By Dr. Andrew Zolides, Guest Writer
In a Campus Message from May 12, 2024 following XUPD’s arrest of two peaceful, nondisruptive Xavier community members protesting in support of Palestine, President Colleen Hanycz lamented, “Where is the dialogue?” The answer, Dr. Hanycz: you and your administration are burying it. The dialogue on this campus is being snuffed out through silencing and intimidation perpetuated from the highest levels of leadership.

As the Director of Take It On (Xavier’s supposed civic engagement initiative) from October 2023 until this past June, I was privileged to meet people across campus: students, faculty, staff, and alumni of various backgrounds, experiences and political ideologies. And all of these different people shared a common goal: to create more spaces for productive, challenging dialogue and robust civic engagement. Unfortunately, the only group that did not actively share that goal while claiming they do was Xavier’s Executive Cabinet (EC).

“Where is the dialogue?” It is happening outside Schmidt Hall.

Repeatedly, Xavier’s EC, ultimately under the direction of Hanycz, made choices that did not simply fail to build spaces for free, open, civic expression and dialogue, but actively worked in opposition to those goals.

Two peaceful, silent protestors were arrested in less than 60 seconds after being asked to move to a “designated demonstration zone.” Of course, this location was literally out of sight and out of earshot of literally anyone else on campus. EC may as well have told protestors they could civically engage in a closet inside McDonald Library. After their arrests, the protestors, both of whom were Xavier community members, were mistreated, demonized and charged with an outrageous anti-KKK felony. They certainly were not treated as part of the “Xavier family” we have been told we are all part of.

“Where is the dialogue?” You relegated it to a “demonstration zone,” out of sight and out of mind.

Leading up to the arrests, while faculty, staff and administrators at this university failed to create any meaningful space for productive engagement and discussion around the Israel-Palestine conflict, students took the lead. Students from Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) (a partisan organization and thus working without Take It On sponsorship) put in a tremendous amount of effort to plan, research, recruit, and organize an informative panel on the topic with the express purpose of simply becoming more educated on the topic. YSDA did what Xavier’s values and classrooms encouraged them to do and have a difficult dialogue. Such drive and humility should have been celebrated.

Instead, they faced weeks of intimidation, threats and backlash from faculty and administrators trying to shut down the panel, and yet they persisted. Even when Xavier community members agreed to participate on the panel to lend their knowledge and perspective, EC forbade those members from participating. Forbade them from even speaking, silencing their opportunity to speak in dialogue with others.

“Where is the dialogue?” You told it to remain quiet.

Previously, when students wrote compellingly and courageously criticizing Hanycz’s decision to name Ohio Supreme Court Justice Joe Deters as a “Justice in Residence,” they were attacked by politicians and operatives in the public press and even by Hancyz herself. Students raised thoughtful concerns about Deters’ stance on sexual assault, the death penalty and comments on Black citizens. In response, Hanycz patronizingly said students needed to be “forced to encounter ideas and views and perspectives that not only make us think but ideally make us uncomfortable.” Instead of engaging students’ legitimate critiques through dialogue, Hanycz dismissed them.

“Where is the dialogue?” You told it you know better.

Most troubling, several faculty members on this campus, including myself, have been reprimanded and threatened for speaking out critically against the decisions and policies of this administration in opposition to the principles of academic freedom. We have been told that public critique of the University will not be tolerated. And yet there are also no opportunities for meaningful private critique.

Promised meetings are not scheduled or canceled. Public forums have disappeared. Q&A sessions are fewer than ever. Honest dialogue is not one-directional lecturing from our ‘leaders.’ EC continues to become less transparent, less accessible, and refuses to meaningfully engage with the Xavier community or truly listen to concerned constituencies.

“Where is the dialogue?” You threatened it and hid from it.

There is an ongoing pattern of decision-making from this administration forming a culture of intimidation, repression, authoritarianism and ultimately disrespect for the Xavier Mission and Ignatian values. We are also certainly not going to “set the collegiate standard for Ignatian Civic Engagement,” a key goal of the Xavier 200 Strategic Plan.

But this is not the end for productive, engaging, and respectful dialogue on this campus. We, the members of the Xavier community – its students, its faculty, its staff – can still make truly open and democratic civic engagement and dialogue thrive here at Xavier.

“Where is the dialogue?” It’s still here, it always has been, amongst the Xavier community! We must, however, speak loud enough to be heard by those in SLC.
I acknowledge I am speaking as a citizen and am not speaking for Xavier University as an institution.