Protesters leave camp grounds in Marsh following police, admin. requests

Thirty Boston University students, who had been protesting as part of the “BU Occupy” movement since Tuesday evening, vacated Marsh Plaza at about 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday after several requests from police officials and Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore.

Protesters said police officials began requesting the students leave at about 3 a.m. on Wednesday after they had set up camp.

Instead of leaving, however, protesters held a general assembly to discuss their options and decided to remain in their camp.

“You haven’t had permission to be here to do this, you will have to leave,” BUPD Captain Robert Molloy, who was with about 10 other officers, said to protesters.

Molloy told The Daily Free Press that he aimed to inform students that they must undergo the proper process to obtain permission to gather on the plaza, which is operated by Marsh Chapel.

“Until they get that permission, they can’t be here. So, right now, we’re determining what to do,” he said.

One protester, who asked to remain anonymous, told BUPD officers that protesters’ requests to use the space had never been approved.

At about 4 a.m., BUPD Deputy Chief Scott Paré informed the students that they could not protest without a permit, protesters said.

Paré also asked protesters what they are protesting, to which they replied that they were demonstrating against rising student debt, college tuition costs and the current state of the country, among other issues.

“They [police] claim Marsh Plaza is private property and not something that’s usable by students for something that’s very important to everyone,” said one of the protesters, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences who asked to remain anonymous. “I think it’s short sighted on the side of the school and characteristic of the school administrations in general.”

In an interview with The DFP, Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore said that he finds it problematic for people to disrupt the natural flow of BU.

“People need to be able to get in and out of buildings, people need to be able to conduct their research, to be taught, to learn and to be able to conduct business here and anything that disrupts that I would say is problematic,” he said.

Protesters said that Elmore approached them at around 6 a.m. and requested that they leave until they receive a permit. They also said he told the demonstrators that their protests on Marsh prevented other members of the community from using the space.

“There’s a certain flow about Marsh. Marsh is a place where people propose to each other, it’s a place where people gather, it’s a place where people have programs, where people dance and sing,” Elmore told The DFP. “It’s also a place where people protest, too, but it’s this general space that has been set aside for the Boston University community, and I think we’ve got to respect that.”

In a blog entry posted on Wednesday afternoon on the Dean of Students website, Elmore wrote that he respects Marsh Plaza and sees it as a gathering place for the BU community.

“Sometimes the flow is official and organized; often it’s not and we get to figure it out. Regardless of what flows in the space, I take care not to disrupt it,” Elmore said. “Disruption might be the height of disrespect for the community and the sense of place.”

Although protesters planned to stay until noon on Wednesday, they said they vacated Marsh Plaza at around 7:30 a.m.

“We knew we didn’t have enough people to keep going until noon like we had planned, so we had no choice but to leave,” said Nikitasha, a CAS junior who asked to keep her last name anonymous. “We really weren’t harming anyone by being there in the morning, except maybe the university’s image. You can’t have students protesting things like the ever-increasing tuition taxes.”