The administration of the University of California at Irvine has moved to suspend the university’s Muslim Student Union for a period of one year as punishment for the disruption of a speech by an Israeli official this spring.
In a 14-page letter written last month — but only made public in redacted form yesterday — a university official declared that the disruption of the speech was “planned, orchestrated, and coordinated in advance” by the MSU, and found the group to have violated four provisions of the campus code of conduct. The MSU has appealed the decision, which is slated to take effect on September 1.
The Los Angeles Times called the ruling, which was issued by the university’s Senior Executive Director of Student Housing, “the first in recent memory at UC recommending the ban of a student group for something other than hazing or alcohol abuse.” In a statement, incoming MSU president Asaad Traina said the suspension would “deprive Muslim students — both current and incoming — of a place where they can develop a sense of community with one another and with the broader UCI campus community.”
The Associated Students of UCI, Irvine’s student government, has not yet made any public comment on the matter, though Victor Sanchez, president of the system-wide University of California Student Association, yesterday called it an effort to “silence dissent.”
Irvine’s move to suspend the MSU raises important questions of university governance, student government autonomy, and due process. I’ll be reporting more on this story in the days to come, and discussing it on Twitter this Wednesday at 8:30 PM Eastern Time (5:30 Pacific) as part of the weekly #sgachat.
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June 15, 2010 at 11:48 pm
francisco
Great, thanks for the coverage. I really dont see how UCI’s reaction is justified. I thought for a moment after reading “planned, orchestrated, and coordinated in advance” that it could be, but i think that was my mind tricking me into thinking in ‘premeditated murder’ type terms. I think that’s part of the danger with this decision (aside from the obvious) – it sets a horrible president and shuns what i consider to be a fine display of democracy. Sure it was ‘in your face’, blatantly rude, and inconsiderate. But when children in gaza are dying and families are seeing their homes demolished in the west bank – rude and inconsiderate is very necessary.
June 16, 2010 at 3:46 pm
#SGAchat tonight – UC Irvine Shuts Down Its Muslim Student Union « The SGA Collaborative
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