Letter to Chancellor Katehi from Emilio Bruna, #UCDavis PhD from 2001 now Prof. at U. Florida #OccupyUCDavis

Another letter – this one from UC Davis Alumnus Emilio Bruna, a Prof. at University of Florida. Bruna got his PhD from Davis in 2001.

Chancellor Katehi,

I am appalled by the images of the actions taken by police against student protestors. I fear you have lost sight of what is perhaps our most important responsibility as faculty members – to teach students to think critically and become engaged and responsible citizens.  If our doing so leads them to a path of peaceful civil disobedience as a means to drawing attention to a cause in which they believe, then you of all people must ensure that they have the means to both do so safely.  As Chancellor the responsibility for the violence perpetrated against students by the UCDPD is ultimately yours, as is the power to help our campus community recover. I encourage you to be bold –  apologize at the least, resign if you must – but act, and do so quickly.

Even in the darkest times there is hope – Fiat Lux.

Emilio Bruna
Ph.D., Center for Population Biology (2001)

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Emilio M. Bruna, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Dept. of Wildlife Ecology & Conservation &  Center for Latin American Studies
Associate Editor, Biotropica

Author: Jonathan Eisen

I am an evolutionary biologist and a Professor at U. C. Davis. (see my lab site here). My research focuses on the origin of novelty (how new processes and functions originate). To study this I focus on sequencing and analyzing genomes of organisms, especially microbes and using phylogenomic analysis View all posts by Jonathan Eisen