Pres. Wheeler's Missing McNuggets
SUNY New Paltz Pres. Darrell P. Wheeler does not know what an emergency is, and violated a longstanding university tradition of keeping the police off campus.
By Eric F. Coppolino
MAYBE YOU’VE HEARD those YouTubes of 911 calls for people who don’t really have an emergency — such as when they get just four Chicken McNuggets in a five-piece order. It’s somehow reassuring to know that there’s someone in the world stupid enough to call the police about this — and it’s not you.
That is (in part) how I felt Thursday night at SUNY New Paltz, watching a line of New York State Troopers and Ulster County Sheriff’s deputies marching across the campus to remove 133 student antiwar protesters with their arms linked, sitting around a tree.
The panicking 911 caller was Pres. Darrell Wheeler. Under State University of New York governance, only the president can call the police onto the campus — unless there is something like an active shooter incident. It’s a strict tradition, going back generations, not to call the police for a peaceful, lawful protest.
I don’t care who told him to do it. I don’t care how much pressure was put on him by the system’s chancellor, the governor or some other part of the New World Order.
The campus is a benevolent monarchy, and the president is its king. If he is told to do something immoral, illegal or stupid, he can refuse, or resign. He has nobody to blame, and must take responsibility for his actions — or be held accountable.
As of press time, Pres. Wheeler’s office did not respond to a request for comment; I sent a draft of this article to them. Note, today we learned that Pres. Wheeler is involved in the medical-industrial complex from a variety of angles described in this press release.
If That is Not Constitutionally Protected Speech, Then What Is?
The students he ordered arrested were protesting the investment of the New Paltz campus in what they consider the apartheid state of Israel, which has been bombing civilians in Gaza since Oct. 8, 2023. More than 35,000, including many children, are estimated to have been killed, and the whole society is lying in rubble — but the bombing goes on.
The students, plus some community members and faculty, were “peacefully petitioning the government for the redress of grievances.” If that is not a constitutionally-sanctioned protest — on an open State University campus — I would like to know what is.
The students were breaking no law, so there was nothing for law enforcement to enforce.
The camp had rules of conduct and its own security, and the students were not blocking or breaking anything. There were no incidents. I was at the campsite much of Wednesday and Thursday. The scene was chill and friendly. They were initially only in violation of the campus policy against pitching tents. They took the tents down hours before the police arrived. But still, Pres. Wheeler allowed police to proceed.
One of the agencies that responded was the Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team, whose regular job is to quell prison riots. Their website says:
“They participate in numerous high risk, high security transports and trials. One of their main functions is to conduct institutional [meaning prison] shakedowns on a regular basis…and are prepared at a moment’s notice to quell problems before they escalate. From time to time SERT is called upon to handle crowd/riot control for requesting agencies.”
New Paltz has an Atrocious Civil Rights Record
This tells us how short the “school to prison pipeline” has become. The campus is now a gulag where the students know they have no rights. After being ordered into their dorms, there were credible reports Thursday night that they were locked into the buildings by the very Siemens electronic security system they are demanding to have removed, as the company does business with Israel.
New Paltz is famous for its crunchy liberal image, but it’s also historically been involved in repeated civil rights disasters. One summer, the campus arrested eight black students for playing their boombox too loud, and charged them criminally — causing a statewide ruckus that went on for months. The charges were all dismissed.
Once campus police were called when a person was acting strangely. He said he was having a diabetic emergency and needed medical attention, and some orange juice. They said he was high on drugs, and handcuffed him to the wall for an hour.
When I called to ask about this, L. David Eaton, then assistant vice president for student affairs, called the police action “professional and expert.” The student survived without going into a coma, and won a lawsuit against the college — which has in the past been known as SUE-ME New Paltz.
Today is the 54th anniversary of the Kent State University massacre. Program on Planet Waves FM.
The Dioxin Dorms — Contaminated Residence Halls
In 1993, I attempted to interview several campus administrators on video as they walked across the campus. I was asking about PCB and dioxin contamination in the very dorms where the students were protesting last week — the Dioxin Dorms.
