AUSTIN, Texas — After protests on the University of Texas at Austin’s campus earlier this year led to dozens of arrests, the university's Dean of Students Office is taking a new approach to protests on campus.
University leaders say the Event Readiness and Response team wants to help students express themselves freely while also following school guidelines.
UT has a long history of protesting, with 60 demonstrations happening in the last academic school year alone. Joe LoBrutto, the unit’s director as of July, said the unit has been responding to them for the past 15 years as a part-time effort.
In January, he said the Dean of Students Office went through a reorganization, and the goals for the unit changed.
“It was time to make this a full-time role so that we could really more fully help the students and focus on creating an environment where the students' voices could be heard,” he said.
After two pro-Palestine protests in April led to 60 student arrests and 130 arrests in total, Lobrutto said he doesn't want that to happen again.
“It’s getting out and having education. It's talking to students, it's talking to groups. It's providing them with resources so that they can best maximize their ability to have their voice heard,” he said.
The team – made up of LoBrutto, three team leaders and 12 staff members – works to reach out to student organizations looking to demonstrate, or groups who already have one planned. He said it is not required for a group to reach out to them in order to organize.
“I proactively reach out to them, see if I can help coordinate. Then, many times, myself or one of my team members will go out to the event and we just speak with them, find out what they want to do, find out what their objectives are and see how we can help. Sometimes, that can be as simple as providing resources,” LoBrutto said.
He said, for example, if a group wants to hold a vigil with candles, the university doesn’t allow open flames but could provide battery-operated candles instead.
He said he tries to find middle ground with the protesters to make their events successful, like where a protest can take place and how many people can be gathered there.
“What I like to try to do with them is plan well, so they do it in a spot that's conducive so they can have their voice heard, but then university operations can continue,” he said.
Luca Reyes, a UT student and a member of Austin’s Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) group, doesn't think the unit will be helpful.
“They essentially are acting under the policies of the administration,” Reyes said.
The Austin SDS is holding a rally on Wednesday asking the university to divest from groups supporting Israel.
Reyes said there’s a large discrepancy between what the university says and what it does in practice, referencing Texas Department of Public Safety troopers that responded to the rally in late April.
“They might say that they're trying to protect free speech. However, in practice, they are essentially the ones that are hindering the student's ability to, you know, express what they want to advocate for,” he said.
He said LoBrutto's unit did reach out to their student organization, but the administration and the group have different goals in mind.
“Anybody can go ahead and view what's in the policy and what's not truthful. I don't think it makes much of a difference in this matter,” Reyes said.
The Austin SDS will meet at the Gregory Gym Plaza at 1 p.m. Wednesday and will make its way over to the UT Tower, where students plan to present a letter to the administration with their demands.
LoBrutto said his unit will be there to check in with the group.
If you’d like to reach out to the Event Readiness and Response unit, you can contact them at doseventreadiness@uatin.utexas.edu.