Members of Students for Palestinian Justice hold signs up in protest at the Undergraduate Student Government cabinet meeting on Tuesday following the removal of Issue 29 from the USG ballot on Monday. Credit: Christian Harsa | Senior Reporter
Over 40 protesters sat in Ohio State’s Undergraduate Student Government cabinet meeting Tuesday night to protest the removal of OSU Divest’s ballot initiative, or “Issue 29”, from the USG election ballot, holding signs showing Palestinians who died in the Israel-Hamas war, along with a large red banner that said “OSU has blood on their hands.”
Protesters waited for the meeting to start and then held up the signs once Madison Mason, vice president of USG and a fourth-year in political science, went to the front of the room to make brief announcements. She said protesters were welcome in the meeting, but requested that they move to the side of the room so that USG members could see announcements in the front of the room displayed on projector screens.
Mason said if the meeting were to be disrupted, protesters would be asked to leave.
Heba Latif, a fourth-year in political science and co-president of Students for Justice in Palestine, said they decided to go to the USG meeting because Issue 29 was featured on a USG election ballot.
“When we had Issue 29 on the ballot, we saw it as a victory not to us but a victory to democracy. And so when they took it down, this is very undemocratic, like it’s super undemocratic of them, it’s super unconstitutional of them,” Latif said. “And this is — clearly, there’s a clear bias in it and there’s clear prejudice in what they did. There’s no way that what they did is because we violated anything. There is no way.”
Protesters did not move and instead sat holding up the signs throughout the entire meeting. After a USG member asked the crowd if there were any questions after a guest speaker spoke, one protester stood up and asked why Issue 29 was removed from the ballot, and how USG was supposed to represent the student body if they were silencing student voices.
Paul Huang, a third-year in philosophy, politics and economics and USG senior director of engagement, said he could not comment on the removal of Issue 29 because it was removed by the university, not the General Assembly. Protesters then asked USG members if any of them would be able to speak about the removal of the initiative from the ballot.
No one responded.
“Our issue was on the USG election ballot at the end of the day. I know there are people on the USG committee and the USG senators who are against our issue,” Latif said. “So it’s a no-brainer that both [USG and the university] play a role in this.”
After protesters continued to try to ask USG members questions, the interaction escalated as USG attempted to end the meeting. One USG member said to the crowd that the matter was out of USG’s hands and then began to cry.
“Although we allowed protesters in to have their voices heard, I want to stress that the initiative was NOT removed by USG but by the university’s administration,” Huang said in a statement. “This decision was not made by any member of USG, and I myself disagree with the removal of the initiative from the ballot.”
Huang said the General Assembly and executive branch of USG have no say in the election process, as it is entirely handled by the USG Judicial Panel.
“Although we have no ability to overturn the decision by the school, free and fair elections are important to us, as is the right to protest which is why I did not cancel the meeting and we let the protesters in to demonstrate,” Huang said.
Protesters accused USG of trying to ignore them, and Latif stood up to address the crowd.
Stacey Renker, director of risk and emergency management, approached Latif and told her that USG had a right to hold their meeting without disruption, and asked her to leave while ushering in Ohio State Police officers.
Mohammad Mohammad, events coordinator for SJP, said he was very disappointed that the protesters were ushered out of the meeting when they started engaging with USG.
“We have to escalate now because they’re just completely ignoring us. They think we’re just gonna get this email, we’re gonna be like, ‘OK, yeah, all these past few weeks are just like — all this work is for nothing,” Mohammad said. “We’re not going to stay silent on this. We worked hard on this initiative, and it should be on the ballot because we did it fairly and democratically. So for USG to kind of kick us out and say, ‘Oh, the meetings dismissed.’ It’s just complete bullcrap and it’s honestly a disgrace on their part.”
The crowd then erupted into a chant, yelling “Free, free, free Palestine!” while walking out of the meeting room and into the Ohio Union.
Protesters stood in a circle outside of the meeting room, chanting, “Divest, divest, get our money out of this mess” and “No justice, no peace”. They then turned to face Renker and another employee, yelling “Shame”.
Mohammad said he was very disappointed that the initiative was removed after all the effort the organization put into it.
“This is, like, actual— so disgraceful of OSU. It’s completely disrespectful and it’s just, we put so much effort into this and they just continuously suppress our voices,” Mohammad said.
