So much for the University of Washington stepping up on the issue of homelessness: UW President Mark Emmert has nixed the idea of Tent City 3 staying a month or so on campus, telling a group of students in an e-mail yesterday that "a tent city... would further complicate the business of the University."
A group of social work students that now call themselves Students for Civic Engagement on Homelessness started advocating for the tent city in January. They conducted a campus survey, hosted a public forum with residents of Tent City 3 in April and formally asked Emmert on June 12 to form a planning committee to bring the tent city to campus. Students and faculty passed resolutions backing the idea.
Emmert, however, seems to have been more impressed by an online campaign by some students that smeared Tent City 3's 100 residents with the tar of crime and sexual predation -- when, in fact, police and homeowners say crime has gone down in neighborhoods where Tent City 3 has resided.
"I have received comments both supporting and opposing the idea," Emmert said in his letter to the student group. "Though a case can be made for doing so, I have decided the University is not the right place to host a Tent City"-- and would not, as the proponents argued, aid in student education.
"While I believe working to understand homelessness is part of the University's core mission," Emmert wrote, "I do not believe that setting up a community for homeless persons on campus, however temporary, is or should be part of that mission."
In a news release sent out this afternoon, Abbey Pearl, president of Students for Civic Engagement on Homelessness, called the decision disappointing, but said the group isn't giving up. It plans to continue educating students on homelessness this fall in an art exhibit and another teach-in event.
"Although we received an unfavorable response this time," Pearl said, "it does not mean that the issue or even the idea to host a tent city goes away."