St. Kate’s Implements New Protest Policy, Walks it Back
By Mia Timlin
In August, word of a new St. Catherine University policy, tacked onto the end of an email from Student Affairs labeled “Important Information for Fall Semester 2024,” exploded on campus.
“St. Kate’s has banned protesting,” was the angry message being relayed through word of mouth, Instagram stories, email chains.
The policy itself, which has since been rolled back and who’s link to the 2024-2025 St. Catherine Student Handbook is now dead, was a vaguely-worded block of text that made statements such as “The University reserves the right to condition the time, place, and manner of all demonstrations, including but not limited to those which are, or reasonably appear to be, organized by or on behalf of persons or organizations that are not affiliated with the University, or which are intended, or are deemed likely, to disrupt or interfere with university operations or to adversely impact the mission of the University. The University reserves the right to require conditions related to time, place, and manner be met both prior to, or during, a demonstration.
“To ensure that demonstrations comply with this policy, only recognized student organizations may submit a notice of a demonstration. University students planning a demonstration must register their intent by providing written notice at least forty-eight (48) hours in advance of the demonstration. Students who provide the required information within the stated timeframe will generally be deemed to have registered to demonstrate, subject to the University’s right to condition the time, place, or manner of the demonstration. Registration of intent to demonstrate must be made to the Vice President of Student Affairs, JoNes VanHecke and contain the following information.
The name of the recognized student organization sponsoring the demonstration;
Contact information for all organizers of the demonstration;
A description of the purpose and nature of the demonstration;
A listing of the time, manner, and location of the demonstration (including whether it will be online/virtual);
Identification of the security needs for the demonstration; and
A description of the plans for managing any disruptive behavior that may occur during the demonstration”
The policy’s email debut was immediately tailed by a follow-up from the President’s Office the next day, apologizing for alarm caused in the student body and voicing a desire to work with students to “explore how this policy could be improved.”
Both President Evans and Vice President VanHecke attended the October 3 Student Senate meeting, with the intention of having an open conversation with the student body on the new policy. Evans and VanHecke cited a nation-wide presence of demonstration policies on college campuses, as well as a system of demonstration permits existing outside of college campus environments, while several students questioned whether a policy was necessary at all.
Several students speaking from the gallery called attention to the timing of the policy aligning with an increase in recent demonstrations on campus protesting the genocide in Palestine.
President Evans ended the conversation with the promise of communication the following day regarding a Demonstration Policy Review Task Force, dedicated to revamping the policy and including student voices in the process, convened by VanHecke and senior vice president of Equity and Belonging, Jackie Font-Guzmán. In her September 4 communication, she voices that she is “optimistic that this task force will accomplish its mission by the end of this semester.”
No task force meetings have taken place yet, but student ambassadors have been chosen and the demonstration policy as it is written has been put on pause.
