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cxpj_200906
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Counter Point Journal Issue 3 (June 2009)
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June 2009
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Counter Point Journal
FREE
Issue 3 - June 2009
Editorial #3:
Education and Action
Special ntap of free speech zones at Evergreen
by CxPJ Editorial Collec#11e
When a word is deprived of its dimension
of action, reflection automatically suffers
as well; and the word is changed into idle
chatter, into verbalism, into an alienated and alienating 'blah.' It becomes an
empty word, one which cannot denounce
the world,for denunciation is impossible
without commitment to transform, and
there is no transformation without action.
-Paulo Freire,
Pedagogy of the Oppressed
As we think through how the year
has developed, we're forced to ask,
"What is education for?" For many,
education means being able to get a
better job and having some measure
of security during increasingly uncertain times. In a lot of ways we've
come to accept this and even expect
that if we go to college a spot will be
reserved for us someplace where the
grass is a little greener and we have to
worry a little less.
But something seems to get lost
along the way, and education as a
process critical for q.emocracy gets
mutated into training. In the name
of this better life, we're told to submit to "higher expectations" (see the
articles on Free Speech and Student
Conduct Code in this issue), to act
in ways that reproduce Brand Evergreen™, and to allow the administration to make decisions that will
affect students in the present and for
generations to come.
•Let's look at some specific cases. A
common speech Evergreen President
Les Purce likes to give to new stulove Evergreen because they know
that Greeners are good workers who
can collaborate on projects. Indeed,
many teachers we've had confirm
this, citing Boeing hiring scouts who
look for workers that know how to
coordinate technical data for optimal
efficiency. There's also the rise of the
"Green Industry," and Evergreen's
signature commitment to sustainability becomes less and less about
maintaining a healthy environment
but more about our prowess in profitable engineering. Evergreen's success becomes synonymous with its
ability to train workers fit for whatever is fashionable.
But for Evergreen as an institution to sell itself on these qualities,
it needs to speak with one voice, uninterrupted, and to do that it needs
to secure its monopoly on decisions
and representation. Queue the increased role of police, the suppression of free speech activity (like the
checkpoint street theater and yours
truly), and the intentional shift in
demographic from oppressed and
local populations to rich students
across the country (No joke - this
was a recommendation listed in the
budget policy. See page 4).
•
Of course, there are many contradictions with this model, not the
least of which being budget cuts that
threaten the already strained resources of the college and increased police
funding despite a fairly constant rate
of crime. As far as the myth of economic security goes, the Center for
Economic and Policy Research states
in a recent report that "[u]nemployment among workers with college
degrees continues to rise, jumping
0.4 percentage points in May. At 4.8
percent, the unemployment rate is
now twice that of a year ago, when it
stood at only 2.3 percent." (Kind of a
downer for graduates.)
So as we look back on this, we remember that education isn't about
security; it's about empowerment.
Education is about developing skills
►
EDITOIUAL continues on page 2
D
Free Speech Area
Limited Speech Area
Extending the boundaries ofcontrol over student conduct
by Andrew Sernatinger
on a case by case basis.
3: ... conduct may occur before proThe Student Conduct Code Disapgrams/courses begin or after they
pearing Task Force (DTP) presented
end, as well as during the academits draft of the new Code on Wednesic year and during periods between
day, May 27th (week 9 of spring quarterms of actual enrollment (and
ter) as part of their revision process.
even if their conduct is discovered
This summer the DTP will consult
after a degree is awarded).
with student affairs professionals
from other universities for feedSECTION IV. STANDARDS FOR
back and with a lawyer to confirm
STUDENT CONDUCT
language that is legal and feasible.
1. Obstruction or disruption of
Following a final draft, the DTP will •
learning, teaching, research, adpresent its recommendations for
ministration, freedom of speech
the new Conduct Code to Vice Presiand movement, the adjudicative
dent of Student Affairs Art Costanprocess, public services functions
tino, who will then have the option
or College-sponsored activities on
to endorse the recommendations
or off campus.
and present them to the higher-ups.
Multiple members of the DTP have
3. Failure to be truthful
stated that it is highly unlikely for
and forthcoming to the
the DTP to institute the new Code
College or a College ofbefore the fall.
ficial.
As it stands, the document pro5. Failure to comply with
poses an expansioq of power for
directions of College ofadministering the Conduct Code,
ficials or emergency rewhich includes extending the colsponse personnel acting
lege's jurisdiction outside of Everin performance of their
green, a revised grievance system
duties which includes
that explicitly forbids the counsel
failure to identify oneof attorneys, further concentration
self to persons when reof power in the hands of the Vice
quested to do so.
President of Student Affairs, and
prescription of harsher penalties for
17. Refusal to desist
students, including the revocation
from prohibited conduct.
of an awarded diploma.
Some highlights of the draft in- These highlights touch on larger isclude:
sues within the proposed Conduct
Code. The extension of the Con4uct
SECTION III. JUR~SDICTION OF
Code's jurisdiction beyond the acaTHE CODE
demic institution puts uncomfort2: The Code applies to conduct able pressure on both students and
that occurs off campus a"nd the college to delineate between
which adversely affects the College students as private individuals and
Community and/or the pursuit of enrolled students, exemplified by the
its objectives. The Vice President code's stipulations that continue to
for Student Affairs shall determine adjudicate students even after legal
whether the Code shall be applied action has been pursued. Along with
to conduct occurring off campus, the code's penalization of a "refusal
to desist," which effectively punishes
a student twice for the same issue, it
also creates an internal system to
process students for behavior that is
already illegal.
This also raises the question of the
code's broad language. Many sections were left intentionally broad,
said the student representative to
the DTP, in order to handle problems that they could not account for,
specifically regarding sexual "misconduct." Students and faculty alike
have expressed concern that this
broad language can be used to suppress political action at the college,
despite objections from members of
the DTP that this will not happen.
The Student Conduct Code (Code)
shall apply to student conduct that
occurs on University premises or
at University-sponsored activities.
At the discretion of the president
or delegate, the Code also shall apply to off-campus student conduct
when the conduct, as alleged, adversely affects a substantial University interest and either
a) constitutes a criminal offense
as defined by state or federal law,
regardless of the existence or outcome of any criminal proceeding
or
b) indicates that the student may
present a danger or threat to the
health or safety of the student or others.
The proposed Student Conduct Code
draft Conduct
extends the college's jurisdiction beyond Evergreen's
Code extends the "Corrective Action" section to inEvergreen, revises the grievance system to clude
new clauses for the
explicitly forbid the counsel ofattorneys, "Revocation of Admission
or Degree," which the
further concentrates power in-the hands of suggested
applies only to
extreme situations. Howthe Vice President ofStudent Affairs, and ever, no language exists
to connect the harsher
prescribes harsher penalties for students, punishments
to specific
including revoking an awarded diploma. violations. The draft conDTF
One case of concern involves a student at the University of Minnesota
(UM) who was recently punished
under UM's conduct code, which
carries nearly identical language to
Section 1n clause 2 of the proposed
document (above). The student in
question was detained at a political
march and released without charge.
The university's clause to protect
the school's public image resulted
in the student being charged with
violating the code witho_ui: any connection to academic behavior. UM's
code reads:
tains little to no language
that recognizes students'
rights or the administration's responsibilities in this process.
VP for Student Affairs Art Costantino stated at the presentation meeting that the Conduct Code does not
require specific definitive language
because the stakes are much lower
than in courts of law, so it is not
necessary to construct a formal due
process system (that is, innocent until proven guilty). Education is recognized, for better or for worse, as
a significant gateway to economic
►
CONDUCT CODE continues on page 2
2-Counter Point Journal
►
June2009
EDITORIAL continued from page 1
to help us gain control of our lives.
For some, this may sound troublesome because, as Paolo Freire explains, there's a ·commitment to
transformative action involved in
such a realization.
It's for this reason that the Counter Point continues to exist. We've
already discussed other local media
in our premier issue, but while they
continue to have the potential to
be competent reporters, the issue is
not about ability but of motivation.
Every day it becomes clearer that
something has to change, and media
education must take with it not just
reflection in the sense of reporting
on things that happen, but it must
bring with it a commitment to action,
to transformation and praxis.
There are some things that we
weren't able to do this year that we'd
like to encourage others to work on.
These include the budget, investments, access to information, ways
of getting people involved in running the school more inclusively,
DTFs, Tacoma and Reservation-based
campuses, reconsidering student relationships with staff, building student power organizations (or making
our government one), and creating a
discourse about police that is more
than just alienating reaction.
Granted this is a tall order, but
don't be intimidated. We're regular
folks involved in this project, and its
ordinary everyday people that make
things happen. That's something we
hope people take with them in their
lives.
See you in the fall?
Solidarity,
Counter Point Editorial Collective:
Carl Davis, Nicholas Dehning, Anna
Marie Murano, "Phan Nguyen,"
Christopher Rotondo, Andrew Sernatinger, Lamise Al-Shawahin, Anna
Simonton, Rebecca Wyllie de Echeverria, Tessa Wyllie de Echeverria
(Congratulations graduates and
best in all your endeavors.)
This may not be illegal, but it could violate the proposed Student Conduct Code.
Evergreen students do their homework while demonstrating at the Port of
Olympia, November 2007. According to the proposal, off-campus activities that
supposedly make Evergreen look bad could violate the Conduct Code, at the discretion of the Vice President of Student Affairs, which is currently Art Costantino.
