Jay Hartzell, President of the University of Texas at Austin, yesterday broke the single most important compact that academics have with each other and their institutions: do not intentionally hurt students.
The TX governor, for his own political purposes, sent state troopers to campus before a student protest even began. Hartzell both let these outside law enforcement agencies in, and provided cover for the violence they inflicted on dozens of peaceful, unarmed UT students.
The political elites of Texas are trying to create the optics of violent chaos on college campuses, for reasons that I won't go into here but are clear if you've been paying attention this election year.
It is the duty- perhaps the most important duty- of UT faculty, staff, and administrators to provide for the safety of students. Upper admin helping the state use our students as punching bags is such a core violation of this duty that it is unlikely trust can or should be regained.
@alexwild You know, they completely f*cked this up. If you wanted to play this to maximum effect for propaganda purposes, they would have allowed the students to set up the tents on the lawn (breaking policy). Then they would have moved in.
But to attack the students BEFORE the march even began. Ridiculous. Everyone could see through Hartzell's bullsh*t after that.
They handed the the students a huge win. Images of their overreaction went worldwide.
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