On March 31, UTD’s chapter of Turning Point USA and far-right internet personality Alex Stein stopped by a Trans Day of Visibility demonstration and harassed, intimidated and threatened both UTD students and campus administrators.
Stein went so far as to call the second-highest ranking university official, vice president and chief of staff Rafael Martín, an illegal immigrant and threatened to call ICE on him. Additionally, The Retrograde reported that homophobic and ableist slurs were used against students. University administrators have not indicated that they are doing anything about this even after The Retrograde reached out and asked.
Extreme violence was used against UTD’s Students for Justice in Palestine when they formed an encampment on May 1 to protest the university’s support of what the United Nations has called “the crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities.” The justification for this response was that SJP had violated university policy. It seems like Stein and TPUSA not receiving any pressure from the university, while SJP did, suggests that UTD is only interested in pursuing policy violations if it’s a predominantly Muslim student organization that is taking action.
There is no shortage of evidence that Stein and TPUSA violated university policy.
Following students around campus, yelling slurs, making threats of violence and engaging in Islamophobic and antisemitic activity all violate key provisions found within the student code of conduct and the speech expression and assembly policy. In total that would amount to violations of UTDSP5001: Section B, Subsection 7: Harassment; UTDSP5001: Section C, Subsection 10: Disruption; UTDSP5001: Section C, Subsection 12: Coercing Attention; UTDSP5001: Section J, Subsection 42: Location and Form of Presentation; UTDSP5003: Section C, Subsection 9, Item 6: Conduct dangerous to others; UTDSP5003: Section C, Subsection 9, Item 18: Disruptive conduct; and UTDBP3090: Nondiscrimination.
Students interviewed after the protest alleged the cameramen with Stein and TPUSA displayed the outline of concealed-carry weapons while threatening students. Such behavior, if found true after an investigation, would be a violation of UTDSP5001: Section B, Subsection 9: Prohibited Items or Action; UTDSP5003: Section C, Subsection 9, Item 5: Firearms, dangerous weapons, explosives, and hazardous materials; and UTDPP1103: Section 3.1: Concealment.
Guest speakers for an official student organization like TPUSA are regulated by university policy and given the spontaneous and impromptu nature of the disruption, TPUSA would have violated guest speaker regulations if it did not notify the university in advance. See UTDSP5001: Section J, Subsection 41: Guest Speakers and UTDSP5001: Section K, Subsection 47: Applications.
A video posted by a TPUSA member shows Martín explicitly instructing a student member of TPUSA to maintain a distance between the counter protesters and the demonstrators, a directive which was repeatedly ignored as the disruption continued. UTD requires its students follow the rules, especially when the vice president of the school asks them to do so. Not doing so constitutes a violation of UTDSP5003: Section C, Subsection 9, Item 15: Violation of General Rules and Regulations and UTDSP5003: Section C, Subsection 9, Item 19: Failure to comply with the instructions of a University official.
And on the off-chance that TPUSA manages to convince campus administration that no students were involved in saying slurs, harassment or threatening others during the disruption, the simple act of helping Stein come to campus and do all of these things is in itself a violation of UTDSP5003: Section C, Subsection 9, Item 22: Attempts, Aiding, or Abetting the Commission of an Offense.
In total, that is about fifteen different violations in just one day. If university policy clearly shows that such behavior shouldn’t be allowed on campus, why did UTDPD do nothing? Why didn’t the administrators watching the disruption do more to protect their students? UTD needs to take action immediately and enforce its own policy, because the current message this behavior sends is that neo-Nazis are welcome to come harass and threaten our incredibly diverse student body.
Stein threatened to call ICE on a university administrator and nothing was done, so if Stein ever gets invited back to campus by TPUSA, nothing would stop him from threatening our large population of international students with the same threat — or making good on it with an actual phone call. The current federal government has already shown it has a penchant for deporting international students on a whim, and UTD has shown it won’t step in to protect its own students even if it is within its full authority to do so. UTD leadership is setting an unacceptable double standard by violently punishing students that oppose genocide while letting off-campus instigators verbally attack and threaten students, who are already at elevated risk of violence for being minorities or immigrants, with complete impunity. And then they have the gall to ask for donations for Comets Giving Day as if any of this behavior merits a reward.