ACADEMIC SENATE AT UCR URGES CHANCELLOR TO DROP CHARGES
AGAINST STUDENTS, URGE WAITING ON IMPLEMENTATION OF PROP 209
- PRESS RELEASE
- November 21,1997
- In the first measure of its kind since the passage of 209, the
Academic Senate of the University of California Riverside has sent a message
to Chancellor Raymond Orbach to hold off on the implementation of Proposition
209 and dismiss all charges against the twenty members of Student Coalition
for Justice who were arrested on November 11 during a sit in at the Administration
Building.
- On Wednesday, November 20 approximately 200 faculty members
of the Academic Senate of the University of California at Riverside met
in a room packed with faculty, about 150 students and other visitors to
pass these resolutions concerning Prop. 209 and the 20 students arrested.
By an overwhelming voice vote, the faculty voted to:l) advise Chancellor
Orbach and his administration to drop all criminal and university charges
against the student demonstrators. and 2) for the Chancellor to send to
UC President Atkinson the faculty resolution urging he "wait on implementation
of Prop 209 until all interested parties at UCR - administrators, faculty
and students- have had the opportunity to discuss thoroughly the implications
for academic programs, faculty hiring and admissions and to approve concrete
plans for its implementation. "
- With Chancellor Raymond Orbach sitting in the audience, several
speakers cited historical precedents of the civil rights movement and enjoined
the faculty to support the students. Ralph Crowder, chair of the Ethnic
Studies Department, referred to his own background in the civil rights movement
and spoke of the ongoing importance of social justice in education and the
development of young people as the leaders of the upcoming decades. Referring
to the duplicitous argument by 209 proponents that 209 favored equality
and a color blind society, he remarked that they want us to go back to the
so-called "color blind" decade of the 1950s. Motioning to the
packed room of the ethnically diverse UC student body, Crowder said he wanted
to be sure that in ten years he would still be able to see the diversity
of students that he saw before him.
- Steve Cullenberg, Associate Professor of the Department of Economics,
referred to the racially-charged context in which 209 was passed: the passage
of proposition 187, the rising anti-immigrant sentiment, and the Welfare
Reform Bill. Proposition 209, he stressed, was a "slap in the face"
to women and people of color and has already contributed to the lower number
of applications from people of color.
- Irvin Wall, Professor in the Department of History, personally
"embarrassed" by Atkinsons move, cited the "unwelcome politicization
of the University" by Governor Pete Wilson and the Board of Regents.
Referring to a wide-spread rumor that the Governor had told Chancellors
that any student demonstrators should be prosecuted, Wall urged that the
best way for Chancellor Orbach to refute this rumor was to ask the local
District attorney to drop the charges against the students. As was pointed
out, they had demonstrated peacefully and had damaged no property or person
in their action.
- Finally, student leaders Monica Ponce, president of MECHA, and
Gil Garcia addressed the assembly. Speaking briefly, both movingly expressed
their desire for justice and peaceful resolution, stressed that their actions
were part of a broader struggle by students for equality and diversity and
that they had acted out of moral conviction.
- Following the thunderous voice vote passing the resolution to
drop charges against the students, Sharon Salinger, Associate Professor
of History and Associate Dean of Student Affairs, presented the second proposal.
Salinger, citing the University's unseemly haste in announcing implementation
of Proposition 209 less than 24 hours after the election, argued that UC
should take an approach similar to the community college and state university
system and await the legal rulings on the bill. The resolution passed with
a loud affirmative vote. When the final voice vote was cast, a whoop of
excitement went up from both faculty and students. Faculty embraced each
other and smiles beamed across the room.
- The students are charged with "failure to disperse."
Student statements of the arrests contrast sharply with the account by Dave
Warren Executive Vice Chancellor at UCR Students claim they were follow
ing police orders, but were arrested anyway. No mention of police treatment
of students was mentioned, although students and faculty remain concerned
that the women arrested were all frisked by male police officers, that many
of those arrested had their shoes taken from them and several men were left
with neither shirts nor shoes in the chilly jail cells. Taunting by police
was also reported.
- Only one reference was made to the serious breech of confidence
of the arrested students files. This had occurred the day before when Jack
Chapel, Director of University Relations, announced on KUCR, the campus
radio station, that the students would receive letters of censure in their
files. As these letters are strictly confidential, the incident was an embarrassment
to Orbach's administration and opens the university up to a law suit should
any students choose to pursue it.
- The sit in by 20 students is part of a larger wave of demonstrations
by students across the UC campuses who are concerned about the effect of
Proposition 209 and stressed the need to keep the university a place of
diversity, sensitive to community needs, and resistant to political pressures
by ambitious politicians. Devra Weber, Associate Professor of History, said
"Twenty years ago women at UCLA formed "Women Against Baake"
to stress how women were adversely affected by attacks on affirmative action.
While it is distressing that the gains of women are being rolled back and
are again fighting for a right to be treated on equal footing with men,
it is heartening that the younger generation of male and female students
are again raising issues of justice and equality in the university."
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- Carl Gutierrez-Jones,
- Department of English
- University of California
- Santa Barbara, CA 93106
- E-mail: carlgj@humanitas.ucsb.edu