Spring Break
Suspected protest prompts action
Student Activities forces Peace Fellowship, CLAP to modify event
Rohan Anand
Issue date: 5/2/07 Section: News
The Student Activities Office ordered the Notre Dame Peace Fellowship and Campus Labor Action Project (CLAP) to alter their planned demonstration at Fieldhouse Mall Tuesday, accusing the groups of misleading in conversations leading up to the event, but activists pushed on with the event at a scaled-back level.
While organizers said they shared their agenda with the SAO as they planned the event-which they said was meant to commemorate the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker and include students, staff and faculty members - sophomore CLAP member Michael Angulo said the office called him 30 minutes before the scheduled kickoff to tell him there were problems with the "lack of transparency" in these conversations.
CLAP organizers said their application to Student Activities stated the event would celebrate the contribution of campus workers in conjunction with the feast of Saint Joseph, which typically occurs on May 1. SAO Assistant Director Amy Geist, however, said that when her office discovered some of the event's details Tuesday, she was concerned the celebration could become a workers' rights' protest.
"Peace Fellowship approached me about plans for a social celebratory program," Geist said. "When it became apparent that the events of the day were more demonstration-like in nature, further discussions were had with the officers of Peace Fellowship."
She said when it became clear the group had not taken the required steps to register a demonstration on campus, the SAO asked the CLAP and Peace Fellowship officers to "return the event to its originally proposed nature - that of a celebration of workers."
So the event went on - though not quite as planned.
"The main difference was that professors did not speak, that there was no opening prayer, that students from Campus Ministry and Right to Life did not speak, and they had prepared a statement saying economic justice is a life issue that we need to think about," Angulo said. "And all of the other [participants] were informed that it was no longer an SAO event, so it was simply them speaking their minds about the issues on their mind. More freedom with less security."
While organizers said they shared their agenda with the SAO as they planned the event-which they said was meant to commemorate the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker and include students, staff and faculty members - sophomore CLAP member Michael Angulo said the office called him 30 minutes before the scheduled kickoff to tell him there were problems with the "lack of transparency" in these conversations.
CLAP organizers said their application to Student Activities stated the event would celebrate the contribution of campus workers in conjunction with the feast of Saint Joseph, which typically occurs on May 1. SAO Assistant Director Amy Geist, however, said that when her office discovered some of the event's details Tuesday, she was concerned the celebration could become a workers' rights' protest.
"Peace Fellowship approached me about plans for a social celebratory program," Geist said. "When it became apparent that the events of the day were more demonstration-like in nature, further discussions were had with the officers of Peace Fellowship."
She said when it became clear the group had not taken the required steps to register a demonstration on campus, the SAO asked the CLAP and Peace Fellowship officers to "return the event to its originally proposed nature - that of a celebration of workers."
So the event went on - though not quite as planned.
"The main difference was that professors did not speak, that there was no opening prayer, that students from Campus Ministry and Right to Life did not speak, and they had prepared a statement saying economic justice is a life issue that we need to think about," Angulo said. "And all of the other [participants] were informed that it was no longer an SAO event, so it was simply them speaking their minds about the issues on their mind. More freedom with less security."