Category: Misc.

Well here is  quick post about the Town Hall meeting.  I went there at about 4:30 with one of the PhD students in my lab – Russell Neches.  We got to Freeborn and a line was forming outside.  Russell got in the line and I went to the front to make sure it was the right place to be.  I saw one of the students in my Intro Bio class and he said it was the right place to be.  So I then went inside to grab a drink and headed back to the line.  I then took a few pictures and and posted some comments on twitter.  I am intermixing my comments here with twitter posts and my pictures.  I note – I would use Storify for this but they make it hard to include pictures from picasa so I am going to have to do it this way.  I realized this post is a bit raw – but I am very tired and I need to try and get some other work done, so this is going to have to suffice for now.  I may try to enhance it with more text in a bit.

UPDATE: Video of the Town Hall Meeting is here.

phylogenomics Crowd starting to form outside Freeborn Hall for #occupyucdavis Town Hall – TV crews coming too http://t.co/GbWPKKoX 11/22/11 4:23 PM

I bumped into another student I knew Dvid Harris.  He had a letter he was hoping to read for the Chancellor.  I took a pic of his letter and posted it.

phylogenomics Preview of one of the letters that may be read at Town Hall meeting re #occupyucdavis http://t.co/idRivoP6 11/22/11 4:34 PM

phylogenomics Hmm Town Hall meeting rules re #occupyucdavis includes no filming after 1st hour http://t.co/vmyTA9Jl 11/22/11 4:37 PM

SciTriGrrl @phylogenomics What happens after hour 1?! 11/22/11 4:41 PM

phylogenomics @SciTriGrrl no clue 11/22/11 4:49 PM

phylogenomics Crowd has been let in to Freeborn Hall re #occupyucdavis http://t.co/Ss3Ig27J 11/22/11 4:42 PM

We sat way near the front – in the third row.  And people started to pile in.  I got up and took some pics of the crowd and posted to twitter.

phylogenomics Lots of media here for Town Hall re #occupyucdavis http://t.co/9j6EiJQN 11/22/11 4:48 PM

jaimedash @phylogenomics how full? should cpb seminar speaker phil ward attempt to wrap his talk so we can come by? 11/22/11 4:49 PM

phylogenomics @jaimedash lots of space still http://t.co/jfY9pQ64 11/22/11 5:01 PM

hhollandmoritz @phylogenomics Do you know when AggieTV will begin streaming online? 11/22/11 4:51 PM

phylogenomics Town Hall will be streamed live at http://t.co/2VqkdHs4 #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 4:52 PM

Then the UC Davis administrators started to arrive and eventually a bunch of people went up to talk to them.  I took a bunch of pics of the scene – it was very friendly I note – no yelling at anyone.  No chanting for resignation.  Just chatting with Katehi and others.

phylogenomics The UCDavis administration has arrived #occupyucdavis http://t.co/3hy9wO6h 11/22/11 5:04 PM

phylogenomics Here are @ryneches and @myhelicaltryst waiting for the town hall #occupyucdavis http://t.co/zVL34inj 11/22/11 5:07 PM

And eventually they started to assemble a “panel” up on the stage.

 And then the students in charge of the Town Hall opened things up, set the ground rules regarding the lottery system that had been set up for questions.  And then they started

 First Chancellor Katehi got to say a few words.

phylogenomics Katehi directly apologizes and says charges will be dropped and medical expenses will be covered #occupyucdavis http://t.co/FJuSVmcD 11/22/11 5:15 PM

phylogenomics Katehi says she explicitly instructed the police to not use force and to not make any arrests #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 5:16 PM

phylogenomics Katehi says she will do the best in her power to support students during these difficult times #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 5:18 PM

ryneches @phylogenomics Why didn’t she say that police disobeyed her orders on Friday? That would have been helpful. #OccupyUCDavis 11/22/11 5:19 PM

phylogenomics @ryneches implied 11/22/11 5:23 PM

Then Vice Chancellor Wood spoke very emotionally

phylogenomics Vice Chancellor Wood says he is traumatized by the whole incident – says it was darkest day in his 30yrs here http://t.co/1J245UCF 11/22/11 5:21 PM

phylogenomics Someone just shouted out “Katehi” as the person to blame during Wood’s talk – but they were hushed down 11/22/11 5:22 PM

phylogenomics Wood says he is saying a prayer for all harmed by incident #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 5:23 PM

phylogenomics Wood says he is hopeful for healing because of the students here who he is very proud of #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 5:25 PM

jamesdotcuff /me thinks @phylogenomics and @kbradnam ought to dash out and buy some tents and pepper repellent 11/22/11 5:24 PM

geetika1255 with @AggieTV off air and @CBSSacramento ‘s sucky audio, I am now following this meeting mainly via @phylogenomics ‘ tweets. 11/22/11 5:25 PM

the_eco_thought @phylogenomics thanks for tweeting this mate, i have to be at home with the smalls 11/22/11 5:26 PM

