80 Minutes: CUNY Public Safety and the Detainment of Three Students

By Fiona Fahey

On Wednesday, April 15, three Hunter College undergraduates found themselves confined to a standard-sized holding cell in City College’s Wingate Hall. Members of the City University of New York (CUNY) Internationalist Clubs, the students were tabling on CCNY’s campus in hopes of collecting signatures for the PSC-CUNY — a faculty and staff union — petition calling for the creation of Immigrant Student Success Centers on all CUNY campuses. CUNY Public Safety officers then approached the table with threats of arrest. After an exchange, the students were escorted to the basement of Wingate Hall to receive summonses. The trio were then padded down, stripped of their belongings, and placed behind bars for nearly 80 minutes. This incident is the latest in a series of controversial displays of authority and alleged student suppression by security officials at CCNY. As nationwide debate surrounding political free speech on college campuses persists, CUNY students continue to question the efficiency, power and transparency of the borough-defying university system’s Department of Public Safety. 

The CUNY Department of Public Safety describe themselves as an esteemed security personnel that “takes a proactive approach to guarding the well-being of [the CUNY-wide] community.” Established in 1992, the department now employs nearly 430 officers and has a long-standing history of serving New Yorkers during major crises, such as Hurricane Sandy and the COVID-19 pandemic. Public Safety says that they are committed to honoring  “a partnership between public safety officers and the community whom [they] serve,” but some members of CUNY’s student body and faculty collective feel that the department’s honorable reputation and intention is of a much less noble nature. 

In the wake of the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel, New York City witnessed a surge in the frequency and intensity of student-led pro-Palestinian demonstrations across the five boroughs. With an accumulative student population of 247,000, CUNY campuses were chief  sites for encampments, walk-outs and occupations. On April 30, 2024, 170 students were arrested at CCNY in the midst of a five-day encampment after hundreds of protestors from a Columbia University demonstration arrived at the campus alongside CUNY Public Safety officials and police officers. CUNY is said to have increased the presence of Public Safety officers at each of their twenty six institutions in the aftermath of the incident.

Hunter College sophomore Izzy Balashov feels that this enhanced surveillance has greatly affected the exhibition of free speech on CUNY campuses. A passionate activist and active member of the CUNY Internationalist Clubs, Balashov was one of the three students searched and detained by CUNY Public Safety officers on April 15.

That afternoon, the trio set up a table alongside the CCNY Quad on Convent Avenue to compile signatures for PSC-CUNY’s petition demanding the establishment of Immigrant Student Success Centers — a resource providing active support for immigrant students — on all twenty six CUNY campuses. Balashov tells us that the clubs often table at CUNY campuses to try and speak with students about ongoing political issues. While this campus engagement is consistent, he says, CUNY Public Safety’s response is not.

“What Public Safety tells us depends on the day,” Balashov explains. “One day, the campus sidewalk will be off-limits. Another day, it'll be perfectly fine.”

Public Safety officers told the club members that they were trespassing on campus property and needed to move their table further down the street. One officer, Balashov claims, was playing with a pair of handcuffs and threatened the trio with arrest. When asked to specify exactly which policies were being broken, the officers said that the table was a direct violation of the campus’ club hours. Soon thereafter, a sergeant arrived and escorted the three students to Wingate Hall to be served summonses. 

The question as to whether or not the nearly 0.3 mile stretch of Convent Avenue running through CCNY’s campus is private property is a complicated one. The college defines itself as a “public institution with a public purpose” and allows pedestrians and cars to pass through the campus’ central transportation artery on a daily basis. 

An adjunct associate history professor at Hunter College and dedicated member of PSC-CUNY’s Immigrant Solidarity Working Group (ISWG), Sándor John, has tabled on Convent Avenue before and was once asked by CUNY Public Safety officers if he had acquired a permit to do so.

“People used to table on Convent Avenue all the time,” he tells us, “but now students are even threatened with arrest for handing out leaflets on Amsterdam Avenue.”

Despite receiving limited clarity on their specific violations, the three detained students were thoroughly searched and had their IDs confiscated before being placed in a holding cell in Wingate Hall for 80 minutes. Located in the corner of the recreational building’s basement, Balashov says that the cell was as real as those found in police stations, with a glass outer wall, vertical bars, and a steel bench. The three students sat and watched as Public Safety officers talked amongst themselves and ruffled through their personal belongings.

“It was definitely scary,” Balashov says of the experience. “I was worried about what they would do with the sheet of signatures we collected for the petition.”

Alongside this feeling of fear was a feverish sense of confusion. The existence of a functioning holding cell on CCNY’s campus was seemingly news to the institution’s student body. Questions began to swirl about the reasoning for this secrecy and the possibility that Wingate Hall’s holding cell was merely one of many across CUNY campuses. According to an anonymous source, even CCNY’s President Vincent Boudreau seemed unaware of the cell’s existence on campus. 

Each of the three detained students received two summonses upon their release: one for trespassing and one for loitering. If they ever came back to CCNY’s campus, they were warned, these legal forms would become criminal. 

It’s been radio silent since then, Balashov says, and the emotional experience combined with the administration’s silence on the matter made him feel like an outsider.

“The fact that [Public Safety] put us in a cell,” he tells us, “as though we were a danger to students, is shocking.”

Despite a crackdown on student activism, CUNY Public Safety faced significant backlash after failing to respond to a recent incident in which a social media personality entered CCNY’s campus wearing an “I Love ICE” t-shirt in an attempt to provoke reactions from passing students. In a video of the supposed social experiment, Public Safety officers tell the perpetrator that there is "absolutely nothing wrong” with what he is doing because it is “freedom of expression” before asking him to leave. Notably, they never threaten the man with arrest.

With tensions running high in the Middle East and ICE agents roaming the five boroughs, the political atmosphere of CUNY campuses has become increasingly charged. From anti-ICE rallies to continued pro-Palestinian protests, CUNY students and faculty alike have demonstrated an unshakable desire to be seen, heard and respected.

While the detainment of three students in a concealed holding cell on campus is shocking, some believe that a disregard for student voices and autonomy is business as usual for CUNY Public Safety. Professor Sándor John claims that CCNY’s campus has become a “mini police state” in the aftermath of the pro-Palestine encampment arrests on April 30, 2024, but believes that students seem more motivated to combat vocal suppression than ever before. 

“One of the great things about students is that they question things,” he says. “That’s something that the rulers of our society and those who do their bidding want to stop.”

Izzy Balashov shares this sentiment. As a student himself, he believes that there has been an "assault on universities” regarding free speech and political vocality. 

Although the 80 minutes he spent locked inside Wingate Hall’s holding cell inarguably altered his perception of student demonstrations at CCNY, Balashov says that he won’t surrender to what he believes are CUNY Public Safety’s attempts to push students into self-censorship. 

“I think it’s important that we don’t let them establish that precedent,” he concludes. “CCNY is not at all isolated from a broader political environment and students have a right to have a voice in that.”

“I think we need to press on.”

The Paper reached out to CCNY’s Department of Public Safety for a statement, but received no response. 

Fiona is a CCNY junior and native New Yorker who is majoring in Communications and Media Studies. Her dream is to work in a busy newsroom in the heart of Manhattan. She spends her spare time filling her ears with Irish music, showing her family members terrible films, and hanging around the five boroughs with her friends.