Some for, others against how UT President Hartzell handled campus protests

AUSTIN (KXAN) — More than 600 University of Texas at Austin faculty signed a letter saying they "no longer have confidence in President Jay Hartzell," following pro-Palestinian protests on campus.

The letter states, "President Hartzell has shown himself to be unresponsive to urgent faculty, staff, and student concerns. He has violated our trust."

On Friday, a group of people gathered to pray on the South Mall on campus. KXAN spoke with some of the people in attendance.

"In light of recent events, we want to keep showing our solidarity and showing our peaceful intent obviously in our Friday prayer," said Mohammed, a student at UT.

Over the last week or so, the South Mall near UT's tower has become an area where pro-Palestine protesters and law enforcement have clashed-- leading to dozens of arrests.

Students like Mohammed said they are concerned with how the UT administration has handled the protests.

"We were just confused and didn't understand why we had this kind of response to us, even though we had peaceful intent and there wasn't really anything going on," Mohammed said.

UT student Matthew said he also disagrees with the response from law enforcement.

"I feel like over the past few months, even since October, he has not responded in a manner that makes his students feel like their voices are being heard. So, I truly don't believe he can represent us at this moment."

While some have disagreed with how Hartzell handled the protests, there are many who have praised him and are confident with his leadership.

"I know that he believes very, very strongly in free speech, but also know that he believes that everyone on campus has the right to complete their education, be safe and get through graduation," said UT alum Sam Susser.

Alums for Campus Fairness (ACF) announced that it has placed a full page ad in the Austin American-Statesman and Dallas Morning News of distinguished Texans commending University of Texas Austin President Jay Hartzell, Susser was one of the alumni on the list (see below).

One portion of the open letter reads: "UT leadership has provided stable guidance amid the disruptive demonstrations, which have largely been instigated by individuals outside our campuses."

"We appreciate their strong actions and there is strong support," said Susser.

While some faculty and staff have expressed concerns about how protests were handled, there are others who appreciate the President's response.

"We want free speech and we want students to learn and be in quiet and safe environments to study for their exams," said Lillian Mills, Dean of McCombs business school at UT. "I believe leaders have difficult decisions in turbulent times and what I believe is, President Hartzell is using all the information he has to promote as much free speech as we can do within our policies. He wants to keep the community safe and I respect the difficult balance."

President Hartzell released the following post on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday:

"There is a long, proud history of protest at The University of Texas at Austin. I am grateful to work at a university where students, faculty and staff care deeply enough about community, national and world events to rally around those causes.

Demonstrations play a role on campuses such as ours. A university, after all, encourages students to discover and develop points of view, and to express them. These activities challenge the ways we think and feed a campus’ dynamic atmosphere. UT students have held dozens of peaceful protests, largely without incident, throughout this academic year.

We also have a responsibility to keep the campus and its people safe, and to allow our teaching and research to continue. Our rules provide structure for this responsibility and set up conditions for the co-existence of protests, safety and education. We are constantly reviewing those rules, improving on them, and making sure they protect everyone — those who are protesting and those who are learning, working or visiting campus. These rules also protect free speech, and enforcing them uniformly and consistently keeps us from discriminating against any particular point of view..."

- UT President, Jay Hartzell

For the full post from UT President Jay Hartzell click here.