At 4:30 a.m. May 1, student organizers created the “Gaza Liberation Plaza” encampment to protest UTD’s policy toward Palestine. Less than twelve hours later, UTDPD, Texas DPS officers and other local departments raided the encampment and arrested 21 students, faculty, alumni and community members. The Mercury has extensively investigated the aftermath of these arrests, covering and investigating the community response and administration’s move to press charges on those arrested.
The Mercury provided live breaking news coverage of the “Gaza Liberation Plaza” throughout the day. Reporters and photographers visited the plaza throughout the day to document the events that occurred before the such as study sessions, mini-lectures and prayers.
Protesters began reporting the presence of state troopers on campus around 2:45 p.m., and by 4 p.m. over 60 law enforcement officers from UTDPD, Richardson PD, Allen PD, Collin County Sheriff’s Department and the Texas DPS had amassed outside of the Student Services Auxiliary and the Student Services Building. Mercury reporters and photographers were present prior to and during the raid. Moving eastward toward the Chess Plaza area which was occupied by the encampment, officers first arrested faculty and students outside of Chess Plaza before tearing down the western wall of the encampment and entering to arrest more students and community members who had locked arms in the center of the plaza. As armored vehicles with grenade launchers moved into the area, students protesting the destruction of the encampment moved to the Plinth and continued their protest around 6 p.m.. The Mercury updated its breaking news coverage before sending staff to Collin County Jail, where demonstrations began around 7 p.m.
“It was a beautiful space,” a UTD SJP officer said about the encampment. “It was a palace where you had children and the elderly. You had art, study sessions and a library was even established. Prior to the arrests, everyone was engaged in this act of community you rarely find at UTD, a university where administrators care more about profit and certain corporations than the needs of their own students.”
Over 100 protesters spent the night outside of Collin County Jail calling for the release of the arrested students, faculty, alumni and community members. An oral standing order from Collin County Magistrate Lisa Bronchetti prevented the detainees from being released May 1. The Mercury published its third breaking news story at 2 a.m. May 2 recapping the county jail protest. The 21 detainees would be released throughout May 2, and on May 3 The Mercury published a fourth breaking news article regarding their release.
The Mercury reached out to the Office of the President for comment May 2 and sent multiple follow-up messages for the next month, receiving no reply. The Mercury routinely contacted other administrators such as Vice President Rafael Martin, Vice President of Student Affairs Gene Fitch and Dean of Students Amanda Smith, and similarly received no answers or responses before publication of the May 20 special issue. Fitch and Martín scheduled a meeting with The Mercury for May 23 in the aftermath of the May 20 publication; both Fitch and Martín then canceled the meeting without rescheduling. Without administration willing to provide comment on questions like who summoned the police and the future of arrested students and faculty, The Mercury thus continued to rely on sourcing statements written in President Richard Benson’s Dallas Morning News op-ed or provided within the May 10 emergency meeting of the Academic Senate, wherein faculty members passed a resolution demanding UTD drop the charges against the arrested staff and students.
The Mercury consulted legal experts and professional journalists while attempting to contact campus administrators for crucial information regarding the May 1 protest. After receiving no new information from campus administrators, The Mercury filed a Public Records request with UTD. As of publication of this article, the request is still pending. The first cost estimate sent by UTD would require that The Mercury pay an estimated $8,548.67 to receive a copy of the records relevant to The Mercury’s request. The Texas Public Information Act or PIA, first passed in 1973, is the process The Mercury is using to request information like emails, texts and phone records from public individuals like Benson, Martin and Smith. Paul Watler, a board member of the Freedom of Information Foundation Texas, partner at Jackson Walker and co-author of the Reporters Committee’s Texas Open Government Guide, said that public institutions have become more hostile to records requests like The Mercury’s over time.
“I think there has been some regression in the law since the 1990s as Texas courts have, in broad terms, generally not expanded or reinforced the rights of requesters,” Watler said. “When the Public Information Act was first passed in 1973, the courts generally were more receptive to ruling in favor of requesters until these rights peaked sometime in the 1990s and have since trended down.”
Watler said that in recent years, journalists and other requesters have faced more opposition within the legal system when requesting information about extreme events like mass shootings. Watler said that since the initial passage of the PIA, exemptions have continued to be added towards what information must be released, allowing groups such as law enforcement agencies and other government bodies to have greater control over what information they must release, if anything at all.
The UTD Office of Legal Affairs, in its response to The Mercury’s public information request, provided a time estimate while also refusing to apply a fee waiver, which under Texas law can be requested when information is for the benefit of the public. The Office of Legal Affairs said it will take approximately 450 hours to collect the information The Mercury requested. On July 15, The Mercury began a fundraiser campaign to cover the costs of the public records request.
“The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know,” reads Texas government code § 552.001(a). “The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.”
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