Faculty Call on UCSC to Halt Disciplinary Procedures

POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN

Before the COVID-19 pandemic absorbed everyone’s attention, brought much of the country to a halt, and pushed higher education, what continues of it, online, the higher ed community was focused on the remarkable wildcat strike of graduate student employees that began at the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) and spread throughout the UC system. But that struggle continues, as the strikers are now mounting what they call a “digital picket,” continuing their refusal to submit grades and declining to hold online classes. The good news is that UC has agreed to bargain over changes in the workplace due to Covid-19. And, after negotiations between the union and the university, UC agreed to reinstate health care coverage for all 80+ Santa Cruz strikers who were fired due to their participation in the wildcat actions. However, the fired strikers remain ineligible for employment and disciplinary proceedings against them continue. In response, the Faculty Organizing Group at UC Santa Cruz issued the following letter, signed by 176 members of the faculty. 

March 25, 2020

Dear iEVC Lori Kletzer, Graduate Dean Quentin Williams, Dean of Students Garrett Naimen, Vice Provost for Student Success Jaye Padgett, and Dean of Undergraduate Education Richard Hughey:

Thank you all for the tireless work you and the campus administration are doing to protect members of our community while maintaining UCSC’s functionality in the midst of an increasingly grave global crisis. We are grateful for the decision to provide health insurance to the graduate students whose appointments have been revoked, including to those who will be on Leave of Absence. We urge you to extend this compassion by reinstating the eligibility for employment of those graduate students, who remain without income in one of the worst economic and health crises this country has seen, and by halting all pending disciplinary hearings.

This is a moment in which we are all being asked to put collective well-being first, to suspend our usual practices and policies, and to ensure that energy, effort, and resources go where they are most needed. We are concerned that the university continues, remotely, its employment warning hearings, student conduct hearings, and Skelly hearings. Even prior to the current crisis, we have documented troubling irregularities in and discrepancies between the hearings, and there have been delays in following up with students afterwards. Many students who went to their hearings in mid-February were told that their investigations would conclude in two weeks, yet they have heard nothing. Others have had to undergo their various hearings remotely, in ways that are far from uniform and standard. Some students in off-campus locations, or in a state of indefinite suspension and barred from campus, report insufficient internet and cell phone coverage to access remote hearings and have received no university help in doing so. At least two students are negotiating the hearing process while themselves sick and trying to garner medical documentation from overburdened health workers in order to extend the timeline of appeal. All of this is happening as students have had to simultaneously conclude the quarter, leave campus if possible, find the resources to ready themselves for remote learning, and cope with the manifold stresses of everyday life in a global pandemic.

We recognize that these are unparalleled circumstances for all university procedures, but we write today to emphasize the human cost of continuing the hearings. Graduate students involved in wildcat strike actions and their undergraduate supporters have been arrested and, in some cases, brutalized; they have been banned from campus; they have lost their jobs and with that, for some, their housing. These students — many undocumented, low-income, housing insecure, and dependent on their university employment — are also being compelled to negotiate unfamiliar bureaucratic procedures in a climate of surveillance, threats, and uncertain avenues and timelines of appeal. In the midst of the campus shutdown and a state-wide shelter-in-place order, some undergraduates have received sentences of a year of probation and required restorative justice education. Surely now is not the right moment for productive “educational conversations” about community standards and “time, place, and manner” debates. In fact, stressed and overwhelmed students are experiencing the hearings only as punitive.

Despite the fact that courts across the country are suspending their hearings, the university proceeds with punishment as usual. In the best of times, this course of action is questionable. In the present moment, it is unethical and inhumane. To further punish those who have already been punished through an excruciating, opaque, and time-intensive bureaucratic process is detrimental to the health and well-being of undergraduate and graduate students. Such a policy also places intense demands on faculty, many of whom are providing advice, support, and even digital accompaniment to students facing hearings. We do this as we are simultaneously concluding winter quarter; teaching ourselves — with the invaluable aid of CITL’s rapidly deployed websites and workshops — how to teach remotely this Spring; and facing additional burdens of child, elder, and community care. We urge you not to continue to divert your faculty’s time and resources. We further urge you to show your students the compassion that this moment surely demands.

