An update to our campus community about recent expressive activities

Dear Roadrunner Community,

As the semester draws to a close, I want to take this time to reflect on recent activities on campus. First and foremost, I want to especially thank our student community for navigating this complex period of time. It’s very much appreciated as we look toward final exams, Commencement and summer sessions.

As many of you know, the ongoing crisis in the Middle East has served as a catalyst for recent events on university campuses across the globe. There have been protests and expressive activity across hundreds of campuses involving student groups. Outside groups have also been involved, and in many cases, causing disruptive activities, many of which turned violent. Most concerning to me is the student-on-student violence that we’ve seen at other campuses.

I am deeply committed to the safety of our entire university community while allowing peaceful assembly and free expression. I firmly believe that, to date, we have managed to model free expression events safely and peacefully at UTSA. This balance is based on the thoughtful engagement of our Roadrunner community, as well as the immense efforts of Senior Vice Provost for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, LT Robinson, and her Expressive Activity Response Team.

Together, over the last few years, we have navigated many complex expressive events. More recently, relative to the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza, we have navigated expressive activity last fall and earlier this year, including four protests over the last two weeks. During these instances, an iterative dialogue between Student Affairs and these groups helped lead to peaceful protests that were compliant with applicable policies and laws. I must reiterate that campus safety for our community is paramount, and we will not tolerate disruption, harassment or vandalism.

I am immensely grateful for the coordination and planning that always takes place when we prepare for protests. I want to acknowledge the efforts of Executive Vice President for Business Affairs and Chief Enterprise Development Officer Veronica Salazar and Senior Associate Vice President Mary Hernandez for their efforts to ensure the continuity of campus operations. I am also thankful to our UTSA Police Department under the leadership of Chief Stephanie Schoenborn for their thoughtful and collaborative work, especially as we coordinate with law enforcement partners. We will continue to evolve our planning around expressive activities as we expect them to continue into the fall.

I am confident that UTSA can be exemplary in this space, especially as we look to the future and watch events happening at the national level. In the coming days, you will see stories on UTSA Today about ongoing efforts in the Honors College to pilot educational programs that focus on methods to advance civil discourse and civic engagement, affirming our commitment to provide model civil discourse practices. I appreciate the work of Interim Provost and Executive Vice President Heather Shipley and Vice Provost for Honors Education Jill Fleuriet for their support of this program’s development and launch.

Regarding Commencement, in the coming days, Academic Affairs will provide further guidance to our community about graduation ceremonies and remind you about existing policies and procedures to ensure the safety of our community. Graduation is a time of great celebration for students, families and friends that reflects the perseverance of our students, and we look forward to cheering for and supporting them as they participate in these ceremonies.  

Finally, I turn to something I say often to our UTSA community and to the greater world — UTSA has amazing students, faculty and staff and we do a wonderful job supporting students who make meaningful contributions to our communities. In two weeks, more than 4,000 of our students will graduate and take their next steps in making the world a better place. I know these graduates — and all of us — can look to these past few months and say that our UTSA community has shown us all the way forward.