Open Letter to Chancellor Block
In the predawn darkness this past Friday, a large contingent of police arrived on campus to remove a group of students who were peacefully protesting tuition increases, student loan debt, and the collapse of public funding for the University of California. In an act of civil disobedience, 14 students chose to ignore an order to disperse and were arrested.
Their crime, formally, was to violate a campus policy against camping. But in reality they were arrested for engaging in political speech at a time and in a manner that did not please the campus administration. For this political action, they may face disciplinary proceedings.
As UCLA faculty we call on you, to drop any charges that may be pending against these students. The freedom to debate controversial topics is at the core of university life. The students occupying Wilson Plaza on Thursday night were not posing a health or safety risk. They were not disrupting the educational mission of the university. They were holding ongoing discussions—what they call a “general assembly”—to share information and experiences, and decide together how to face the future.
So far UCLA has avoided the bitter conflicts between campus police and students that we have seen at Berkeley and Davis. However, you will recall that in 2009 UCLA Police engaged in questionable use of force that injured students and triggered an internal review. While different people may have different perceptions of the Review’s conclusions about the use of force in 2009, no one would disagree with their reaffirmation that “[w]hen members of the university community peaceably assemble to challenge some aspect of University governance, their rights to advocacy must be respected.” (44)
We have a chance to find another path at UCLA. As UCLA’s own “Principles of Community” declare, “We are committed to ensuring freedom of expression and dialogue, in a respectful and civil manner, on the spectrum of views held by our varied and diverse campus communities.” As anyone visiting the protest site can attest, the protesters were upholding their end of this charge—far better than we see in most of the political debate in this country. To stifle their voice would shortchange the future. At both Davis and Berkeley, campus police have deployed deplorable violence and injured students and faculty. On both campuses, police introduced violence while students, staff, and faculty were engaged in peaceable protest. We call on you to ensure that UCLA does not follow in their footsteps and fail to uphold the principles for which the University stands.
We urge you to drop all charges and disciplinary proceedings against the students arrested in Wilson Plaza, and also to respect students’ rights to protest the pressing issues of our political, social, and educational life.
Tobias Higbie Associate Professor of History
Michael Meranze, Professor of History
Jenny Sharpe, Professor of English and Women’s Studies
Michelle Clayton, Assoc Prof Comp Lit & Spanish & Portuguese
Chris Looby, Professor English
Nouri Gana, Assoc Prof Comparative Literature
Jan de Leeuw; Distinguished Professor and Chair, UCLA Department of Statistics
Joseph Bristow, Professor English
Saree Makdisi, Professor English
Steven Nelson, Associate Professor of African and African American Art History
Carole H. Browner, Professor Anthropology
Jeffrey Prager, Professor of Sociology
Jessica R. Cattelino, Associate Professor of Anthropology
Jack Chen, Associate Professor Asian Languages & Cultures
David Delgado Shorter, Associate Professor World Arts & Cultures
Noah Zatz, Professor of Law
Katherine King, Professor Comparative Literature
Matthew Fischer, Assistant Professor English
Gerry A. Hale, Emeritus professor, Geography Department
Peter McLaren, Professor, Graduate school of Education and Information Studies
Michael Cooperson, Associate Professor NELC
Andrea Goldman, Assistant Professor History
George Baker, Associate Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art
Allen F. Roberts, World Arts & Cultures/Dance
Susan Curtiss, Professor Emeritus, Linguistics
Henry A. Hespenheide, Professor Emeritus of Ecology
Kathleen A. McHugh, Professor, Department of English, Cinema and Media Studies Program
Valerie Matsumoto, Professor, History and Asian American Studies
Sondra Hale, Professor, Anthropology and Women’s Studies
Elizabeth DeLoughrey, Associate Professor, English
Stephen Yenser, Distinguished Professor, Department of English
Robert Brenner, Professor of History
Vinay Lal, Associate Professor of History
Sharon Traweek, Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and History
Susan Slyomovics, Professor of Anthropology and Near Eastern Languages & Cultures
Susan L. Foster, Distinguished Professor, Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance
Teofilo Ruiz, Professor of History, Spanish & Portuguese
Rafael Perez-Torres, Professor of English
Jason Throop, Associate Professor, Anthropology
Kenneth L. Karst, Price Professor of Law Emeritus
Susan Plann, Professor of Applied Linguistics and Spanish & Portuguese
Alex Purves, Associate Professor of Classics
Helen Deutsch, Professor of English
Yogita Goyal, Associate Professor of English
Michael Salman, Associate Professor of History
Jan Reiff, Associate Professor of History
Chris Tilly, Professor of Urban Planning
Grace Hong, Associate Professor Women’s Studies and Asian American Studies
Lowell Gallagher, Associate Professor English
