Line 3 protest shuts down McCarthy Lecture

The 15th annual Eugene J. McCarthy Lecture was abruptly cancelled mid-lecture after Sen. Tina Smith was interrupted twice by members of the audience protesting the construction of Line 3, a project replacing an existing oil delivery pipeline in the northern half of the state.

“She was only about three minutes into her talk. She had just finished thanking the McCarthy Center organizers. She had acknowledged the alums that work on her staff, and had just begun to say something about how she grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico when the first [disruptor] stood up and said, ‘Why won’t you stop line 3?’” said Jim Read, political science professor, who attended the Oct. 14 event. “He didn’t sit down, he continued shouting… as soon as security came and removed him, at least three other people stood up and started doing the same thing.”

The lecture, which was held in the Humphrey Auditorium at SJU, was supposed to take the format of a panel discussion, with junior Sydney Richter and political science professor Claire Haeg fielding audience questions via a web link. Each audience member was allowed one question and it was expected that Sen. Smith would then address the most popular issues represented in those submissions.

The first disruptor challenged Sen. Smith on Line 3 before leaving of their own accord following the crowd’s reaction to their interruption and Sen. Smith’s apparent un-willingness to retake the podium.

Shortly after Sen. Smith resumed her introduction, three disruptors spread throughout the auditorium rose and began to chant, “stop Line 3.”

Members of the crowd began angrily shouting at the disruptors to leave the auditorium, at which point it became clear that the event had been significantly disrupted.

Attendees were told to leave the auditorium after Life Safety and Stearns County Sheriff ’s Deputies removed the individuals responsible for the second disruption.

This was in accordance with a plan formulated by McCarthy Center staff, officials responsible for Sen. Smith’s safety and the Senator’s own staff.

“The key players that needed to be involved met with Sen. Smith’s staff on several occasions prior to the event. We talked about different scenarios and what may or may not happen in the case of a disruption,” said Matt Lindstrom, director of the McCarthy Center.

“The plan was after two disruptions she would have to be escorted out for her own safety, for the safety of other people like [Haeg] and I who were on stage. Those were just the best practices,” Richter said.

Campus officials, including Lindstrom, remain insistent that none of the disruptors responsible for forcing Sen. Smith off the stage were CSB/SJU students. At the time of publication, The Record is unable to confirm the validity of this narrative.

Members of the Climate Justice Club applied for and received a permit from Life Safety to stage a peaceful protest directly outside the Humphrey Auditorium until 7:30 p.m., which roughly coincided with the time Sen. Smith began speaking.

“We planned to meet at the Abbey and then go over the regulations, so we talked to anyone who was there initially about the regulations for the permit and then we headed over to the spot [Life Safety] had marked off for us,” said Valerie Doze, Climate Justice Club board member. “We held signs and did peaceful chanting. We had information and flyers on Line 3 that we had gotten approved.”

Members of the Climate Justice Club engaged in the protest directly outside the auditorium, which at this point had exceeded the permitted time, were angrily confronted by audience members streaming from the event. The audience members confronting the Climate Justice Club protestors appeared to be significantly older than conventional college age students.

The Climate Justice Club put out a statement on social media disavowing the tactics used by the disruptors who forced Sen. Smith off the stage, but board members remained honest about their lack of knowledge regarding the identities of those disruptors.

“I didn’t recognize them. They didn’t look like any student I had seen, but I don’t know,” Doze said. “I would say definitely the board I’m sure [was not involved]. We have a really large club and the protest we organized was open to the whole student body.”

After the event, the McCarthy Center put out a statement on social media expressing their disappointment with the lack of constructive dialogue at the lecture. A series of arguments and discussions between activists, students and other CSB/SJU community members ensued in the comments.

“It’s mob behavior in that they believe they have freedom of speech but other people don’t. It’s mob behavior in that they’ve shown that they are not bound by any rules,” Read said. “In our democracy, people disagree deeply, and part of what a democracy has to do is to channel those deep disagreements into peaceful votes.”