Photo by Robert Whitlock.
and social access. Any process that
can limit a person's access should include due process standards, considering the major quality oflife issues.
A public; email from one political
science professor notes that the existing language of the Conduct Code
requires Evergreen students to surrender their constitutional rights specifically their Fifth Amendment/
Miranda rights, which protect the
right not to provide any information that may incriminate oneself.
The same professor also raised the
concern that because the draft's language penalizes failure to prevent
another person from violating the
code, it effectively deputizes students and creates a relationship of
mistrust.
The DTF has cited the precedent of
other universities around the US implementing similar policies, though
in response to questions about how
such measures are appropriate at Evergreen, the DTF referred only to. the
need to stay "up to date."
The Conduct Code DTF was commissioned at the end of the previous
school year (2007-2008), following
the dead prez incident and the sns
sit-in. The Conduct Code review
meeting was advertised as an informal feedback session and was held
in a small room tucked in the back
of the Library's first floor.
The draft Conduct Code can be
found through Evergreen's DTF
page, or directly at: www.evergreen.
edu/committee/studentconduct/docs/
ProposedTESCCodeofStudentConductasolo9 .pdf
Feedback for the conduct code can
be sent to Wendy Endress, endressw@
evergreen. edu
(See related article onfollowingpage.)
CxPJ
The CxPJ is a collective of Evergreen
community members who decided
to form a monthly alternative press
for marginalized voices.
We are always accepting submissions of articles with an emphasis on
timely, relevant, and local issues. We
specifically seek submissions that
are well researched or include interviews or comments from those who
are involved or affected by the issue being discussed. We also accept
photography, poetry, art, and other
creative works.
To submit original work, send itto
tesc.counter.point@gmail.com. Our next
issue will come out in the fall of2009.
The deadline for submissions
for the first issue of the 2009-10
school year is September 8.
The editorial collective reserves
the right to question, edit, or not
publish any content it receives. The
collective will make every attempt to
consult the author(s) in regards to
any changes proposed.
The Counter Point Journal is also ava i Iable online at cxpj.wordpress.con;i
This issue was sponsored by the
Mideast Solidarity Pr?ject.
SPECIAL HUMBLE CxPJ SPORTS SECTION
On June 6, the Gateways for
Incarcerated Youth program
held a kickball tournament
and fundraiser at the field
in front of the Housing
Community Center.
CxPJ logos by Lamise AI-Shawahin
The clean-cut crew of the
CountcrPointJournal lost its
first and only match ...
Support Counter Point
as we go guerilla:
Buy an ad!
... to these unkempt ruf~ans
from RAD Services.
Ad Space
Amount
1/8 page
$30
$50
$70
$130
1/4
1/2
full page
Photos by Kyle Ludowitz
Counter Point Journal- 3
June2009
Saoud
by Scott Silverstein
I'm sorry Saoud Salafin
I was 20 years old when I took my first breath
It had taken me that long to see what was being done to you
For so long you remained nameless
Afaceless mass of human suffering that I could not care for or cry over
Your family mourned their losses and I shook my head over the morning paper.
A bus full of your fellow classmates was stopped at a checkpoint, and some of your friends were
killed
I didn't get into my first choice of colleges
I didn't feel that the educational environment best facilitated my ability to learn
I'm sorry Saoud Salafin
I marched against the occupation
_
I kept up on the latest devastation and privately brainstormed my own solutions to sectarian violence and threats of soft partitions
I took the time to learn the difference between Sunni and Shia Muslims
And studied the history of the region
I broke ranks with liberal family members and exchanged voting ballots with anti-imperialist
slogans
I stood in the rain in the early morning hours to hold up peace signs to soldiers driving by and let
them know that I was just as scared as they were
I'm sorry Saoud Salafin
The first missile strikes came without any media coverage
There was no way to tell how long it was going to last
.
I had finals that entire week and my mind was pre-occupied with studying
I was so eager to finish school and start planning for the summer
It wouldn't be long before the rest of the world saw what was happening and put an end to the madness
It would be a horrible invasion but we would come to our senses eventually
You would have the chance to vote when you were old enough
And your sisters could play safely in your front yard again
I'm sorry Saoud Salafin
There was even more undeveloped oil than we had originally thought
China and Russia have been waiting to pounce and we couldn't pass up the chance to make the first
move
Your country would be a perfect launching pad for our political and military ambitions and besides
Saudi Arabia is losing its charm
Don't worry Saoud, this will all be paid for in full
In the end you'll see it was worth it
student Election results
Yea
953
801
WashPIRG
696
836
Bank of America
Transportation Board 1006
Marijuana
New Union
Nay
276
304
483
348
180
by Tessa Wyllie de Echnerria
After all the turmoil of this last year on the
Geoduck Union and around campus, we
have the results of the 2009 elections, with
many new amendments and possibly a new
union.
There were 1,252 ballots cast out of a possible 4,503.
All of the questions on the ballot received
a majority of yes votes; the only question
is what percent of the student body voted.
There were several amendments to the curi:ent Geoduck Union constitution, which
are as follows:
Article V. Elections: was changed to state
"Two representative seats will be reserved
for freshman students who wish to join in
winter quarter."
Abstained
23
147
7'3
68
66
Votes Cast
Certified?
1229
1105
1179
1184
1186
yes
no
yes
yes
yes
"Geoduck Union Representatives will
elect a historian amongst themselves once
per quarter. No elected historian may serve
for two consecutive quarters. The role of
the historian is to chronicle the important
discussions, issues, and problems that the
Geoduck Student Union faces in the quarter, and to create a narrative document at
the end of the quarter.
"It shall be the duty of the Geoduck Student Union to compile and advertise an independent end-of-the-year report for students. This report shall contain pertinent
information and evaluations to address at
least the following subjects: Tuition/Budget, Student social access to education, Sexual violence, campus safety and emergency
preparedness, Administrative issues, Sustainability & Food, Labor (with an emphasis on student labor) and Anti-oppression."
Article VI. Procedures for Removal: was
changed from consensus to three-fourths The "New Union" proposal
majority vote of total Geoduck-Union Representatives to remove a representative and A "ratification of a new union constitution
added language "Student representatives establishing the creation of union stewmust also be recallable by non-represen- ards, regional stewards' council, popular
tative students. A formal recall/impeach- assembly, action committee, student group
ment is instituted by a petition carrying council, and empowered students panel"
the amount of signatures equal to the obtained 801 yes votes and 304 no votes,
I'm sorry Saoud Salafin
minimum amount of votes needed to elect but did not pass due to only 24% of student
There's no end in sight
a representative in the Spring election plus votes. Everything else on the ballot passed.
You had to leave with your family in the middle of the night
one hundred signatures."
No goodbyes to friends or relatives
The new representatives to the GU are:
Article VII. Meetings and Quorum: was
No time to pack your artwork or favorite literature
voted on twice, to change the meetings
Cairo would be home now
Colin Bartlett
- ~ ~ ~ - ~ ~ - - - - - - ~- ir- p ace to easy access to all students, and
A small apartment in a run down neighborhood
Sky Cohen
that GU meetings should be facilitated by
You should be able to return soon after all of this blows over
Carl Davis
students not representatives and relocate
Nicholas Dehning
time
in
meetings
to
allow
voice
to
all
parI'm sorry Saoud Salafin
Randal Hunt
ties with student only voices for the first
Your mother and sisters must return to Iraq
JonahJacobrown
hour of every meeting.
They cannot prove that their lives were threatened
Josephine Jarvis
And they don't take kindly to squatters in this country
Article VIII. Decision-Making: The GU
AmandaKane
Besides, it's much safer in Baghdad now
was changed from consensus to two-thirds
Melissa Miller
The papers say the surge was a success
majority vote and will reverse money for
Andrew Nepstad
And people are flocking back to the capital
online all-student referendums.
Julian Perry-Ramirez
Amelie Ray
You and your father can stay here
Article IX. Amendments: In order get
Olga Rocheeva
But only ifyou keep your heads down
amendments on the ballot students must
Shannon Thompson
And take what they give you.
"present a petition signed by 10% of the stuTrevor Van Dyke
dent body. Proposed amendments come
Patrick Walsh
I'm sorry Saoud Salafin,
before the student body for a vote. To pass,
Tessa Wyllie de Echeverria
I wish we could have spent more time together
amendments must be approved by twoYou're only sixteen and experiencing so much
thirds of those voting, with a minimum of
Good luck to all the new representatives
I didn't ask how you were able to manage it all
10% of students voting."
and we will see you next year.
Or why you paint in shades of red
Article
x.
