Earlier, DFA Chair Scott Shershow sent a letter to Provost Hexter and Vice Chancellor Meyer to raise objections to the “Demonstration Management Principles and Policies.” In their response, Provost Hexter and Vice Chancellor Meyer assured the DFA that leadership of the Davis Division of the UC Academic Senate is regularly consulted in matters related to protest management, including about the message in question. With this letter, Chair Shershow is following up on these assurances with the UC Davis Academic Senate:
Dear Chair Bisson,
As the Chair of the Davis Faculty Association, in consultation with its board, I recently wrote to Provost Hexter and Vice-Chancellor Meyer raising several objections to the “Principles for Demonstration Management” which they promulgated in an email to the campus community on March 1, 2012. Among other things, the DFA board pointed out that these new principles made no mention at all of the recently-passed Senate resolution that “demands that police deployment against protestors be considered only after all reasonable efforts have been exhausted and with direct consultation with Academic Senate leadership.” Further, when the Provost and Vice-Chancellor stated that “campus police may be required to help respond to or resolve emergency situations,” they did not make clear that they intended to account for and include the specific recommendation of the Senate resolution in the structure of the administration’s decision-making process.
In a subsequent response to my letter, Provost Hexter stated: “Be assured that leadership of the Davis Division of the UC Academic Senate is regularly consulted in matters related to protest management. In fact, Senate leadership was consulted about the message in question.”
(The full text of the DFA’s original letter of inquiry, and of the Provost’s reply, are available at http://ucdfa.org/)
We now wish to inquire of the Senate for more details about the consultation that Provost Hexter mentions. In what way, exactly, was the Senate consulted as to these new “principles” prior to their distribution, and if so, did the Senate leadership approve them? More generally, we would also be interested in knowing what steps, if any, the Senate leadership has taken or intends to take to ensure that “direct consultation with Senate leadership” will take place prior to any future deployment of police against protestors.
Sincerely,
—
Scott C. Shershow
Professor of English
Chair, Davis Faculty Association
etc…