Since I have seen news about the encampments posted around Tumblr, I am about to bring you insider information. I am risking my anonymity, partially my safety, and potentially my reputation to bring you journalism.
How do you know I will do this? Well, allow me to introduce myself (well, as much as you can when you're not writing under your legal name on a website whose best privacy feature is its terrible search function). I have a very close relative in a higher-up position at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I will not name them, use their gendered pronouns, state their position, state their exact relationship to me, or do anything that could reveal their identity, as that will also compromise mine. For the sake of this "leak," we will call them O. I ask you, for both of us, do not speculate on O's true identity. If you know who O is, do not tell anyone, in the notes or otherwise, and do not DM me with their name. Do not attempt to find O's social media (they are not active on it as of late), DM them hate comments, or find their relatives and use that against both of us. I am fairly close with O, and while you Tumblrinas might find it hard to suspend your disbelief over this, ask yourself this: if I wasn't related to or knew O, would I be trying to protect them this much?
If you want other sources, sorry. This is a primary-ish source. I wish I could send you more, but I was not in the room where this was decided. If I was in the room where it happened, you *might* have more details. However, I'm pretty sure that members of the UW-Milwaukee encampment are on more social media than me and they can probably back this up to some degree.
Well, with that concluded, let's get on to the news.
Yesterday, I heard O discuss, with the rest of my family, a meeting among UW-Milwaukee higher-ups about the recent encampment. Since that action is technically illegal in the state of Wisconsin (however, I am pretty sure the First Amendment right to peaceful assembly supersedes that), the committee was deciding what to do with them.
Their response for now: Leave them alone. As long as the students are not causing trouble, there is no reason (as of now) to prosecute them. They can exist, surrounding the library. While it looks like it could fizzle out, I doubt it will.
Why am I telling you this? To try and prove that what is happening at Columbia and other places is intentional. To prove that the administration does have the power to call off the guards. They had the power to do nothing (which, while not an ideal solution, is better than students dying). They had to power to settle. And yet, dead students are better than dissenting ones.
O, in the discussion, said that nothing's changed in 3 months. They are wrong. Students have died. The encampments are not just in solidarity with Palestine, but also in solidarity with Columbia students. They are not fair-weather protesters. Things have just reached a tipping point, and it could not be ignored.
I'm Kit at friendlycursedspaceotter. Reporting live-ish from Wisconsin, this is the TBC (Tumblr Broadcasting Collective).
