Portland State University Vanguard reporter on student protests

Reporters with the Portland State University Vanguard have been on the ground as protesters took over the Branford Price Millar Library. After the library became occupied by protesters, the university closed campus on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday morning, Portland police began to clear protesters from the building and the campus remains closed. Student journalists have provided updates on Instagram throughout the occupation. Kat Leon, editor-in-chief of the Vanguard, joins us with updates on the story and to reflect on the role of student journalists in situations like this.

Note: The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. We start today with the latest news out of Portland State University. Early this morning, Portland police entered the Millar Library on the PSU campus to clear away protesters. Activists who are opposed to Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza took over the library on Monday night. Police say they arrested 12 people, including four students. Kat Leon is the editor-in-chief of the PSU Vanguard, the student news outlet that’s been covering the protests from the beginning. They join us now. Kat, welcome.

Kat Leon: Thank you.

Miller: One of your reporters confirmed earlier this morning that police entered the library through a fire escape, some of them with chainsaws. Can you give us a sense for how the operation started this morning?

Leon: Yeah. So around 6:15 a.m. the police arrived. They issued warnings to the protesters to leave. They escalated the warnings, saying they would be charged if they didn’t leave and then anyone who didn’t leave after a while, they changed it to they were being charged if they were still left in the building. My understanding is that the cops went to the roof first and entered through the roof, but I’m unsure about that completely, but they thought they could get into the building at one point. And they started clearing the building out from the top down.

Miller: One of the more dramatic scenes was video footage of dozens of protesters, many of them with their faces covered or all in black, running through blocked off streets without police chasing them. From reports I’ve seen, only one person in that moment was stopped by police, but we’re talking about dozens of people running through Portland streets. What happened?

Leon: Yeah, I mean, I think that it’s hard to know what went on inside, especially with all of the police tape that was holding the media back. I think that when they were clearing out from the top down, people could tell that they were coming, so they may have just gone and given the fact that there was probably lots of barricades, it may have made it difficult for the police to chase them. But that’s just speculation, I’m not sure. I do know that several protesters did leave and kind of faded into the crowd and it was kind of hard to discern between who was from the building and who was just there protesting outside of the building.

Miller: But there were a number of officers outside. I mean, one possibility is that the police just let the majority of protesters go. Do you know if that’s the case?

Leon: Yeah, I’m unsure. I don’t want to speculate, but there were several, so many, they just left.

Miller: After the library was cleared and according to the police, as I mentioned, 12 people were arrested. Protesters got in front of a convoy of police vans and other vehicles. Can you describe what happened next? This seems to be the most dramatic part of the morning.

Leon: I’m sorry, can you repeat the question really quickly?

Miller: Sure. So after the library was cleared and people were arrested, protesters got in front of a convoy of police vans and other vehicles. What happened next?

Leon: Yeah, so they got in front of the convoy of police vehicles, locked arms. The cops also got in a line and started forcing the protesters out. There was reports of use of rubber bullets. I saw the use of smoke or smoke blasts or whatever. And I also saw people that were pepper sprayed as well and they kept pushing the protesters. It got to kind of the freeway entrance, and they were able to break the protesters apart into two separate streets, onto the sidewalk and then the vans holding the students or the people that were arrested were able to get through.

Miller: President Cudd put out a statement early this morning, at 9:47 this morning, after much of what we’re talking about was over. I’m going to read the relatively short statement in its entirety.

“Portland State University is grateful for the assistance of the Portland Police Bureau, Oregon State Police, Governor Tina Kotek, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and Chief Bob Day for their partnership. What we’ve seen taking place so far on the Portland Park blocks, while distressing to see, has been peaceful and calm overall, which is an immense relief. The safety and well being of our campus community is our top priority. We took this step only after extensive negotiations using faculty members as intermediaries. We look forward to opening our campus to all students as soon as possible.”

Kat, I want to turn to those negotiations that the president talked about. President Cudd had a meeting with protesters late Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning. And then those negotiations broke down pretty spectacularly. How did President Cudd, first of all, characterize what happened?

Leon: She had said multiple things, that she had offered the protesters amnesty and agreed to have conversations with them. She also said that like 50 students had left and she was thankful for that. But ultimately, the negotiations fell apart and they weren’t able to get the protesters to leave the library.

Miller: What did protesters say in their statement?

Leon: So the protesters all said that this wasn’t true. And I will say that, especially the quote about the 50 people leaving the library, we were there that night. There, to our knowledge, weren’t 50 people that left. There was a group of people that had come to protest outside of the library as that had happened multiple nights before and those people did leave and sure there’s some people like coming in and out, as like there was people that did come in and out throughout the nights, but there weren’t 50 people that left to my understanding. And then the other thing about that is… [inaudible]... and she said she would try… that they also mentioned that was involved. And that information could have been given to the D.A. Of course, both of these statements were very conflicting. So it’s hard to tell what was true and what was not, but those were the different states.

Miller: You’re breaking up a little bit there. But one of the disagreements was about the extent to which the president said she would participate in or share information that could help the prosecution of people who would end up being arrested. And now, 12 people have been arrested, only four of them students. So we will see in the coming hours or days what happens with that.

I want to turn to what the protesters have been asking for. I mean, what are their demands, and at this point, have any of them been met by the administration?

Leon: So actually, on Thursday, prior to any protest starting, President Cudd released a letter saying that she was willing to have a conversation about going. And in the meantime, she had paused receiving all donations and that was one of the major things that protesters had been fighting for, for a while, was full divestment from Boeing. That’s still something that one of the protesters demands. This protest as a whole, I think, switched more to the BDS movement in general, instead of just divesting in Boeing, divesting in any company that the BDS movement suggests that they do. I think that includes like Intel and those types of organizations as well…

Miller: So I was just gonna move on to say that the pictures and videos I’ve seen of the inside of the library show broken glass, piled up furniture, security systems damaged, graffiti everywhere, trash strewn about. It looks at the very least like a huge mess and perhaps more serious property damage. Have you or your reporters been inside? I’m just curious, the extent of the damage that you have seen.

Leon: Yeah. So a lot of the photos we’ve seen have been from other people who have been inside. We’ve gotten some courtesy photos but none of the Vanguard reporters have gone inside, given the fact that we’re all students. I didn’t want to risk anyone’s expulsion or any corrective actions taken against editors, so we chose to stay out of the building just because of the fact that we were students.

Miller: And the administration has said you cannot go in even though the people occupying it have said no, no, you’re free to come and go. The library is still functioning as normal. I mean, that does get to one of the really interesting aspects of this, just from a personal or journalistic perspective. What has it been like for you and members of your team to be reporting on this huge and sensitive news story in the middle of your own campus community?

Leon: Yeah, I think it’s been interesting for sure. I think, as the news team, we’ve really come together to cover this. And personally, for me, I’ve been able to connect a lot with my team and my community through this reporting. And so I think while the events were a lot, I think that what we got from it and the building on our side was really positive. And I appreciated that part of it. I do think that, obviously we’re all students, so it’s played a toll on our studies and that type of stuff. But ultimately, the community stuff and the community building that we did through this was positive.

Miller: Kat, thanks very much.

Leon: Yeah.

Miller: Kat Leon is the editor-in-chief of the PSU Vanguard, the student news outlet. Earlier this morning, Portland police entered the campus library and forced protesters out.

Contact “Think Out Loud®”

If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983. The call-in phone number during the noon hour is 888-665-5865.