MarilynM @phylogenomics thx for the live-tweeting. 11/22/11 5:27 PM

And then the questions began.  They announced the lottery winners and people lined up to ask questions and they started firing away.  I am posting my twitter posts here b/c that is the best way for me to remember everything that was going on.  First though some of the pics from the Q&A

phylogenomics First person to comment – senior – Chase – says “thank you” to chancellor for her work for #UCDavis #occupyucdavis http://t.co/1pizVWwF 11/22/11 5:28 PM

phylogenomics Next is a question is about tuition increases and it’s affect on Latino students w/ high dropout rate #occupyucdavis http://t.co/YFOtJOVW 11/22/11 5:30 PM

phylogenomics Katehi says she does not support the 81% tuition increases http://t.co/w2s9Os0U 11/22/11 5:31 PM

phylogenomics Students has a box with petition to call for Katehis resignation Asks if she will accept it http://t.co/7MeXq1Qm 11/22/11 5:33 PM

phylogenomics Student who was areested asks why police were in riot gear; Katehi says was police chiefs decision #occupyucdavis http://t.co/XIOdKGvV 11/22/11 5:35 PM

phylogenomics Student proposes a vote by #UCDavis students to say whether they want Katehi to resign #occupyucdavis http://t.co/PLLLaFII 11/22/11 5:37 PM

phylogenomics Student asks why police needs weapons – police rep says weapons are needed to provide for safety #occupyucdavis http://t.co/AH10jsyT 11/22/11 5:39 PM

phylogenomics Provost says policies should be reviewed regarding police use #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 5:41 PM

phylogenomics Student asks re report that Katehi helped write a report for Greek University to allow police back on their campus http://t.co/MR3VZxOH 11/22/11 5:42 PM

phylogenomics Student also asked about Katehi being on FBI board 11/22/11 5:43 PM

phylogenomics Katehi says Greek report was In Response to anarchists taking over and burning campuses 11/22/11 5:46 PM

jaimedash @phylogenomics student question re Greek policy may relate to this report http://t.co/pRZiJaRA 11/22/11 5:51 PM

phylogenomics Katehi says she is advising FBI about university “security” in general 11/22/11 5:47 PM

phylogenomics Police rep who is acting police chief says he wants to have open dialog in the future re police actions # gets round of applause 11/22/11 5:49 PM

phylogenomics Question – Enough w/ words what are your proposed actions in The future; Katehi says she needs to interact w/ students more 11/22/11 5:51 PM

phylogenomics Acting police chief agrees that words are not useful – action is – says he should be judged by actions 11/22/11 5:54 PM

phylogenomics Student asks where is the police chief and responsible vice chancellor – Katehi says police chief cannot come b/c on leave 11/22/11 5:57 PM

phylogenomics Katehi says police chief reports to vice chancellor for facilities and not to her – Vice Chancellor now answering http://t.co/DluZL0zB 11/22/11 5:58 PM

phylogenomics Vice Chancellor says were worried about encampments taking hold like at Berkeley; doesn’t really give good answer http://t.co/kk4TgtRO 11/22/11 6:01 PM

kbradnam @phylogenomics Yeah, I was surprised by his answer. Didn’t want another Berkeley situation so we sent riot troops in?!? 11/22/11 6:02 PM

phylogenomics High school student asks what is going to be done to connect to prospective students and alumni #occupyucdavis http://t.co/YoGh2Rk0 11/22/11 6:03 PM

phylogenomics Katehi says changes are coming – and reaching out is needed #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 6:06 PM

vsbuffalo @phylogenomics @ryneches Are you guys allowed to still tweet? I hope so! 11/22/11 6:09 PM

phylogenomics @vsbuffalo don’t know 11/22/11 6:15 PM

phylogenomics Katehi says there will be five investigations at least including UCOP, DA, LA, faculty senate and others #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 6:17 PM

