After raiding the Brown Corporation meeting a number of weeks ago, SDS’ punishment finally came down from on high. They called a gathering at 2pm to meet on the steps of University Hall. If the rulings were positive, they said they were going to celebrate; if the ruling were negative, they were going to march to the office of the President and demand that the rulings be overturned.
I showed up at 2pm at the steps of University Hall and waited for SDS to gather around. I had a camera in hand in order to document whatever happened, which they weren’t too happy about. After waiting for a critical mass, the entire group marched over to the office of student life. In the front lobby they stood, when down came a secretary with envelopes in hand. The room was thick with anticipation. But it was a false alarm. Misprints were blamed. Dean Ward came down a few minutes later, asked me to turn the camera off, and told the members of SDS that they would have to wait a few more minutes. As he left, a few SDSers made some snide remarks. Understandable, as they are under a fair amount of stress. A few minutes later, Dean Klawunn walked through the room. As she passed through the group, one member of SDS greeted her sarcastically.
After a few minutes, an office worker from the OSL came out telling the members of SDS that their noise was making it hard to function as an office. She asked SDS to move to a conference room. SDS members resisted. “We’re students too,” said Mike DaCruz. “Other students can’t function? What about us, we’re students and we can’t function until we know what’s going to happen to us,” said another member of SDS. But in true democratic fashion, most SDSers agreed that it was a reasonable request, and they moved into the room. Three students stood in front of me, making sure that I couldn’t get into the room, and they closed the door. So, I can’t really say what was discussed. Only that after a long while, the SDS students who were accused went upstairs where they were to demand to see the verdict.
After receiving the verdict, one of the accused text messaged someone in the conference room. All the members of SDS poured out into the OSL lounge where they waited upon tenterhook for their comrades to come downstairs and announce their fates. Suspension and even expulsion were on the table, so anything short of that was good enough news it seemed. And sure enough, as the accused students emerged, hugs were given all around. No one was expelled. But they were all put on probation (basically meaning protest restriction), some were given an additional 3-ish hours of “community service” (which means working for Brown), and others are being required to write papers.
That’s the scoop, my opinion to follow.