Dear President Kaler,

On Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, at 1:46 p.m., you sent out an email about “overnight vandalism.” You responded to a situation where “a group of individuals vandalized multiple buildings, structures and artwork on our campus with paint and glued posters,” decrying it as “antisemitic.” Then, not three days later, you threw four suspects into one of the worst jails in the nation with alleged felony charges and now have made warrants for four more. Quite the response, but what exactly happened?

People placed paint on windows, grounds and other campus areas to speak out against acts of political and social violence across the world. They painted “Free Palentine, Sudan, Congo, Haiti, Lebanon”; they brought attention to the bloodshed in Gaza, calling on the university to “divest” from its ongoing investment in the Israeli military. They put up posters protesting your term in office, your administration and its actions: “Keep Kaler Out.” Yes, vandalism, but “antisemitic” or “Islamophobic”? The protests did not platform any derisive speech against Jewish people. There was no speech against any ethnic or religious group—or any other community for that matter. You say “intimidating,” but to whom? Intimidating to your power, it seems.

The posters and paint got taken down, so we couldn’t see them, and then you told everyone what they said. Your job and administration were threatened, so you wove a different narrative. The word “antisemitic” was abused to villainize protestors and people of color fighting for their rights. Safety and mental health were involved in exaggerating the crisis. Police forces arrived in swarms, putting yellow tape around campus and presenting a visual narrative. A threat to safety and mental health. What level of harm did people peacefully putting up posters against your administration and splattering paint in the middle of the night pose to students on campus?

What about when a contractor who you paid to paint over messages of protest sprayed toxic paint on a group of students (May 7, 2024)? Which of these scenarios was a real threat to student safety, and who was responsible? What about when a man stood in KSL Oval and waved a flag with a swastika, and you allowed him to continue despite multiple reports? Or when a man spouting hate speech against the rights of BIPOC, female and LGBTQIA+ students stood alongside the campus, harassing students? Where was the mass email with mental health resources? Where were the police?

The contrast is crystal clear when it comes to the situations that you underplay or even ignore and what you choose to overplay. We, your students, pay thousands of tuition dollars to study, live and exist in a place that allows us to do so—yet rising hate, Islamophobia and censorship threaten the very safety and identity of Arab, Muslim and other communities of color who advocate for themselves. Meanwhile, you and your administration, shielded within a columned building paid for by our tuition dollars, don’t address these very real threats, instead continuing to act against the free speech of marginalized communities.

Your administration creates rules to limit freedom of expression so you can use them to silence people you disagree with. You made strict conditions for protesting, appointed an entire council to hover over student’s expression and censored the Spirit Wall, a space open to student expression for years. What form of unrestricted, uncensored speech on campus even exists now?

These tactics have been used against people of color protesting for human rights for years and years. Despite claiming to support protesting and fighting for social change, you seem to forget the actions that brought about this change: sit-ins, the Freedom Riders—nonviolent resistance. What were the reactions to this, the headlines in newspapers and feedback from leaders across the country? They claimed these were “criminals” disrupting society and “threatening property.” This is social change by the oppressed and criminalized versus the oppressor—illustrated again now. The very same story repeated.

Sincerely,

Danielle Sun