Tag: UCDavis

AggieTV (@AggieTV) video report on the press conference yesterday re #OccupyUCDavis

Aggie TV report on the Saturday Press Conference at UC Davis

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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Kudos to @AggieTV for the Scoop / Interview with #UCDavis Chancellor Katehi #OccupyUCDavis

Interview with UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi by AggieTV

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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Jason Bell – #UCDavis PostDoc continues his "Open Letter" re: #OccupyUCDavis incident #powerful

Text removed at the request of Jason Bell

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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Letter from Prof. Phil Ward to Chancellor Katehi re pepper spray incident #OccupyUCDavis

Another letter.  This one from Prof. Phil Ward, ant guru from the Entomology Department.  It was a follow up to the one I posted earlier from Prof. Art Shapiro.

Dear Chancellor Katehi,

I share Art Shapiro’s concerns about the damage this incident has done to UC Davis. This was the most widely read and widely shared story on BBC News online today, exceeding in “popularity” the protests in Cairo and the repeat neutrino experiment.

At a minimum I urge you to promptly assume responsibility for the police action and to offer a full, unreserved apology to the university community, as well as an assurance that there will not be a repeat of this shameful event. Beyond that there is much additional fence-mending to be done.

Respectfully,

Philip S. Ward
Professor of Entomology
Department of Entomology and
Center for Population Biology
University of California at Davis

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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Letter from Prof. Artyom Kopp to Chancellor Katehi re; #OccupyUCDavis Pepper Spray incident

Another open letter to the UC Davis Chancellor from a colleague. This one is from Artyom Kopp, an evo-devo guru, also in the Evolution and Ecology Department.

Dear Chancellor Katehi,

I live such a sheltered life that I was not even aware of Friday’s events until yesterday, when messages started piling up in my mailbox from students, faculty colleagues, and friends and colleagues at other universities. I did not support the student protests because I believed them to be misdirected and therefore ineffective. When I first saw references to “police brutality” at UC-Berkeley, I assumed in my cynical fashion that it was the usual attention-grabbing ploy by the protesters. I was wrong. I finally watched the videos last night and what I saw can only be described as outrageous and disgusting. Quite aside from being morally indefensible, cold-blooded use of excessive force against peaceful and essentially orderly protesters has done enormous damage to our university’s reputation and will undermine the trust between the administration, faculty, and students for a long time.

During your short tenure at UC – Davis, you have done much to start turning this university around. You earned a lot of respect among the faculty for speaking plainly, facing up to our problems, and making hard decisions – something that the previous administration seemed incapable of doing. All that is now in jeopardy because of one ill-judged decision. I am aware that many faculty members are calling for your resignation. I am not ready yet for such a drastic step, as I have a deep appreciation for your accomplishments as well as your interaction style. However, the fact remains that this outrage was committed by the university police acting under your direction. Whoever gave the order to use force, ultimately this is your responsibility. What matters now is your response, and I need hardly tell you that your actions in the next couple of days will shape not only your legacy but also the spirit of our university.

An error does not become a mistake until one refuses to correct it. In this case, we are long past damage control or task forces, and the 30-day timeline for addressing a rapidly developing situation is unacceptable. I urge you to apologize, in person, to the victims of police brutality, to identify the failures in the decision-making process that led to the use of force, and to take all necessary steps to make sure this is never repeated. I am sure you understand by now that this is not “an incident”, but one of the defining moments in our history. It will not die down or be swept under the rug; neither the students nor the faculty will let it go. Our future depends on how, and how quickly, you respond. I am afraid you have only the briefest window of time before the damage becomes irreparable. One small part of that damage will be my own confidence in your ability to lead our university.

Sincerely,

Artyom Kopp

Department of Ecology and Evolution 
University of California – Davis http://www.eve.ucdavis.edu/kopplab/
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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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Special meeting of #UCDavis Graduate Student Association to be held Tuesday re #OccupyUCDavis

Just got forwarded this email and thought it would be worth posting. The UC Davis Graduate Student association is planning a meeting on Tuesday regarding the recent pepper spraying incident. Hope it is OK to post (one person said it was …).
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Special Meeting of GSA Representatives

Tuesday November 22, 2011

6:00 – 7:30 p.m.

