Letter to the editor: alumni 'disturbed and outraged' by UB's treatment of protesters

Editor's note: This letter remains in the condition in which it was sent. The list of signatures is as of May 5, 1:20 p.m.

May 3, 2024

University at Buffalo President Satish Tripathi and Chief of Police Kim Beaty:

We are writing as University at Buffalo alumni. We were disturbed and outraged to learn about the brutal suppression of a small student protest on campus on May 1, 2024. You had all the power in this situation. You chose to use it to criminalize your own students for “assembling after dusk,” a policy clearly designed to infringe on students’ First Amendment rights. You developed this policy, and you choose when and how to enforce it. You used this power to inflict state violence on students under your care. Why did you do this? Is it because you disagree with these particular students? Is it because you fear political and financial retribution for your students’ speech? We cannot imagine a good reason for your actions.

We have seen video of the arrests, and read the detailed summary written by UB Spectrum journalists. After you made the choice to criminalize your students for assembling and speaking on campus, you then chose to brutalize them, including those who attempted to find shelter in the University’s buildings. Despite having your own police department, you invited multiple outside law enforcement agencies to participate. You included the Erie County Sheriff’s Office, which has an extensive and ongoing history of deadly human rights abuses. Video evidence and witness accounts document that the officers on the scene were undisciplined, and that some of them clearly enjoyed themselves as they hurt your students. One of them removed a student’s hijab, which is a racist and sexist act. One of them shoved a student journalist who identified himself as press. You are responsible for these actions. The protest was peaceful. Your response was violent.

In a statement about allowing the transphobic and misogynistic agitator Michael Knowles to speak on campus last year, President Tripathi said that the university has a responsibility to uphold the First Amendment, and to “[protect] speech no matter how noxious the content.” Michael Knowles’ speech was an assembly that took place after dusk. Do Palestinian students and their allies have the same right to speak and assemble on your campus as Michael Knowles and his supporters, who have no ties to UB or the greater Buffalo community? This is a question you must answer if you hope to retain credibility as an academic administrator, instead of trying, without grounds, to recast this student protest as an external infiltration.

Your first responsibility is to your students, not to politicians, and not to donors. You have failed to uphold this responsibility. You chose to physically and psychologically harm a group of students when you had many other options. Hold yourselves accountable, and make amends to the students you hurt. You can start by acknowledging that you were wrong, and engaging these students in good faith dialogue. If you cannot do that, you do not deserve any job in an educational institution. Whether you do this or not, you will not be the first or the last university administrators who will be remembered in history for trying to brutally suppress human rights and progressive student movements. 

In Solidarity with Student Protesters, 

Melissa Hubbard (Ph.D., Higher Education, 2022)

Cecilia Lima (BS social sciences interdisciplinary, 2006)

Quasie Clarke (MSW, ‘22, BA, Social Sciences Interdisciplinary, 2020)
Ana Grujić (Ph.D., English, 2017)

Heather Duncan (Ph.D., English, 2016)

Alanna Paris (LMSW, MSW 2021)

Taylor Puchlerz (LMSW, MSW 2022)

Christopher Krysztofowicz (LMSW, MSW 2021)

Josal Diebold (Ph.D., Social Welfare, 2023, MSW, 2018)

Melissa Peña (LMSW, MSW 2022)

Soma Feldmar (Ph.D., English, 2018)

Elizabeth Finnegan (Ph.D., English, 2010)

Elias Fox Schmidt (JD 2022, MSW 2021) 

Rebecca Ballard Chen (M.Ed in ESOL)

Kelly Patton (BA 2009, MS 2012)

John A Barrett (BS, Aerospace Engineering, 1996)

Camille Hopkins (BA, Communications, 1978)

Sarah Spurling (LSW, MSW, 2022)

Evangeline Rauch

Alex Derwick (MFA, Visual Arts, 2013)

Adam Mitts (PhD, English, 2022)

Robin Brox (BA, English, 2001)

Ekrem Serdar (BA, 2006; MFA, 2011)
Marge Maloney (BA, 1979)

Allyn Weilacher (alumnus, grad. 2012)

Leslie Nickerson, MA, PhD candidate, English

Alexandra Prince (Ph.D., History, 2020) 

Sarah Bargnesi (MPH, 2023)

Todd Geise, Community Member

Martin Goffeney (PhD, English, 2020)

Sarah McGrath (Bachelors of English Literature, 2014)

Chloe Higginbotham (MFA, Media Study, 2016)

Mignon Otis, Community Member

Tina Žigon (Ph.D., English, 2016)

Annie Bruns (MSW, APSW, 2016)

Dèvon Patterson (B.A., African American Studies, 3x MAC Champion in Shot Put) 

Thomas Short (B.S. Industrial and Systems Engineering, 2020)

Max Grogan (MA, English, 2015)

Kate Haq (PhD, CISL, 2018)

