Making an Example of Miguel Malo

By Kimberly Chase

The legal battle between CUNY and Hostos Community College Student Senate President Miguel Malo suggests that something has gone amuck in the City’s higher education system. On August 15, 2001, Malo was arrested during a student protest against cuts in bilingual and Spanish programs at Hostos, which is located in the Bronx. Since then he has been dragged through a lengthy prosecution by the District Attorney’s office—after two years and 25 court appearances, the case is still unresolved.

The protest at which Malo was arrested was held in a so-called “free speech area” in an atrium at Hostos. However, campus authorities had declared that protest was not allowed during registration, which was taking place at the time. According to the official CUNY complaint, Malo declined to leave the area when asked by CUNY Peace Officer Sgt. Sean White, after which he was arrested. His charges include resisting arrest, but his supporters say this claim is false, and that it would be more accurate to say that police officers assaulted him, throwing him to the floor.

At Malo’s latest hearing on Thursday, September 25, many of those supporters gathered just outside the Bronx County Community Courthouse to protest the charges and show support for Malo. The group of protesters numbered approximately 50, and included students from various CUNY campuses, including the Graduate Center, as well as a group of immigrant workers from the United Food Workers Local 1500. Most said they came to protest the charges against Malo, which they see as false and oppressive. For many of them, Malo’s case is not simply an isolated example of CUNY campus police cracking down too hard on a rambunctious student, but instead one piece in a larger movement to muzzle student voices through a network of excessively violent and armed campus police forces. This belief could be plainly heard in the much-repeated chant, “CUNY is not a prison, drop the charges now!”

After marching and chanting for thirty minutes, some students and activists entered the courthouse in order to show their support by attending Malo’s hearing in person. Two students, Javier Genao of Brooklyn College and Moises Delgado of Bronx Community College, were arrested inside on charges of disorderly conduct, but were later released.

Miguel Malo is a politically active and influential student, which provides a motive for CUNY to react excessively to fairly standard student activism and civil disobedience. On most college campuses, activism is allowed and even encouraged through funding for student organizations, and can serve as a valuable training ground for involved and responsible citizenship. In this case, the context is a wave of funding cuts and increases in tuition, which leave many students unable to attend school and tend to turn student activism against CUNY itself, thereby testing the university’s capacity to tolerate free speech.

By creating on-campus police forces and having them arrest student protesters, CUNY appears to be attempting to eliminate rather than support student voices. This problem is especially acute at campuses like Hostos that serve marginal communities. Instead of strengthening student autonomy and self-expression with the lenient discipline that characterizes the campuses of most private universities, CUNY is cracking down on student opinion in a way that further enflames their causes.

This is particularly relevant in the case of Malo, whose arrest resulted from his recalcitrance during a protest against cuts in funding for educational programs that serve the Latino community. Since his arrest, he has gone from vice-president to president of the college’s student senate, and gained the support of students and faculty across the CUNY system, as well as local immigrant labor activists. Instead of quieting students’ voices, CUNY’s reaction to Malo’s minor infraction is fanning their fire—and worsening already tense student-administration relations.

Ron McGuire, Malo’s attorney, says that “CUNY has been using its peace officers as a political police force against student demonstrators. Miguel Malo was arrested for exercising his constitutional rights. We will prove that the charges against him are completely unfounded.” McGuire is also representing Malo and five other CUNY students in a federal civil rights suit against the university. That case, Rivera v. Fernandez, alleges that CUNY Peace Officers were used to obstruct students’ rights to free speech and peaceful assembly during protests against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the policies of CUNY trustees. The DA’s office has attempted to disqualify McGuire from Malo’s case because he is also representing student claims against CUNY in a civil suit, but the motion was denied and he remains on the case. Malo’s next hearing is on November 3.

The case of Miguel Malo sheds light on the growing rift between CUNY students and administrators as budgets get tighter and programs are cut. CUNY was designed to provide students of all income brackets with an educational experience that enriches their minds and helps them to reach their goals. However, as more students feel the impact of declining services and increased tuition, CUNY has chosen to clamp down on dissent instead of showing respect for what is ultimately students’ desire to learn.

Ironically, the mission statement of Hostos Community College includes the pledge “To create an environment that nurtures dual language literacy and respect for cultural, ethnic, racial and religious differences.” Instead of punishing Miguel Malo for speaking out against cuts in bilingual and Spanish programs, Hostos might have praised him for upholding one of its utmost goals.

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Hostos Community College Mission Statement: open the door of higher education to those students who may find them closed. To offer academic and career programs that set the highest standards and skills for every student. To create an environment that nurtures dual language literacy and respect for cultural, ethnic, racial and religious differences. To educate all those students who seek out Hostos Community College as their institution of higher education.