We strongly condemn the investigations of faculty members Ricardo Dominguez, Micha Cardenas, Brett Stalbaum, Amy Sara Carroll and Ken Ehrlich by the University of California. These “investigations” represent an alarming violation of academic, intellectual and artistic freedom. They function as a smokescreen – distracting from the actual problems addressed by Dominquez, Cardenas and Ehrlich’s work. UC administrators would do better to listen to the messages contained in the work and begin acting to address them appropriately. Such repression of basic freedoms will only exacerbate the existing problems within the UC and radically escalate the public response.
–Occupy Everything Collective
2 replies on “Statement of Solidarity with UCSD/UCR Faculty”
I am alarmed by use of intimidation and fear tactics directed at academics in the university system. The UC system is failing California on several counts, explicitly by the gradual ousting of middle and lower income students from attaining education that should be a right and not a privilege, and now by the transparent targeting of dissenting faculty. It’s not difficult to see that the real threat is the global violation of the integrity of the UC system and the chilling implications associated with with punishing of dissenting academics and intellectuals.
Ricardo Dominguez is doing important work in one case, rising questions regarding our (USA) relationship as a wealthy country to it’s poorer neighbors. He is using art with politics in new ways ( the art of the impossible?), not only to save lives, but magnify global inequalities, historically promoted by richer countries, who have intentionally under-developed other cultures, continuing exploitation of their resources, and undermining traditional sustainability. Then we wonder why people want to cross our Capitalist borders, looking for a way to feed their families. UCOP and several UCSD senior administrators need to back off, and count themselves fortunate to have someone like Mr Dominguez, who is redefining what it means to be a “border-crosser”, where it counts most!