Philosopher Tom Christiano at the University of Arizona kindly shared this letter he and colleagues sent to university leadership:
May 7, 2024
Dear University Leadership,
We, the undersigned faculty at the University of Arizona, wish to express our support and respect for both our undergraduate and graduate students who stood by their convictions in peacefully protesting during recent events. We also wish to express our shock and dismay at the University’s heavy-handed response. We as faculty do not wish here to take any collective position regarding Israel's recent response to the outrageous October 7 terrorist acts of Hamas, or the grievous concerns of the Palestinian people who now face devastating conditions. The matter is complex, and we do not necessarily agree amongst each other. But we fully stand by our students who have bravely engaged in respectful and perfectly legitimate political protest. We strongly object to the University's disingenuous, excessive, and militaristic response to these students, who are taking part in activities on a university campus that is supposed to celebrate the free expression of difficult and often controversial ideas.
The university secured the departure of protestors on Monday night with the promise that they could return the next day, and then broke the promise by cordoning off the mall. Swat teams, police in riot gear, and military assault vehicles on our campus in the days leading up to the recent police action on Tuesday night were counter-productive and reckless, displaying a propensity to authoritarian leadership where compromise, dialogue, and understanding were needed. The disastrous consequences of such excessive interventions have become abundantly evident over the last few weeks across the United States.
In a recent letter to the campus, President Robbins insists that "zero tolerance" for rule breaking is the reason for suppressing the student action. This attitude is incompatible with a healthy respect for the values of freedom of speech and peaceful political protest in times of social tension. Dark hints of “outside agitators” and stolen fences attest to this same authoritarian attitude. The President's and the University's premature deployment of the Tucson police has resulted in teams of police in riot gear, guns pointed directly at the unarmed, rubber bullets fired at our own students, and the use of chemical irritants on them. We register that some poor behavior by some protesting reasonably precipitated the use of some force from police, who were after all only called upon to do their jobs. But senior leadership showed extremely poor judgment and bear a considerable amount of responsibility for allowing the circumstances to escalate as they have.
We believe in and trust our students, and we are proud of them for acting honorably. We understand that the leadership has had to balance many considerations in the actions they have taken, but we are disappointed in the current university leadership’s insufficient concern for the free expression of students and faculty on our university campus, and for the insufficient care taken for the welfare of our students.
Respectfully yours,
Thomas Christiano, Philosophy, University of Arizona
Michael McKenna, Philosophy, University of Arizona
Mark Timmons, Philosophy, University of Arizona
Joseph Tolliver, Philosophy, University of Arizona
Jason Turner, Philosophy, University of Arizona
Jonathan Weinberg, Philosophy, University of Arizona
Marga Reimer, Philosophy, University of Arizona
Suzanne Dovi, SGPP, University of Arizona
Vlad Tarko, PEMS, University of Arizona
Guido Pincione, Philosophy, University of Arizona
Maria Porter, PEMS, University of Arizona
Houston Smit, Philosophy, University of Arizona
Recent Comments