Location: TBA

There has been much activity by students, faculty and the
administration in response to the police action on campus. The GSA
executive committee met today to discuss how to develop a GSA response on behalf of graduate students. We are deeply concerned about these events and we have seen multiple calls for action from many different people and groups in response. The GSA must also respond to these events, address campus safety and bring attention to the broader concerns that have spurn demonstrations – the roll back of funding to public education and tuition hikes.

We are calling a special meeting on Tuesday November 22 at 6pm to discuss the GSA’s position and develop proposals for action that will be ultimately submitted to the UC Davis Administration on behalf of graduate students. This meeting will be facilitated to generate and discuss what items will be placed before the representatives at our regularly scheduled meeting on November 30th. The proposals developed will be voted on for inclusion in the GSA response.

Individual graduate groups and departments may be organizing their own responses. We encourage you to discuss with your fellow students what they want to have in a GSA response. Bring proposals to this special meeting and/or forward them to the GSA secretary
gsasecretary@ucdavis.edu by 3pm Tuesday.

Representatives, who are not able to attend, please send your
designated alternative.

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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Letter from Prof. Art Shapiro to Chancellor Linda Katehi re #OccupyUCDavis

A lot of email flying around UC Davis right now. Some are from faculty who are sending copies of letters they have written to Chancellor Katehi regarding the current crisis on campus.

I am asking people if they are posting them anywhere not the web and if so I am posting links to them on Twitter. Art Shapiro a butterfly expert from the Evolution and Ecology Department sent this one around and said I could post it:
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Chancellor Katehi: 

The image of the University of California, Davis has been damaged locally, nationally and internationally in a way that will be very difficult to repair. That was made clear to me when an old friend who is a member of the national media called me at home last night to talk about this. We talked for 20 minutes. He said –and I quote — “This could be a game-changer, like Kent State, only thank God no one was killed!” Whatever decisions led to Friday’s debacle and whoever made them, the time for mere “damage control” passed as soon as the video went viral. The video renders ludicrous the claim that the police felt threatened–by demonstrators sitting, arms linked, on the sidewalk! I have no doubt that a resolution of censure will be introduced and will pass, probably by acclamation, at an emergency meeting of the Representative Assembly of the Academic Senate. 

You must assume personal responsibility and apologize on behalf of the University to the entire University community, sincerely and in plain language, without any bureaucratese or references to the task force and its mandate. If you do, there is at least a chance that escalation of the situation can be averted. If you do not… 

I am in my 40th year at this institution. I was at Penn and Cornell in the 60s and know campus crisis from the inside. I have seen crises at Davis before, but never anything like this. Not an hour before the police moved onto the Quad, I was observing to a friend that Davis is not Berkeley, and “vive la difference!” Before this incident, that was a fair statement. Now the shock and the fury are all too palpable, and the fundamental dynamic has changed — and a replay of Berkeley in the 60s looms. 

Please make the right decision, and do so at once. Time is an ally only of the forces of unreason now. 

Arthur M. Shapiro
Distinguished Professor, Evolution & Ecology

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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Statement from #UCDavis Division of the Academic Senate re #OccupyUCDavis

Just got this email and thought it was worth posting/sharing:

Dear Colleagues,

The Executive Council of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate issues the following statement:

“The Executive Council, on behalf of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate, strongly supports the right of all campus citizens to assemble and protest peacefully. It is totally unacceptable to use excessive force against peaceful protesters. The UC Davis administration must assume full accountability for the actions taken on Friday, November 18, 2011. We must assure a campus environment that welcomes diverse perspectives and fosters freedom of expression. We are in full support of an investigation into recent events and a public accounting of all findings.”

The Executive Council also approved the formation of a Special Committee to investigate in a thorough and timely manner the events leading to the use of force on Friday, November 18, 2011.

Finally, I am also calling a Special Meeting of the Representative Assembly. 

Sincerely,
Linda Bisson
Linda F. Bisson,Chair, Davis Division of the Academic SenateProfessor, Department of Viticulture and EnologyUniversity of California, DavisDavis CA 95616

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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Compiling some links of interest relating to the #UCDavis Pepper Spray #OccupyUCDavis story

Links of interest in UC Davis Saga.  In no particular order.  Just trying to keep track of things somewhat

My posts

Letters to the Chancellor and/or commentary by faculty at UC Davis

Misc

Editorials

Pepper Spray info from Deborah Blum: About Pepper Spray
Stories about Yudof response
Police officers and police chief
About the Saturday Press Conference
Stories about/by protestors 
Group Pages of Interest

Local papers and Blogs
——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–

My accidental encounter with the #OccupyUCDavis crowd at #UCDavis #impressed

Well, yesterday was certainly interesting.  In the morning I biked into Davis to go to the Farmer’s Market to pick up some goodies.  It was a spectacular fall day – crisp – clear – a bit chilly – and I great day to be on a bike.

