University Senate calls for charges to be dropped and investigation into response to protests – Times-Standard

Tim Miller introduced the “Sense of the Senate Resolution” on Tuesday, which was addressed to Attorney General Stacey J. Eads, Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal, President Tom Jackson and a number of other university officials and local governments. (Sage Alexander/Times-Standard)

At the university’s first Senate meeting after hundreds of riot police dispersed the occupation of Siemens Hall, Cal Poly Humboldt senators called on District Attorney Stacey Eads to drop all charges against students and faculty related to the protests. 21 voted yes, 1 voted against and 4 abstained from voting on the resolution.

The Senate also voted, with one abstention, to call for a full, independent investigation into the decision-making process following the April 22 occupation.

Senate Vice President Tim Miller said the goal was to convey “that there is no consensus at this university that the students should have been arrested in the first place.”

Approved resolution

The resolution details the history of student-led protest movements at Cal Poly Humboldt, noting that police have not been called in the past, even during sit-ins in the same building that protesters occupied for just over a week in April she.

The resolution directly challenges the university administration’s practice of involving the police. Swarms of police first arrived on April 22, leading to a clash between protesters and police in riot gear at the entrance to the building, reportedly resulting in injuries. Another police response about a week later resulted in hundreds of law enforcement agencies from across the state responding to the occupation, tearing down barricades and arresting a group of people who were sitting in the square with their arms crossed and reporting no injuries.

It is still unclear what charges will be brought against the 32 protesters arrested on April 30.

Eads said in an email to the Times-Standard on Wednesday that she still had not received police reports about those arrested. The arrests were made on suspicion of resisting arrest, refusing to comply with police law enforcement of trespass laws, remaining at the scene of an unlawful assembly and trespassing, the booking docket states.

“If we want there to be accountability, if we want there to be some sort of restorative justice perspective, that can be accomplished through our campus disciplinary campus,” Miller said, not through the court system.

Suspensions

Many students received temporary suspension notices as a result of the protest, barring them from campus. The president of Humboldt’s Cal Faculty Association noted the number of approximately 70 students at the meeting. The only faculty member arrested was also suspended from his job.

The division on campus has been evident for weeks, as faculty groups quickly rejected the use of riot police against students on April 22 and the closure of the entire campus. While President Tom Jackson and eight other administration officials said in a May 1 statement that this could “never happen again,” faculty groups and Miller said they supported protests and students expressing their dissent.

“Isn’t higher education a place where we come knowing that young people are going to push? They’re going to push back against the systems that we know aren’t working and we’re going to work with them? Because if we resisted and didn’t want this push, wouldn’t we be in elementary schools?” asked Meridith Oram, an academic advisor during the meeting’s open forum.

The resolution states that in 1970, a week-long student strike on campus to protest the Vietnam War was supported by then-President Cornelius Siemens, who wrote a letter to President Nixon encouraging the president to listen to the students. This is in stark contrast to current President Tom Jackson, who told the Times-Standard: “Those who remain there are not staying there for noble reasons. They are criminals.”

At Tuesday afternoon’s meeting — at the Arcata Community Center as the campus remains closed — senators suspended formal rules around 4 p.m. and held a few minutes of open forum on their thoughts, moderated by ombudsman staff. Over the course of about two and a half hours, those present spoke and many noted that Israeli tanks had rolled into Rafah earlier that day. They expressed their reflections two weeks after students began the occupation to protest the Israel-Hamas war, in solidarity with Palestinians and campuses at universities nationwide. The main theme among speakers, mostly employees or students of the university, was dissatisfaction with upper management’s response to the occupation.

“We are evaluated as teachers for creating a safe environment. Who is being evaluated at this university for creating a safe environment? Because right now it is hostile,” asked Marisol Ruiz, CFA president and senator.

A big question – raised by Ruiz and others – was why the campus remains closed weeks later, classes are moving to online courses and police are blocking access for faculty, students and others. A campus news release said Tuesday that tagging and efforts to reoccupy buildings on campus have continued since the arrests, which is why the campus has not yet reopened.

Potential to reopen

Sherie Gordon, vice president of administration and finance, said a soft opening (which includes faculty access to offices and a hybrid option for staff) is planned as early as Monday. She said the week of May 20 will see a broader opening and removal of some weak barriers across campus. On May 28, she said there were goals for wider opening.

When asked what the police presence was at the moment, she said: “It’s actually our police and security personnel” and, on a case-by-case basis, a few local authorities.

Loren Cannon of the CFA said the organization is drafting an unfair practices charge against the university for failing to consult with union employees when closing the campus. Lecturers must be escorted to their offices if they need to pick up something, and lecturers have reportedly been threatened with arrest if they enter campus, part of the university’s “hard closure” policy.

“The lack of trust in faculty to be safely on campus while contractors and IT staff are working freely on campus is, in my opinion, abhorrent,” said Jenny Cappuccio, an associate professor of chemistry (adding, that the discomfort she faces pales in comparison to her students). .

Early on, Mark Johnson, who was present on behalf of Tom Jackson, stated that there were legitimate concerns about Jackson’s personal safety when asked why Jackson was not present.

Protesters and lecturers have repeatedly asked why Jackson didn’t show up. His first comment on the situation was an interview with the Times-Standard and later a published letter dated May 1 signed by eight other people. Some participants in the meeting accused Jackson of meeting with police but not with protesters. A group of 320 teachers and staff have called on Jackson and Johnson to resign. Johnson was followed in the building by a woman who yelled at him to resign and recorded it on her phone.

Sage Alexander can be reached at 707-441-0504.