CMU’s chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) was temporarily suspended this spring after planning an anti-ICE protest without first securing approval from the Club Advisory Board (CAB).
The dispute began after university officials learned through a Criterion article that YDSA was planning “CMU Melts Ice: A Rally, March and Fundraiser in solidarity with Minnesota” on Friday, March 27. YDSA still went through with the planned protest on campus despite the ban. YDSA was later reinstated.
According to email correspondence the Criterion received from YDSA co-chair Nikolai Weir and Student Life manager of operations Gabe Simon, a Presence request was not filed in a timely manner by YDSA.
Simon’s email stated:
“Any student event must be registered with Student Life prior to being held.”
Simon said the protest raised safety concerns, could create space-use conflicts and, if not approved as a club event, could be treated as an external event subject to rental fees.
Three days later, Simon followed up and said event registration in Presence “is not an optional step.”
He wrote that although students had a right to protest and gather on campus, the club did not get to decide safety arrangements on its own and that campus safety and GJPD needed adequate time to prepare.
Simon then suspended YDSA “for the time being” and canceled its remaining club meetings.
YDSA leaders disputed the university’s handling of the situation. In an interview with The Criterion, co-chair and undeclared major sophomore Kaylee Mullen and Weir said they felt that the club was punished unfairly.
Mullen said the group planned to notify the school about the event.
“When we were planning, we weren’t trying to hide it from them,” Mullen said. “We just weren’t going to ask permission because we have the right to [protest].”
Mullen said the group believed students had the right to protest on campus and viewed CAB’s process as unnecessarily restrictive.
YDSA felt their suspension came too quickly and that the university had treated other unsanctioned protests differently.
Weir and Mullen said they believed the response was disproportionate and that later talks they had with Vice President for Student Services Roberto Montoya helped clarify that students could still gather on a public campus as private citizens, even if the protest was no longer considered an official YDSA event.
“Montoya said we could go ahead and do it,” Weir said. “He told us ‘This is public property; you are citizens of the United States.’”
Mullen said that Montoya “showed up to the event and donated”.
CAB’s position is that recognized clubs must go through the same event process as other campus organizations, especially when an event could require security planning and poses a potential risk to the students present on campus.
“With the amount of events that have become safety risks, Student Life can’t afford to cover the costs of all events,” Simon said. “We decided at the start of the year we won’t be fronting the cost of any club events that need security, so that it’s fair for everyone.”
Private security costs around $33 per-person, per hour.
Simon said “Campus safety and GJPD needed to be notified so resources could be allocated appropriately and so the event could be assessed for risk.”
CAB reported that YDSA never submitted the required Presence request before planning the protest. The organization said they try to handle “larger political events” well in advance to evaluate staffing and safety needs.
Weir stated that the protest had a dual purpose: opposing ICE and raising money for families affected by immigration enforcement.
Weir argued that CMU should publicly commit to noncooperation with ICE when agents only have an administrative warrant rather than a warrant signed by a judge.
There have been no recorded events of ICE coming to campus.
According to the Motion Law website, a judicial warrant is a court order signed by a judge or magistrate and based on probable cause. The site says a judicial warrant specifies the address to be searched, the time period for the search and the person, place or items to be searched or seized.
The same source says an ICE administrative warrant is issued by a federal agency, such as the Department of Homeland Security or ICE. Motion Law states that the administrative warrant is not a judicial warrant and does not give ICE officials authority to enter a place where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy without consent.
The protest dispute was separate from the larger policy demand.
The Criterion made updates and corrections to this article for improved accuracy on April 13.
