About 50 students and community members marched into Old Union Monday afternoon to protest what they called “explicit political censorship” on the part of the University. The rally, inside the building for roughly 15 minutes, was sparked by the removal of a photo exhibit sponsored by Students Confronting Apartheid by Israel (SCAI). Old Union administrators took down the photos on April 9 after receiving multiple complaints regarding the exhibit.

The 10 photographs, taken by local photographer Lisa Nessan, offered various portrayals of Palestinian life in the West Bank. The photographs appeared with captions, which, according to members of SCAI, were based on information from human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and the United Nations.

University administrators, however, stressed that the captions had not been part of the exhibit initially approved by Jeanette Smith-Laws, director of unions. The original title of the exhibit, “Hope Under Siege,” had been also changed to “Life Under Israeli Apartheid,” according to Associate Vice Provost Chris Griffith. The changes, combined with the complaints, led to the exhibit’s removal two days after it had appeared.

“People felt it was inflammatory,” Griffith told The Daily, adding that “multiple concerns” had been raised by a “broad scope of folks.”

SCAI members, however, contend that they were told initially that general complaints and the title had been the cause for the removal. After offering to change the title, SCAI co-president Fadi Quran ‘10 said the organization was then informed about complaints regarding the captions.

“We provided all the information that the administrators initially asked for, but they did not request any captions,” he said. “We assumed that the administration would expect photo exhibits to include captions, just as the exhibit that preceded ours did.”

“The exhibit could be reinstated if the administration simply followed through on their promises to show us the complaints and allow us to meet with those who filed them,” he continued. “Moreover, we believe this is an attempt to deflect attention from the true issue at hand: political censorship.”

SCAI member Amanda Gelender ‘09, who led Monday’s rally, said that Smith-Laws had promised last week to provide the complaints to SCAI so that concerns could be addressed.

“So far she has failed to provide them,” Gelender said. “We don’t even know the nature of the complaints. It’s all so vague; we really want to see the complaints.”

While the students criticized the University as being uncooperative, administrators said efforts had been made to reach a compromise. According to a statement by Greg Boardman, vice provost for student affairs, sent to The Daily Monday afternoon, the University offered SCAI the opportunity to relocate the exhibition “to another prominent location on campus or to resume the show at Old Union in keeping with their original proposal.”

“They decided against pursuing either option,” Boardman said.

SCAI members met with Smith-Laws last week to discuss a potential compromise. Gelender said the administration’s proposal to put the exhibit back up in its original state, without titles or captions, was “unacceptable.”

“It doesn’t make sense to have a photo display without captions,” she said.

The students were then told they could go to White Plaza, according to Gelender.

“[Old Union] was one of the only places I thought we had free speech,” Gelender said. “We can’t afford this additional suppression.”

When it reopened in the fall amidst great fanfare, administrators expressed hopes that Old Union could be a center for student expression. But that vision, administrators now say, was never clearly defined.

“What is it that students want this building to be was not clearly articulated,” Griffith told The Daily Monday. “When you don’t define that, people who use the building define it themselves.”

“We did the best we could,” she added. “We need to get some dialogue going with students.”

That dialogue, according to Boardman, could be in the works shortly.

“We have yet to fully articulate the programmatic vision for Old Union that will help establish policies and procedures to guide us on the use of communal space including as a venue for artistic and/or political expression,” Boardman said. “We will work with the incoming ASSU leadership to seek student input on this issue and are in the process of creating an advisory group composed of students and staff to develop these policies and to help to assess future uses of this space.”

“We look forward to Old Union serving as a center where dialogue is encouraged while remaining a comfortable gathering place for all,” he added.