Communication
and
ContiYou are the name and the face of what this occupation has created
nuity was added to the Constitution:
Of what we have taken away
I'm sorry Saoud Salafin,
•
I hope you continue to paint
We say "Freedom of Speech?" They say "Rape"
THE ADMINISTRATION'S SEXIST JUSTIFICATION FOR THE PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE STUDENT CODE OF CONDUCT
by Anna Simonton
of Conduct does not allow for griev- preted to mean? A lot of things, too
ances to be filed in response to things many things - most likely things
At the May 27 public forum on the that happen off campus, even if they that are political in nature, essential
proposed changes to the Student affect the Evergreen community.
to progressive change, but which
Code of Conduct, students repeat-,
So if an act of sexual violence were make it harder for the administraedly expressed their concern with committed by one Evergreen student tion to run a clean, quiet, orderly,
the consistently vague language against another 100 feet from campus, neutralized school.
used to prohibit a range of unspeci- the administration would not be able
Yet every time the students said,
fied actions, such as "obstruction or to do anything about it. Under the "This is too vague, 'it could too easily
disruption of learning, teaching, re- new Conduct Code, they ostensibly be abused;' the DTF said, "Well, what
search, administration, freedom of could, not because the code prohib- if someone were sexually assaultspeech and movement, the adjudica- its sexual violence on or off campus, ed..." This was their only example
tive process, public service functions but because it prohibits "obstruction of what "obstruction or disruption
or College-sponsored activities on or or disruption of learning, teaching, oflearning,teaching,research,adoff campus."
research, administration, freedom of ministration, freedom of speech and
Each time this concern was voiced, speech and movement, the adjudica- movement, the adjudicative process,
the DTF members defended the doc- tive process, public service functions public service functions or Collegeument's language by using hypo- or College-sponsored activities on or sponsored activities on or off camthetical scenarios of sexual assault or off campus," which could be inter- pus," would apply tci.
domestic violence as examples. Their preted to mean sexual violence.
So why, then, doesn't the docureasoning was that the current Code
But what else could that be inter- ment just prohibit sexual miscon-
duct off campus? Art Costantino's do.
response: "We can't define five differThe new Student Conduct Code
ent kinds of rape." Meaning: We have clearly targets political action and
to keep this thing broad because makes it possible for the adminiswe can't try to predict every kind of tration to take measures against a
problematic action someone might much wider range of actions (on or
take.
off campus) that they deem (on a
But the students weren't asking "case by case basis") potentially damthe DTF to define five different kinds aging to The Image of the college.
of rape. They were asking that if the The fact that the administration is
document were intended to prohibit hiding their real intention behind a
rape, that it say "rape is prohibited" pretense of concern about sexual vioinstead of "obstruction or disrup- lence is disgusting, especially given
tion of learning, teaching, research, their poor track record of dealing
administration, freedom of speech with real rape on campus when they
and movement, the adjudicative did have the power to respond.
Now rape is not only a potential
process, public service functions or
College-sponsored activities ·on or threat to every woman at Evergreen,
off campus."
but also a tool for the administration
Of course, prohibiting rape is not to silence politically active students.
what the document was intended to
4-Counter Point Journal
June2009
Balancing the school budget at the expense of the students
by Anna Simonton
will pay $796 more on top of the initial increase, or $16,711.
If you are a resident graduate
student, you paid $6,069 to attend
Evergreen this year. Next year you
will pay $303 more, or $6,372. For
the 2010-2011 school year, you will
pay $319 more on top of the initial
increase, or $6,691.
If you are a non-resident graduate
student, you already pay too much
for your education and you will not
be expected to pay even more, at least
not for this biennium.
model does not in fact -encourage
low-income enrollment.
families who aren't tightening their to lobby for a change in state tax law
belts. Since economic justice isn't one or for prison reform - that's all of our
Most students know by now that, as
of the values Gregoire refers to in the jobs as residents of Washington - but
a result of the global economic retitle,
let's look at what "our" values it is the job of the administration and
If high-tuition/high-aid won't
cession and Washington's $8 billion
supposedly
are.
the Board of Trustees to lobby on behelp, what will?
deficit, Evergreen is facing the likeGregoire's proposed spending for , half of the interests of the students,
lihood of a significant tuition hike,
Let's bring it back' to the state's bud- Public Safety is $2.7 billion, with $1.3 faculty, and staff at Evergreen.
faculty, staff, and student employee
get deficit that put Evergreen in this billion funding the incarceration
Some members of the faculty
layoffs, and other drastic measures
fix. In 2008, the Seattle Post-Intelli- of the 18,000 people who currently union, who have been negotiating
to reduce expenses.
gencer reported that there are more reside in Washington's fifteen pris- with the administration throughout
However, until May, it wasn't
than 130,000 households with an in- ons, 39% ·of whom are imprisoned the process of planning the budget,
clear where cuts would be felt the
come of over $1 million in the state on property and drug charges. Part feel that this has not happened. In
most. Even now, a lot of students are
the words of one· faculty member,
unaware of the impact budget cuts
"There is a sense that the lobbying
are going to have on their education,
wing is not pushing hard enough for
how the decisions are being made,
federal funding ... or pushing against
Why raising tuition is a bad idea
and what alternatives we might
legislation that is cutting education
envision as we begin to deal with This is the first time in the history of
drasticaJly."
the failure of a systemically flawed Evergreen that students have been
Stephanie Hurlburt, one of the
economy.
expected to pay more than 50% of the
two members of the Student Budcost of their education. Right now
getary Planning Committee, which
the unemployment rate for workers
met regularly with Steve Trotter and
A brief chronology of events
with a college degree is 4.4%, twice
Wendy Endress, the administrators
Shortly after the college submitted as high as it was at this time last year.
directly responsible for writing the
its budget proposal for the 2009-2011 The prospect of more debt and less
budget, expressed ambiguity on the
biennium to the legislature last Sep- chance of finding a job is enough to
subject of administrative-legislatember, the stock market plunged make students consider alternatives
tive relations. "We would ask about
and the global market found itself to attending Evergreen. With this
the legislature and they would say,
in a state of crisis. The state and the scenario everyone loses: students
'We're trying,' but I didn't know how
college had to shift gears and spend lose opportunities, schools lose stuto measure that."
the next seven months scrambling to dents, ancf regardless of whether
Hurlburt did, however, express
assess the damage and plan accord- students choose to be degreeless or in
satisfaction with the administraingly.
debt, the state loses out on revenue
tion's helpfulness and transparency
In April, the legislature finalized when drop-outs/indebted graduates
during the planning. In other words,
its budget, announcing that over are unable to become the excessive
once the administrators made a deci$14 million dollars (13.2%) would be consumers higher education would
sion, they were1iappy to tell people
cut from Evergreen's state funding. otherwise enable them to be.
about it. This is exactly what frusTo make up for the cut, our governAccording to the Washington Stutrated the faculty union. According
ment officials allotted $2,366,000 in dent Lobby (WSL), the median family
to one member, "The union should
federal stimulus funding. They also income increase in Washington is
be in negotiation with the adminisraised the 7% cap on tuition increas- only 2.93% per year, when adjusted
tration. Instead, information is trickes to 14%, authorizing the school to for inflation. So when a public instituling down to us."
increase undergraduate resident tion of higher learning jacks its tuSelf-explanatory. Photo by Tessa Wyllie de Echeverria
Some Evergreen students were
tuition by this amount each year for ition up 14% per year, placing a public
•
also frustrated with the way informathe next two years {28% total) in or- education out of reach, it is more of Washington. These households do of the plan is to reduce public safety tion was disseminated. "The inforder to fill the gaping hole in the Ev- than anything an affront to the right not pay income tax, nor do the com- spending by $200 million. How? mation has been out there, but I've
ergreen budget.
of every individual to an education.
panies they work for pay corporate Among other things, she proposes had to go looking for it,'' says Kate
On May 6, the administra- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - tax. If the Washingtonians mak- reducing funding for chemical de- Savkovich, a student organizer at Evtion presented the budget draft
ing $1 million or more were re- pendency treatment, effectively ergreen. Savkovich was Qarticularly
in a public forum, and on June
quired to pay a 7% income tax, the eliminating addiction treatment angered by the May 6 "public forum,"
3, President Les Purce finalized
state would make at least $9.1 bil- for 13,000 low-income patients, and which Les Purce planned in order to
his budget recommendations,
lion dollars-more than enough reducing detoxification therapy for present the budget proposal, and
which the Board of Trustees will
tO
t
to solve the $8 billion deficit. In- another 2,700.
which he publicized with an e-mail
approve on June 11.
00/..
stead, the state relies on the sales
On top of this, Gregoire plans on announcement sent only to faculty
The new budget for the 2009/O
O
• tax for revenue-a regressive tax cutting correction workers' pen- and staff. Savkovich found out about
2011 biennium is as follows: unthat charges everyone the same, sions and enacting measures to the forum at the last minute because
dergraduate resident tuition will
regardless of whether you make deport non-citizens convicted_of - Ben Anderson, the other member
increase by 14% per year. UndergradTo save face, the administration ten thousand or ten million dollars you guessed it- property and drug of the Student Budgetary Planning
uate non-resident tuition and gradu- has included in the budget a stipula- a year. While this sounds egalitarian, charges back to their countries of Committee, e-mailed some students
ate resident tuition will increase by tion that 20% of the revenue from tu- it of course disadvantages the work- origin.
and the message was forwarded to
5% per year. The Student Activities ition increases be put toward increas- ing and middle class who
her. Even then, the anfee will increase by 3%, Housing rates ing financial aid. That sounds good, feel the effect of that exdid not
to nouncement
will gQ up 5%, Dining plans will go but the additional financial aid only tra $16 on top of the $200
reach all students.
up 7%, and the Health and Counsel- covers So% of the neediest students. grocery bill, whereas $16
ing fee will go up 25%. This will nar- So not even the neediest students is nothing to a Microsoft
Solutions
row the budget shortfall down to will be fully buffered from the effects or Boeing millionaire.
just $4.2 million.
