Sens. Tara Durant and Christie New Craig speaking at a Senate Education and Health Committee meeting on Sept. 17, 2024. (Nathaniel Cline/Virginia Mercury)
A Senate committee meeting in Richmond focused on investigating the wave of Israel-Hamas war protests at several Virginia colleges and universities turned intense on Tuesday, as public testimonies extended beyond the scope of the events last spring and some Republican lawmakers accused the committee of excluding law enforcement officials from the dialogue.
Republicans on the Senate Education and Health Committee also opposed the hearing’s rules, which would not allow committee members to ask university and college representatives questions during their six-minute testimonies.
At the start of the hearing, committee chair Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Richmond, told lawmakers their questions would be submitted to the university reps after the testimonies were provided. She also added that law enforcement and campus police were invited to speak because they were included in the committee’s invitation to the universities.
“We learn very little when there is an effort to just grab 30-second bites, and the opportunity to dive deeply into issues is something we’re not afforded during a General Assembly session,” she said, “but we have that opportunity now in a meeting that is really meant to develop insights and to dig deeper into and really learn from lived experiences of individuals who are sharing it today.”
Sen. Ghazala Hashmi speaking at a Senate Education and Health Committee meeting on Sept. 17, 2024. (Nathaniel Cline/Virginia Mercury)
On Tuesday, the committee listened to testimony from five university representatives who shared their responses to the demonstrations, and details about the involvement of law enforcement and campus police, institutional policies on public demonstrations and free speech, and their history of modifying their policies.
The committee also heard from multiple speakers in person and online who shared their negative experiences at the demonstrations, including some people who were arrested. The committee heard from 30 speakers in total.
Republicans said that the meeting, which was organized mostly by Democratic senators, was one-sided. They pointed to speakers’ remarks about “police brutality,” “genocide,” and claimed none of the speakers were Jewish.
“I hope we can continue this conversation,” said Sen. Christie New Craig, R-Chesapeake. “I hope we can bring everybody together because ‘fact-finding’ means everyone has to come together to figure out a way to find a resolution to this. So I’m praying that we can do that.”
Sens. Tara Durant and Christie New Craig speaking at a Senate Education and Health Committee meeting on Sept. 17, 2024. (Nathaniel Cline/Virginia Mercury)
Sen. Mark Peake, R-Lynchburg, and other Republicans questioned the chair about the decision to hold questions and not directly invite law enforcement. Peake left the room for 15 minutes after the university representatives finished their remarks.
“I needed to calm down,” Peake said, adding that he initially believed the committee would have been able to question the speakers.
Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security Terry Cole was in attendance, while members of the Capitol Police provided security. Cole said he looks forward to discussing officers’ role in the protests and noted that members of some campus law enforcement teams were assaulted and hit with bear spray, hammers, and rocks.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Senate Republicans released a statement urging their Democratic counterparts “to immediately stop this unacceptable attempt to legislate in secrecy. A new committee should be convened where law enforcement and Jewish community representatives can present, and Senators can ask questions.”
No Democratic lawmakers expressed opposition to how the hearing was run. House lawmakers are scheduled to have a similar meeting on Sept. 26.
In May, lawmakers in both chambers formed select committees to examine campus safety at Virginia’s colleges and universities after more than 125 people were arrested last spring at four campuses — the University of Mary Washington, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia.
Over the past several months, demonstrators and faculty members have criticized college administrators and law enforcement for their handling of anti-war protests, including using pepper spray to clear encampments. Demonstrators have largely called for a cease-fire in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas militants, highlighting the deaths of thousands of Israeli and Palestinian citizens, and urged an end to the anti-semetic activity on campuses.
Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico, expressed concern about trying to legislate institutions’ responses to the protests.
“I’m not sure we should have a legislative policy on this,” VanValkenburg said, adding that Virginia universities are “wildly” different and since case law on the subject is evolving, the legislature shouldn’t be overly prescriptive.
Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security Terry Cole speaking at a Senate Education and Health Committee meeting on on Sept. 17, 2024. (Nathaniel Cline/Virginia Mercury)
No future meeting date was set at the end of Tuesday’s committee hearing. Hashmi said testimonies and existing policies will be compiled for the committee to consider. The list of speakers for a future meeting has not been arranged.
“I think overall, our colleges and universities have good policies in place that’s part of their requirements, and they’ve done that for decades, and there may not be a need to correct anything,” she said.
Her main concern, Hashmi said, are “new policies that have been implemented without going through that process of shared governance, and that’s what I want to catalog and assess what’s happened, and then see how the universities are going to address that.”
The American Association of University Professors Chapter at the University of Virginia has criticized UVA’s administration for working to implement new disciplinary and protest policies “with no student input” from faculty members and students, according to an Aug. 21 letter to the president and provost.
Walt Heinecke, immediate past president of the AAUP UVA Chapter, said the university’s Faculty Senate will consider taking action to expedite review of the policy changes on Friday, adding, “we believe the policy changes should be suspended” until faculty, students and staff fully vet them.
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