Police arrive at Old Queens after student group appearance

October 16, 2014 11:33pm | By Katie Park

File Photo / September 2012 | The Old Queens building on the College Avenue campus saw a lockdown Tuesday morning as students from Rutgers United Students Against Sweatshops walked in to meet with University President Robert L. Barchi.

Rutgers United Students Against Sweatshops members walked to the Old Queens building on the College Avenue campus on Tuesday, holding letters and copies of The Daily Targum.

The letter was a request to meet with Rutgers President Robert L. Barchi in order to persuade the University to manufacture Rutgers apparel with companies that use ethical business practices. The Targum featured an article, titled “Student groups launch ‘Where RU Barchi club,’” about Barchi’s perceived disconnect from students.

RUSAS intended to deliver both the letter and newspaper to Barchi on Tuesday morning, but they instead experienced a complete lockdown of the building within two minutes of their arrival.

Sivan Rosenthal, a member of RUSAS, walked through the doors of Old Queens with six other members around 11:30 a.m., where they reached the secretary in the main hall of the building. Rosenthal said she asked to speak with Barchi.

All the doors in the building shut simultaneously “almost a minute later” after they stood in the main hall, Rosenthal said in an email.

“We realized that the building had been locked down,” said Rosenthal, a School of Arts and Sciences sophomore. “Even administrative staff could not exit the building.”

Because law enforcement personnel are immediately alerted when an incident like a lockdown occurs at Old Queens, the police arrived at the building shortly after all the doors barred themselves.

During the lockdown, Rosenthal asked if RUSAS could read the letter they had brought aloud to Barchi’s secretary. The secretary in the main hall refused.

Rosenthal then asked if they could simply hand over the letter to his secretary. This request was also denied, and RUSAS was told they needed to schedule an appointment with Barchi.

According to the statement, when the police then arrived at Old Queens, they said they had been called “on a separate issue.”

Rutgers spokesperson E.J. Miranda said the Old Queens staff mistakenly called RUPD.

“Upon their arrival, officers were informed that there was not a problem,” Miranda said in an email.

But Rosenthal said as far as she knows, she and the other members of RUSAS were the only visitors in the building.

She is still not entirely sure the lockdown was due to RUSAS’ presence in Old Queens, but she is also skeptical that it was completely unrelated.

“I think because of a lot of the sit-in [protests] that were happening last year, they expected us to run up the stairs … but we weren’t running — we just walked inside,” she said. “So there wasn’t an immediate threat of us threatening a sit-in or aggressive action.”

Because meeting Barchi’s secretary was not an option, Rosenthal read RUSAS’ letter to another administrator and handed it to him when she finished, along with an issue of the Targum.

She said this week’s incident was not the first or only strategy RUSAS has used to try to meet with administrators. In the past, the organization has attempted to meet with Felicia McGinty, vice chancellor of Student Affairs, by sending her emails and attending her office hours.

Rosenthal said no administrator has reached out to RUSAS since Tuesday.

“Ultimately, Barchi holds the power to make the changes we are asking for,” she said.

Inquiries and concerns from New Brunswick students should be submitted to McGinty, since she is the concerned administrator, Miranda said.

The RUSAS letter was forwarded to McGinty, and she will be meeting with them in the near future, he said.

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