Last month, the University of Connecticut announced it was considering adopting a policy of institutional neutrality, according to CT Insider. This comes after months of student protests regarding UConn’s involvement with the war industry and current partnerships with the state of Israel. This policy would limit UConn’s ability to take a stance “on issues and events that do not have direct impact on our core academic mission or institutional operations and that UConn has no direct role in.” However, an important distinction that university spokesperson Stephanie Reitz makes is that despite being neutral on these issues, UConn would still be able to provide support and resources for individuals and groups affected by them.
This has long been a case UConn has made regarding its own complicity in the current conflict in Palestine. Despite the fact that UConn maintains extensive research partnerships and economic ties with military contractors whose weapons are used in the occupation and with the Israeli government and universities itself, it refuses to acknowledge its own role in the harm it causes to both Palestinians in Gaza and those here at UConn. Instead, there have been many statements from the Provost’s office and President’s office which have routinely offered up the Office of Diversity and Inclusion as well as the Dean of Students as their resources for students during these difficult times. Their hope is that anybody who feels strongly about these protests and especially those who are personally related to the issue of Israeli-Palestinian relations generally should go to these resources and talk about how they feel in these moments. Although this could provide some support, more needs to be done. UConn has a history of ignoring activists and student groups committed to making change on a variety of social issues from sustainability, campus sexual assault and this one, resulting in a culture of disconnectedness between administrators and students on multiple levels.
UConn is actively contributing to these events and helping perpetuate systematic harm through its military connections and police repression, but at the same time it tries to offer up resources on an individual level to help ease the cognitive or emotional burden to the same students it is hurting. Although it would be impossible for UConn to simply stop the conflict in order to help its students, at the very least, it can provide additional resources and listen to its students.
The answer to stress caused by systematic injustice is not going to be found by the same people causing the problem. The limit to their ability to help is at an individual level which is woefully incapable of addressing the broader issue. Plus, there is a blatant conflict of interest within the resources seeking to help students, considering they are employed by the perpetrators themselves. Instead of going to UConn and individualizing or over pathologizing the problem, what is going to help those affected is found in making real change that eliminates the issue. So as long as UConn continues to defend its chosen position and this international relations issue, it doesn’t seem like that answer is going to come from them.