UPDATE, 4:04 P.M.: President of Whitman College’s AAUP Chapter, and Chair of Politics at Whitman College, Jack Jackson, responded to the request for comment, expressing concern about the lack of faculty input.
“The decision to expand the architecture of surveillance on campus occurred without faculty-wide discussion. As a result, the President missed an opportunity to hear from faculty who have academic expertise and/or personal experience with these issues. I find this decision quite troubling,” Jackson said.
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Whitman will install security cameras outside Memorial Hall in an effort to crack down on acts of vandalism, according to a campus-wide statement from President Sarah Bolton.
This school year, red paint has been splashed on the steps and walls of Memorial Hall (‘Mem’) three times. On November 7th, the first time paint was splashed on Mem, a campus-wide email from the President’s Cabinet threatened felony charges if the perpetrators were identified. However, the Walla Walla Police Department indicated that they would not pursue the case “unless someone comes forward” due to a lack of leads and manpower, The Wire first reported. As of yet, no persons of interest have been identified in the case.
In today’s campus-wide statement, Bolton described the paint protests as causing “significant vandalism,” and stated that the decision to install cameras came “with reluctance.”
Vice President for Finance and Administration Jeff Hamrick told The Wire via email that the cost of these cameras will come from a one-time budget transfer.
“I will likely make a supporting one-time budget transfer from budgets rolling up directly up to me into Facilities Services, in order to help Facilities Services stay within its budget for the year,” wrote Hamrick. “The Vice President for Finance and Administration holds a number of budgets designed to support a variety of unplanned contingencies each year.”
Hamrick says that the Memorial Hall camera installation project is estimated to cost $55,000. This is less than the school has spent to date remedying the recent impacts of vandalism, including the cost of staff time to effect special clean up or repairs.
All three instances of paint being splashed on Mem occurred alongside extensive pro-Palestinian chalking and protest. Whitman Students for Justice in Palestine has consistently denied involvement in the paint and chalking.
Bolton’s decision has drawn mixed reactions from the campus community, with some expressing concerns about surveillance in a year marked by increased student deportations, and others, particularly on the anonymous social media app YikYak, supporting the decision and even calling for harsher consequences.
Chair of Indigeneity, Race and Ethnicity Studies and Faculty Advisor to WSJP Zahi Zalloua told The Wire via email that he was “not pleased” with Bolton’s decision.
“Increased surveillance is rarely a good thing. While I appreciate President Bolton’s assurances not to share images from the cameras with ICE or other federal agencies without the proper legal documents, the Trump administration’s sadistic investment in rooting out pro-Palestine students has already created a great deal of anxiety among students and faculty,” wrote Zalloua. “Security cameras might give the government another tool to pursue their vengeful purge of views (and those who hold them) that don’t accord with their political visions.”
Though Bolton stated in the campus-wide email that the data captured by the cameras would not be shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents without a “signed judicial warrant or subpoena,” there have been multiple high-profile detainments of student activists by ICE without proper due process, as reported by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The Wire reached out to Whitman’s Director of International Student and Scholar Support Services (ISSS), and has yet to receive their comment on potential concerns regarding ICE interference.
Whitman Students for Justice in Palestine declined The Wire’s request for comment, but one student involved in Whitman’s pro-Palestinian movement, who wished to be anonymous due to concerns about administrative retaliation, expessed concerns about how this would impact a recent ASWC resolution calling for the school to become a sanctuary campus.
“It’s horrible that they would do this right after ASWC passes a sanctuary campus resolution calling for the college to not record students so they don’t have anything to hand to ICE if compelled,” said the student.
Chair of the Religion Department Lauren Osborne told The Wire that she wished the school would consider engaging in more conversation around divestment.
“While I don’t have a position on the vandalism or the role of the cameras per se, I wish that [the] board would listen to the community that they steward and reconsider opening a conversation around divestment and other possibilities,” said Osborne. “Conditions have changed a great deal since the initial request and it’s worth them engaging in dialogue about this.”
Others at Whitman see the issue differently, posting on the campus-wide anonymous social media app YikYak expressed frustration at WSJP.
“Admin has been ridiculously patient with SJP. I’d love to see a stronger crackdown tbh,” wrote one user.
The move to install cameras also comes after Whitman positioned private security guards at Memorial Hall, and in advance of next week’s Board of Trustees visit. Whitman’s Campus Security Officers have also routinely recorded information about student protesters. At a recent protest outside of Mem, security officers filmed and took pictures of students while demanding that each student provide their Whitman ID.
While security claims that they may demand students provide IDs at any time and for any reason, The Wire has reviewed Whitman’s code of conduct policies and security procedure policies, and are unable to find any specific codes which require the furnishing of IDs outside of an academic building. The only identification policy The Wire was able to obtain reads “Access to and use of buildings late at night require proper identification and written authorization. Buildings are routinely checked by Security and everyone is expected to comply with the Security Office’s request for identification.”The Wire has not been able to confirm when the cameras will be installed. This is a breaking news article and will be updated as new developments occur. Readers with information regarding the incidents or concerns about surveillance are encouraged to reach out at The Wire’s encrypted email here: whitmanwire@proton.me
Nazaaha Penick contributed reporting to this story.