of the higher tuition, much less the
The argument against
One thing the adminThe remaining margin will be lower-middle class students whose implementing an income
istration has done to
make the Evergreen
closed by operating cuts across the _ families make too much money to or corporate tax always
board. Thirty-two jobs will be im- qualify for serious aid, but cannot centers on these two be'J
J
community feel inpacted, either by reduced hours or by any means fulfill their "expected hemoths, fretting that if cluded in the budget
elimination, program budgets will family contribution."
the state were tQ do such _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ______,_ planning has been to
be reduced by $51,531 (15%), study
WSL also cites a document put a thing, the companies
collect "Budget Ideas"
abroad funding will lose $25,000 forth by the Independent Colleges would leave and take with them the
This contrasts with the proposed in the form of online submissions,
(50%), and the Masters in Teaching/ of Washington (1cw) that claims entire Washington economy. It's pos- spending for higher education, and create a spreadsheet of campus
Masters in Education graduate pro- implementing a high-tuition/ sible. But if they wanted to escape which totals $3.6 billion - $1.5 bil- suggestions and responses from the
gram will lose $28;684 (10%). The high-financial aid model in Wash- progressive taxation, Microsoft and lion funding universities that serve administration. From "responsibly
centers, however, will take the hard- ington's universities would actual- Boeing would only have Texas, Wyo- over 100,000 students. Reduced log our forests for timber sales" (not
est cuts, with the Labor Center facing ly increase low-income enrollment. ming, South Dakota, and Nevada to spending for higher education is to feasible - the fores~ are part of the
a $153,009 (49%) budget reduction, Their claim is based on a study of choose from, as those are the only total $300 million, which is of course college's learning labs - phew/) to
and the Longhouse losing $109,519 schools that have this model in ten other states that have neither an in- to be offset by students' paying their "rent out the president's residence"
(49%). (See the sidebar on the follow- other states.
come nor a corporate tax.
own way in lieu of state support.
(it's currently for sale), the endeavor
ing page for a breakdown of some of
What wsL points out that 1cw
Maybe instead of placing the . generated some interesting ideas and
the more drastic reductions.)
fails to mention is that while low- Some belts are tighter than
state's financial burden on the backs some equally interesting responses.
income college enrollment is high- others
of workers and students, instead of
One suggestion involves decomer in each of the ten states than in
deporting immigrants, Gregoire missioning the police "back to SecuWhat 14% and 5% mean to your
Washington, state average enroll- Unfortunately, in a document titled should consider dealing with the rity." The administration's response
bank account
ment is also higher in each state Proposed 2009-2011 Budget and Policy smaller offenses committed by 7,200 is as follows: "Police officers bring
If you are a full-time
Highlights: Protect- of the people in Washington's pris- the tools, training, and experience
resident undergrad, you
ing Our Values During ons in a manner other than simply that best suit the needs of the colTough Times, Governor locking them away for a few years lege. Past incidents on campus have
paid $4,297 tuition to attend Evergreen this year.
Gregoire states, "In during which time over $70,000 will highlighted the need to be able to reNext year you will pay
writing the budget be spent per inmate, per year. She spond with commissioned officers."
for 2009-11, we began could start by not cutting the very
$602 more, or $4,899.
Last year, Police Services cost the
with one basic prem- programs that might prevent these school $1,190,664. That's equal to
For the 2010-2011 school
year, you will- pay $686
ise: Now is not the types of offenses from even occur- more than one-fourth of the $4.2
more on top of the initime to raise taxes on ring.
million gap in Evergreen's budget.
than in Washington. Proportionally, our residents and businesses. These
tial increase, or $5,585.
While it may be true that there have
If you are a non-resident under- low-income enrollment is the same are hard times for us all. Our families Evergreen's role
been incidents on campus in which
grad, you paid $15,157 to attend Ev- in Washington where there are fewer are tightening their belts, and that's
police officers were needed; there
ergreen full-time this year. Next year high-tuition/high-aid schools, as in what government must do." The gov- Stepping back from the larger con- have also been a significant number
you will pay $758 more, or $15,915. the states where high-tuition/high- ernor doesn't acknowledge the possi- text of the budget problem, it should of incidents in which police officers
For the 2010-2011 school year, you aid is prevalent, indicating that this bility of raising taxes on the 130,000 be said that it is not the school's job proved to be a problem - arresting a
This is thefirst time in the history
ofEvergreen that students have
b
d
h
een expeCte pay more an
ofthe Cst oftheir education
5
What we face is apush from the government
step up our business practices and become more
profitable. What we have to decide is what our
priorities a_re as acommunity and how we can
directlu take over theproiect ofmeeting our
needs.
If the Washingtonians making $1 million or
more were required to pay a7% income tax, the
state would make at least $9.1 billion dollarsmore than enough to solve the $8 billion deficit.
Counter PointJournal-5
Evergreen's 2009-11 Operating Budget
What's Going up:
~10
201~11
Undergrad Resident
+14%
+14%
Undergrad Non-Resident
+5%
+5%
Graduate Resident
+5%
+5%
Graduate Non-Resident
0%
0%
+3%
+2%
Housing Rates
+5%
+5%
Dining Plans
+7%
+7%
Community Health & Counseling Fee
+25%
+14%
Tuition:
Student Activities Fee
by Rebecca Wyllie de Ethniuria
For Students
Beginning the Journey (freshman advisement) -65%
-$5,340
Student Wages
-7.5%
-$31,976
MIT/MED Program
-10%
-$28,684
MPA Program
-12%
-$12,890
Tacoma Program
-10%
-$25,711
Program Budgets
-15%
-$51,531
Library
-9%
-$325,796
Study Abroad
-50%
-$25,000
Day of Absence/Day of Presence:
-30%
-$3,000
Sponsored Research
-25%
-$18,707
Professional Travel
-25%
-$23,733
0%
-$13,000
For Faculty
For Administrators
Centers
Labor Center
-49%
-$153,009
WA Center
-34%
-$104,390
Center for Education Improvement
-81%
-$174,254
NW Indian Research Center
-50%
-$68,453
Longhouse:
-49%
-$109,519
For Students, Staff, Faculty, and Administration:
32 jobs will be impacted, either by reduction or elimination.
And there's more! To view the full budget proposal, go to:
www.evergreen.edu/budget
Be forewarned: Just because it's there, doesn't mean it's easily comprehensible!
community member for not identifying himself (which is not an
offense in Washington state) and
throwing a student on the ground
for mouthing off when told to not
smoke in an undesignated area are
just a couple of examples.
Perhaps it would be imprudent to
do away with Police Services in one
fell swoop, but the fact that they
cost us so much money but do not
function in a way that supports the
community indicates the need for
some longer-term planning by the
Evergreen community geared towards
creati]lg sustainable solutions to a
failing economy.
The short-lived (but certainly revivable) group Students Accompanying Students sought to organize
volunteers to accompany individual
students around campus at night to
ellS"ure their safety. This is just one
example of how community members can fill the role of the police
without paying over $1 million to
deal with the nasty side effect of
power-tripping that comes with a
uniform and gun.
Another idea that was not included on the "Budget Ideas" spreadsheet, but that has been discussed
by political economy students and
faculty is the possibility of creating an Evergreen Credit Union. If
the school banked with the credit
union, thus investing in only local
projects, Evergreen would not be
nearly as vulnerable to the global
market. Returns would not be as
high, but they would be more stable.
Again, it's a matter of the community
deciding what its priorities are.
proof and not mere surmise that he
has committed or will commit crimiQUESTION: Then what's the real issue connal acts or that his employment efficerning Gay teachers?
ciency is impaired by his homosexuality." (McConnell v. Anderson, 1984)
ANSWER: The real issue here is discriminaThis is when it starts to be a bit
tion. Will Gay teachers be judged as indimore complicated. It is no longer
viduals, or by stereotypes? And what about
simply okay to fire people for acting
Gay people as bus drivers, candystore clerks,
on being gay, but we can still face
and so forth? In the final analysis, a person
consequences if it is determined that
who does a good job should not be denied The spokespeople for the school we are invading our place of employhis or her job or vocat_ion because of some argued that public awareness of a ment with waves of rampant homoirrelevant criteria in his or her private life. teacher's homosexuality nullifies sexuality.
-Gay Rights National Lobby, 1981 their effectiveness as an educator
As mentioned, when Gaylord was
because "[a] teacher's efficiency is being charged, men and women
THIS JUST IN: We have won. Okay, determined by his relationship with
who chose to have sex with men and
everyone sit back down and take off his students, their parents, the school women were indeed breaking several
your bandanas, the powers that be administration, and fellow teachers. Washington State Laws: "These acts have almost made Civil Unions legal If Gaylord had not been discharged sodomy and lewdness - were crimes
in Washington (so long as we don't after he became known as a homo- during the period of Gaylord's emuse the "M" word). We can now col- sexual, the result would be fear, con- ployment and at the time of his dislect unpaid wages
charge."
if our partner dies
The law that cited
and live happily
sodomy a crime (Rew
same sex driven
9.79.100) was underlives, unless Refergoing review while
endum 71 kicks in
Gaylord was being
and the rock goes
charged. After the
tumbling back
Supreme Court redown the hill.
- . . . , , . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - viewed the case, the ·
However, in light of this recent fusion, suspicion, parental concern, ruling of discharge was confirmed,
victory I thought it would be a good and pressure on the administration because at the time of Gaylord's distime to check into one of the hottest by students, parents, and other teach- charge, in the eyes of the law his hosubjects of LGBTQJ rights (and gay ers."
mosexuality would affect the school
rights, as my boss pointed out, are
Through this statement it becomes at which he taught.
basically civil rights) debates: the ho- apparent that the effects of homosexDue to the efforts of many activmosexual educator.
uality have nothing to do with the ists, the sodomy laws were amended.
I apologize for the excessive quo- the educator and everything to do Although it_is no longer illegal to act
tations that are to follow: nothing with how the community perceives upon homosexual urges - the sodcan say it quite as well as legal docu- them after gaining insight into their omy law was repealed by 1975 and
ments. To begin our journey into the personal life. The court found that effective in 1976 - the jurisdiction
Revised Code of Washington (Rew), Gaylord was respected as a teacher of the Washington State Human
we'll dive into 1972 just after the for over twelve years before he was Rights C011ll11ission was not expandupheaval of immorality and all that outed. Yet it was determined that the ed to include sexual orientation and
jazz.
administration's knowledge of his gender identity until 1996 (HB 2661
While rllete-m:tglrt ha"\fe been soµi.e sexual orientation would completely - 2005-06). This is the law and task
free lovin' going on around San fracture his ability to teach any and force which currently protects LGFrancisco, in Tacoma sexual free- all of their high school's students.
BTQI teachers from discrimination
dom could barely be sighted among
Similar cases were being adjudi- in our state.
the whitecaps of repeals and gusty cated all over the country, and in the
sodomy laws. In November of 1972, process of one of these trials, it was "I quite frankly find it rather galling to
James M. Gaylord was dismissed stated that "[a]n homosexual is af- have sat through the school board hearfrom his teaching position at Wilson ter all a human being, and a citizen ing and once again through this trial and
High School. Apparently the school of the United States despite the fact hear administrators say that I'm a good
administration "became aware of his that he finds his sex gratification in teacher, I've been a very good teacher, and
sexual status" due to information what most consider to be an uncon- yet to be without a job, particularly when
gathered from a student, and the vice ventional manner. He is as much I see other people who still hold their jobs
principal took it upon themselves to entitled to the protection and ben- who haven't read a book or turned out a
go to Gaylord's house and discuss his efits of the laws and due process fair new lesson plan or come up with anything
immorality. His was fired a month treatment as are others, at least as to creative in years.»
lather because the Tacoma School public employment in the absence of
-James M. Gaylord
Board "had found probable cause
for his discharge due to his status as
a publicly known homosexual." His
dismissal was based on immorality
(Rew 28A.58.100), which was a direct
result of his alleged homosexual activity, which was deemed illegal under both Rew 9.79.100 (sodomy) and
RCW 9.79.120 (lewdness).
RCW 9.79.100 provides:
RCW _9.79.120 provides:
Every person who shall lewdly and viciously cohabit with another not the
husband or wife ofsuch person, and every person who shall be guilty ofopen or
gross lewdness; or make any open and
indecent or obscene exposure of his person, or of the person of another, shall be
guilty ofagross misdemeanor.
What's Going Down:
President's Compensation Package
TWENTYYEARS LATER:
SLIGHTLY BETTER RIGHTS
Wanted: students with money
One of the ideas on the spreadsheet
is interesting not so much in and of
itself, but because of the response
it received. Row 29: "Recruit more
students with wealth." Scroll over
to the response column, and-nothing. No answer. This is a loud silence
considering that this year the school
spent $58,372 on recruiting out-ofstate students, over $31,000 more
than was spent on recruiting Washington high-schoolers ($16,513) and
First Peoples ($10,492) combined.
This brings to light how much Evergreen already quietly operates like
a business-focused on increasing
the profit margin-instead of a
public institution of higher learning created to serve the people.
What we face is a push from the
government to step up our business
practices and become more profitable. What we have to decide is what
our priorities are as a community
and how we can directly take over
the project of meeting our needs.
We have to organize across the lines
of students, faculty, staff, and administration to create sustainable,
acceptable solutions that are not a
mere re-shuffling of the same cards,
but the creation of a new game
where there are no winners and losers. Otherwise, we are going to have
to live with the administration's
well-intentioned attempts to meet
requirements mandated by the
state at the expense of our right to
an education.
It is no longer simply okay to fire people for acting on
being gay, but we can still face consequences ifit is
determined that we are invading our place ofemployment with waves oframpant homosexuality.
A LOOK AT
GAY TEACHERS
Every person who shall carnally know
in any manner any animal or bird; or
·who shall carnally know any male or
female person by the anus or with the
mouth or tongue; or who shall voluntarily submit to such carnal knowledge;
or who shall attempt sexual intercourse
with a dead body, shall be guilty of sodomy...
(This law provided some hiccups
during the infamous Enumclaw bestiality case of 2005, when a man died
from trying to have sex with a horse,
and his partner in crime (not the
horse - another person) could not
be charged, because the sodomy law
had been repealed in its entirety, and
bestiality was no longer illegal. So,
in short, nonconsensual sex between
humans and animals = consenting
sex between any type of same-bodied
people. But don't worry, this oversight was corrected and bird-fucking
is back to being punishable.)
6-Counter Point Journal
June2009
Speaking of rights, power, and access:
Freedom of speech at Evergreen
by C. V. Rotondo
"'.!'he University has not gone far
enough in allowing us to promote
the kind of society we're interested
in. We're allowed to say why we think
something is good or bad, but we're
not allowed to distribute information
as to what to do about it. Inaction is
the rule, rather than the exception, in
our society and on this campus. And,
education is and should be more than
academics."
-Jackie Goldberg, Free Speech
Movement student organizer
UC Berkeley, 1964
The editorial collective of the Counter
Point Journal initially came together
in response to prevailing conceptions
of and restrictions on the right to
speech extolled and enforced by the
Cooper Point Journal, administrators,
police, and certain students, faculty,
and staff. Our editorial statements
and the content of our paper address
these issues using a very different
framework - one we believe necessary for the actualization of direct
democracy. This framework derives
from our intimate involvement in
recent struggles over the right to
speech, from removing fliers to political theater on Red Square. Similarly, our coverage of these issues is
drawn from this personal connection, this embeddedness, which is
markedly absent from other media
outlets on campus and in Olympia.
In the context of the history and passion imbued in these issues and the
disconcerting absence of dynamic
journalism, we take on the issue of
free speech.
Current contests over free speech
on campus orbit around major
•political demonstrators at Evergreen
because demonstrations such as the
checkpoint are deemed "advocative,"
rather than "informative." That is,
political organizers are allowed to be
polite, "civil," and non-threatening
in their speech, but not to advocate,
agitate, or ultimately, to convince.
Like Goldberg,states, "Inaction is the
rule," and the distinction between
what is "informative;' non-threatening speech and what is "advocative"
and threatening, is often made
by those in powerful positions
on dubious grounds.
vices Ed Sorger (sent to all Evergreen speech to express our ideas, but the
staff and faculty), in which the Chief ability of everyone to hear what we
says "I wanted to forward applicable have tosay-[the response] is notjust
violations of state law regarding robbing us, but everyone on campus,
this demonstration," (the laws fol- of hearing what we have to say."
(NOTE: Roberts's military experiences
low) and "if you believe you were a
victim or have information to share in Egypt, Israel/Palestine, Kosovo and
concerning this event please con- Afghanistan were profiled in the previous
tact..." Questions have been raised, issue of the CxPJ.)
particularly by faculty and panelists
Roberts parallels the concerns of
and atteridees at the forum held by Goldberg and the Berkeley organizthe Mideast Solidarity Project on ers that what is assaulted by college
Administration weighs in
According to Art Costantin6,
Evergreen's Vice President
for Student Affairs, "The social contract is an example of
statements of value," and "just
because speech is protected, it
does not necessarily show good
judgment; people should be
able to speak out against that."
He went on to use the recent
checkpoint demonstration as
an example, saying the demonstrators "were engaging in
protected, but not smart or appropriate, speech." Costantino
also expressed concerns that
the demonstration may have
violated the rights of"veterans,
women, and non-whites." (Two
of the participants are veterans,
the student artist is a woman, and
students of color participated di- Wednesday, June 3, regarding the purectly in the performance). Elaborat- nitive nature of these emails and its
ing on what "good judgment" is and distinction to the college's mission
who decides what speech, protected statement and statements made by
or not, is "smart," or "appropriate," the president and vice president for
the Vice President explained, "It's not student affairs.
always a matter of authority. What
The president's understanding
should happen is people should use of the emails from Police Services
events of the past two years: the
uprising following the dead prez their own free speech rights to speak comes from a memo communicated
concert on February 14, 2008; the out against it, say why you think it's to him, which explained Sorger's
subsequent "concert ban" and its • wrong....You protect even unpopular email as simply reading, "If you
application in suspending Students and uncomfortable speech and en- feel you have been affected by this
for a Democratic Society (sos); the courage people who are uncomfort- in some way, you have the option to
come to police services and we'll talk
sit-in organized by sos in response; able to say something."
Evergreen president, Les Purce, with you about it." Costantino stated
the ongoing debate surrounding
the Israeli occupation of Palestine, had a similar response to the situa- that he supported the "principle" of
including the taking down of fliers tion. "When people started report- the email. "Ed was saying you need
to come forward and let us know.
and the Cooper Point Journal's
The
principle of letting peq_ple
spr_ing quarter ban ~n opinion "Using the trauma orfiear ofracism
know that they should come forarticles around the issue; and
ward I agree with." Costantino
most recentlY, a political the- and police violence
silence stuwas present at the forum held by
ater demonstration put on by d
.
h
.
