Roughly three dozen tour guides and 150 student supporters picketed on Waterman Street Friday afternoon in support of Janek Schaller ’24, a tour coordinator demoted from his role after making comments on a staff Slack channel.
Schaller was demoted from his position and prohibited from giving active tours last month after sending a Slack message in the channel #fun-tour-guides on Feb. 2, the first day of a week-long hunger strike in support of a divestment resolution.
In the message, Schaller explained plans from divestment demonstrators to disrupt tours and said he “cooperated with other organizers” to allow for “tour disruptions to happen in a safe and controlled manner.” Schaller verbally resigned four days later.
The Slack message sent by Janek Schaller '24 to tour guides.
Logan Powell, Brown’s associate provost for enrollment and dean of undergraduate admission, said he cannot comment on “individual, confidential employment matters.”
"We are supportive of all of our tour guides and want to provide them with the time, space and safety they need in their roles as campus ambassadors,” he wrote. “We are committed to a positive and productive partnership with the tour guides within the framework of University values and policies.”
Organizers announced the Friday demonstration at the end of a rally for International Working Women’s Day that was hosted by the Graduate Labor Organization’s Palestine Solidarity Caucus on the Main Green at noon.
Up until less than an hour before the rally, demonstrators had intended to initiate a strike in support of an unfair labor practice complaint that Schaller submitted to a federal mediator last week. According to a March 7 press release by organizers, “a majority of Brown University student tour guides” — 37 of the 71 actively on payroll — were originally planning to participate in the strike, which would have involved a picket on Waterman St from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily during the work week.
Organizers spent weeks gauging support among tour guides before reaching a “critical mass” of 37 tour guides committing to strike on Feb. 27.
But organizers decided to postpone the strike, instead waiting for a town hall hosted by the Admissions Office on Thursday March 7, according to Caroline Sassan ’24, one of the organizing tour guides.
After the town hall, which Powell described at "honest and thoughtful," the organizers reached out to the individuals who had previously committed to a strike, but were unable to confirm that they still had majority support, according to tour guide John Bellaire ‘25.
"The floor was open to discuss any topic, and we expressed our commitment to listen, build community, and chart a clear path forward," Powell wrote in an email to The Herald describing the town hall. "Tour guides are faced with a number of difficult questions and we spent considerable time discussing how to be honest, authentic and positive. As campus ambassadors, we place a great deal of trust in the tour guides and they do a wonderful job representing Brown.”
The demonstrating tour guides called on the Office of College Admissions, the department that oversees campus tours, to reinstate Schaller to his former role. They also alleged that dismissing him for his comments on Slack constitutes an unfair labor practice.
In a Feb. 8 email shared by organizers and reviewed by The Herald, Powell wrote to Schaller that his Slack message “caused considerable distress” and that the Admissions Office “made the decision to shift your tour coordinator duties to other staff in College Admission.” In his email to Schaller, Powell also acknowledged that Schaller had verbally resigned on Feb. 6.
In a March 4 letter addressed to Powell and the Admissions Office, demonstrators also demanded that the Admissions Office commit to a meeting by March 22 in order to conduct “collective negotiations on codified policy regarding free speech protections.”
The demand follows an email from the Admissions Office sent Feb. 23 to tour guides outlining guidelines for conduct during tours.
In the email, which was reviewed by The Herald, a representative from the Admissions Office wrote that “sharing your individualized negative experiences is not part of the mission or purpose of the tours.” The letter also called on the Admissions Office to revoke this statement.
Demonstrators also called on the University to bring to the Corporation a 2020 ACCRIP report which recommended Brown divest from companies that facilitate the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory,” or a revised “critical edition” created by the campus group Brown Divest Coalition.
President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 previously declined to present the report directly to the Brown Corporation, instead directing protestors to the Advisory Committee on University Resource Management, which considers divestment proposals. Paxson pledged to “fast track” the Brown Divest Coalition’s proposal in an interview with The Herald last month.
For Sassan, participating in the demonstration is part of her role as a campus ambassador. “If you want us to keep talking about this school, we won’t do that in a very one-sided way,” she said. “You’re going to have to listen to what we have to say, too.”
During the demonstration, Schaller said he’ll “never give another” tour. For him, tour guides should share “unvarnished truth for the benefit of prospective students.”
The rally was supported by the Graduate Labor Organization, Teaching Assistants Labor Organization, Palestine Solidarity Caucus, Third World Labor Organization and Brown Divest Coalition.
This story was updated on March 8 at 6:13 p.m. with additional comment.
Dana Richie is a senior staff writer for Arts and Culture and the photo chief. She enjoys using multiple forms of media to capture peoples’ stories and quirks. In her free time, she loves knitting, learning about local history and playing ultimate frisbee.
