ucfacultysupportingstudents

How I got involved January 24, 2012

It was the “fact sheet” that radicalized me.

I have never been politically active in my life.  Although I have
opinions on political issues, I have always found immersing myself in
my own work far more rewarding than joining the political fray.  Of
course, when I saw the videos of campus police pepper-spraying
students on the quad on November 18 I was disturbed, but I would have
been content to sign a few petitions and vote in any faculty votes on
the matter.

I did sign the letter, written by other physics faculty, calling on
the chancellor to step down.  This was not a knee-jerk reaction to the
video; I understood that it would take time to properly assess
culpability for the events of that day.  Rather, I called for her
resignation because her leadership in the aftermath of the
pepper-spraying was so awful, and because it was clear that she needed
to be sent a very strong message to take a more pro-student stance.

However, at that point I still wasn’t energized enough to actually do
anything.  In the week to ten days following the signing of that
letter by a majority of the physics faculty, Chancellor Katehi
embarked on a charm offensive, proclaiming that she takes
responsibility, etc, and though I viewed that as likely to be
insincere damage control, I was starting to be worn down.

Then came the “fact sheet.”

It arrived in my email as “A message from the Chancellor,” and
apparently many hardcopies printed on high-quality paper were
distributed at town hall meetings.  It purported to give background
information on the events surrounding November 18 and the university’s
response, but the selection of facts was so incredibly biased that one
could come to no other conclusion than that our own administration was
trying to bullshit us.  This is what radicalized me.  I can accept
that any job comes with a certain amount of bullshit, but the
realization that the way in which our highly paid top administrator
planned to “take responsibility” was to inject bullshit straight into
our mailboxes until we succumbed to confusion was too much for me.

Even worse: the “fact sheet” insulted our intelligence.  Could they
possibly think we would fall for that bullshit?!?

At this point, if you haven’t read the fact sheet, you will be
curious.  Can it possibly be that bad?  Judge for yourself: here are
links to the original and to an annotated version I helped prepare,
which adds some relevant facts and analyzes the language.  If you
don’t have time to look in detail, let me give just two examples: (1)
The fact sheet stated that part of the reasoning in sending in the
police on November 18 was that encampments at UC Berkeley had been
successfully cleared in “generally peaceful” fashion, despite the
video seen by over a million people in which UCB police beat students
with truncheons.  The fact sheet’s author can’t have been unaware of
this; the language was crafted to take advantage of certain
technicalities, such as referring to a generally peaceful November 14
in Berkeley when the Berkeley police brutality happened on November 9.
I hate to be so blunt, but this is nothing other than lying about the
nature of the events leading up to November 18.  (2) There is a
description of the chain of command of the UCD police which goes up to
the Vice Chancellor level but then, curiously, stops without
mentioning that the Vice Chancellor is overseen by the Chancellor.  It
is as if an American president took “full responsibility” for a
military disaster but then issued a “fact sheet” stating that the
military is overseen by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who in turn are
overseen by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.  It’s a laughably
transparent attempt to avoid actually taking responsibility.

This is when I became unglued.  We have a great university here in
Davis.  I am proud of our students, who conducted themselves so well
during these events.  I am proud of belonging to such an accomplished
faculty.  I am proud of the civilized way in which the physics
department—faculty, students, and staff—came together to discuss
the events of November 18 with respect for all despite differences of
opinion.  It seems to me that we deserve campus leadership we can be
proud of too.  So when our highly paid administrators come up with
excuses as lame as “the dog ate my homework,” which we would never
accept from a student, I urge you to please, please, please not accept
such excuses.

I hope you find the annotated fact sheet educational.  I was deeply
impressed by George Orwell’s essay “Politics and the English Language”
when I first read it, and Orwell’s lessons are just as valuable today
as when they were written.  If you’d like some nice hardcopies to post
on bulletin boards or to teach with, let me know and I will give you
some.  Even better, let it inspire you to call out the use of language
to avoid responsibility whenever and wherever you encounter it.

The Chancellor still has not apologized for the misrepresentations in
her message, and apparently has no plans to.  This new website is
about supporting students as we try to move forward, and I will keep a
student focus in future posts, but it is difficult to be optimistic
about our ability to move forward as a campus when the administration
won’t own up to its mistakes and deal with us honestly.