.
the Mideast Solidarity Project
ents IS wrong.
e conversation
the organizers of the demonstration where they presented differ(MSP),d~pictingamocklsraeli regarding the real trauma ofthese
ent interpretations of Police Sercheckpomt on Red Square.
vice's response.
These incidents have events is what we are looking
aroused administrative and __________________
police reprisal, as well as ferStreet theater panel
vent debate amongst students, facul- ing [on the checkpoint demonstra. ty, and staff. They have raised issues tion], there were veterans who had At the opening of the panel discusof safety, "civil discourse," freedom, an emotional reaction to what they sion, Tessa Wyllie de Echeverria, a
the college's ethical position, and saw because of their history as vet- student organizer who created and
most prominently, the definition erans. Student Affairs tries to make participated in the checkpoint as part
and function of democracy both sure that this doesn't happen; you of her academic studies, decried Poon campus and beyond. Such ques- try to accommodate this part of the lice Service's actions as "using intimitions must be considered within the expression. But then again there are dation to limit people's free speech."
rich history of struggle over rights people who reported different kinds She went on to explain that "it's imto speech in this country - on col- of things, people being confronta- portant to have community dialogue
lege campuses, in cities and in the tive, people stopping people from after a demonstration such as this,"
streets. This history offers insight entering [buildings]. Then, when but that "we couldn't because of the
into the use of notions such as "the you're impeding on someone else's legal ramifications" threatened by
free marketplace of ideas," and "ci- progress or their freedom, it starts faculty, staff, and especially Police
vility," so oft heard from students, falling into the legal realm. It all de- Services.
Other members of the panel, infaculty, and staff (especially admin- pends on what the action is in that
istrators) when struggles over free particular demonstration." Both cluding Anna-Marie Murano, coCostantino and Purce emphasized coordinator for MSP, and Lamise Alspeech arise.
The epigraph to this piece is from attempts, during conflicts over the Shawahin, a student organizer with
organizer Jackie Goldberg, with demonstration, to ensure dialog and the group, explained that a statement of explanation was to immedithe University of California Berke- understanding.
When asked about the email from ately follow the demonstration, but
ley Free Speech Movement in 1964.
Along with fellow organizers Mario April Meyers (sent to several admin- had to be halted due to the potential
Savio and Sandor Fuchs, Goldberg istration members, including Purce) legal situation of the organizers. Traled a campaign against the college in which she outlined the laws she vis Roberts, a military veteran, actor
administration's prohibition against believed to have been violated by in the theater, and student doing
"advocative" (as opposed to "informa- the demonstration, despite admit- an internship with MSP, responded
tive") literature, recruitment, and tedly not being present when it oc- to tlte treatment of organizers folfundraising on Telegraph Avenue, curred, Purce said he had not seen lowing the demonstration. "After
a highly trafficked and historic site it. The president also explained that the checkpoint, I felt that my and
of political organizing on campus. he had not seen the follow-up email our freedom of speech was being
Goldberg's quote is instructive for from Chief of Evergreen Police Ser- squashed. It's not just freedom of
to
T
for."
er know that when things are seen
people will get upset and will try to
stop it," Al-Shawahin concluded.
In support of the organizers, faculty member David Wolach read a
prepared statement (printed on page
8 of this issue). Wolach has been vocal over campus listservs regarding
Sorger's email soliciting "victims"
of the theater piece. His statement
opened with the warning that "the
term 'freedom' without basic pedagogical rights to risk and discomfort becomes hollow, indeed empty, such that its usage
is easily weaponized." Wolach
went on to explain that "struggle born of pessimism is not
nice, it is not clean, it will not
hug you," and we should not
seek to "tame•in one's mind
the activists one is met by." He
emphasized the importance
of recognizing "the very real
threats that student organizers have been handed by Ed
Sorger." Wolach's premonitions recall similar debates
that surrounded the "concert
ban," sos' suspensio'n, and the
subsequent sit-in last winter
and spring.
SDSsit-in
Former Evergreen student and
community organizer Brooke
• dh
Photo by Andrew Sernatinger Stepp exp1ame
t e por·
ltlca1
implications of last year's events.
policy is notjustthe individual right "I think that the sos event was tarto speak, but that speech's effective- geted specifically because it was an
ness, based upon where it can happen sos event. I think that we had the
and who will hear what is being said. right to go ahead and put on that
To Roberts and other participants, event. In the wake of the dead prez
what is targeted by the adrninistra- concert and the port protests it was
tive and police response is "advoca- really that sos was very susceptible
tive," or "threatening" speech, which to political repression. That was what
may actually have a powerful effect, was happening there - it was bigger
may convince people.
than just sos, it was about students'
Phan Nguyen, an Evergreen staff free speech and the whole political
member, student, and panelist at climate on campus and in Olympia,
the event, spoke to the nature of trying to repress our resistance to the
political theater. "When you orga- port and to racism."
nize a teach-in, you get accused of
Fellow organizer and former Everpreaching to the choir," as opposed green student Brendan Dunn added,
to the nature of political theater on "It was really selective enforcement
Red Square, which interacts with of rules and regulations on the part
a broader audience. He went on to of the administration. I talked to
address criticisms of the demonstra- students in other student groups
tion: "Activists open themselves up and there are so many rules, so many
to criticism simply by taking action. ridiculous rules on campus, that
Those most critical of activists don't people are bound to break them. Not
engage in any action themselves and just student groups but other people
are thus immune to criticisms due to and it happens consistently. But to
their inaction." He concluded that go off, all out, and suspend a student
condemning the checkpoint as po- group from campus and cut their
litical theater enforces distinctions funds and all the other benefits that
about where politics can be practiced, student groups have for one minor
"training students that there is a thing is really extreme and it's never
'proper' place for everything. I hope happened before."
that is not what Evergreen is about."
Vice President Costantino argued
After describing various interac- that the suspension of sos was not
tions with people who experienced about free speech at all. "sos was
trauma following the demonstration, not a free speech issue. Guidelines in
Murano asserted that "Using the event planning were violated. sos is
trauma or fear of racism and police a group that did not want to follow
violence to silence students is wrong. the rules." In response, Dunn elaboThe conversation regarding the real rated on reasons why sos would be
trauma of these events is what we are politically targeted. "sos had been in
looking for."
the limelight all of last year because
Al-Shawahin told the story of her of the port [protests] and statements
friend, who when visiting Palestine we made agaigst police violence and
as a girl was separated from her Irish- racism in the fallout of the dead prez
American mother at a checkpoint. concert." He then described recent
The girl, whose father is Palestin- evidence of police surveillance.
"I just found out, from a public reian, was sent through the inspection
room specifically for Palestinians, cords request I did through the city
despite her American passport. sne of Olympia, that city Police, WAJAC
went on to describe the marked dif- (a Washington state and regional
ferences in the experiences of her intelligence gathering network),
Palestinian friend and the mother; Evergreen police, Thurston County
the Palestinian checkpoint being in- sheriffs, Homeland Security, the FBI,
tentionally designed to intimidate and intelligence gathering units out
and discomfort. "For something like of the Airforce and the Army have
a checkpoint to be made real, even for been doing surveillance on activists
one second, could assign some real in Olympia, and one of the groups
experience to the stories people hear. in particular is sos. They had been
The tactic of not letting people see doing this all last year. So it's not
reality is so prevalent. Those in pow- like it's just one of the many student
Counter PointJoumal-7
June2009
groups at Ever~een, it was a student tice and acted in that way and how down of the fliers, people just say
group that, because of our political shocked I was, how disappointed 'that's a free speech thing,' but they
stances and activity, had gotten the I was.'' The president's emphasis don't understand everything that's
attention from federal agencies and upon the uprising's effect upon the backing up, building upon and
the military. They [the police and college's image is representative of that's the foundation of groups like
military] had ~een working with the "a corporate mentality,'' which "at- SIIA Shalom and these racist, conadministration and [Evergreen) po- tempts to reorder a place for fear that servative Zionist groups - it's racism,
lice prior to dead prez, prior to the the deviant elements will bring us it's colonialism, and other kinds of
port stuff.''
down," in the language of Wolach's oppression, and it's structural oppression; it's not just oppression. I
statement.
While Purce emphasized his obli- like to quote Spanish anarchist BueJust an "agent of the state"
gation to uphold state law, Costanti- naventura Durruti when he said,
When asked about this surveillance no took a different approach to deal- 'Fascism isn't to be debated, it's to be
program and the alleged cooperation ing with issues of free speech. "One destroyed.' That's the thing, he was
of administrators, president Purce problem is that colleges can only living in a society where fascists were
said he had not heard of it and that imagine punitive measures, but you in power and they were taking more
the administration does not partici- can reach out to support people who power and they were taking power
pate in such a program. He then elab- feel targeted, mobilizing the com- to kill people and to oppress people
orated on the nature of his position munity. That's different from using and to silence people. So what we're
in relation to adjudicating issues of punitive measures to quell speech fighting against, there's definitely an
free speech and alleged "criminality" you don't like.'' The Vice President imbalance."