We ask you to:

  1. Cease any new hearings until you have worked through the backlog and concluded the cases of those who have already undergone this process.
  1. Drop or, at the very least, postpone all of the student conduct charges related to student activism.
  1. Rescind the current interim suspensions for all student activists as they present no threat to the operations of the campus and the Student Code of Conduct states that students “shall be restricted only to the minimum extent necessary.”

Let us all bring our collective energies to what matters most.

PLEASE SIGN IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER BY YOUR FIRST NAME

  1. Adriana Manago, Psychology
  2. Alan Christy, History
  3. Alejandra Kramer, Anthropology
  4. Alice Yang, History and CRES
  5. Alma Heckman, History
  6. A.M. Darke, AGPM, DANM, and CRES
  7. Amanda Lashaw, Education
  8. Amanda M. Smith, Literature
  9. Amy C. Beal, Music
  10. Amy Mihyang Ginther, Theater Arts
  11. Andrea Cook, Psychology
  12. Andrew Mathews, Anthropology
  13. Anjuli Verma, Politics & Legal Studies
  14. Anna Friz, Film and Digital Media
  15. Anna Tsing, Anthropology
  16. B. Ruby Rich, Film+Digital Media
  17. Barbara Rogoff, Psychology
  18. Benjamin Storm, Psychology
  19. Bettina Aptheker, Feminist Studies
  20. Bob Majzler, Psychology and College 10
  21. Bruce Thompson, History and Literature
  22. Camilla Hawthorne, Sociology and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies
  23. Camilo Gómez-Rivas, Literature
  24. Carla Freccero, Literature and  History of Consciousness
  25. Catherine Jones, History
  26. Catherine Ramírez, LALS
  27. Chris Chen, Literature
  28. Chris Hables Gray, Cont. Lecturer, Crown College
  29. Christie McCullen, Sociology
  30. Christine Hong, Literature and CRES
  31. Christine King, Kresge and Porter Colleges
  32. Christopher Connery, Literature
  33. Cynthia Lewis, Education
  34. Cynthia Ling Lee, Theater Arts
  35. Cyntia Polecritti, History
  36. Daniel Selden, Literature
  37. Danilyn Rutherford, Anthropology
  38. David Anthony, History
  39. David Kant, Music
  40. Dean Mathiowetz, Politics
  41. Dee Hibbert-Jones, Art
  42. Derede Arthur, Writing Program
  43. Diane Gifford-Gonzalez, Anthropology
  44. Dion Farquhar, Crown College
  45. Don Brenneis, Anthropology
  46. Dorian Bell, Literature
  47. Eduardo Mosqueda, Education
  48. Elaine Sullivan, History
  49. Elizabeth Beaumont, Politics and Legal Studies
  50. Elizabeth Swensen, AGPM, DANM
  51. Elliot Anderson, Art
  52. Emily Schach, Anthropology
  53. Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, Astronomy
  54. Eric Porter, History, HistCon, CRES
  55. Eva Bertram, Politics
  56. Fernando Leiva, Latin American and Latino Studies
  57. Fitnat Yildiz, METX
  58. Gabriela Arredondo, Latin American and Latino Studies
  59. Gail Hershatter, History
  60. Gary Young, Literature
  61. George Bunch, Education
  62. Giulia Centineo, LAAL
  63. Grace Pena Delgado, History
  64. Greg O’Malley, History
  65. GS Sahota, Literature
  66. Gustavo Vazquez, Film & Digital Media
  67. H. Marshall Leicester, Literature
  68. Hillary Angelo, Sociology
  69. Hinrich Boeger, MCD Biology
  70. Hiroshi Fukurai, Sociology and Legal Studies
  71. Hunter Bivens, Literature
  72. Irene Lusztig, Film + Digital Media
  73. Isaac Julien CBE RA, Arts
  74. Ivy Sichel, Linguistics
  75. Jason Samaha, Psychology
  76. Janette Dinishak, Philosophy
  77. Jeffrey Erbig, Latin American and Latino Studies
  78. Jennifer Derr, History
  79. Jennifer Gonzalez, History of Art and Visual Culture
  80. Jennifer Kelly, Feminist Studies and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies
  81. Jennifer Maytorena Taylor, Film and Digital Media
