Dear Friends, Below is the text for a full page ad we are running the San Francisco State University newspaper in defense of anti-military recruiter student protesters. The text is pretty self-explanatory. I'd really appreciate it if you could endorse the ad and forward it to any lists or individuals you know for endorsement. If you endorse, please include your name, title, organization/school/union/church for ID purposes. We need to raise $800 for the ad as well as more money for legal defense so if you can make any contribution, that would be greatly appreciated. We'd also like to thank the 6 Bay Area NLG lawyers who are conducting a vigorous defense of the students pro bono. Send checks to: ISO, 110 Capp Street, Suite 202, San Francisco, CA 94110. Please make the check out to "ISO" and put "SFSU student defense" in the memo section. Endorsements must be returned by Wednesday, May 4 (this coming Wednesday!)
Thanks for your solidarity, Todd Chretien California organizer, ISO 510-395-6417 Defend Students Rights at SFSU [text of ad for May 12 edition of The Golden Gator Xpress campus newspaper] 1st Amendment from the Bill of Rights: I - Freedom of Speech, Press, Religion and Petition Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. On March 9th, 2005, about two hundred students at San Francisco State University protested the presence of military recruiters from the Army Corps of Engineers and the Air force in the Cesar Chavez Student Center. They were protesting the US occupation of Iraq, which has led to the deaths of over 1500 American soldiers and 100,000 Iraqis, the diversion of funding away from education and into military spending, and the military's “Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy, which is blatantly discriminatory against gays and lesbians. The military’s openly homophobic policy violates the spirit and the letter of the California State University and SFSU anti-discrimination policy. Instead of enforcing their own anti-discrimination policy against the military recruiters, the administration has targeted three student activists, Pardis Esmaeili, Katrina Yeaw and Michael Hoffman, and two student organizations, Students Against War and the International Socialist Organization, among all of those who participated, for possible discipline and sanctions. Students, who staged a nonviolent sit-in, were exercising their First Amendment right to peaceably assemble and petition the Government for a redress of grievances. The administration has stated that they must allow military recruiters on campus because of the Solomon Amendment, a 1996 law which has been used to coerce universities with threats of federal funding cuts. But the Solomon Amendment has been successfully challenged by both Yale and Harvard. Regarding allowing discriminatory employers on campuses, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ruled that "under the free speech protections in the First Amendment, the government may not force higher education institutions to endorse a message that violates their own policies." There is no reason why San Francisco State University cannot challenge the Solomon Amendment and uphold its anti-discrimination policy. The administration’s threats may have already had a chilling effect on student activism on campus. Students on many California campuses participated in an April 20 walkout to protest budget cuts in education and support the faculty union. In the SF State campus newspaper, The Golden Gate Xpress, California Faculty Association office manager Laurie Owen stated that “many student groups feel too reluctant to risk incurring yet more wrath from the gods of SFSU to engage in yet more civil disobedience. Because so many groups pulled out of the walkout, it essentially fell apart.” (http://xpress.sfsu.edu/archives/news/003565.html) The whole history of San Francisco State University is based on a legacy of students fighting for progressive political change. Honoring protest is literally built into SFSU. The students began their March 9 protest on Malcolm X Plaza, marched into Cesar Chavez Student Center, past the Martin Luther King, Jr. Conference Rooms, Rigoberta Menchu Hall and Richard Oakes Multicultural Center and into the Jack Adams Hall to protest the military recruiters. Although less widely known than the others, Jack Adams Hall was dedicated to a campus worker who was a pioneer in the fight against AIDS and eventually died of that disease. Shouldn’t the administration respect the rights of students who dare to protest against an unjust war and a homophobic military by standing in the legacy of the very civil rights heroes the university honors? We the undersigned join San Francisco State students in demanding: 1 - No disciplinary action should be taken against individual students or student groups for involvement in, or endorsement of, the March 9th 2005 protest in Jack Adams Hall 2 - The University should seek to uphold its own anti-discrimination policy and pursue a legal challenge to the Solomon Amendment. 3 - The University should provide a forum for debating the issue of military recruitment on campus. This debate should include military recruiters, SFSU President Robert Corrigan, and a speaker chosen by Students Against War. 4 - The administration will uphold the right to free speech on the SFSU campus and not limit it to unconstitutional "free speech zones." ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> DonorsChoose. A simple way to provide underprivileged children resources often lacking in public schools. Fund a student project in NYC/NC today! http://us.click.yahoo.com/EHLuJD/.WnJAA/cUmLAA/MknplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VTJP/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