phylogenomics Acting police chief is the most eloquent on the stage – very impressive #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 6:18 PM

kbradnam Agreed! “@phylogenomics: Acting police chief is the most eloquent on the stage – very impressive #occupyucdavis” 11/22/11 6:19 PM

phylogenomics Next question is about claimed poor relationship between UCDavis, police and black people and hate crimes and what will be done in future 11/22/11 6:21 PM

phylogenomics Questioner asks for remaining three panelists to please say “black people” in their answers ; Wood does a good job w/ answer 11/22/11 6:25 PM

phylogenomics Student asks “when is it going to be the right time or place to protest?”; Katehi says try were not trying to remove people #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 6:30 PM

phylogenomics Student then says “the tents were a key part of the whole enterprise” and removing them was silencing speech #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 6:31 PM

phylogenomics Katehi says she agrees with student #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 6:32 PM

phylogenomics One of the arrested students says that the claimed “outside agitators” were all UCDavis alumni #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 6:42 PM

phylogenomics He asks also “what are you doing right now?” to protect free speech #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 6:43 PM

phylogenomics Student says the only violence that occurred during protests was by police and admin against students #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 6:46 PM

phylogenomics Student also claims that there was some organization “spying” on student groups from the administration #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 6:46 PM

phylogenomics VC Wood says student affairs has tried to engage student groups to keep the police ut of situations #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 6:47 PM

phylogenomics Student also calls on UC Davis to make plans transparent for future actions #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 6:51 PM

phylogenomics Student also says faculty in women’s and gender studies would like to meet Katehi as she is part of their department #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 6:51 PM

phylogenomics Students asks why Katehi held Saturday press conference in tiny room with big hall across the street #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 6:54 PM

phylogenomics Katehi accepts criticism by student that she has not been engaging with students at protests #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 6:54 PM

phylogenomics VC Wood says they will make a request to the attorney generals office for an investigation but likely will be sent back #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 7:10 PM

phylogenomics Student expresses concern that encampment is interfering w/ education – it is loud and she is worried it is unsafe #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 7:12 PM

phylogenomics Police Chief answers “I have no experience with occupy tent cities” but they are trying to keep it safe #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 7:13 PM

phylogenomics Student also says that it is ironic that #occupyucdavis started w/ improving access to education yet is disrupting education 11/22/11 7:17 PM

phylogenomics Student says she wants to remind faculty that students are here for education #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 7:18 PM

Merz @phylogenomics What, was class cancelled? #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 7:19 PM

phylogenomics Student says the pepper spaying on Friday will damage and change recruitment of minorities on campus #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 7:21 PM

phylogenomics The pepper spraying incident was awful but I have never been prouder of being at #ucdavis w/ the students we have here #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 7:23 PM

phylogenomics Katehi says this is an opportunity to define ourselves by what we do in the future #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 7:24 PM

phylogenomics In response to ? katehi says may be bad idea for her to be in charge of law enforcement actions b/c she is just an electrical engineer 11/22/11 7:26 PM

phylogenomics Police Chief again impresses – he says we shouldn’t wait for any reports – we need to start now #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 7:27 PM

phylogenomics Student says he supports chancellor and police department for enforcing laws #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 7:27 PM

phylogenomics student says this is not just about pepper spray – it is about inequities – and we don’t need any reports to tell us that #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 7:30 PM

phylogenomics Question from theatre dept. Member says admin should engage in teach ins about what happens to $$ on campus #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 7:32 PM

phylogenomics Commenter says don’t refer to drumming in quad as “them” – they are “us” if you don’t like it you can go and vote there #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 7:33 PM

phylogenomics Student says the administration needs to interact more with students .. Have open meetings ..eat in union . Etc #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 7:35 PM

phylogenomics Student has gotten Katehi to and everyone to laugh by telling admin to get engaged #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 7:36 PM

phylogenomics Katehi tx crowd; says she hopes we can do this more .. W/ 32000 students it is silent majority they need to reach out to #occupyucdavis 11/22/11 7:43 PM

A blur. That is what this day represents. A serious blur. I got up not so early, not so late, since my kids are off school this week. And I started prepping for my day about town. At 12 noon there was to be a rally of some kind in regard to the pepper spraying incident on campus.

