BY HANK REICHMAN
In a letter addressed to the UC Berkeley campus and the larger Berkeley community, 76 faculty members from various departments have called for a complete boycott of classes and campus activities during the so-called “Free Speech Week” to be held on campus September 24-27. The week is sponsored by the Berkeley Patriot, a conservative student newspaper, and includes “Feminism Awareness Day” and a “Mario Savio is Dead” event. Speakers scheduled to be on campus include Milo Yiannopoulos, Ann Coulter, and Steve Bannon.
“We’re not afraid of Milo, Ann (Coulter) or Bannon’s words. We have a deep anxiety over the violence that their followers bring in response,” said associate teaching professor of African American studies Michael Cohen, one of seven co-authors of the letter.
Although the university administration has pledged to protect the right of the three speakers and others on the program to address their audiences, UCB assistant vice chancellor for communications Dan Mogulof said yesterday that Berkeley Patriot, whose membership he estimates at between 5-10 members, “still has not completed the critical steps” necessary to arrange venues for the events. The group has failed to provide requested information needed to provide security for the events, “nor has it confirmed the list of speakers and when they intend to schedule events with those speakers,’’ Mogulof told reporter Carla Marinucci. Faculty in the school’s Anthropology Department have already been compelled to reschedule a scholarly lecture to facilitate security arrangements for the week, a fact noted in the faculty letter.
In a statement, Mogulof said that as part of the events, “Milo Yiannopoulos and Stephen Bannon have said publicly that they will be speaking on our campus during that time, along with ‘more than 20 additional speakers,’ as per Mr. Yiannopoulos’s statement.” But he added neither side has addressed issues that include security matters or apparent conflicts between the schedules provided by Yiannopoulos and the student group. He said, “we have repeatedly asked representatives of the Berkeley Patriot to confirm that contracts have been completed between the student organization and each of these speakers; to date they have not.”
Conservative writer Ben Shapiro is scheduled to speak on campus tomorrow. That event, sponsored by the Young America’s Foundation, is expected to have police and security presence, organizers said.
The following is the full text of the letter from Berkeley faculty members calling for the boycott:
While there has still not been an official announcement from campus administrators, we are learning that from September 24th to 27th, the University of California at Berkeley will provide a platform to Milo Yiannopoulos, Ann Coulter, Stephen K. Bannon, Breitbart media and their far right audience. A series of explicitly violent Alt-Right, militia and pro-Fascist events are also, again, being scheduled for Civic Center / MLK park in downtown Berkeley on those days.
Once more, signs point towards an escalated and uncontrollable confrontation both on and off campus during these four days. The history of these events has been chilling. Since Inauguration Day, Alt-Right followers have shot someone at the University of Washington, stabbed two people to death on public transport in Portland, stabbed to death a college senior in Maryland, beaten numerous nonviolent protesters at the University of Virginia, and most recently murdered a peaceful protester with an automobile in Charlottesville. Most immediately troubling, given Trump’s decision to end DACA, is that these forces have publicly expressed their intent to specifically target “sanctuary campuses” and disclose the identity of undocumented students. As concerned faculty members, we cannot remain silent while students, staff, colleagues, and fellow community members are threatened.
Therefore, as faculty committed to the safety of our students and our campus, we are calling for a complete boycott of all classes and campus activities while these Alt-Right events are taking place at the very center of UC Berkeley’s campus. As faculty we cannot ask students and staff to choose between risking their physical and mental safety in order to attend class or come to work in an environment of harassment, intimidation, violence, and militarized policing. The reality is that particularly vulnerable populations (DACA students, non-white, gender queer, Muslims, disabled, feminists, and others) have already been harmed, and are reporting increased levels of fear and anxiety about the upcoming events, the increased police presence on our campus, and how all this will impact their lives and their studies.
It is not just physical violence that our campus faces from this media circus. Many of these provocateurs’ most committed audiences are online, and the Breitbart media machine uses that audience to harass, cyberbully, and threaten anyone who speaks out against them. Students and faculty on our campus have already had their lives threatened for speaking out against Milo and his followers. Online threats are real threats, and if we allow this intolerant and bullying version of free speech to take over our campus, then it can only but come at the expense of the free speech rights of the Berkeley community as a whole. In fact, campus safety concerns have already forced the Anthropology Department to cancel a public talk during “free speech week.” This makes clear that the administration understands the imminent threat to campus safety while also revealing that the loud demands of the Alt-Right has the effect of silencing members of our campus community.
