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Political Repression at TESC: Administration and Police Move Against SDS

author: Olympia SDS
Mar 12, 2008 15:02

The Evergreen State College administration has specifically targeted Olympia Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) for political repression by canceling events and threatening to suspend its student group status. This is an attack on student activism and free speech generally and on SDS' political statements and affiliations specifically. After the events of February 14th, SDS discovered that the administration had encouraged the police to investigate the organization as well as prominent activists from the Port of Olympia demonstrations. SDS was the first group to come out publicly against the administration's cooperation with law enforcement and police racism, sexism, and violence. The fact that SDS has been singled out for scrutiny highlights the administration's focus on repressing dissent.

This scrutiny culminated in the cancellation of two events that SDS planned for Friday, March 7th. The events were planned months ahead of time and all the paperwork was finished weeks in advance. One of the events, a panel discussion and film screening, centered on the San Francisco 8 (SF8), a group of former Black Panthers and community activists brought up on thirty-five-year-old charges obtained through torture. Following this event was an acoustic performance headlined by David Rovics. This event was a benefit for an anti-war activist, Carlos Arredondo. Given that the concert moratorium did not pertain to some other events, such as The Tim and Travis Grievance Show, The Wet Spots (a musical comedy), Contra Dancing, and Kimya Dawson (drawing three hundred people), the folk performance was singled out and cancelled for purely political reasons. Also, since the concert moratorium had absolutely no bearing on non-musical events, such as Christa Bell's She-ism, Diversity Race and Power in Academe, Resisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention Centers, the Palestine Education Project, and Jo Kadi on Feminism and Militarism, the SF8 panel discussion should not have been cancelled.

These events were publicized as separately occurring one after the other, not as a single concert. Given the punitive reason for the cancellations, SDS consulted with the various performers and speakers about their wishes for the events and decided to hold them anyway. This decision was not made lightly, as organizers had spent over one hundred hours planning, promoting, and executing both events. Roughly one hundred people packed Lecture Hall One on Friday for the SF8 presentation, and nearly fifty people stayed for the acoustic benefit afterward.

On Monday morning, SDS was informed by the administration that it faced potential suspension as a student group for its actions, which would include a ban on the use of pre-approved funds, holding events, and access to school facilities and meeting spaces. This is not in keeping with the Student Activities Handbook, as the first course of action for the administration is not suspension but a warning. Furthermore, disciplinary action is usually reserved for violating official written policy. The concert moratorium was a publicity stunt announced to pacify the public, not official school policy. If the administration continues its unprecedented use of executive decrees as school policy, then SDS will challenge them with legal and community action.

In one of his recent emails to all members of the campus community, college president Les Purce stated that "open discourse is a core element of our learning process" at Evergreen. His administration is in direct violation of this statement, as he is trying to prevent a large segment of the community from exercising its right to free speech.

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