We originally had a permit for an event to raise awareness about homelessness that included tents. It was revoked 5 days before the scheduled event by the Office of Student Activities (OSA). An OSA assistant explained the order came down from the "Vice President’s office," but did not elaborate which VP. The director of the Reitz Union informed us that they learned through our announcement emails and Facebook event page that we were planning to build shanties, which is "outside the bounds of the permit." We informed the director that if the issue really was conforming to the permit, we would give our word that we would not engage in any of these activities. However, the director said our permit would only be reinstituted if we scrapped our event altogether and did it on a different date. When we inquired about possibly elevating the issue or speaking with this unknown VP, the director refused and claimed that he was the one who had issued the command to revoke the permit.

The morning of the event we were greeted by phone calls from the Dean of Students saying that he knew what we were planning to do "at 11am" (i.e. with the event) and that we were going to be violating UF policy. When we arrived at the plaza, we were met by no less than 15 administrators from the DSO and OSA as well as two plain clothes and one uniformed cop, all inconspicuously armed. This was to "monitor" 10 people. Half of the administrators and cops "reminded" everyone every 10 minutes that it was against UF policy to erect tents without a permit. They said that they supported us "getting our voices out there," but that they just had to do their job and enforce the policy of the university. The DSO administrators also said they were on "our side."

All those present met after we hung around for a few hours to decide what we would do. A consensus was reached to pack up, but to take the administrators up on their word that they supported us. We composed a list of requests that included a meeting with President Machen with representatives from the Harvard student-run homeless shelter who will be visiting UF soon. The administration has still not yet responded to our request for a meeting.

For the 5 years I have been a student on this campus, I have never heard of the administration going to these great lengths with any other organization on campus. In addition to admitting to spying on our Facebook group/event page/messages and organizational emails to find out what we were "up to," there were at least 18 paid employees of UF (many of whom earn six-figure per year salaries) who watched the 10-15 of us the entire time we were out at the Plaza. This is not only a testament to how wasteful many of these administrator positions are, but I have never even met any of these administrators until this day. They have ignored us and refused to meet with us about our initiatives, nor provided us with any institutional support or resources.

Further, I think it is absurd that they revoked our permit after we spent our own personal resources (since we receive no funding from UF) on planning the event, advertising, making banners and fliers because of what they ultimately said was an issue of communication. They would not do this to any larger group who spent the equivalent amount of resources planning a large event. Their double standard becomes even more apparent when one considers their lack of care for the students who have slept out in tents to get into basketball games.

In my opinion, this shows what the priorities of the administration are: to maintain UF's pristine name brand image even if it means stifling dissent and preventing meaningful change in our relationship with the community, as well as just following orders from above. We will continue organizing on multiple fronts to accomplish these changes. However, I think a more focused campaign on the authoritarian nature of UF may be necessary before, or simultaneously with, this change.

See http://ufl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2264499&id=2052401 for pictures.

See http://www.ufexposed.com for more details on the administration.