We recognize that as a public institution, we are legally bound by the Constitution to allow all viewpoints on campus. However, there are forms of speech that are not protected under the First Amendment. These include speech that presents imminent physical danger and speech that disrupts the university’s mission to educate. Milo, Coulter and Bannon do not come to educate; they and their followers come to humiliate and incite. If the administration insists upon allowing the Alt-Right to occupy the center of our campus for four days to harass, threaten and intimidate us, as they did during Milo’s visit in February, then faculty cannot teach, staff cannot work and students cannot learn.
We refuse to grant the Alt-Right the media spectacle that they so desperately desire. This strategy responds to the concerns voiced in the letter authored by the chairs of the three departments most impacted–Gender & Women’s Studies, African American Studies and Ethnic Studies – and also follows the lead of the SPLC advice to ignore these agitators. As faculty, we reject both the administration’s rhetoric of false equivalency that all speech – including “hate speech” – merits value and respect and also the impulse to see direct confrontation as the only strategy of resistance. A boycott of all campus activities during these days is the only responsible course of action.
Therefore we are calling upon faculty to take the following steps:
1. Cancel classes and tell students to stay home. A boycott of classes affirms that our fundamental responsibility as faculty is to protect the safety and well being of all our students. While we understand the argument that canceling classes might be seen as a penalty to students who want to learn–by holding class when some students CAN NOT attend by virtue of their DACA status and the imminent threat that these campus events hold, faculty who DO hold classes are disadvantaging DACA students and others who will feel threatened by being on campus.
2. Close buildings, close departments and let staff stay home. If the campus is unsafe for student learning then it is unsafe for staff members to work. We should work with campus maintenance and building managers to close as many departments and buildings as possible, starting with those in the immediate vicinity of Sproul Plaza. No one should be forced to work surrounded by men with clubs, police with guns and the sting of teargas.
3. Faculty who decide to hold class during this week, in the face of these explicit threats, should not penalize students who are afraid to come to campus. It is unfair and discriminatory for faculty to schedule exams or require attendance during this week. Such an expectation forces students to choose between their physical safety, their mental well being, and a grade. Consider making a video lecture available, give the students a take-home assignment, or creating another alternative class plan. If you decide you must hold class, please do it away from campus, away from the Telegraph Avenue point of campus entry, and away from Downtown.
The Administration, in failing to halt these events, has left concerned faculty with no other choice than to act to prevent further harm to our community. We urge you to join us in keeping our students and our campus safe by signing on to this call for a campus-wide- boycott.
In Solidarity,
Signed:
Michael Mark Cohen
Associate Teaching Professor, American Studies and African American StudiesLeigh Raiford,
Associate Professor, African American StudiesJuana María Rodríguez
Professor, Ethnic StudiesCharis Thompson
Chancellor’s Professor, Gender and Women’s Studies and Center for Science, Technology, Medicine and SocietyLeslie Salzinger
Associate Professor, Gender and Women’s StudiesJeffrey Skoller
Associate Professor, Film and MediaNatalia Brizuela
Associate Professor, Spanish & Portuguese and Film and MediaJulia Bryan-Wilson
Professor, History of ArtAllan Desouza
Associate Professor & Chair, Art PracticeRamona Naddaff
Associate Professor, RhetoricPeter Glazer
Associate Professor, Theater, Dance, and Performance StudiesMary Ann Doane,
Class of 1937 Professor of Film & MediaAnne Walsh
Associate Professor, Art PracticeJake Kosek
Associate Professor, GeographyStephanie Syjuco
Assistant Professor, Art PracticeMel Y. Chen
Associate Professor, Gender and Women’s StudiesCori Hayden
Associate Professor, AnthropologyGregory Levine
Professor, Art and Architecture of Japan and Buddhist Visual CulturesJames Vernon
Professor, Department of HistorySamera Esmeir
Associate Professor, RhetoricVictoria E. Robinson
Lecturer, Ethnic StudiesPaola Bacchetta
Professor, Department of Gender and Women’s StudiesMinoo Moallem
Professor, Department of Gender and Women’s StudiesDéborah Blocker
Associate Professor, Department of FrenchCarlos Muñoz, Jr.
