Task force investigating #UCDavis Pepper Spray Incident report to be released 3/6

Just got an email from UC Communications

"Former California Supreme Court Associate Justice Cruz Reynoso, chair of the task force investigating the pepper-spray incident on November 18, 2011, said today the task force is working toward public release of findings and recommendations on Tuesday, March 6, at a time and location on the UC Davis campus to be determined. 

Additional information will be provided as soon as it is available."

Results of #UCDavis Faculty Resolutions released re: Katehi, Pepper Spray, #OccupyUCDavis

Just received the three emails below regarding results of three UC Davis Faculty Senate Resolutions regarding the pepper spray incident from November and thought they might be of some interest.  See this post for a little background.  

REPORT OF THE DAVIS DIVISION OF THE ACADEMIC SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS, RULES AND JURISDICTION

On December 20, 2011, a petition bearing the signatures of at least 50 members of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate of the University of California was submitted asking that the following Motion Concerning Police Actions be voted on by the membership of the Davis Division (tenure/tenure-track faculty of the UC Davis Campus):

Letter from Chancellor Katehi to #UCDavis Community

Posting this email I received for those interested.  Not sure what will happen this quarter in terms of Occupy UC Davis actions and related issues ... but will post as things develop.

Dear UC Davis Community,


Happy New Year! I am writing to welcome everyone back to campus and to share my thoughts about the coming year at UC Davis.

My brother Matthew, a UC Irvine grad. student in sound engineering, takes on the pepper spray issue

My younger brother Matt is a sound engineering student at UC Irvine. As I did with my post: Top 10 reasons to still consider attending #UCDavis #OccupyUCDavis he has tacked the UC crisis with humor ... Check out his radio spot:

Radio Spot by mattglenn

Two #UCDavis Academic Senate Ballot Initiatives related to #OccupyUCDavis Pepper Spray Incident

Just got this email and thought it would be of interest to some

Colleagues,

This message provides notice of two impending ballots, as required by Davis Division Bylaw 17:  http://academicsenate.ucdavis.edu/cerj/manual/dd_bylaws.cfm#17-.  You have received this notice as a voting member of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate.  The Davis Division received at least 50 valid signatures with each petition, requiring initiation of a formal notice and electronic ballot.  More information, including the method for gathering pro and con statements and the voting period, will be distributed on January 9, 2012.  The petitions are summarized below:

1) Petition received on December 6, 2011, requests a vote regarding a lack of confidence in the leadership of Chancellor Katehi, with the result of the vote to be communicated to the Board of Regents and UC President.

Fact Sheet from #UCDavis Administration annotated by some skeptical faculty #OccupyUCDavis

Just got a pointer to this by email and thought some would be interested (not endorsing everything that is there but it is definitely worth a look - the Fact Sheet they are annotating rubbed me the wrong way too).

5 UCD faculty members prepared an annotated version of the "fact sheet" sent by the Chancellor's office last week: https://sites.google.com/site/realfactsheet/realfactsheet.pdf

This is designed not only to give more of the relevant facts, but also to analyze the quality of communications coming out of the Chancellor's office. The list of endorsers is at https://sites.google.com/site/realfactsheet/endorsers.pdf

Meeting of Faculty in College of Biological Sciences w/ Chancellor Katehi #UCDavis

A few days ago I got the following email:

Good Afternoon,

To all “Faculty Members Only” of the College of Biological Sciences:

Chancellor Katehi has requested a meeting with the faculty members of the College of Biological Sciences.  For this particular session, the invitation is extended to faculty members only.

This will be an opportunity to ask questions and to hear the Chancellors plans for moving forward.

Date:                     Thursday, December 8, 2011
Location:              Conference Room – Life Sciences Building / 1022
Time:                     1:00 pm – 2:30 pm

And today was the day.  It was a very hectic day for me.  AM kid related duties.  Then I dropped off two pairs of broken glasses to get soldered (one of which had broken on the day of the major post-pepper spray rally at UC Davis.  Then off to lab where I had only a short period of free time before lab meeting (alas, unlike last week, this meeting was indoors).  And then off to the meeting with the Chancellor.  Here are some notes from that meeting --- more of a stream of consciousness than detailed notes in many cases but hopefully this will give a gist of how the meeting went.

