a professor. He is a professor." At the University of Virginia, The Times got an inside look at faculty's role.
"I can take you through the blow by blow of the day if you want." And how their negotiations with police broke down at a crucial moment. "Why is he —" "Back up.
" "In a wanton fashion, they allowed the Virginia State Police to come here fully armed, rifles, mace. One of my colleagues was standing right there trying to talk to the Virginia State Police. He got arrested.
The other one standing next to him got pushed back behind the line, and he got partially maced. It didn't have to happen this way." The night before police raided a pro-Palestinian encampment, a few University of Virginia professors tried to deescalate the standoff and recorded their conversation with the university police chief, Tim Longo.
The Times agreed to blur the faces of faculty who had concerns about their job security. Protesters had refused to engage with the university. So a handful of professors stepped in to be intermediaries.
This, at times, frustrated administrators who told The Times the process required a leap of faith. "We basically took shifts, two-hour shifts being here. We had these yellow armbands that we wore to distinguish that we were faculty liaison.
And our job really was just to communicate between the administration, the police and the students." Hours later, Professors Walter Heinecke and Mark Sicoli, who documented the incident on his phone, approached the police chief .