Administrators testified in federal court that I yelled questions at them and blocked their progress; the video tape revealed that I was speaking normally and held doors for them. They declared me “persona non grata” and ordered me off the campus. Notably, I was not a student at the time. (Public officials are using the presence of non-students as justification for their panic attack, but they are entitled to be on campus.)
I filed a federal lawsuit against the college president, Alice Chandler, and L. David Eaton (who wrote the letter banning me), earning some honorary law school credit. (The state settled the case and allowed me back on campus 24-hours a day, after taking a year-long beating in the press for trying to have me removed.) The dorms — Bliss, Capen, Gage and Scudder, plus Parker Theater — are still contaminated with hormone-disrupting and carcinogenic chemicals.
SUNY New Paltz has the worst record of violating student rights than any of the 25 or so SUNY and CUNY campuses I’ve covered. They seem to make a point of sticking it to students. The campus spokesman last week told me that New Paltz was recently upgraded to being a “university” rather than a “college.” Maybe this was their initiation ceremony.
This Was About Israel
Since the protest was not against campus policy, and the students were not breaking any law, then there is just one possibility left: the administration (and higher-ups) objected to the content of what their protests were about — support of the Palestinian people, and demanding divestment and disclosure around investments in Israel.
The attack on students had a touch of IDF “total commitment” to it.
The very point of the right to protest against the state is to protect unpopular views. The “redress of grievances” against public officials is precisely what is sanctified by peaceful protest in the First Amendment.
And the place it’s supposed to be honored the most is on a state college campus. It’s often said that campus life is a microcosm of life in the outside world, and that appears to be true. Like other leaders, Pres. Wheeler is missing a few of his McNuggets, and has decided that outright tyranny is the way to run his campus.
He has brought the war home, using militarized police against students he’s trusted to protect under the principle of in loco parentis.
If there is any truth to “think globally, act locally,” then Pres. Wheeler must be held accountable for his conduct. It’s time for him to go.
Additional research: Cindy Tice Ragusa.
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Eric F. Coppolino is a New York-based investigative reporter, and host of Planet Waves FM on Pacfica Radio. He is executive director of Chiron Return, which provides mentorship for journalists. As a grad student at New Paltz, he founded Student Leader News Service and organized student newspapers throughout the State and City University of New York systems into a professional news network.
Excellent reporting, Eric!!
"ordered into their dorms... locked into the buildings" - what the hell? THAT sounds like criminal behaviour.
"Since the protest was not against campus policy, and the students were not breaking any law, then there is just one possibility left: the administration (and higher-ups) objected to the content of what their protests were about — support of the Palestinian people, and demanding divestment and disclosure around investments in Israel.
The attack on students had a touch of IDF “total commitment” to it.
The very point of the right to protest against the state is to protect unpopular views. The “redress of grievances” against public officials is precisely what is sanctified by peaceful protest in the First Amendment.
And the place it’s supposed to be honored the most is on a state college campus. It’s often said that campus life is a microcosm of life in the outside world, and that appears to be true. Like other leaders, Pres. Wheeler is missing a few of his McNuggets, and has decided that outright tyranny is the way to run his campus.
He has brought the war home, using militarized police against students he’s trusted to protect under the principle of in loco parentis.
If there is any truth to “think globally, act locally,” then Pres. Wheeler must be held accountable for his conduct. It’s time for him to go."
You got it. All the attacks across US campuses (and now, France and the UK too) are about maintaining support of tho governments of those nations for the Israeli genocide regime, especially given the possibility (i say high likelihood) of an Israeli ground invasion of Rafah, the last part of the Gaza Strip which hasn't been invaded and flattened by the IDF. Such action would draw very vehement opposition from any such encampments, which would serve as centers for expressions of anger to coalesce around. The war on the people of Gaza is being enforced in our (no longer) safe European and American homes.