Some new links/information regarding Pepper Spray incident and #UCDavis response

Not going to write much here but am posting some links for those interested:

• New letter to Davis Enterprise expressing lack of confidence in Chancellor Katehi
• Middle East/So. Asia Program calls for Resignation (via @AmyChamp on twitter)

More Davis Enterprise Stories

• Spotlight aimed at UCD police's use-of-force policies
• Yudof names members of pepper-spray task force
• Occupy UC Davis readies for 'long road' ahead
• Katehi op-ed: How do we learn from this?
• Katehi, faculty agree on message, not who can deliver it

Kroll Associates "fact finding" email re: #OccupyUCDavis #UCDavis

Just got this email and thought I should post it

from UC Davis Fact Finding Review ucdavisfactfindingreview@ucdavis.edu to UC Davis Campus Community date Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 4:37 PM subject UC Davis Fact-Finding Review: November 18 Pepper-Spray Incident mailed-by ucdavis.edu

To the UC Davis Campus Community:

Letter from Chair of #UCDavis Academic Senate re: Friday assembly #occupyucdavis

Posting this email I just received

Forwarded on behalf of Chair Linda F. Bisson


Dear Colleagues,


I wish to thank you those of you available to attend the Special Meeting of the Representative Assembly on Friday, December 2, 2011. We estimate the audience at approximately 300 and including 69 voting members of the Representative Assembly. The discussion of the action on November 18, 2011, was frank, constructive and important.

Letter from Chancellor Katehi to #UCDavis Community #OccupyUCDavis

I received this by email last night:

Dear UC Davis Community,

I want to thank everyone for attending the recent student and then faculty and staff town hall meetings.   I sincerely appreciated the opportunity to not only share my thoughts, but also hear from you.

Well #occupyevolution Eisen lab meeting in UCDavis quad has begun #occupyucdavis

California Aggie (#UCDavis student newspaper) also doing great job w/ #OccupyUCDavis Coverage

The California Aggie, the UC Davis student newspaper is also doing a great job with covering the Occupy UC Davis saga.  Here are some links of interest:

• Students continue occupy Dutton Hall, business disrupted
• News in Brief: UC Regents raise administrative salaries
• What happened during 17 November?
• Katehi holds town hall meeting for faculty and staff
• Students speak with UC Regents at meeting
• Campuswide strike declared by protesters

Davis Enterprise really doing a rocking job covering #OccupyuUCDavis Story

The Davis Enterprise has really come through in the clutch with diverse coverage of the pepper spraying incident as well as diverse, interesting and sometimes unusual letters and comments.  Here are some links from them of interest:

News Stories

• UCD faculty come not to bury Katehi, but to praise her Posted on: November 30, 2011
• Reisig, Prieto seek AG's help in pepper-spraying probe Posted on: November 29, 2011
• Cool the rhetoric and follow UCD's cultural norms Posted on: November 29, 2011
• UCD protesters occupy Dutton Hall Posted on: November 28, 2011
• Students want action from regents on tuition, use of force Posted on: November 28, 2011
• Teach-ins replace classrooms for some on Monday Posted on: November 28, 2011
• Reynoso to lead task force looking into UCD pepper-spraying Posted on: November 28, 2011
• An appeal to alums: Don't cut off donations Posted on: November 28, 2011
• Video shows Pike warned protesters Posted on: November 26, 2011

Letter of support for #UCDavis Chancellor cosigned by ~ 250 faculty #OccupyUCDavis

There was a letter published in the Davis Enterprise (Letter to the Editor – The Davis Enterprise) co-signed by many UC Davis Faculty. I have been sent the letter by Walter Leal, one of the coordinators of the distribution and signing, and he also sent the latest list of faculty signers (which has expanded greatly since the Enterprise letter was published). I am posting the letter and the latest list here. Note - I am also (slowly) adding links to web pages for the faculty so that people can find out more about who they are.

We, the undersigned UC Davis faculty, support the free exchange of ideas on campus and students’ right to peaceful protests. We are appalled by the events of Friday, Nov. 18 in the Quad, but heartened by the Chancellor's apology and her commitment to listen to and work on the students’ concerns. We strongly believe that Linda Katehi is well-qualified to lead our university through this difficult healing process and oppose the premature calls for her resignation; this is not in the best interest of our university.