I have been consumed with this issue since Friday when the spraying of protestors happened in the “quad” at UC Davis. And I had been posting relentlessly to twitter and my blog and posterous and Facebook and, well, all over. I had no idea how this day was going to play out. Would Chancellor Katehi show up to the rally? Would she speak? What would other people say? Would the tents go up again? How many people would show up? Would it be peaceful (I assumed yes). Would there be any police around? And so on.

After finally having breakfast, I was getting ready to leave when the REAL blurriness began:

phylogenomics Well that could be a bad omen for today http://t.co/KeyHt3sg 11/21/11 10:02 AM

A bad omen?  Uggh.  First I dug out my cycling glasses and put them on.  They are prescription but a bit weird looking.  And I was possibly going to have to wear them all day.  And then, of course, I posted a pic to twitter.  The responses made me less fretful.

BLIND_INTENSITY @phylogenomics lol 11/21/11 10:03 AM

MarilynM @phylogenomics let’s hope not. 😉 11/21/11 10:03 AM

BLIND_INTENSITY @phylogenomics use your inner sight. 11/21/11 10:04 AM

David_Dobbs Some things you best not see. RT @phylogenomics: Well that could be a bad omen for today http://t.co/V5dPDG5U 11/21/11 10:16 AM

BoraZ @phylogenomics tape it, say you are Harry Potter 😉 11/21/11 10:17 AM

And then I found a pair of old glasses – maybe 4-5 years old.  And voila, back in business – a bit crooked.  But no longer blurry (from a vision point of view at least).

Then I packed up my bag with all sorts of blogging/tweeting/photo gear and headed to UC Davis campus.  I parked my bike over by the side of the quad and headed over to see what was going on.  There were a few people starting to accumulate on the quad at this point but not many:

But there were a lot of people over by the Student Union (next to the quad).  Most of these people were apparently from the press but at least there were people there.  There were also many people starting to make signs, including a few little kids, which was also good to see. I took a bunch of pics as I wandered around:

I then bumped into Keith Bradnam, from the UC Davis Genome Center.  And we talked about the events of the last few days, as well as about blogging/tweeting about the events (he is a fellow postaholic).  I went inside to get a drink from the Coffee House and then came back out.  I took a few more pictures as the crowd started to grow:

I then discovered a group gathering around the circle where the flowers had been placed as a “memorial” to the pepper spraying incident.  The group it turns out was partly associated with a course at UC Davis that had ventured outside for class that day.  The class was some sort of art course and the professor was talking to the students.  Then they broke out some wire and wire cutters and started making mini tents to set up in the circle.  I lingered there for a while and took a lot of pics (as I note, so did lots of photographers).

Although I had thought I would only observe things at the rally and not participate I was moved by this activity.  And so I made my own “tent” too.  I added the button I had been wearing that I had taken from my collection, to make a little personal statement.

Then someone came over and said that it was “time” to move on over to the stage for the rally to being.  So I moseyed on over.  I note – the crowd was now getting to be much bigger.  The people in the crowd were very pleasant and were a mixed crew.  I recognized many professors, staff and students from campus as well as a few “townies”.  Many of the people were doing something – carrying a sign – or taking pictures.  And there was a relatively pleasant buzz.  I could not sense any anger.  I took a few more pictures and somehow finagled my way to the front of the crowd at the stage where the press were collecting.

And then there were some equipment checks:

Then came some talks by people who could be viewed more as “organizers” of Occupy related movements.  This included many folks from the English department at UC Davis as well as multiple union representatives.  It was during this part that the rally began to take a bit of what one could call a “socialist” point of view with a lot of discussion of financial issues locally and in the world. Here are some of the pics I took:

The crowd at this point was very very big and pretty loud (and I note – I seemed to know many of them – kept bumping into current and past students).  And many of the speakers seemed a bit overwhelmed when they got up to the stage to see all the people there.  I note – there were some very anti-Katehi talks during this part.  The most passionate was Nathan Brown who had been rallying the anti-Katehi movement for the last few days.  His talk was very very passionate.  And he even went so far as to propose that police should be removed completely from UC campuses.  He did not convince me on that point, but his points about the failures of the UC administration were hard to ignore.  And his rhetoric was, well, very skilled.  Here is a link to a video of his talk.

Next up were some young kids whose connection to the rally was not entirely clear but they were very passionate:

And then we were back to some professor type speakers.

Then the rally switched over to some representatives of various student groups and they talked about how the pepper spray incident affected them.