I got to the market, wandered through the crowd and bumped into a few colleagues and friends and was a bit stunned to find out that none of them had even heard about the pepper spraying incident the day before on UC Davis Campus.  Wow.  It had taken over my life in a way all night – see my post about it here: A day of almost pure joy in #DavisCA and at #UCDavis, until … #OccupyUCDavis

So I told them about the incident, and then did some shopping.  It all seemed a bit surreal.  I felt disconnected.  So after filling up my panniers, I biked over to campus.  The Quad at UC Davis – where the whole pepper spray incident had gone down – was eerily quiet.

I stopped to post the pics:
  • Went by #ucdavis quad today – hauntingly empty – but talked to protestor planning massive event Monday http://post.ly/3xByM

I biked around the quad and it all seemed a bit creepy with nobody out there.  Then I saw a UC Davis Tour being led through the quad and I wondered what exactly they would say about the incident.  But they headed inside the Student Union so I decided it was time to bike home.  I headed back around the top of the quad area and saw another tour.  This time, a biker came up next to me and then passed and went up to the tour.  And he shouted something about “better tell them about the pepper spray”.  And then he kept riding towards downtown Davis.  I caught up to him and asked him, in my still sultry laryngitis tinged voice – if he had been there the day before.  He said yes – he had been sprayed and was still pissed off.  We talked for a bit about the craziness of the whole thing (he was an undergrad) and then he told me that Monday they planned a much bigger operation in the Quad with hundreds of tents.  He said they had received many donations of tents to help set things up.
We then went our separate ways but I was left with a feeling of being a bit out of touch.
I went home and kind of stewed in my own juices, reading about the incident and the responses and the calls for the Chancellor to resign. Now – I really like the UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi.  I think she has done an absolutely fantastic job as chancellor in every single thing she has done (prior to this incident).  She has hired excellent administrators.  She has gotten rid of bad ones.  She has tried to reduce expenses on campus in a humane way.  She has been pushing to get private funds to supplement the ever reducing funds from the State.  And I think she is in general a great leader – inspiring in many ways.  So the calls for her to resign over this felt like a kick in the gut.  Now mind you – I have not been impressed with what has transpired here – first the order to bring in the police and then the responses to what happened.  But prior to this event I would have gone to the end to the world for her.  And I was not going to join the call for her to resign without some clearer picture of what happened here.
Then I heard from a tweet from the California Aggie that there was going to be a press conference at 4 PM on Campus in a Building Called Surge II with Katehi and the UC Davis Police Chief. This seemed like it was the most important incident perhaps in the history of UC Davis or at least in the last 10-20 years.  And as I am a prominent promoter of UC Davis in my blog, I figured I should go.  I figured, they probably would not let me in but I should try.  After all – I am a blogger – that could count as the press right?
So at 3:10 PM I hopped in my car (bike had some issues that needed fixing) and drove to campus – scouted out parking by Surge II (nobody was there yet) but decided to park a bit further away in case crowds grew.  So I parked in a lot a few hundred yards away and got out and walked over to the small building where the Press Conference was going to be.  I got there and outside there were about 15 people milling around.  

I went up to them and asked if they were letting people in to the Press Conference.  They said they were not allowed in.  So I stopped and chatted with a few of the people there and took a few pictures.  

I guess this was some of the heart of the OccupyUCDavis protest crowd.  They were discussing with each other how Katehi had come out a few minutes before to talk to them and what she had said.  But I felt a bit awkward joining in their conversation because I was not there to officially join the protest.  I was there to try and get into the Press Conference.  So I tried to get in.  I knocked on the door and was told that the room was too small to allow anyone else in.  I did not tell them that all the public affairs and UCD press people in there probably knew me – that seemed lame.  I said “well, I am kind of a reporter” or something like that.  But no go.  I tweeted a comment:
  • Oh well – just got told I cannot attend the #ucdavis press conference on pepper spray incident “room to small” #occupyucdavis

O got some responses including from MarilynM on twitter

Other people tried to get in too a little bit later and were also herded away.

Oh well.  So I posted the pic with a complaint.

