Breaking News: "Abuses of Power" Event 12-1 TODAY at UCI CCC

THIS JUST IN - NOT ANNOUNCED IN THE MSU'S WEEK 10 E-CALENDAR

(emphasis is not mine)

WHAT:
[sic] Coallition discussion on the Abuses of Power and resistances here at home AND abroad.

WHEN:
12-1pm

WHERE:
Conference Room in the Cross Cultural Center

I wonder who is in the "coalition" and what types of "abuses of power" are they're talking about?

An easy guess is that "here at home" refers to the UCLA Tasering as I blogged about earlier this week; I'm wondering if there's something else that's on their minds.

As to "abroad", the Pope's visit to Turkey? Dunno.

UPDATE

A reader posed the following appropriate question:

"I wonder more about what kind of "resistances" the "coalition" recommends."

Thank you for posing that question. It is something that we must ask, as the MSU has for years now unquestioningly supported:

- Organizations whose preferred military tactic is to deliberately target innocent men, women, children, and elderly citizens simply because they happen to be Jewish

- Organizations whose main choice of weapons are suicide bombers and rockets on Jewish communities

- Organizations who specifically chose to include in their charter a quotation from their scripture that states (and this is just one of many quotations in their charter):

[t]he Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/hamas.htm - article seven)

The MSU has in the not-so-distant past published articles separating Jews from the rest of the human race, and at least one rally held up signs with a new blood libel: that Jews canned and ate the meat of Palestinian children. Even most recently as May of this year, the MSU's favorite speaker issued this threat to the Jews: "your days are numbered."

So one can only guess about what the MSU considers "beyond the pale".

To the UCI Administration:

I have seen Deans and even higher representatives at many of the MSU's events reading the placards and listening to the speeches.

We have asked you in the past and will continue to ask you to do something that has a concrete effect regarding the hateful environment on campus towards Jews.

You have tried - with my support - dialogues between the religious groups. In response, instead of softening their rhetoric, the MSU's words have hardened. So the environment has gotten worse, not better.

The MSU meeting announced above should be a wake up call that the MSU may be choosing to go beyond talk and turn their thoughts into actions. If something happens, you will be held responsible.

Consider yourselves on notice.

"Academic Freedom" Discussion on Thursday

I just caught a glimpse on campus yesterday of a poster announcing a discussion on "Academic freedom and the future of campus discourse". It'll be on Thursday November 2nd from 2 to 4 pm in the Cross Cultural Center.

Given how the MSU continually flouts its annually signed agreement to uphold the UCI Principles of Community - which speak of Tolerance and Civility - someone should put the question to the discussion panel as why the university isn't punishing the MSU for there repeated violations of their oath.

Someone should also ask why Jewish students must be required to put up with continual verbal harassment (example: the MSU's unequivocal support for terrorist groups which deliberately target of Jewish civilians because of their ethnic background) in order to be a part of this campus community.

UPDATE

The Cross Cultural Center is building #103 in quadrant D5 on the UCI Campus Map.

UPDATE

I should point out that the description below as well as the descriptions on the poster I saw and any other online descriptions I've found of this event do not list the panel members. Kinda makes you wonder...are they leftists? Are they rightists? Are they litigators? Are they professors? Are they administrators?

If anybody finds the list of panel members prior to the event, please post it in a comment and I'll bring it to the forefront.

Link to event description

This panel will discuss the current state of academic freedom and explore several recent developments with the potential to redefine long-standing views within U.S. higher education. Issues that pertain to new legislation, enacted within the context of a post-9/11 world, has called into question many traditional notions of free expression and prompted reassessment of the limits to personal privacy and First Amendment guarantees. Several campuses have been forced to make difficult choices when striving to balance competing commitments to free expression and institutional security and safety. The panelists will explore these timely issues, highlight important policy considerations, and provide their insights and experiences.