Arthur Little, Associate Professor English
Carollee Howes, Professor Education
A. J. Julius, Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Robin Lauren Derby, Associate Professor of History
Jonathan H. Grossman, Associate Professor of English
Robert N. Watson, Distinguished Professor of English
Andrew Apter, Professor of History & Anthropology
Calvin Normore, Professor of Philosophy
Victor Bascara, Associate Professor of Asian American Studies
Ching Kwan Lee, Professor of Sociology
Francoise Lionnet, Professor of French and Francophone Studies
John McCumber, Professor of Germanic Languages
Juliet Williams, Associate Professor of Women’s Studies
Jorge Marturano, Assistant Professor of Spanish and Portuguese
Peter Lunenfeld, Professor of Design Media Arts
Ruben Hernandez-Leon, Associate Professor of Sociology
Douglas Kellner, George F. Kneller Chair in the Philosophy of Education
Héctor Calderón, Professor, Spanish and Portuguese
Sandra Harding, Professor of Education
Barbara Fuchs, Professor of English and Spanish and Portuguese
Michael Chwe, Associate Professor, Political Science
Michelle Erai, Assistant Prof. Women’s Studies
Felicity Nussbaum, Professor of English
Mishuana Goeman, Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies
Sherry Ortner, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology
Anurima Banerji, Assistant Professor, Department of World Arts and Cultures
Laure Murat, Associate Professor of French & Francophone Studies
Shane Butler, Professor of Classics
Elizabeth Upton, Assistant Professor of Musicology
Sorin Popa, Professor of Mathematics
Elizabeth Marchant, Associate Professor of Women’s Studies
King-Kok Cheung, Professor of English and AsianAmStudies
Zrinka Stahuljak, Associate Professor of French & Francophone Studies
James Gelvin, Professor of History
David N. Myers, Professor of History
John Dagenais, Professor of Spanish and Portuguese
Timothy Taylor, Professor of Ethnomusicology/Musicology
Gary Blasi, Professor of Law
Barbara Herman, Professor of Philosophy
Joanna Schwartz, Acting Professor of Law
Thu-huong Nguyen-vo, Associate Professor, Asian Languages and Cultures and Asian American Studies
Namhee Lee, Associate Professor of Asian Languages & Cultures
John Carriero, Professor of Philosophy
Brian Kim Stefans, Assistant Professor of English
George Dutton, Associate Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures
Samuel Cumming, Assistant Professor of Philosophy & Law
Sheldon Smith, Associate Professor of Philosophy
Gil Hochberg, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature
Mark Sawyer Professor of Political Science
Karen Brodkin, Professor Emerita of Anthropology and Women’s Studies
Andrea Fraser, Professor of Art
Chon Noriega, Professor of Film, Television, and Digital Media
Peter Peterson, Professor of Mathematics
Chris Chism, Associate Professor of English
Victoria Marks, Professor, World Arts and Cultures|Dance
Kathleen L.Komar, Professor of Comparative Literature & German
Richard Elman, Professor of Mathematics
John Papadopoulos, Professor of Classics
Dana Cuff, Professor, Department of Architecture and Urban Design
Natasha Heller, Assistant Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures
Carlos Alberto Torres, Professor of Social Sciences and Comparative Education
César J. Ayala Professor of Sociology
Ghislaine Lydon, Associate Professor in History
Cameron Campbell, Professor of Sociology
William Roy, Professor of Sociology
Jerome Rabow, Prof. Emeritus, Sociology
Nicky Hart, Professor of Sociology
Darnell M. Hunt, Professor of Sociology
Phillip Bonacich, Department of Sociology
Stefan Timmermans, Professor of Sociology
Miguel M. Unzueta, Assistant Professor, Anderson-HROB
Alan Garfinkel, Professor of Medicine
Patricia Gandara, Professor of Education
Joel F. Handler, Professor, UCLA School of Law
Michael Heim, Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures/Comparative Literature
David Lopez, Professor Emeritus of Sociology
Gail Kligman, Professor of Sociology
Maylei Blackwell, Assistant Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies
David Gieseker, Professor of Mathematics
Lyle F. Bachman, Professor, Department of Applied Linguistics
Pamela Munro, Distinguished Professor of Linguistics
Aisha Finch, Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies and Afro-American Studies
Tova Brown, Assistant Adjunct Professor of Mathematics
James Ralston, Professor of Mathematics
Walter Ponce, Professor of Music
Joshua Foa Dienstag, Professor of Political Science
Olga T. Yokoyama, Professor Department of Applied Linguistics
Abel Valenzuela Jr., Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies
Catherine Opie, Professor of Art
Richard J Jackson, Professor of Environmental Health Science
Steven P. Wallace, Professor, Department of Community Health Sciences
Inwon C. Kim, Associate Professor of Mathematics
Otto Santa Ana, Associate Professor Department of Chicana/o Studies
Dwight W. Read, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology
Kelly Lytle Hernandez, Associate Professor of History
Christopher Erickson, Professor of Management
Maia Young, Assoc Prof of Human Resources and Organizational Behavior, Anderson School of Management
Jody Kreiman, Professor of Surgery
Michael J. B. Allen, Distinguished Professor of English
Stephen Cederbaum, M.D. Professor Emeritus, Psychiatry, Pediatrics and Human Genetics
Ali Behdad, Professor of English and Comparative Literature