So I had now turned from someone who had hoped to ask questions and report on the press conference to someone who was going to report from the outside.

I then saw a TV truck pull by down the street and took a picture and posted it

And then Marilyn M responded

And so I realized there were people reading my live tweets and interested in them.  And so I decided to be the eyes for people on the ground.  A reporter if you will.  So that is then what I tried to be.
And I took some more pics of the TV trucks as they arrived:

The crowd began to grow a bit and I focused for a while on taking some pics and video of the crowd:

I basically lingered outside the SurgeII building as the protestors tried to disrupt the press conference and have their voices be heard.  While I was there I must say I was generally impressed with the OccupyUCDavis crowd.  They were very upset about the pepper spraying but were trying to turn their anger into something useful.  They wanted their voices to be heard.  They very friendly overall, dedicated to peaceful protest mostly (there were some chants here and there that I did not like – like one calling for the police officer involved in the spraying to come out – but this chant was stopped quickly from within the crowd).  And overall they seemed genuinely concerned with UC Davis and its future.  They were also very very upset that the Chancellor did not choose to have a press conference where they could attend.

The crowd was also quite mixed in background.  There were many undergrads and grad students there.  But also post docs, faculty and others.  I saw some faculty I knew and talked to them for a bit.  And I saw a few students I knew too.  The crowd eventually grew to be maybe a few hundred people.

And at one point they decided it was time to try and disrupt the press conference.  They then proceeded to march from one side of the building to another where a door was open and they thought maybe they could be heard better through the door.  I filmed the march:

Every once in a while during this someone would report on what was going on in the press conference which was live streaming on some channels.  Cheers erupted when apparently the chanting from outside put the conference on hold.  Information was pretty fluid outside the building.  At one point someone went up and down the aisles of people saying the Hiliary Clinton had just called for Katehi to resign on twitter.  I figured that must be misinformation, but it did get the crowd excited for a minute.

I filmed some other videos too

Eventually it was clear the press conference was over and Chancellor Katehi was looking for a way to get out of the building.  The protestors clearly wanted to see her and engage her in some way and they waited and waited but no Katehi.  They kept trying to coordinate placing people at the various exits to the building and at one point they were even allowed into the building through various entrances but I guess there were not allowed into the room where the press conference was happening.

I was impressed with how the crowd desperately wanted to be peaceful.  They kept offering (in the form of chants) statements that they would give Katehi a clear way out of the building when she wanted to leave.  And then another chant would break out saying something about how she should resign.

And then alas I had to go home to my kids.  As I was getting ready to go the crowd was trying to form a line of sorts in which Katehi would be allowed to pass if she came out.

And then it was time for me to go

Overall I left being very impressed with the OccupyUCDavis protestors.  I still did not agree with the call for Katehi to resign.  I guess I want(ed) more information about who decided what. And that is why I wanted to go to the press conference.  I was going there open to the possibility that she made mistakes but that the most egregious ones may have ben made by others.  I still have not seen the press conference so I am going to check it out and see if it adds anything to the story.  In the end, I think she has been such a great Chancellor so far that I am going into this willing to wait for more details before joining the choruses calling for resignation.

Though I note – I am so far extremely disappointed with the UCD responses to the incident and extremely disturbed by the incident itself.  There must be major changes and they should not wait for a 90 day investigation.  It seems pretty clear that the truth is not emerging from the UC Davis officials – it is only coming out via video and interviews and posts from the protestors and witnesses.  From what I can tell the UCD police are definitely being deceptive and/or completely dishonest about what happened.  I personally have ben unsure whether the UCD administration is doing the same.  But it certainly is starting to seem like a possibility.   I think the jobs of many of the UCD higher ups involved in this hang by a thin thread right now.  But when I left the protests, I was not willing to say we should cut that thread just yet.  I wanted to be measured in response to the outrageous unmeasured actions of the UCD police.

So I went home.  And then I saw the most amazing thing.  The video of the response of the protestors to Katehi leaving the building is incredible.  An absolutely amazing show of solidarity, peace and wisdom.

All I can say is – wow.  An iconic moment.  Though I was not there for the actual moment I felt like I was there in spirit.  The OccupyUCDavis protestors in a single moment have made a statement that will last forever.  And they alone seem to be the ones carrying the torch for a restoration of the good name of UC Davis that has been plunged into the depths by this crisis.  It is these silent protestors that hold the spirit of the University.  Whose University?  Our University.

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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