Below is an edited version of a message I posted to a surprisingly
lively discussion among UCD CS faculty over the weekend.  The idea was
for us to write an open letter concerning the events of November 18.  X
and Y are fellow faculty members.

Norm Matloff
Professor of Computer Science
University of California, Davis

Date: Sun, 20 Nov 2011 14:54:24 -0800
From: Norm Matloff <matloff@cs.ucdavis.edu>

Glad to see such a discussion arise, including some participants I had
(wrongly) assumed are decidely apolitical.  Of course, I had never
assumed that in X's case. :-)

I think we can be reasonably sure that the chancellor did not explicitly
authorize the casual use of pepper spray.  I think she is sincere in
saying she didn't want anyone to get hurt.

On the other hand, neither did she warn the campus police not to use
unnecessary force.  Given what happened, for example, with Mayor Jean
Quan in Oakland over the Occupy protests, with a serious head injury
from police action--her legal adviser and more importantly her longtime
close friend, Dan Siegel (whom I also know slightly) resigned in protest
over the matter--I would have thought the chancellor would have been
more careful and try to anticipate problems.  But that didn't happen,
and now UCD is "famous," ironically one of the chancellor's goals upon
taking the job here.  "Be careful what you wish for." :-)

I think it would be a huge mistake for our letter to focus on the state
budget problems.  As X said, the chancellor can't do a thing about that,
and as X and I both said, the state budget problems are minor compared
to the real issue, the stranglehold of the corporate lobbyists on our
government at the federal AND state levels.  I'm not anti-business, but
in the last 10 years or so, the lobbyists have stolen our democracy.
I would argue, in fact that the state budget problems have arisen
BECAUSE of the disgraceful lobbying situation.  It's all connected.  

At any rate, those "caviar eaters," as X put it, would love for Occupy
and their supporters to focus on tuition hikes (onerous as they are),
because it distracts attention from the real issue, inordinate corporate
power; it's classic PR tactic.  The Occupy movement, for their part, are
squandering their opportunity by focusing on the "1%," instead of the
core problem of corporate power, and by adopting a "hippie" persona.

There IS something the chancellor could do.  She could speak out
nationally.  She does, after all, have a national megaphone on the
popular Post Webzine operated by her fellow Greek, Arianna Huffington;
Katehi has written a column there and been quoted there.  Imagine the
impact it would have for the head of a major university to speak out
about the disgraceful power of the corporate lobbyists!  But that's not
gonna happen; people in her position simply don't do such a thing
("loose cannons" and "rock the boat" types are screened out early in the
hiring process), even if they have private thoughts along those lines.
Indeed, I suspect the chancellor might have such thoughts, to some
degree at least.

As to not voting next year as a protest, suggested by Y, let me be a
little personal.  I'm a lifelong mainstream Democrat, but I haven't
voted for President in years, because I feel both major parties are
pretty much identical.  I do vote in the primaries, and of course I do
vote on the statewide offices, propositions etc.  I was glad to see a
black man win in 2008, but I knew from his track record and especially
his choice of advisers that he would be More of the Same, which sadly
turned out to be the case.

Just my thoughts.

Norm