Ellington

NEWS BRIEF

After months of planning and preparation, the group attempting to bring Tent City 3 to campus received news from President Emmert on Wednesday that their request to host the homeless encampment had been denied.

The Students for Civic Engagement on Homelessness is a group that was established to continue a proposal made by students in the “Community Development for Health” class at the University. The initiative was intended to bring Tent City 3, a homeless encampment of up to 100 individuals, to campus for a period of up to 90 days. The request to host the encampment was sent to President Emmert June 12, and was rejected Wednesday afternoon.

The Associated Students of the University of Washington, the Graduate and Professional Student Senate and the Faculty Senate passed resolutions in support of hosting Tent City 3 earlier this year. While President Emmert acknowledged this support, he heard arguments from the opposition as well.

His e-mailed letter, stamped 2:30 p.m. on July 29, states, "I have reviewed your proposal for the University of Washington to host a tent city for people experiencing homelessness, along with the resolutions supporting the proposal from the ASUW, the GPSS, and the Faculty Senate. In addition, I have received comments both supporting and opposing the idea. 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 I am therefore denying the request.”

Abbey Pearl, president of Students for Civic Engagement on Homelessness, the group responsible for promoting Tent City 3 on the UW campus, expressed her thoughts following the letter.

"It is very disappointing that the president has such little faith in the students, faculty, and staff of the University of Washington," she said. "Although the campus is a complex and diverse place, I believe the individuals who converge on the campus every day have the potential to see past the differences in others, can overcome the complexity of the situation and embrace the challenge of hosting Tent City 3. In doing so, I believe these stakeholders would be enriched by the experience."

According to the Students for Civic Engagement on Homelessness, the president cited concerns with management of Tent City 3 in his decision to deny the proposal.

“The University is a diverse community of 60,000 people who converge on our relatively compact campus every day,” Emmert said in his letter. “To introduce a tent city into this mix would compound the complexity of our daily activity in ways that would further complicate the business of the University.”

Tent City 3’s open door policy has raised concerns regarding how the lives of the residents would be impacted by the large student population of the University if the school hosted the encampment. Seattle University was the last collegiate institution to host Tent City 3, with a student body roughly six times smaller than the UW.

“In our meetings with the administration they asked a few questions they felt were not adequately addressed in the initial report,” said Hunter Marshall, the treasurer of the student group, in a press release. “We were in the process of answering these questions and adding them to the report when we received this disheartening response.”

While the student group is disappointed by the setback, the members intend to continue educating the University community about homelessness this coming fall with a teach-in event and an art exhibit.

“Although we received an unfavorable response at this time, it does not mean that the issue or even the idea to host a tent city goes away,” Pearl said.

Reach The Daily news staff at news@dailyuw.com