Patriot Act At SFSU: Administration Demands Secret Meetings To Threaten Students

On Wednesday, March 9th, students from New York to San Francisco rallied to protest military recruiters on their campuses. The students were expressing their outrage at the military's anti-gay "don't ask, don't tell" policy, the diversion of federal funding away from education into military spending, and the war in Iraq. At San Francisco State University, the administration has responded with police action and secret meetings.

At SFSU over 150 students joined Students Against War -- the school's Campus Antiwar Network chapter -- and other groups to protest Air Force recruiters and Army Corps of Engineers attending a school sponsored career fair. The crowd flooded the fair, surrounding their tables and chanting. When Air Force recruiters tried to wait out the protest, students staged a peaceful anti-war sit-in and teach-in.

POLICE INTIMIDATION AND UNIVERSITY THREATS

The following day, recruiters returned to the SFSU career fair. As soon as two activists entered the career fair, eight police officers forcibly removed them from their own student center, pushing them and twisting one activist's arm.

When the other activist asked why she was being forced to leave, she was pushed into a doorway, told she was causing a fire hazard by standing there, and then kicked out of the building.

A number of members of Students Against War have received official notices of appointment from the Coordinator of Judicial Affairs dated March 18, 2005. The letters state that the administration has received a complaint from the Chief of Public Safety and that each student must meet individually with Judicial Affairs the week of April 4th. The letter specifically states that the meetings are confidential and none of the students have been informed of nature of the charges against them. Failure to respond the summons may jeopardize the student's status at San Francisco State University. Disciplinary action by the administration could result in probation, suspension or expulsion from the university.

The university demanding secret meetings with students is unacceptable. The actions of the police and the San Francisco State administration are a blatant attempt to stifle dissent and create a climate of intimidation. The administration is purposely singling out the leading organizers of the student antiwar movement on campus to prosecute.

San Francisco State University should be ashamed that they are a shell for the US military. They undermine their own anti-discrimination policies and commitments to diversity by allowing a racist, sexist and anti-gay institution to recruit on campus. When the administration refuses to defend it own policies, students are forced to be the moral backbone of the university. The students, who participated in the March 9th demonstration, where defending their classmates and refusing to let one more person become cannon fodder in an illegal war.

These attacks are an attempt to go after one of the leading campuses in the growing counter recruitment movement around the country. If they can punish students at San Francisco State for protesting, it will be easier to arrest, sanction and intimidate students on other campuses.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

We ask the public to speak-out against the administration's plans to limit free speech rights, and demand that no sanctions be placed on students that helped to plan the March 9th protest. Please contact:

Robert A. Corrigan, SFSU President
Phone: (415) 338-1381, Fax: (415) 338-6210
Email: corrigan [at] sfsu.edu
please CC your email to: cansfsu [at] hotmail.com

Penny Saffold, SFSU Vice President/Dean of Students
Phone: (415) 338-2032, Fax: (415) 338-0900
Email: psaffold [at] sfsu.edu
please CC your email to: cansfsu [at] hotmail.com

Also, please sign our online petition at
http://www.petitiononline.com/sfsu/petition.html/

For more information about the March 9th protest:
http://xpress.sfsu.edu/archives/breaking/003099.html
http://www.insidebayarea.com/localnews/ci_2603424
http://kpix.dayport.com/launcher/4122/?tf=video_player.tpl

Watch a video of the protest at
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/collegenotcombat.mov.

We urgently need your help. Please lend your support to anti-war student
activists and activists who are fighting the militarization of our schools by
letting the administration know that their actions are not supported by
members of the community, students, alumni, faculty, and staff.

Sincerely,
Students Against War
cansfsu [at] hotmail.com