POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN
The following is the text of a letter sent by the executive board of the Council of University of California Faculty Associations to UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Cynthia K. Larive on December 6.
Dear Chancellor Larive,
The Council of UC Faculty Associations (CUCFA) rarely intervenes in matters that are not germane to faculty interests, but the recent decision by AVC Sue Matthews to go against a Student Conduct Board’s recommendation in the case of Mr. Carlo Cruz has shocked the conscience of our members for its callousness and alarmed this board for its grave implications.
As you well know, Mr. Cruz, a doctoral student in history, received a two-year suspension for his participation in the COLA strike during the past academic year. Although an Academic Senate resolution called for a withdrawal of all student sanctions, and the charges against the other participants were dropped, Mr. Cruz was subjected to eleven grueling hours of Student Conduct Board proceedings. At the end of these exhaustive proceedings, the board decided that Mr. Cruz’s conduct merited a “warning” instead of more severe punishment.
According to your Policy on Student Conduct and Discipline, the Student Conduct Board is appointed by the Associate Vice Chancellor and composed of a Chairperson, one staff member, two undergraduates, and one graduate student, all “trained on applicable University policies and procedures.” This board aims to reach carefully deliberated decisions; we understand none of those decisions has ever been overturned by an AVC. What further evidence did AVC Matthews examine that prompted her to break an established tradition of shared governance and override eleven hours of deliberations? What signal does this act of defiance against the delicate balance of shared responsibilities among students, faculty, staff, and administrators send to all of them and us?
Throughout the UC system, faculty and students are appalled by credible reports of police racial profiling against Mr. Cruz. They are incensed that Mr. Cruz is a first-generation Latinx student who is now threatened with the loss of income and health insurance during this pandemic. We share the anger about the singular retaliation against Mr. Cruz. However, we are also concerned by the violation of shared governance practices by AVC Matthews. It would be a shame for you to support the arbitrary decision of your AVC, who has deemed the Student Conduct Board deliberations a sham.
Please swiftly resolve this matter by correcting the AVC’s arbitrary and grossly unfair rejection of the Student Conduct Board’s deliberative process. Your decision will bear consequences beyond your campus.
Sincerely,
The Council of UC Faculty Associations Executive Board
While MANY incidents in real life and academia involve racial and national prejudice — subtle and unsubtle — it is about time for everyone to stop AUTOMATICALLY assuming that race or bigotry were at the root of various decisions. For instance, there is nothing here about Mr. Cruz’s actual activities in the strike and what led the Student Conduct Board to let him off with a warning, while all other strikers got off free. Was he a leader? Did he advocate violence, shutting down campus, or looting? If he did nothing especially wrong, maybe his ethnicity WAS used against him. As usual, I’d like more FACTS and less spin.
If administration was required to follow all recommendations of a Student Conduct Board, then their input would be a mere rubber stamp — and, in my experience, MANY inappropriate decisions would be approved.