Jailed UCD Protestors in Legal Limbo

We are writing to clarify the status of the charges of the 50 students and 1 professor who were arrested in Mrak Hall on Thursday, November 19. To clarify, the Yolo County District Attorney (DA) has not dropped the charges for these students.He has announced publicly that he will not be pressing charges at this time, i.e. discharging, but not dismissing, the cases. This means that the DA has up to one year to press charges for the misdemeanors. In most cases, the DA will not bring these charges back up. However, the DA (and the University) may use these charges (and the possibility that these charges could be pressed in the next year) to discipline and regulate the behavior of these students in future protests.

UC Davis students protest in solidarity as they take over Dutton Hall.

In other words, if any of these students were arrested or cited at a future demonstration during the next year, there could be two charges instead of none. The DA is quoted in the Sacramento Bee: “While criminal charges may be filed for up to one year after the date of the alleged violation, it is our hope that future student demonstrations will comply with the law and eliminate the need for the district attorney’s involvement at all.”

The point is that the DA, the university administration, and the police want to appear benevolent, but they have not given up any powers of prosecution in this situation. Instead, faced with the public relations disaster of having increased students’ fees by a stunning 32% and then having students arrested for voicing their displeasure at the increase, the administration engages in tactics designed to create the illusion of leniency while curtailing future demonstrations.

Just as the University pretends to dialogue with students while mobilizing police to arrest them, it pursues the Janus-faced policy of, on the one hand, sending patronizing emails congratulating us for our activism while, on the other hand, actively working to depoliticize the student body by placing the Mrak 51 in legal limbo and even making the outrageous claim that future actions by any students might have legal consequences for the Mrak 51. It is our view that, if any of these students were to be cited or charged again under such circumstances, this would amount to a politically motivated prosecution.

We reject the University’s attempt to create a legal Sword of Damocles with which to intimidate potential activists. We encourage students to engage in all forms of non-violent protest, including acts of civil disobedience.

We reject calls to redirect efforts toward Sacramento at this time.  While the state budget crisis is real, it pales in comparison to the mismanagement of funds by the UC administration, whose ranks and salaries have exploded over the last decade, in a growth fueled largely by student debt. We are not simply demanding that the recent 32% fee increase be rescinded; we demand a return to the 1960 California Master Plan for Higher Education, which stipulates that public colleges and universities be tuition free for qualified state residents. This implies a shift of priorities, away from capital construction projects, top-heavy administration, and “branding,” and back to the University’s core educational mission.

Education should be considered a public good, not a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder. Yet the regents and the high administration have made the decision to raise fees to “market value,” thereby reducing accessibility and undermining the UC’s mission to educate Californians without regard to their socioeconomic circumstances. Previous generations of administrators, along with former governors, understood the UC’s crucial mission. Even Governor Reagan, contrary to legend, instituted withholding of the state income tax, precisely in order to keep the UC tuition free.

Students, faculty, and administrators alike must recognize that the crisis we face isn’t simply an economic crisis: it is a battle to save the UC (and the state along with it) from a decades-long trend of abandoning public values in favor of an ideology of privatization that obligates the University to respond to the interests of private donors and corporations rather than the public good.

Finally, returning to the immediate issue, the student arrested outside Mrak Hall is still facing charges. We believe that the allegations against her are false, and urge the administration and UCPD to keep their promise to review the matter.

Signed,

Students and Faculty at UC Davis

Caitlin Alday, Brian Ang, Blair M Citron, Anita Francesca Claverie, Joshua Clover, Emily Dalmeyer, Jon Dettman, Jacqueline Dufresne, Adam Fetterman, Janaki Jagannath, Kristin Koster, Tim Kreiner, Dory Mastrogany, Illiana Ramos, Laurel Recker, Jacqueline Guevara Ruvira, Alexa Sommers-Miller, Kurt Vaugn, Geoffrey Wildanger, Jordan Wilhelm, Michelle Yates, Daniel Yeshiwas.