RICHMOND, Va. – Following violent police deployment and mass arrests of student, staff, and faculty protestors on multiple Virginia campuses this spring, the ACLU of Virginia launched an investigation into possible abuses of civil rights and civil liberties.
The ACLU of Virginia submitted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with multiple universities across the Commonwealth, seeking answers to questions about selective enforcement and viewpoint discrimination, the use of force and escalation by campus and state police, due process afforded to students and university employees who were subject to discipline, and more.
But the FOIA requests yielded very little. The universities that the ACLU of Virginia queried claimed exemptions that allowed these public institutions to withhold information, or in some cases, indicate they would share information only in exchange for exorbitant fees.
“Universities are charged with creating environments that encourage students to exercise their First Amendment rights,” said ACLU of Virgina Executive Director Mary Bauer. “We are deeply disappointed that after deploying state police and nonsensical disciplinary charges against student demonstrators this spring, university leaders won’t be transparent about how they arrived at those decisions – or how they will enforce the new policies they passed over the summer. Virginians fund public universities with their tax dollars. They deserve transparency about how Virginians' civil rights and civil liberties are being protected – without exception, exemption, or hefty fees.”
It is just as critical to protect student, staff, and faculty civil rights and civil liberties in the 2024-25 school year as it was in the last. As students go back to school, Virginians are still asking tough questions of their university administrations; to see the comprehensive results of what the ACLU of Virginia’s FOIA requests yielded, click here.
