Berkeley Faculty Submit Petition Calling for End of Disciplinary Proceedings Against Student Protesters

To: Robert Birgeneau, Chancellor
George Breslauer, Executive Vice-Chancellor
Jonathan Poullard, Office of Student Conduct

Attached you will find the faculty petition asking for the cessation of all disciplinary proceedings against student protesters at this time. We take no positions on the allegations themselves or on the final guilt or innocence of those against whom allegations have been made, but object to the flawed procedures which cast doubt on whether any just outcomes can emerge from these reviews. I believe you already have both the statement by the Northern California ACLU as well as one from the Campus Rights Project from Boalt Law School that support the points made here. As you will see from the letter and those documents, there are several very strong reasons to object to any procedures carried out under these circumstances.

The letter details five interlocking grounds for this position: the failure to afford due process to students charged, the imposition of sanctions without adjudication, the failure to specify evidence necessary to ground the charges, the inadequate protection of the right to protest, and the failure of the Office of Student Conduct to follow its own procedures.

I hope that it may be possible to set up a meeting with you at your earliest convenience and 2-3 of the 135 signers of this petition. Thank you for considering these serious concerns voiced by a significant cross-section of the faculty. We hope to be part of the process of arriving at a fair solution to this problem.

Sincerely,

Judith Butler
Maxine Elliot Professor
Rhetoric and Comparative Literature

UCB Faculty petition posted at:

http://budgetcrisis.berkeley.edu/?p=2387