UC President Comments on UC-Irvine Incident

The Orange County chapter of the American Jewish Committee is circulating a message they received from University of California President Mark Yudoff apparently in response to a communication they had sent to him regarding the incident on February
8, when UCI Muslim Student Union members disrupted a speech by Israeli Amabassador Michael Oren. One of the persons on AJC's distribution list has forwarded it to me. (I do not know who "Larry" is.)


"Larry,

The conduct of the students was outrageous (they had promised earlier not to disrupt the speech), but Chancellor Drake and his colleagues handled the matter extremely well. The Chancellor remonstrated with those who stood up to disrupt (they interrupted seriatim), and all of those disrupting were arrested and also will
be subject to campus disciplinary policies. The speech was delayed by a half hour, but the Ambassador was able to finish his address. The Chancellor also issued a strong statement. It is ironic that the same Muslim students whose speech rights the Chancellor protected, despite the incendiary nature of many of the views expressed,
apparently don't think that those who have a different point of view have the freedom to express themselves on campus. Larry, you have my permission and encouragement to pass along my message to other members of the Jewish community."

Mark [Yudof]
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As one who was at the event, I am a little confused by one of President Yudoff's statements, specifically that the Chancellor issued a "strong statement". If he is referring to Chancellor Drake's written statement the next day, well, reasonable people can disagree whether calling the conduct "intolerable" represents a strong statement. If President Yudoff is referring to the two occasions, Drake took the microphone at the event and pleaded for civility, then I don't think it was strong at all. Apparently, the crowd didn't either as they nearly hooted him off the stage with cries of, "what are you going to do about it." Actually, it was Professor Mark Petracca who made the strong statements to the disrupters. He pulled no punches and was applauded by the crowd.

In addition, as I have stated previously, the local chapter of the AJC has been missing in action for a long time. Where was their outrage before last Monday night?

Already there is an organized effort to pressure the university into dropping charges and disciplinary actions against the offending students. It remains to be seen how the university will stand up to such pressure. It also remains to be seen if President Yudoff will support UCI should they decide to press ahead against the students involved.

There is plenty of embarrassment to go around.