UT Arlington protesters find loophole to set up pro-Palestinian "encampment"
ARLINGTON, Texas - Students at UT Arlington have set up an "encampment" on campus and are using a loophole in campus policy to avoid arrests.
The pro-Palestinian protest was set up Thursday morning, and demonstrators say they plan to stay there all night.
A UTA staff member was arrested after he briefly set up a tent. Students told FOX 4 he set up a tent on purpose, knowing he'd be arrested.
Protesters arrived at 6 a.m. and were met with campus police.
They were told no encampments would be allowed, but students say they weren’t afraid to split hairs. Instead, they brought tarps that they laid on the ground and sat on top of them.
The small group of protesters is calling for the school to divest from companies, like Lockheed Martin, that are linked to Israel.
Protesters are calling it an informal encampment to comply with university guidelines.
"We will be doing our best to not to give the police an excuse to arrest us," said student Serahphine Pecson. "So we learned a lot from UT Austin and UT Dallas. What they did were more traditional encampments, but the school used the new policies to crack down on them hard."
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That’s why students sat on tarps and brought umbrellas — not tents or any other structures that could be used as temporary shelters.
Sleeping on campus overnight isn’t allowed, so students plan to take shifts throughout the night.
All day Thursday, administrators and UTA police officers stood and monitored just feet away.
"We would be a lot more outnumbered by police, for example. We would need to go for longevity instead of something super dramatic like arrests in the first two hours," Pecson said.
However, just after 4 p.m., a man was arrested for setting up a tent on the library lawn.
FOX 4 identified the man arrested as Charles Hermes. He’s listed on the university’s website as an undergraduate advisor and lecturer in the philosophy department. He was booked into the Arlington city jail and charged with criminal trespass.
Students say Hermes’ arrest was planned.
"Effectively, what he did was get arrested on purpose," Pecson said. "He communicated with us, we communicated with administrators, he made sure that we knew to tell them that he wasn’t associated with us and that he would be setting up a tent and that his actions should not be confused with ours."
A media relations representative was on site the majority of the day. However, the university would not confirm Hermes’ identity or his affiliation with the school.
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