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Patriot Act At SFSU: Administration Demands Secret Meetings To Threaten Students
reposted from ucbstopthewar [at] yahoogroups.com
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
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
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Comments
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I am a graduate of SFSU. The university has become a national disgrace due to the endless harrassment of Jewish students on campus. Students Against War, yet another Leftist group, is guilty of intimidation and harrassment. Just because YOU don't like what someone is saying does not give YOU the right to shut them up. Those recruiters have every right to be on campus, whether SAW likes it or not. And the students who are interested in hearing what the recruiters have to say are having THEIR rights violated by the thugs at SAW. It's time for the brown shirt tactics to end.
"Karl R."?
Great name to use when trying to smear a group that opposes the war as being antiSemitic when you have no evidence.
Great name to use when trying to smear a group that opposes the war as being antiSemitic when you have no evidence.
The students have every right to protest the presence of military recruiters as well as do the outreach to other students to educate them to understand the history of military recruitment...and if that results in a majority of students who don't want the military on their campus, so be it. I have no desire to see the military on our campus....
Everyone reading this article should call, write or fax TODAY to demand that the charges be dropped or we will have a Labor/Student Strike in the fall, as we had in 1968 in support of the fight against racism and for the black student demands.
As to the secrecy issue, California law does not allow for such secret hearings. I am sure your lawyers know exactly what the law is, but we do have sunshine laws in California and this is a public school run by the State of Califorina.
I also urge everyone who can to appear at the San Francisco State University administration office at 1600 Holloway at 19th Avenue the week of April 4, 2005. Whoever has the date and time of these hearings, please post it on this website. This is a taxpayer funded public institution and we have a right and duty to be there to show support for these outstanding students who clearly want money for schools, not for war.
When you call the SF State Administration to demand all charges be dropped and these suspension hearings be cancelled, be sure to tell them that when (not if) we have a labor student strike this fall in support of any students who are suspended and in opposition to the military on campus, the draft will be in full force as it is due to be implemented on March 31, 2005, with full implementation on June 15, 2005, and every male student ages 18 through 25 will be subject to the draft, causing the whole campus to be in an uproar!
To all the students who have been attacked with this fascist secret hearing suspension, rest assured that most of the 7 million people in the Bay Area are with you and we will support a labor student strike if you are suspended with our bodies on the picket line and with our financial resources. You are, after all, our political sons and daughters, and we are not only very proud of all of you, we offer both our political commitment and our hugs and kisses to everyone one of you.
The labor unions in this area are all on record in oppositon to the war in Iraq and are all strong supporters of the gay liberation movement. There is always a labor contingent, supported by the labor unions, in the annual Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco. And of course, labor is committed to education, in particular, to education in the public schools, an achievement of labor that clearly benefits the workingclass.
To the other members of the Generation of 1968: If a labor student strike becomes necessary, we will not settle for anything less than taking over the university and running it ourselves with all generations participating. It is time to go for the gold.
As to the secrecy issue, California law does not allow for such secret hearings. I am sure your lawyers know exactly what the law is, but we do have sunshine laws in California and this is a public school run by the State of Califorina.
I also urge everyone who can to appear at the San Francisco State University administration office at 1600 Holloway at 19th Avenue the week of April 4, 2005. Whoever has the date and time of these hearings, please post it on this website. This is a taxpayer funded public institution and we have a right and duty to be there to show support for these outstanding students who clearly want money for schools, not for war.
When you call the SF State Administration to demand all charges be dropped and these suspension hearings be cancelled, be sure to tell them that when (not if) we have a labor student strike this fall in support of any students who are suspended and in opposition to the military on campus, the draft will be in full force as it is due to be implemented on March 31, 2005, with full implementation on June 15, 2005, and every male student ages 18 through 25 will be subject to the draft, causing the whole campus to be in an uproar!
To all the students who have been attacked with this fascist secret hearing suspension, rest assured that most of the 7 million people in the Bay Area are with you and we will support a labor student strike if you are suspended with our bodies on the picket line and with our financial resources. You are, after all, our political sons and daughters, and we are not only very proud of all of you, we offer both our political commitment and our hugs and kisses to everyone one of you.
The labor unions in this area are all on record in oppositon to the war in Iraq and are all strong supporters of the gay liberation movement. There is always a labor contingent, supported by the labor unions, in the annual Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco. And of course, labor is committed to education, in particular, to education in the public schools, an achievement of labor that clearly benefits the workingclass.
To the other members of the Generation of 1968: If a labor student strike becomes necessary, we will not settle for anything less than taking over the university and running it ourselves with all generations participating. It is time to go for the gold.
What if a student wants to talk to the recruiters and is turned away for being homosexual? There is no defense for this. It is against the discrimination policy of the school.
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