And then it was time.  Time for Chancellor Katehi to speak.  She came to the stage and talked for a VERY short period of time.  She apologized for the incident.  And she seem very very upset.  And she said she was not going to resign and that she going to lead the University through the crisis and try and institute many changes to make sure this type of thing did not happen again.  She briefly mentioned a sign someone had about an incident at a Greek University in 1973 but did not provide any detail other than that she was there at the time (note – for more on this see here).  And then she left.  Here is a link to a video of her talk.

I should say I have been a huge Katehi fan since she came to UC Davis.  Just about everything she did I liked in some way.  But her handling of this crisis has been really quite bad.  I am not calling for her to resign at this point, though I think the decision to send in riot police to remove protestors/tents was a horrid one.  I would personally like to know a bit more detail about what happened before deciding whether and whom I expect to lose their jobs over this.  Though I note, I completely understand the passionate calls for her to resign. What happened was inexcusable and horrendous and, well, really stupid.

That being said, though I am not calling for her resignation at this point, I do expect her to lead.  And right now I have not seen much in the way of ideas/leadership coming from her.  She could, for example, say that charges will be dropped for the people arrested during/after the pepper spray incident.  She could say that there will be an outside investigation, not an internal one, into the events.  She could say specific things that the University will do to prevent such incidents in the future.  Based upon her prior record I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt.  But changes and action better happen fast.

Anyway – the rally continued.  Clearly the organizers did not want the focus to be on Katehi and her talk.  The next speaker was not impressed with Katehi’s talk and vocally called for her resignation as she was walking away.

The rally then changed over into a Student Government Association meeting.  I lingered for a bit and took a few more pictures.

And then I spent some time wandering through the crowd trying to take pictures of interesting signs or people and such.

While I was walking around, I note, that the students voted to have a general strike on campus on the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Anyway, I planned to head on over to hear my colleague lecture for our class at 3.  I had about an hour to kill before then so I sat down by some of the TV trucks and tried to connect back to the web to post some pictures and notes.  I got some soup, and sat down next to someone at a table by one of the TV trucks and logged on.  Turns out the person I sat next to was from CBS13 and we talked on/off for a bit.  And then their reporter Checkey Beckford sat down to eat her lunch too and we all talked for a bit about the pepper spraying incident and the UC Davis response.  And I got caught up in all this. And then even when they left I continued to work on posting pictures, not realizing that our class had started.  By the time I realized it was really too late to go.

So I got up and wandered around some more and took some more pictures of the next phase of the OccupyUCDavis activities – part of which included setting up tents and a big geodesic dome.

And then I had to head home.  I kind of wanted to stay through the night to see how things went.  But that would not work out well with the family.  So I left.

Overall the day was exhausting.  But exhilarating too.  I did not agree with everything everyone said or did.  But that was not the point.  The power and the passion of the protestors and the people of the University. That was the point.  I left feeling good about UC Davis again.  Not sure what will happen tomorrow.  But the people on campus have risen above the pepper spraying.  They have shown strength beyond what I could have ever imagined.   The world is certainly watching now.  But I am not too worried.  I like what I see.

—————————————
Adding some links here to other stories about this day

• MY UCD Life Blog (UCD Prof): Should Katehi Resign?
• Davis Patch: Photos from the Occupy UC Davis Rally
• Davis Patch: Katehi Makes Short Speech, Emotional Exit (VIDEO)
• Washington Post: UC Davis chancellor apologizes, does not resign
• SacBee UC Davis protesters sleep peacefully on campus Monday night
• SacBee: Chancellor Katehi apologizes to protesters for UC Davis pepper-spraying
• SacBee: UC Davis rally: How Monday’s events unfolded
• Davis Enterprise: Occupied again: Tents back up on UCD quad
• Davis Enterprise: Katehi apologizes for police action; crowd calls for resignation
• Daily Kos: After Chancellor Katehi Faces Thousands @ UC Davis Rally – Daily …
• Davis Enterprise: UCD faculty speak out about Katehi
• Boing Boing: UC Davis chancellor Katehi issues statement on police pepper …
• Marc Valdez’s Blog: Occupy UC Davis Rally, Noon On The Quad … – 
• California Aggie: Students take back the Quad
• Aggie TV: Nathan Brown speaks at UC Davis rally, November 21
• Aggie TV: Thousands Protest Violence & Tuition at UC Davis
• Aggie TV: Katehi speaks at UC Davis rally, November 21
• Inside Higher Ed: An Apology and More Protests