Edward A. Dickson Distinguished Emeriti Professor, Ethnic StudiesPatricia Penn Hilden
Professor Emerita, Ethnic StudiesChris Zepeda-Millan
Assistant Professor, Department of Ethnic StudiesMark Goble
Associate Professor, EnglishKeith P. Feldman
Associate Professor, Ethnic StudiesNadia Ellis
Associate Professor, EnglishNikki Jones
Associate Professor, African American StudiesSusan Schweik,
Professor, EnglishGeoffrey G. O’Brien
Associate Professor, EnglishRichard B. Norgaard
Professor Emeritus, Energy and Resources GroupRachel Morello-Frosch
Professor, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management & School of Public HealthEmily O’Rourke
Rhetoric, GSIBeezer de Martelly
PhD Candidate, Music/EthnomusicologyLaleh Behbehanian
Lecturer, Dept. Of SociologySuzanne Guerlac
Professor, French DepartmentIvonne del Valle
Associate Professor, Spanish and PortugueseSimon Rogghe
GSI, French DepartmentJoni Spigler
ABD, History of Art DeptSoraya Tlatli
Associate Professor, FrenchEric Peterson
PhD Student, Dept. of ArchitectureAkua Ofori
Postdoctoral ScholarAyse Agis
Continuing Lecturer, Gender and Women’s StudiesMaria Faini
CRG Specialist/PhD Candidate: Ethnic Studies/Critical TheoryLouis-Georges Schwartz
88 alumJuan Castillo
Alumni, L & S – interdisciplinary studiesScott Hewicker
Lecturer, First Year ProgramCaroline Lemak Brickman
PhD candidate, Slavic Dept.Sima Belmar
Lecturer, TDPSBryan Wagner
Associate Professor, EnglishJoshua Anderson
GSI, EnglishChristopher Johnson
Alumnus – HistoryTodd P. Olson
Professor, History of ArtDonna Honarpisheh
Comparative LiteratureAnne-Lise Francois
Associate Professor, Comparative Literature & EnglishManuel Rosaldo
PhD Candidate, SociologyJovan Lewis
Assistant Professor, Geography and African-American StudiesAlex Bush
PhD Candidate, Film & MediaSeth Holmes
Public Health and Medical AnthropologyMaya Kronfeld
PhD Candidate Comparative LiteratureAmanda Armstrong
Alumna, Department of RhetoricJohnathan Vaknin
PhD Candidate, Comparative LiteratureLisa Hofmann-Kuroda
East Asian Languages and CulturesKathryn Levine
Ph.D. Candidate, FrenchHallie Wells
PhD Candidate, AnthropologyDaniel Benjamin
GSI, EnglishNamQuyen Le
BA in Public Health 2011, MPH 2016Ernest Artiz
GSI, Department of Englishsofie fier
student, PACSChristian Nagler
PhD Candidate, Theater, Dance & Performance StudiesZachary Levenson
Ph.D. Candidate, SociologyHailey Buck
Undergraduate, TDPSAbigail De Kosnik
Associate Professor, Theater, Dance, and Performance StudiesLida Zeitlin Wu
PhD candidate, Film & MediaElias Lawliet
PhD student, Jurisprudence and Social PolicyJohn Mundell
PhD student, African American & African Diaspora StudiesBerenike Schierenberg
Visiting Student, Comparative LiteratureDarcy Grimaldo Grigsby
Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguised Professor of Arts and Humanities, History of ArtPedro Rolon
GSI/ Ph.D. student, Comparative LiteratureAlex Brostoff
GSI and PhD student, Comparative LiteratureMelina Packer
PhD Candidate, Environmental Science, Policy & ManagementMaria Tonione
PhD candidateDiana Ruiz
PhD student/GSI, Film & MediaXiao Yun Chang
MS Transportation Engineering / Master of City Planning. CEE / DCRPAlex Thomas
ESPMChristy Getz
Cooperative Extension Specialist, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and ManagementStefannia Mambelli
Integrative BiologyMargaret Jones
Ph.D. Candidate/MusicKavleen Singh
Political ScienceLauren Kroiz
Associate Professor, History of ArtJuliet Rose Kunkel
PhD student, School of EducationKristen Sun
GSI, Ethnic StudiesPaul De Morais
PhD candidate, Comparative LiteratureAndrew Pastor
Lab Manager, School of Public HealthTess Peppers
EWMBA Student, Haas School of BusinessRichard Grusin
Director, Center for 21st Century Studies and UC Berkeley PhD, English, 1983
University of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeHannah Haugenes
Undergraduate Student, Conservation and Resource StudiesDasha Pechurina
Undergraduate, ESPMStefannia Mambelli
Integrative Biology
Just incredible. They’re for free speech, but only for those with whom they agree? This faculty tantrum sets a terrible example for students, who should be learning about critical thinking, not slamming the side one doesn’t like. Your tax dollars at work.
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If teachers want to boycott for 1 week of the semester when it is active, these teachers should have the school refund that portion of their students tuition. Or if the school wont do it, then these teachers should pay out of their salary. Depriving students of an education they paid for to make a political statement is out of the question.
Anyone notice the connection between these faculty departments? They’re all unemployable losers.
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