University of Chicago student body president Tyler Kissinger
It’s not a mortarboard cap that looms above Tyler Kissinger’s head on the eve of his graduation Saturday from the University of Chicago. Instead, it’s a question of his fate.
The two-term student body president and Point Foundation scholar faces a disciplinary hearing Friday, according to student newspaper after leading a group of student protesters into administrative offices in preparation for a sit-in, according to The Chicago Maroon. The Student Manual notes that the result of such a hearing can range from a simple warning to expulsion from the school.
“It’s scary,” the 21-year-old public policy major tells USA TODAY College about the hearing. “I’m a first-generation college student. This is a hard school to be at and I feel like I’ve put in a lot of work trying to involve students.”
The attempted sit-in and a larger rally took place on May 19 after school administrators declined to meet with students regarding a range of concerns, from living wages for university workers to increasing police transparency, according to the Maroon. Prior to the rally, a group of 34 students and alumni — led by Kissinger, who says he told security he was in the building on official student body business — had gathered in the lobby of an administrative building in preparation for the sit-in, but were kicked out.
Four days later, Kissinger says, he was called to a meeting with the dean of students and summoned to an academic misconduct hearing on June 10, one day before his graduation ceremony.
“It’s inconsistent with the values of open discourse to deny student meetings. Students should be able to talk to administrators whenever they want,” Kissinger says.
“As a student fighting for change on this campus, it’s frightening to me and many others that the university would crack down so hard on dissent, in total disregard of its supposed love of free speech,” Anna Wood, a second-year University of Chicago student and a leader of the protest, tells USA TODAY College.
So far, Kissinger’s case has drawn support from over 3,000 people on a Change.org petition to dismiss charges against him, as well as from 180 faculty members in a separate document. On Thursday, Senator Bernie Sanders tweeted Kissinger in solidarity.
