St. Thomas President Robert Vischer sent an email to all students Thursday morning, addressing the protests on college campuses surrounding the Israel-Hamas war.
The email was sent after pro-Palestine protests spread across college campuses nationwide, calling for universities to divest from Israel and cease study abroad programs in the country.
“The turmoil of our world has spilled onto college campuses over the past couple of weeks, and our divisions seem to grow deeper with every news cycle,” Vischer wrote.
Vischer titled the email “the healing of wounds” and called for community healing through prayer, quoting Pope Francis. Vischer also invited the community to attend a webinar featuring a Palestinian and Israeli who both lost children in the war.
This email came after the University of Minnesota Twin Cities administration reached an agreement to end a student encampment that began Tuesday morning in return for meeting the student protesters’ demands. The agreement lays out that the university will divest, boycott, disclose, support Palestinian students and recommend amnesty for arrested students.
“While there is more work to do, and conversations are still planned with other student groups affected by the painful situation in Palestine, I am heartened by today’s progress,” Interim President Jeff Ettinger wrote in an email sent to UMN students Thursday.
Representatives of the student coalitions will address the board of regents at a May 10 meeting.
As for St. Thomas, Vischer wrote that “if our aim is the healing of wounds, solidarity is a good place to start.”
St. Thomas Students for Justice and Peace club wrote in an email to TommieMedia on behalf of the “UST community for Palestine” that this email acknowledgment was not enough.
“This email is a step in the right direction, but it is not the only step the university needs to take,” the statement read.
“It has taken (President Vischer) almost (eight) months to come out with another email following his original one. We are curious to know if President Vischer simply sent this message given what is happening to our peers across the country, nevertheless, the email was a good step. Gaza is not the only place where Palestinians are suffering. West Bank continues to be raided by Israeli Defense soldiers. This conflict started far before October 7, and it will continue into the future for as long as the U.S. continues to supply military aid.
“Similar to other universities, we would like to see financial transparency from the institution. This transparency is another step that needs to be taken so that the University’s investments and financial ties may be held accountable by members of the St. Thomas community.
“We look forward to the webinar that President Vischer highlighted in his email, but we are also aware that this event is not sufficient in an of itself when it comes to raising awareness of the genocide that is taking place in Gaza. There is a group of students working to stand in solidarity with our Palestinian peers and hold the institution accountable.
“We recognize the steps the university is trying to make, but it doesn’t undo the pain and damage that (it has) caused with (its) negligence towards the Palestinians who have been affected, St. Thomas students included. We urge the administration to acknowledge the pain they caused to students in the silence that has existed for almost (eight) months.”
Anya Capistrant-Kinney can be reached at capi2087@stthomas.edu.
Adam Mueller can be reached at muel7541@stthomas.edu.