CSU Administration Amplifies Harassment with Time, Place, and Manner Policy

Please read and sign our petition here.

On February 20, CSU San Marcos students and faculty organized a powerful protest to turn their campus into a sanctuary site.

What happened that day and the days that followed illustrate the dangers of unchecked power within the CSU administration.

When Chancellor García learned that students would be organizing around the Social Mobility Symposium where she was scheduled to speak, militarized police were called in to escort her on and off campus. Students were also barred from entering their own University Student Union (USU) without explicit permission beforehand. Anyone trying to attend class in the USU had to be escorted.

“There were three police departments that were there, some positioned on top of buildings,” said Chris Hardnack, CFA San Marcos Lecturer Co-representative, referring to police being recruited from Mesa College and Palomar College. “This level of repression seems to be coming from the chancellor herself. That is one of the things that is leading to the excessively repressive response from our little university.”

In the aftermath of the protest, the Student Leadership and Involvement Office (SLIC) quickly moved to suppress future actions by citing two student organizations – Students for Justice in Palestine and Chicano Student Movement of Aztlán (MEChA) – with violations of student code of conduct. They also sent emails to four students alleging they violated the policy as well. Some received five TPM violations, while others were served seven. Additionally, two alums who attended the protest also received TPM violations while in the process of applying for graduate school.

Management’s repressive actions appear to be an attempt to see just how much they can get away with, all the while setting a dangerous precedent for other campuses where faculty, students, and staff may hold similar rallies or protests.

A particularly disturbing consequence was the firing of student activist Amber Arenas from her USU job and her campus internship.

“It’s made me cry a lot since it happened,” said Arenas, a CSU San Marcos student. “I know a lot of admin by name, and they know me by name. I understand that they might possibly take the University Student Union (USU) position, but I never thought they’d take my internship. To have my bosses cry with me on the phone because they can’t do anything… It’s one thing to silence us in these protests, but it’s another to silence me in this way. I genuinely don’t feel welcome. I lost two major things that have shaped my college career so far, and I’ve lost my safe space that was my internship. That’s what hurt me the most.”

The violations appear to be selective and targeted specifically at leading figures or organizers. We are currently waiting to see if other students will receive letters and to what extent the punishments will be.

Sharon Elise, CFA Associate Vice President, Racial & Social Justice, South, shook her head at the absurdity of the letters sent to students. “It’s ironic that, at the bottom of the letters, it lets students know that this violation may cause them anxiety and that the administration recommends they reach out to a counselor for assistance. That would be nice, except much of our money is going towards the militarization of our police rather than counseling,” said Elise, a CSU San Marcos professor.

In response to the TPM violations, an emergency meeting was called on Sunday to draft a letter to all relevant administrators to halt any discipline actions and drop all charges related to TPM violations.

You can read the statement here, and sign the petition here.

Marcelo Garzo Montalvo, CFA member and CSU San Marcos professor, expressed both admiration for students and frustration at administrators. “It was uplifting. It was spiriting, and the students accomplished so much in that day and in that moment. It was a nonviolent and well-contained direct action, and it was a very well organized and disciplined day of interventions. There’s lots of footage to show this. Administrators, however, seem to be afraid of the federal government as well as their own students. They’re lashing out on all levels, and this is a reckless response we’re getting. All of this seems to be testing the limits of what they can get away with,” said Garzo Montalvo, who serves as the SJP advisor.

What we’re seeing is a highly problematic and inappropriate level of response to students who want to create a safe learning environment and a place of belonging for all students in the CSU system.

“We live in the Borderlands, and we have a history of protest,” said Michelle Ramos Pellicia, CFA San Marcos President, and CFA Associate Vice President, South. “We are teaching in the people’s university. We defend students, and we stand with students.”

The 2024 systemwide interim TPM policy has discouraged and chilled faculty speech in overly broad and sweeping ways. That said, there were pre-interim 2024 TPM policies that may be used to address faculty conduct. We will continue to meet and confer with management over the interim policy. Until we have concluded this work, it may not be used as the basis for any faculty discipline.