*****Please Forward Widely*****
PATRIOT ACT AT SFSU: ADMINISTRATION DEMANDS SECRET MEETINGS TO
THREATEN
STUDENTS
On Wednesday, March 9th, students from New York to San Francisco
rallied to
protest military recruiters on their campuses. The students were
expressing
their outrage at the military's anti-gay "don't ask, don't tell"
policy, the
diversion of federal funding away from education into military
spending, and
the war in Iraq. At San Francisco State University, the administration
has
responded with police action and secret meetings.
At SFSU over 150 students joined Students Against War -- the school's
Campus
Antiwar Network chapter -- and other groups to protest Air Force
recruiters
and Army Corps of Engineers attending a school sponsored career fair.
The
crowd flooded the fair, surrounding their tables and chanting. When Air
Force
recruiters tried to wait out the protest, students staged a peaceful
anti-war
sit-in and teach-in.
POLICE INTIMIDATION AND UNIVERSITY THREATS
The following day, recruiters returned to the SFSU career fair. As soon
as two
activists entered the career fair, eight police officers forcibly
removed them
from their own student center, pushing them and twisting one activist's
arm.
When the other activist asked why she was being forced to leave, she was
pushed into a doorway, told she was causing a fire hazard by standing
there,
and then kicked out of the building.
A number of members of Students Against War have received official
notices of
appointment from the Coordinator of Judicial Affairs dated March 18,
2005. The
letters state that the administration has received a complaint from the
Chief
of Public Safety and that each student must meet individually with
Judicial
Affairs the week of April 4th. The letter specifically states that the
meetings are confidential and none of the students have been informed of
nature of the charges against them. Failure to respond the summons may
jeopardize the student's status at San Francisco State University.
Disciplinary action by the administration could result in probation,
suspension or expulsion from the university.
The university demanding secret meetings with students is unacceptable.
The
actions of the police and the San Francisco State administration are a
blatant
attempt to stifle dissent and create a climate of intimidation. The
administration is purposely singling out the leading organizers of the
student
antiwar movement on campus to prosecute.
San Francisco State University should be ashamed that they are a shell
for the
US military. They undermine their own anti-discrimination policies and
commitments to diversity by allowing a racist, sexist and anti-gay
institution
to recruit on campus. When the administration refuses to defend it own
policies, students are forced to be the moral backbone of the
university. The
students, who participated in the March 9th demonstration, where
defending
their classmates and refusing to let one more person become cannon
fodder in
an illegal war.
These attacks are an attempt to go after one of the leading campuses in
the
growing counter recruitment movement around the country. If they can
punish
students at San Francisco State for protesting, it will be easier to
arrest,
sanction and intimidate students on other campuses.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
We ask the public to speak-out against the administration's plans to
limit
free speech rights, and demand that no sanctions be placed on students
that
helped to plan the March 9th protest. Please contact:
Robert A. Corrigan, SFSU President
Phone: (415) 338-1381, Fax: (415) 338-6210
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
please CC your email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Penny Saffold, SFSU Vice President/Dean of Students
Phone: (415) 338-2032, Fax: (415) 338-0900
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
please CC your email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Also, please sign our online petition at
http://www.petitiononline.com/sfsu/petition.html/
For more information about the March 9th protest:
http://xpress.sfsu.edu/archives/breaking/003099.html
http://www.insidebayarea.com/localnews/ci_2603424
http://kpix.dayport.com/launcher/4122/?tf=video_player.tpl
Watch a video of the protest at
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/collegenotcombat.mov.
We urgently need your help. Please lend your support to anti-war
student
activists and activists who are fighting the militarization of our
schools by
letting the administration know that their actions are not supported by
members of the community, students, alumni, faculty, and staff.
Sincerely,
Students Against War
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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