine only punishing the group and ignoring the individuals. In addition, the eight individuals were involved with the alleged injury of three people. Unless SDS condones hurting people in its protests, those individuals take on a special culpability that the group does not. And the attempt to hold the rest of the petition signers - and at one absurd point in the letter, the Corporation itself - accountable for their over-the-top tactics is just ludicrous.
In fact, for all SDS's claims of conflict of interest and gross injustice, we think the University has been rather lenient. It has apparently not sought to punish the students with the ladder, perhaps because they didn't succeed, though they did successfully create a diversion. It also hasn't yet imposed sanctions on SDS as a group. It has seemingly only sought to punish those involved with physical injuries.
The sad thing about the latest set of SDS follies is that the group has hung so tightly to its 60's protest legacy that it has diminished its own ability to fulfill its political purpose. The emphasis on confrontational tactics, seeking arrests and disciplinary hearings, serves only to alienate potential members who might agree with their views on Corporation accountability, financial aid and other campus and national issues.
Drafting a petition seeking support for its views is a more positive step than trying to break into a meeting. We hope they will follow their consensus-building instincts more often. More than a year ago, several SDS members tried to form a student union, which offered a brief glimmer of hope that they would forget the antics and try to build a diverse coalition of students and some legitimacy for their cause. Now, there's just antics.