1. Walter S. Leal, Professor, Entomology
2. Nina Amenta, Professor, Computer Science
3. Francisco J. Samaniego, Distinguished Professor, Statistics
4. Ricardo H. R. Castro, Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering & Material Science
5. Kevin Johnson, Professor and Dean, Law School (signing in his individual capacity)
6. Eduardo Blumwald, Professor, Plant Sciences
7. Miguel A. Mendez, Professor, Law School
8. Maureen Stanton, Professor, Evolution and Ecology
9. Miguel A. Marino, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Hydrologic Sciences, Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Biological & Agricultural Engineering

Faculty and staff arriving for Town Hall meeting with Chamcellor

Email from #OccupyUCDavis to #UCDavis faculty - Call for a General Strike

Just got this email about the call for a General Strike apparently from OccupyUCDavis folks. It was from someone I do not know named Eric Lee. Not sure if he is a UC Davis student or not.

Dear UC Davis Faculty Member,

On behalf of the 99.5% of students, faculty, and workers who voted in favor of a General Strike to be held this coming Monday, November 28th, we are asking that you cancel your scheduled classes or hold your class on the quad this coming Monday in solidarity with your fellow community members against the terrible acts of police brutality committed this past week on our campus.

Our call for a walk-out lies on a series of undeniable principles of equality and democracy that we all share:

1) The right to peacefully redress government for grievances of social inequality under the first amendment

2) The right to not be brutally beaten for exercising these rights

3) Teachers, TAs, professors, faculty, and staff have the right to tenure and a fair wage

4) Education is a social right and fee-increases and budget cuts are unnecessary given the obscene plundering of the economy by the richest Americans over the past years

5) The fight for education is synonymous with the fight for equality in all social realms: housing, food, healthcare, transportation, energy, etc.

6) The US Government’s prioritization of war and tax cuts for the rich above social services for working Americans is unjust and should be reversed

This is a call to join the walkout against police brutality and social inequality. We are making space and facilities (white boards, etc.) available for all who are interested in holding class on the quad. Any special requests by teachers and faculty will be accommodated to the best of our ability.

Please respond to this email letting us know which of the three options you will be choosing:

a) I plan to cancel all classes Monday

b) I plan to hold classes in the quad Monday

c) I do not plan to cancel classes and I do not support the fight for public education

Please let us know of your plans ASAP.

Thank you for your cooperation!

-Occupy UC Davis
- - -
Note: A link to the General Strike proposal can be found here:
http://reclaimuc.blogspot.com/2011/11/uc-davis-strike-call.html

Not sure how I feel about much of what is in this message (actually - messages since there is a lot of stuff in here). I note - I am not a fan of their request for responses where the only no option is "I do not plan to cancel classes and I do not support the fight for public education". Well, as I have said here, I am not sure how I feel about the plan for cancel classes but I strongly support public education. I note I am a big supporter of many parts of the OccupyUCDavis movement that I have seen. But the tone here suggests that if you are not with them on this, then you are against them. I don't like that style since I thought I was one of them in some ways. In addition, the vote that was held (if he is referring to the vote at the Assembly Monday) did not include faculty or workers as far as I know since I thought it was a student vote. At least, that is what people told me when I was there - I would have voted actually - but was told it was a student vote.

I note - as of 30 minutes ago I was planning on doing a teach in on Monday in the Quad and still hope to. But I confess I am a bit worried about the direction and tone of the OccupyUCDavis movement based on this email.

UPDATE - I presume this "Eric Lee" is the same as the one who wrote the following:
The “Pepper Spray Incident” and the Inevitable Radicalization of the UC Student Body

Tuesday AM at #OccupyUCDavis camp

Tuesday AM I went over to check out the OccupyUCDavis encampment that had been set up overnight.  It had grown quite a bit since I had left the night before.  I wandered around taking some pictures and also dropped off a case of homemade pluot jam to donate.  While I was there I witnessed a government meeting to discuss various rules and issues.  The first discussion was a concern about smoking.  The second discussion was a reminder / encouragement to behave appropriately (i.e., no violence, illegal acts, etc).  Seemed to be going pretty well. 

Lots of TV crews were wandering around again but not much else seemed to be happening. The geodesic dome was up.  I then headed off to work on the other side of campus (work - I remember what that was).  Pics are below.

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