To the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Student Conduct Board – Debbie Martin, Interim Vice President and Dean of Student Affairs; Edwin Darrell, Acting Dean of Student Life; Dawn Gavin, Dean of Undergraduate Studies; and Laura Lamb, Director of Campus Life:

We are writing in unequivocal support of our student in reference to their upcoming disciplinary hearing. This hearing is in response to the student sharing the following letter with their classmates over email: Student Solidarity with SAIC NTT Faculty openletter.earth/student-solidarity-with-saic-ntt-...

Citing page 51 of the SAIC Student Handbook, we are arguing that the student was not, in any way, in violation of the Acceptable Use of Network and Computing Resources policy or any other school policy by emailing this letter to their classmates. Additionally, in analyzing the result of their action, we do not see that any harm was done to any student, staff, or faculty as a result of their action. The “crime” the student is being charged with amounts to emailing their own classmates, at a school in which they are enrolled, about an issue related to their own learning conditions. We are alarmed that the school is giving John Pack, Director of Campus Security, the authority to investigate and police academic matters under the guise of safety. Students and faculty are targeted and intimidated behind closed doors, with little oversight, in a blatant attempt to silence dissent.

A student emailed their classmates about issues concerning their professors. Union organizing is a protected federal right of employees. Nowhere in the Student Handbook is there a policy that states students cannot comment on the union organizing activities of their professors. This investigation and resulting hearing are clearly the latest tactics in a long series of anti-union attacks by the administration to intimidate and punish members of our community. The school claims to have students’ best interests in mind through their mission and in the formulation of their policies. Whose best interest is served by criminalizing students who speak out in support of their teachers?

If we can agree that no one was harmed by these actions, and that no policy was broken through these actions, then why is punishment being pursued? Is it to maintain the pall of fear and surveillance that Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs Martin Berger and Director of Campus Security John Pack have infiltrated into the atmosphere of our campus community? Is it to quell the growing support of NTT faculty shared by students, staff, and TT faculty throughout our campus?

We caution the school administration not to act rashly in this matter. The students are watching SAIC leaderships’ actions and reactions. So is the public. Under the current authoritarian administration in the U.S. students are looking to university leadership to see how they are responding to nonviolent acts of protest and acts of solidarity that harm no one. We urge the school administration to stand on the right side of history. We urge the school administration to stop attacking their own students in the service of their anti-union campaign. We urge SAIC administration to immediately end this investigation, drop all charges against our student, and write a letter of apology for the intimidation it has enacted upon them.

The undersigned,

AICWU NTT faculty union Contract Campaign Committee