Students protest against weapons manufacturer

Dozens of students rallied and marched outside the San José State Student Union to protest the university’s partnership with Lockheed Martin on Wednesday.

Lockheed Martin, an aerospace and weapons manufacturer, participates in career fairs and offers customized graduate programs through SJSU’s Extended Engineering Studies arm of the Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering, according to an EES webpage.

Last Wednesday, Sept. 10, members of Students for a Democratic Society SJSU held a similar “silent protest” outside the Student Union Ballroom against Lockheed Martin’s participation in the Business, Financial Services & Logistics Job & Internship Fair, according to Fight Back News.

SDS proceeded with Wednesday’s protest despite Lockheed Martin’s absence, according to a Sept. 10 Instagram post.

Participants of the protest ranged from community members to student organizations, including SJSU Students for Justice in Palestine, League of Filipino Students at SJSU, Freedom Road Socialist Organization and San José Against War.

Ethan Maruyama, an SJSU fourth-year kinesiology student and chair of  Students for a Democratic Society SJSU, said he hopes attendees of the fair will reconsider seeking employment at Lockheed Martin following the protest.

“Some people came up to us and told us that they support what we’re doing,” Maruyama said. “I think there’s a handful of engineering students who are awake to what’s going on in the world right now.”

Lockheed Martin contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense to supply missiles to the Israeli military, according to a Feb. 8 article by Reuters.

Following the protest, SDS posted footage of their interactions with administrators to the organization’s Instagram page. In the posts, Associate Vice President and Dean of Students Heather French and Vice President of Student Affairs Mari Fuentes-Martin are seen asking protesters to leave the Student Union.

“They kept issuing vague threats,” said John Duroyan, president of SDS. “They were like, ‘If you’re not going to move this protest outside, there will be consequences.’ But they didn’t really specify what those consequences were.”

Duroyan said he received an email from Student Conduct and Ethical Development requesting that he attend a conduct meeting for his club’s alleged violations of the Student Organization Code of Conduct at Wednesday’s protest. 

“It seems that they (university administration) are more concerned with enforcing these arbitrary TPM (Time, Place and Manner) rulings than actually addressing the fact that they’re participating in a genocide through their partnership with Lockheed Martin,” Duroyan said.

A Student for Democratic Society SJSU member who requested anonymity said the outdoor rally was less inhibited by the California State University’s Time, Place and Manner (TPM) policies than the indoor protest had been.

“There are rules about what you can do inside of the Student Union versus outside,” he said. “It’s a very different atmosphere in there. (Last Wednesday’s protest) was a lot more tense because the police and admin were constantly swarming around us, whereas out here, we were pretty much unbothered.”

The university’s latest revision to its campus-specific addendum to the California State University Systemwide TPM policy designates parts of the Student Union as “limited public,” according to the Aug. 7 addendum.

“Our demand has always been simple,” Duroyan said. “We want admin to fully sever ties with a war profiteer, a baby killer. We’re gonna keep raising it and we’re gonna keep pushing it until we get it met.”