Defeat UC Regent Jay Sures’ Censorship Proposal!
Defend free speech rights for supporters of the Palestinian struggle!
Defend freedom of speech and academic freedom for faculty, staff and students in the University of California!
>University of California Regent Jay Sures’ proposal to ban political speech by faculty, departments, and staff on UC websites and other official UC channels flies in the face of the University of California’s mission. It is a dangerous attack that will have a chilling effect on free speech, free expression, and academic freedom across the UC System.
>UC Regent Sures’ proposal was openly acknowledged in the January 2024 UC Regents meeting as being a way to censor speech on the issue of Palestine/Israel. The proposal is set to be discussed and potentially voted on at the next UC Regents meeting in March. UC students, alumni, and the broader communities surrounding our campuses must take a stand to oppose this kind of censorship and repression of speech and academic freedom by UC Regent Sures’ resolution.
>With the increasing privatization of higher education, there have been increasing attacks on the right of free speech on campuses across the country as campus administrations allow their policies to be dictated by big corporate and alumni donors. An academic atmosphere where the UC Regents and campus administrations get to determine what is acceptable speech is the definition of censorship. This would set a negative precedent for public and private educational institutions nationwide.
>Across the country, students, student organizations, faculty, and even whole school districts are facing targeted censorship and repression over speech. Over 50 universities and other school systems, including but not limited to: San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), Yale, Brown, Temple, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), and UW‐Madison are being investigated by the Department of Education over pro‐Palestine statements, education, and protest action.
>The activity on the part of the supporters of the Palestinian struggle is part of an international movement of millions against the ongoing genocide in Gaza being committed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) with the aid of the U.S. government and military.
>The University of California is a public institution and, as such, must defend the broadest freedoms for all students, staff, and faculty. The ability of faculty, departments, students, and staff to express their views on UC websites and other public platforms is a matter of the independence of the faculty, departments, students, and the pursuit of their intellectual activity in a public institution.
>The University of California campuses have been home to the great social issues of our time, including UC Berkeley’s free speech movement. UC Regent Sures’ proposal is an attack on this proud tradition
Therefore, we the undersigned:
- Oppose and call for the defeat of UC Regent Jay Sures’ proposal to censor UC faculty and students.
- Defend the right to free speech and academic freedom in support of the Palestinian struggle for all UC students, student organizations, faculty, and staff.
- Oppose all forms of Islamophobia, anti‐Semitism, other forms of bigotry, ethnic‐cleansing, and genocide.
- Oppose all political censorship in colleges, universities, and other school campuses.
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