Addison Laczkowski (GGSS B.A., 2020)

Quinn Carroll (BA, Psychology, 2017; MA, Psychology, 2020; MSW, 2022)

Huo Zhu (BA, Media Studies and Sociology, 2019)

Laura Hoehn (MPH, 2021)

Eric Coombs Esmail (MFA, Media Study, 2016)

Ramla Qureshi (Ph.D., Civil/Structural Engineering)

Akram Shibly (BA Media Study 2015)

Anthony Martha (BA, Communications, 2016)

Solomon Brown ( UB Football player 2022)

Anna Martyn (MSW, 2022)

Milad Mazloomi Fard (MSc, Civil Engineering, 2017)

Cody Bellitto (BA, Computer Science, 2015)

Elif Ege (PhD, Global Gender and Sexuality Studies, 2020)

Hijab Khan (MD, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences)

Deepan Wadhwa(MS, Industrial Engineering, 2018)

Rimjhim Kashyap (M.S., Civil Engineering, 2018)

Claudia Murillo (MSc. Civil Engineering, 2019)

Nadine Cohen (MSW, 2021)

Alexander Schmitt (LMSW, MSW, 2020)

Allison Cardon (Ph.D., English, 2021)

Shontay Barnes, M.A. (Psychology, 2017)

Scott Mancuso (JD, 2009)

Jungmin Kim (M.A., English, 2009)

Amanda Killian (B.A., Art History, 2016)

Ryan Kaveh Sheldon (Ph.D., English, 2020)

Katie Grant, LMSW, Mental Health Counselor

Julien Fischer (B.A., Global Gender Studies, 2016)

John J. Fink (MFA, Media Study 2013)

Jessica J. Mencia, MSW, 2021

Naila Sahar  (Ph.D., English, 2018)

Jenny Santomauro (MLS, 2006)

Kush K. Bhardwaj, (Ph. D, 2010) (MAH 2000) (BA, 1996) 

Michael Santomauro (BA, Political Science, 2008)

Rian Ciela Hammond (MFA, Fine Arts, 2020)

Shelby Bauer (BA Anthropology, 2017)
Jesse Miller (Ph.D. English, 2017) 

Morani Kornberg (Ph.D., English, 2017)

Allison Connelly (BS, Biological Sciences, 2013)
Clara Hodnett (BA, English, 2013)

Tanisha Joshi (Ph.D., Counseling and School Psychology, 2013)

Aleksandra Szaniawska (Ph.D., American Studies, 2017)

Amir Rezaei (Ph.D., Civil and Environmental 2014)
Nathaniel Dickson (MA and Ph.D. English)

K. MacNeil (MFA, Studio Art, 2018)

Scott Ries (M.F.A., Media Study, 2013)

Jordan Smith (MLS, Library & Information Science, 2010)

Dr. Carolyn Tennant (MFA, Dept. of Media Study, 2006)

Maryam Khojasteh (MUP, Architecture and Planning, 2014)

Juhi Roy( Ph.D.,Global Gender Studies)

Stevie Nova Berberick (Ph.D., Mass Communications, 2017)

Anna Neumaier (MS, Information and Library Science, 2022)

Matthew Connolly (PhD, English, 2021)

Zoe Stone-Molloy (MD, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, 2024)

Natalia Pamula (Ph.D., Comparative Literature, 2018)

Farda Barandeh (BS, MA, Physiology, 2012)

​​Nathan M. Peracciny (BA, Digital Media Study, 2007)

Jenna Bassette, Bachelors in English, 2006

Kaitlyn Rak (M.S., School Librarianship, 2021)

Connor Graham (BFA, Theatre, 2016)

Anna Scime (MFA, Media Study, 2012)

Caroline Doherty (MFA, Art, 2016)

Cheng Yang Lee (BA, 2015)

Maura Graham (MSW, 2023, BA Psychology, 2020)

Naomi Graham (BFA, Theatre, 2016)

Kelsey Brown (B.S., Biological Sciences, 2019; B.S., Psychology, 2019)

Cheryl Emerson (PhD, Comparative Literature, 2023)

Cain Colarusso (BA, Studio Art, 2018)

Bianca J. Bassett (BS, Social Sciences - Interdisciplinary, 2018; MSW 2020)

Joseph Gerlach (MD, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biological Sciences, 2024)

Gabriella Nassif (PhD, Global Gender and Sexuality Studies, 2024)

Andrea Pérez Mukdsi (Ph.D Romance Languages and Literatures, 2015)

Xander Percy (B.S., Geological Sciences, 2019)

Emma English (BFA, Theatre, 2018)

Sabrina Petrie ( MSW/MPH ‘26), Social Work

Erin White (EdM, Literacy and Instruction, 2024)

Ruth Goldman (PhD, American Studies, 2015, MFA, Media Study, 2007)

Michael Flatt (PhD, English, 2019)