(Hat tip to Orange County Independent Task Force on Anti-Semitism)
Below is a joint statement by University of California President Mark Yudoff and the UC chancellors regarding recent incidents at UC campuses during the month of February.
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Feb. 26, 2010
"As leaders of the University of California, we are deeply disturbed by recent events at a few of our campuses. We condemn all acts of racism, intolerance and incivility. Regardless of how such offenses are rationalized, or what free speech rights they purport to express, the acts we have witnessed are unacceptable. The actions of these individuals reflect neither our principles nor our values, nor the sentiments of the University of California community. We will not allow the actions of a few to speak for this university. We denounce them.
Each of our campuses is committed to promoting and defending a learning environment that values and supports each student, faculty and staff member in an atmosphere that is open, civil, fair, caring and respectful. These values are enshrined in the “Principles of Community” each campus adheres to and that clearly outline our expectations for behavior on our campuses. We expect that all members of our university community, including our visitors, will be respectful of differing views, opinions, experiences, and background.
When violations occur, it is incumbent on us, as leaders and as stewards of free speech on our campuses, to push back. We have a responsibility to speak out against activities that promote intolerance or undermine civil dialogue. As always, the remedy for bad speech is good speech. For that reason, we call on all members of the UC community — students, faculty and staff — to affirm and defend the values of the University of California. We are speaking out and ask that you do the same whenever, wherever and however you confront behavior that violates the principles and values of this university."
Mark G. Yudof, president, University of California
Henry Powell, chair, UC Academic Senate
Daniel Simmons, vice chair, UC Academic Senate
Robert J. Birgeneau, chancellor, UC Berkeley
Linda P.B. Katehi, chancellor, UC Davis
Michael V. Drake, M.D., chancellor, UC Irvine
Gene Block, chancellor, UC Los Angeles
Steve Kang, chancellor, UC Merced
Timothy P. White, chancellor, UC Riverside
Marye Anne Fox, chancellor, UC San Diego
Susan Desmond-Hellmann, chancellor, UC San Francisco
Henry T. Yang, chancellor, UC Santa Barbara
George Blumenthal, chancellor, UC Santa Cruz
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Fousesquawk comment:
I wish President Yudoff et. al. would have named specific incidents and addressed each one. Who exactly are you denouncing? I'm sorry, but with all due respect, I've read these words so many times, it almost seems like plagiarism or words off some template. Words mean nothing anymore. What is required now is action to rid our campuses of the haters and troublemakers. The university officials know who they are. They have either been arrested or are videotaped committing their outrages. In some cases, these incidents have occurred in full view of university officials, yet they go through these charades of conducting "investigations".
It's a joke. No wonder nobody takes our universities seriously anymore.
These words are like pablum. Weak and watery, not much flavor or substance to them. There have been too many events that have occurred and as mentioned, action is long overdue. The most recent incident at SDSU was another event that was pretty bad. The hanging of noose has too many evil connotations for blacks, and for Jews it does not work very well either.
ReplyDeleteHad these incidents
happened when I was in
college in the early
1970s, the repercussions would have swift and severe. Arrested by the city, not campus police and getting kicked out of school were both highly likely to happen to you. This happened failry often and for much lesser offenses. These types of attacks and events will continue until the Universities decide to crack down on such dissenters who are caught on tape or by numerous eye witnesses. There is no other way or choice.