Stepp stressed the importance,
on campus, especially the February then offered "the free marketplace of
uprising.
ideas," as a "better solution than the especially in understanding power
"I am an agent of the state. Every discipline system," because "all sorts dynamics, of exploring experiences
official of the college is an agent of of ideas we disagree with should be beyond one's own perspective. "The
the state. We have an obligation to allowed·to exist." This "sharpens stu- biggest thing in my experience is
enforce the laws of the state. It's dents skills,'' according to Costantino, getting people to look beyond their
experiences and to continue having
not like I'm being selective. This is and "that's what it's all about."
dialogue with people. It's important
a public institution and that defines,
to have conversations with people
in a very powerful way, what our ob- Free speech and power
ligations are, as people employed by
and keep aur minds open too, with
the state, to uphold those laws. So it's Dunn and Stepp take a different view, people who are not radical. If you
not like I chose - I ultimately have like student organizers at Berkeley have a certain experience, like one
a responsibility, as an agent of the before them, and articulated by criti- that is offensive, not thinking about
state, to ensure the safety of people, cal geographer Don Mitchell, who power dynamics, or you come from a
to make decisions on that
basis. Often there's tension
around those issues, and we
have some latitude in those
f
•
f
areas. But clearly, I'm an of- SeCOn , COU aSSlgn SO me rea eXper,enCe tO t eStOrleS peop e
"For something like acheckpoint to be made real, even for one
d
complete safety. We've never had
that. Again, when you look at the
concept of safety you do have to look
at power dynamics. Any concept of
safety needs to have power dynamics
as part of its analysis. When you look
at safety, its safety from what and
from whom."
Building upon their analysis of
pre•ious free speech issues on campus, such as sos' suspension and the
February uprising, Stepp and Dunn
offered their experience and reflections for contemporary and future
organizing at Evergreen. "People
really have to pace themselves, to
be long distance runners for revolutionary change or any kind of social
justice work and not to be sprinters.
There's a lot of sprinting activity that
went on last year, but people really
have to pace themselves. There are
some expressions this year, such as
the Committee for Full Funding that
was active earlier in the year. The
Counter Point Journal is another expression of building student power
because on top of any kind of student
self-government - not just student
government, but a student union - a
student voice through a newspaper
is building student power. That's really important," explained Dunn.
Stepp emphasized the importance of collective work to confront a
highly individualized society.
!'In general, getting people
together, doing things collectively is important because we
ear. live in a society that's so indi-
Id •
h ·
h
The tactic ofnot letting people see reality is so prevalent. Those in
ficer of the state of Washingvidualistic. At every step of the
ton."
way our society reinforces this
In enacting his "obligaindividualistic way oflooking
tions" in the case of the
,,
at things and this really comuprising, Purce focused on
try tO StOp
petitive mode - an animistic
the public forum held folway oflooking at things. If we
lowing the incidents and his
can come together then it will
statements there. "That [the forum asserts that the "free marketplace" place where you have more personal be a really powerful way to change
and actions following the dead prez metaphor, "still rests on the assump- power than other people, it's hard to things. But it's hard for students to
concert) was an attempt to address tion that orderly speech is individu- see that those power dynamics exist. do that. Last year a lot of the rhetoour responsibility as a community, alistic, tightly rational discourse.And It's important to use examples where ric was around building community
the responsibility we have [because) it says nothing about the relations of people can see things that happen but it's really important to consider
t--~...._.d,..o,_n.,.'t~s'.;atan=d...a.....,a..rt....,.fr...;o;..m..,__w...h_a_t_rh=-e-....,._w-=er..t. -.h; ; ;a;.;.t7m=-a overn entran::c::::e~in:a;t:.;:o_~t::::o..::o:.;:th=e::::r~e;,:o~l.::.e.::an=d..:.in:;,.:th!;e;;..;;w;.;o~r.:;ld::-.,:::at:;,_..,h,;;o;,w~~ou~b;,:;u:,:.il:;;d:.;;community in opuaw 1s - t at was my statement at the marli:et in the first place."
large, where they can see experiences lations that are transient, constantly
the time. It's an issue of the law, it's
Analyzing power dynamics and of power dynamics that go beyond fluctuating. Having things like a
an issue of acts that occurred and bringing that analysis into the just their individual experiences."
student union is powerful and immy point was that it impacted other framework for critiquing and disStepp also addressed safety, which portant and I'm excited that people
law enforcement agencies that came cussing our situation is an invalu- was stressed by both Costantino and are working on thG.t. I think we need
to our campus. So, what it meant able element of organizing accord- president Purce as foundational lasting groups and institutions that
in terms of how we were viewed ing to Dunn. "About a really limiting for their approach to issues of free are built by students that are going
as a public entity and how people framework that students and others speech. "Safety is a really interest- to serve those roles."
thought of us, Evergreen as being a have about power dynamics, it's not ing concept. It's like assuming that
place that believed in peace and jus- really discussed. With the tearing we have this preconceived state of
power know that when things are seen people will get upset and will
it.
Conclusions
Campus policies and governing
structures that organized students,
from Berkeley in the 1960s to those
who sat-in at Evergreen last year, oppose is articulated by president Purce.
"It's a continuum, and it's a privilege,
it's not a right that we have that historically colleges [can adjudicate issues) within certain realms, and at
any time, they can say, no we're going
to prosecute this.''
Student organizers, according to
Stepp, need to recognize that, "it's an
issue that's bigger than free speech...
It shows the divide between the
students and the administration.''
In contrast to Puree's adherence to
legal "obligations,'' "SDS' aim and
what the whole sit-in became, and
what this whole fret:; speech fight
became, was building the campus
that we want to see. It was an exercise in prefigurative politics, in this.
small instance of exercising our free
speech and our right and our ability
to have this event and the sit-in in
defense of our rights, it showed that
when people get together they can
effect the change that they want and
that they need and I think that that's
really powerful. A lot of group's have
done that but we continued it, creating the situation we wanted to see of
direct democracy."
Her words echo those of Goldberg
and the Berkeley organizers in their
hopes and demands for the scope
and power of their education and
their subsequent ability to transform
tl).eir world. According to the history
and the explanations of college officials given here, the "privilege" to
free speech is easily revoked and repression justified by metaphors such
as "the free marketplace of ideas."
Both Costantino and Purce, along
with their allies on campus and student, faculty and staff organizers see
that these rights are constant sites of
struggle. As Dunn concluded, "So obviously, the odds are stacked against
us arnrthat was the wholeissue last
year- helping to create student voice
and student power, so that we would
have a hand in this process and it
wouldn't just be a handful of people
who get paid to run the institution."
,
poem by ame lie ray
Dedicated to Ernestine Kimbro
Erika
Optimistic patterned shawls reflecting role theorizing,
Laid, feted, dyed with proud analytical comprehension.
The other amerikan dream noted, turned, redeemed
By the presence of conversing, wild drifts of support.
happenings of fiery licks of hair shedding everything but boldness
Equate my thoughts to my friend who waz robbed by the state
mint;
"At the age of twelve you are unfit to exist without supervision"
re-mix your life cause we violent
Locked doors replaced nightlights, checks instead of embrace,
Fighting on the account of bath supplies rather than sibling play.
image cloth of time, taking what is exhibited in the annals of generation
SpitSistern ,
Fly
while
i will walk on limp stings of truth from below
ripping metal iri my mindful limbs until free or overcome by the war machine.
Artwork by amelie ray
8-Counter Point Journal
June2009
A place for political theater in the academic environment
by David Wolach
On June 3, the Mideast Solidarity Project
(MSP) held a panel discussion to explain
the purpose of the May 13 checkpoint street
theater and to answer questions, in light of
the controversy that had stirred around it.
One ofthe panelists was Evergreen faculty
David Wolach, whose lecture is reproduced
below, with minor edits.
I want to make a couple provisos before I begin. First, I'd like to say that
my observations about the street theater itself, the event of May 13, are my
own. I was not in attendance for the
whole event, and so can only base my
thoughts of its impact on what I saw
-which was a good chunk, from what
I understand - of the event. Second,
though I am a proud member of our
faculty union, and though I will be
speaking some of union struggles,
as this is very much part of my Detroit and Northeast backgrounds, I
am in no way speaking on behalf of
our United Faculty of Evergreen AFT/
NEA local union. I am speaking as a
concerned member of the Evergreen
community.
I open with an example of how
things go south when disorder suddenly rears its head. It's a memo
unearthed by sources at Columbia
University- now part of author and
investigative journalist Jennifer
Washburn's new and important book
on the conservatizing cultures of ·
"academe," Corporate Universities, Inc. that gave us, organizers of a teacher's
union at Columbia University, a window into the administration's plan
for punishing us - as lawful strikers
- up to and including blackballing us
from job interviews as new faculty
candidates. The memo was written
by famed and, until that point, wellrespected liberal historian (and Columbia Provost) Alan Brinkley. It is a
lesson in how, as positions of power
and pressure shift, even the seemingly least likely of us will compromise former systems of value, stated
missions. (The memo can be found
at www.thenation.com/special/pdf/brin-
kley_ letter. pd!J
This is where I am coming from, to
be clear.
The checkpoint detournement
of May 13 called attention to larger
- though in some ways, more basic problems of social and economic justice than the very heated, indeed very
complicated set of problems specific
to Israel- Palestine.
