In a video posted to the Students for a Democratic Society’s (SDS) Instagram account on Oct. 31, the group defended themselves from accusations that they held faculty members hostage during their occupation of Morrill Hall.

After SDS’s occupation of Morrill Hall on Oct. 21, administrators from the University of Minnesota claimed the group held staff in the building wrongfully. In the post, SDS showed protesters offering to guide staff out of the building. Some faculty in Morrill Hall said they felt unsafe during the occupation.

In the video, one unidentified staff member asked if SDS was kidnapping them, to which protesters said no.

“University of Minnesota administration has been lying, saying that staff inside Halimy (Morrill) Hall were not allowed to leave, which is being used as a justification for placing students on interim suspension, barring them from attending class and evicting them from student housing,” the caption read. “A second video has been brought forward by an anonymous source proving that this is a lie.”

SDS member Rowan Lange said they were disappointed with the administration’s response to the occupation.

“We are upset that Cunningham continues to say that her staff were held hostage, while we have video evidence of that being false and the staff were free to leave,” Lange said. “The fact that she has yet to make an official statement rescinding the lies she has said is frustrating.”

While Cunningham has not said the Morrill Hall staff were held hostage by protestors, many staff members felt unsafe during the occupation, a University spokesperson said.

When asked about the video, a University spokesperson said the video does not portray the full picture of the occupation.

“It’s important to recognize that a single video does not tell the whole story,” the spokesperson said in a statement to the Minnesota Daily. “Many staff members present at Morrill Hall last Monday had different experiences with masked protesters who forcibly entered their office spaces. Most reported that they could not move through the building freely, and some felt trapped or were unable to immediately leave for a variety of reasons.”

The spokesperson added they were not aware of any official statements referring to the staff members involved as hostages. They added that they were inside Morrill Hall when protesters entered the building.

“I was working in my office last Monday when masked people smashed an interior window to gain access to the locked office suite I work in,” the spokesperson said in the statement. “I heard the sound of shattered glass raining down onto the floor and watched as people ran into our offices. I quickly went the opposite direction to leave the building, but when I tried to exit the nearest exterior doors, I was told I couldn’t leave the way I was trying to leave. Only later was I told there was a single available exit.”

This story was originally published on Minnesota Daily on November 6, 2024.