  82. Jeremy Gauger,
  83. Jerry Zee, Anthropology and CRES
  84. Jessica Taft, Latin American and Latino Studies
  85. Josefina Lundblad-Janjić, Languages & Applied Linguistics
  86. Josh Brahinsky, College 10
  87. Joy Hagen, Writing Program
  88. Judith Habicht Mauche, Anthropology
  89. Judith Scott, Education
  90. Julianne Hazlewood, Environmental Studies, Rachel Carson College
  91. Juned Shaikh, History
  92. Karen Bassi, Literature and Classics
  93. Katherine Seto, Environmental Studies
  94. Katie Monsen, Environmental Studies, Rachel Carson College
  95. Keiko Yukawa, Languages and Applied Linguistics
  96. Kent Eaton, Politics
  97. Kirsten  Silva Gruesz, Literature
  98. Laurie Palmer, Art
  99. Lindsey Dillon, Sociology
  100. Lindsey Kuper, Computer Science and Engineering
  101. Lisa Rofel, Anthropology
  102. Lora Bartlett, Education
  103. Lorato Anderson, Politics & Latin American and Latino Studies
  104. Lucinda Pease-Alvarez, Education
  105. Madeleine Fairbairn, Environmental Studies
  106. Madeline Lane-McKinley, Writing Program
  107. Madhavi Murty, Feminist Studies
  108. Marc Matera, History
  109. Marcia Barrett, Library
  110. Margaret Amis
  111. Margarita Azmitia, Psychology
  112. Maria Elena Diaz, History
  113. Marianne Weems, Theater Arts and DANM
  114. Marilyn Walker, Computer Science and Engineering
  115. Mark Baker, Writing Program/Oakes College
  116. Mark Nash, Arts
  117. Martin Devecka, Literature
  118. Matthew Lasar, History
  119. Maya Peterson, History
  120. Maywa Montenegro, Environmental Studies
  121. Megan Moodie, Anthropology
  122. Megan Thomas, Politics
  123. Micah Perks, Literature
  124. micha cárdenas, CRES, DANM, AGPM
  125. Michael M. Chemers, Theater Arts
  126. Michael Mateas, Computational Media
  127. Michael Urban, Politics
  128. Miriam Greenberg, Sociology
  129. Muriam Haleh Davis, History
  130. Nathaniel Deutsch, History
  131. Neda Atanasoski, FMST
  132. Neel Ahuja, FMST and CRES
  133. Nick Mitchell, CRES and Feminist Studies
  134. Nicolas Davidenko, Psychology
  135. Nidhi Mahajan, Anthropology and CRES
  136. Nikolaos Sgourakis, Chemistry and Biochemistry
  137. Nirvikar Singh, Economics
  138. Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Computational Media
  139. Noel Smyth, History
  140. Noriko Aso, History
  141. Patricia Pinho, Latin American & Latino studies
  142. Patricia Zavella, Latin American & Latino Studies
  143. Patty Gallagher, Theater Arts
  144. Per Gjerde, Psychology
  145. Peter Alvaro, Computer Science and Engineering
  146. Phillip Hammack, Psychology
  147. Rebecca Covarrubias, Psychology
  148. Regina Day Langhout, Psychology
  149. Rick Prelinger, Film and Digital Media
  150. Rob Wilson, Literature
  151. Robbie Kubala, Philosophy
  152. Robert Boltje, Mathematics
  153. Robert Goff, Philosophy, Emeritus
  154. Ron Glass, Education
  155. Ronnie Lipschutz, Politics
  156. Russell Rodriguez, Music
  157. Ryan Bennett, Linguistics
  158. Sara Niedzwiecki, Politics
  159. Savannah Shange, Anthropology
  160. Scottt Vahradian, MCD Biology
  161. Sharon Kinoshita, Literature
  162. Sheeva Sabati, Feminist Studies, Oakes College, College 9/10
  163. Shelly Grabe, Psychology
  164. Shigeko Okamoto, Languages and Applied Linguistics
  165. Sikina Jinnah, ENVS
  166. Stacy Philpott, Environmental Studies
  167. Susan Carpenter, MCD biology
  168. Susan Gillman, Literature
  169. Susan Wright, Politics
  170. T. J. Demos, History of Art and Visual Culture
  171. Todd Nathan Thorpe, Cowell College
  172. Vanita Seth, Politics
  173. Warren Sack, Film + Digital Media
  174. Vilashini Cooppan, Literature and CRES
  175. Yasmeen Daifallah, Politics
  176. Zac Zimmer, Literature