Rights of freedom of speech and .
expression are at stake, as are our
tenuous, less protected, and often
less talked about negative educational freedoms. And here - amidst the
distinctly current trend of our brave
faculty unions, in' the face of threats
of dismissal, seeking to win back
contractual guarantees to freely educate - the term "freedom," without
basic pedagogical rights to risk and
discomfort, becomes hollow, indeed
empty, such that its usage is easily
weaponized; the butter knife is used,
a la David Horowitz, to stab those
• of us who wish to organize against
prejudice, against hatred, against
the silencing effect of a shattered, illeducated ruling class.
Hence, the stakes are as high as
whether we wish to work and live
in an ecosystem that nourishes our
mouths, our bodies, one-another's
human-ness. If we do wish this wt>rld,
then we must organize, and organizing is born of a necessary and deeply
unsettling pessimism, that necessary pessimism-as-desperate means
to better things. Struggle born of
pessimism is not nice, it is not clean,
it will not hug you, nor will it wash
your dishes or lather your comforts
with niceties and compromise.
On a cold picket line in New Haven, in three feet of snow, I had the
warming experience of hearing Cornel West speak on these very issues.
We'd asked him to speak at a noon
rally when we were organizing a
union at Yale, perhaps the greatest
example of academic corporatization
and colonization in America. They'd
locked out the workers, fired several,
mainly minorities because minorities were the most vulnerable of all
the staff. I was struck by the first
strokes of West's.speech:
administration and what is at least
perceived to be their complicity, or at
least their silence, after the anti-war
port protest roundups two years ago.
I've seen this before, this insidious
attempt to reorder a place for fear
that the deviant elements will bring
us down. It's a corporate mentality. And in the worst economic times,
that corporate mentality, that fear of
losing one's grip, escalates with exponential fervor. It's important we as
a community critique ourselves - all
of us, including those on the panel
here today- as things get downright
strange when you're poor, or suddenly claiming poor, or poorer than you
were last year at this time. Things
get strange and they get scary when
a higher administration, instead of
pushing back, rearranges its priorities in the face of real - and speaking
with sincere empathy here - and constant legislative pressures.
Let's just be clear about it: put
away your mythical academic landscape with its staunch defense of
the First Amendment. Get that out
of your mind. I've helped organize
I hope that I say something this eveunions at maybe twenty colleges
ning that unsettles you, unnerves you,
and universities, and none are intermaybe even for a moment, "unhouses''
ested in thinking that their constant .
you. Very much like the experience that
refrain when protests occur - "We
we want with each and every one ofour
must hold our community members
students for them to recognize that, if
to a higher standard" - is to breach
only for a second, theirworldview rests
our protected constitutional rights.
on pudding. That kind of existential
Let's just be clear: what occurred
vertigo, that tragic qualm that goes
on May 13 was and still is protected
hand in hand with the best kind of eduspeech. Political theater; As a procation.
fessor of text arts, one of my areas
Socrates says that "the unexamined
of study, of work, of output, is the
life is not worth living," and Malcolm
study and production of experimenX adds that "the examined life is paintal performative poetries - or, if you
ful." And it seems to me that any seriwill, experimental guerilla theater.
ous discussion about education, espeThings reverberate.
cially this rich tradition of Essential
[Evergreen Chief of Police]
Education, begins in many ways with
Ed Sorger's email, and the
of trustees, most of whom have no West has said: "It's hip today not to
training in pedagogy or art. What, be involved." It's hip on this campus
are we to assume they're all going to to call organizers "hip," which is a
brush up on their Judith Butler, their way to frame and tame in one's mind
N. Katherine Hayles, their Rosema- the activists one is met by - and this
rie Waldrop, their Charles Bernstein, has a marginalizing effect, itself a
their Derrida, and then, maybe by victimizing that I don't hear a lot
the time a new case is heard, there about.
they can crack open some experi"It is part of morality not to be at
mental cinema a:qd put it on trial as home in one's home," Edward Said
a test run for the new student con- wrote in Culture and Impenalism - anduct code? Is Art Costantino - with other text that is often cited, but only,
all that first name signifies - going it seems, within the inoculating conto seminar with us ·on Walter Benja- fines of the square room with desks
min next week?
and chairs, blackboard that is easily
I sit here today not with individu- erasable.
als who are born of white privilege,
I spent a good amount of time
as some who have infantilized reac- watching, as an interested onlooker,
tively - and out of what I take to be the checkpoint theater. I, too, having
grown up under ugly circumstances
that led me through the horrifying
maze of the penal system as a young
child (fanilly gone for months), I too
May l3)nn
a student group.
was viscerally wounded by the theeludes a
ater. It affected me deeply, in both
lhalmaffe
individual ways regarding personal
pus. Wt
trauma, and in ways that confrontaa,
.
;;o thal you
tional, difficult, but legally protected
can avoid thc:fu'ea ifyou cho<e«.
street theater should effect one.
Should you' uedd >'llpport conra,,
I am afraid that we mistake po'11lc c,wnseling Center or stuff
litical
art for reality due to our diswith
'
'
tances from everyday horrors, and I
am afraid as well that, to give us all
the benefit of the doubt, we often
mistake being unsettled, unnerved,
unhoused, for being- in legal senses
or otherwise - harassed, victimized.
understandable disturbance in the
I came to Evergreen, in part, beimmediate aftermath - have sug- cause of its stated mission. The idea
gested. Not with those for whom of a public school that values interplaying radical is shotgun politics dependence and freedom of expreson a Sunday afternoon. I am sitting sion, that values experiments and
with individuals from diverse back- risks in pedagogy and art? What a
grounds, ethnicities, socioeconomic fucking dream!
These values are still at work
here. Don't get me wrong. We're
doing really good things, and I
I am afraid that we mistake political
Socrates, though he's not the only start- administration's follow-up,
ing point, butne's such an appropriate
was successful: "Will we be
starting point.Because he enacts as well
investigated?" some of my
as embodies what the great Californiastudents asked in reference
born philosopher, Josiah Royce, called
to working out their final
the "spirituality ofgenuine doubting".
projects, figuring out ways to
By spirituality he does not mean anywork collaboratively to help
thing ephemeral. I know we associate
answer the question of what
California with "new age" spirituality,
"performing the text" can
but that's not whatJosiah had in mind.
come to mean. I don't want to
He had in mind self-involved and selfhear about higher standards.
invested wrestling with, grappling
And I don't want to hear about how
with, visions, perspectives, arguments,
unconsidered this particular event
wrestling with oneself, mustering the
was. In my classroom, as in most of
courage to learn.
art for reality due to our distances
have to.say I've never taught at-
an institution where most of
the deans are goddamn helpful,
committed to teac;hing as much
as anybody else - risk takers and
forward thinkers. Nor have I
ever felt such comradeship with
students, staff, and faculty. But
that doesn't mean we should
let things slide. You do that and
you're neck up in mud wondering what the hell happened. That
I'm sitting here is because I find this
place to be a gem in many ways. I like
it here, a lot. So I have a stake. I have
a stake in what our stated mission
is - in the ways we are importantly
different amidst such otherwise selfsameness.
Let's step back a bit and not fall
into the corporate academic sinkhole. He11, even from a business
standpoint it's a bad idea. You get rid
of what makes us unique, then why
come to Evergreen?
from everyday horrors, and I am
afraid as well that we often mistake
being unsettled, unnerved, unhoused, for being- in legal senses or
otherwise- harassed, victimized~·
We will not live in peace as an interdependent ecosystem without struggle, and on May 13 what I witnessed
was not an unlawful act threatening
our safety, but an unsettling disruption of our daily lives in the tradition of Brecht, who we read in our
classrooms, of Dr. Martin Luther
King, whose name is evoked at least
once a month in community emails
that conveniently leave out parts of
his speeches at union rallies and sitins that call for such discomfort, of
Laura Elrick and Rodrigo Toscano
and Kaia Sand and Jules Boykoff and
Kristin Prevallet and Rob Halpern,
all of whom have been invited to this
campus with open arms and have
performed similar artistic interventions - in fact, as recently as last week.
Why have they not been threatened
with criminal liability? Is it because
they publish books? Because they
are vouched for? Because they are
not children playing radical? Are
we interested in infantilizing while
criminalizing those who are easily
dismissed because of the power structures of this institution? I hope not.
I hope not because I've been there.
As -have many, many faculty who
spoke recently on this very event,
who spoke of the worrisome trend of
spit-shining out image in the wake
of things we should not condemn,
things we should at least have mixed
feelings about, and dialog around
- the very real and I think justifiable sense of fear members of this
community feel towards the higher
my colleagues' classrooms, we're
working together to ask not only is
the experimental art working as art,
aesthetically, but is it responsible to
the larger social frame? What are its
organizational politics? What are its
poetics?
Don't sell us short to shove
through some new measures that
will make us, as faculty, have to think
twice about whether what we teach
is permissible by the lights of a board
realities to face like many, many of
us. I am sitting today with some
courageous students and organizers who care deeply about social and
economic justice. Of some of the attacks thrown their way, setting aside
the very real threats these organizers
have been handed by Ed Sorger in
consult with the higher administration -setting aside for a moment Art
Costantino's rapid fire communique
implying that further "disturbances"
will not as likely occur in the future
(I've said my peace on that), I am reminded of something else Cornell
Photos of the May 13 checkpoint street theater by Andrew Sernatinger
cxpj_200906.pdf