We, the undersigned members of the Department of History [at the University of Southern California], unequivocally condemn the university administration for its decision to invite riot police to campus and employ violence against our students and colleagues.
On April 24, a diverse coalition of students assembled at Alumni Park to protest several things. Chief among them were:
1. The administration’s unprecedented decision to deny the valedictorian of the graduating class, this year a Muslim woman of South Asian heritage, the opportunity to make an address at commencement and
2. The ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza by Israel. Students protesting accordingly made several demands of the USC administration, which included calls for divestment and steps to improve campus climate. Students’ plans for the day included yoga sessions, a series of teach-ins about Palestine, and inter-faith activities, all leading to a vigil for the dead at sunset. Protesting students were joined by faculty and other members of the university community. This included several people from our own department, including numerous undergraduate and graduate students. At least four faculty members also joined those gathered at Alumni Park both to protest USC’s complicity in genocide and to ensure the safety of our students. Students were in fact peaceful; they posed no plausible threat to any other member of the university community; their actions were confined to a small part of campus; and they were in no way, shape, or form disruptive to the university’s mission or its day-to-day activities.
Despite these facts, the university administration decided to invite the LAPD onto campus, armed with batons, shields, armor, rubber bullets, and tear gas. In so doing, the administration escalated unnecessarily and introduced violence and weapons into a situation where there had been none.
The actions of USC administration:
· Needlessly and irresponsibly subjected students, faculty, and the wider university community to violence
· Led to the unjust arrest of 93 individuals for trespassing in the place where they work and study; among those arrested were two members of the History Department faculty
· Activated tools of state coercion to suppress free speech and free assembly on campus Like any institution of higher learning, USC’s mission commits the university to developing, cultivating, and applying new knowledge through teaching and research. It is our job as faculty to produce new knowledge, transmit that knowledge to our students, and then help them apply it ethically and morally for the betterment of our communities. We have a duty of care to our students and an ethical commitment to the pursuit of free inquiry. The university administration is therefore obligated to create and maintain a safe space where students and faculty may enjoy the intellectual, social, and material conditions under which teaching and research can flourish. On April 24, learning and exchange did continue. Due to the administration, this was sadly moved from the safety of the classroom and the university commons to police wagons and jail cells. Under no circumstances is any of this acceptable.
On these points, the university administration’s failure is total. By resorting to authoritarian methods, the university has created an environment where inquiry cannot be pursued and ideas may not be freely exchanged. In subjecting our students and colleagues to arbitrary violence, the administration has forfeited its right to lead. We accordingly demand:
· The immediate resignation of President Carol Folt, Provost Andrew Guzman, Senior Vice President Errol Southers, and Chief Lauretta Hill
· That the university drop all charges against the 93 individuals it had LAPD unjustly arrest and reimburse them any and all expenses incurred due to needless detention
· That the university refrain from further intimidation of students involved in peaceful protest or other forms of campus activism, whether it be threatening expulsion, suspension, the loss of scholarships, fellowships, and employment, or other punitive actions
Signed:
*Richard Antaramian, Associate Professor of History
Alice Baumgartner, Associate Professor of History
Marjorie Becker, Professor of History and English
Philip Ethington, Professor of History, Political Science, and Spatial Sciences
*Joan Flores-Villalobos, Assistant Professor of History
Jason Glenn, Associate Professor of History
*Josh Goldstein, Professor of History and East Asian Languages & Culture
Wolf Gruner, Professor of History, Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies, and Founding
Director of the Center for Advanced Genocide Research
Sarah Gualtieri, Professor of American Studies & Ethnicity and History and Middle East Studies
Alaina Morgan, Assistant Professor of History
Jay Rubenstein, Professor of History and Religion and Director of the Center for Premodern
World
George Sanchez, Professor of American Studies & Ethnicity and History
Laura Isabel Serna, Associate Professor of History and Cinema & Media Studies
Nayan Shah, Professor of History and American Studies & Ethnicity
Francille Rusan Wilson, Associate Professor of American Studies & Ethnicity, History, Gender &
Sexuality, and Director USC Black Studies Initiative/Emerging Center
Benjamin Uchiyama, Associate Professor of History
*Aro Velmet, Associate Professor of History
*statement co-author
Relevant video added by Informed Comment:
ABC 7: “LAPD arrests more than 90 people after pro-Palestinian protest at USC”
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