Clubs watched by the school
By RUTH OBEL-JORGENSON / Special to The Collegian
Our university has lied and now more than ever students deserve an apology
from President Welty and chief of police David Huerta.
On Thursday, President Welty released a letter stating there were three
undercover university police officers and three undercover Fresno Sheriff’s
Dept. officers present at an educational student event.
This was released four days after President Welty released another letter
stating there were not undercover university police officers at the event,
but uniformed officers. David Moll, director of public safety, also publicly
stated the week prior there were uniformed campus police officers at the
event and they would not use undercover campus officers at any student
events.
In many meetings with Huerta, I was sincerely looked straight in the eye
and told there were no undercover university police officers at our student
event on November 10, 2004. I was also told by Huerta he could be trusted
and that he was a man of integrity. He reiterated that his goal was to
gain the trust of the students and that he would never engage in covert
actions such as sending undercover university police officers to a student
event. It is clear that this was also a lie and the university police
cannot be trusted, nor can our administration.
What more are they hiding? And why? The university stated these six undercover
officers were there for our safety. Two questions: Does it actually take
six undercover officers, 10 percent of our audience, to ensure campus
safety at a lecture that has been held at Fresno State for the past several
years? If they were there for our safety, why did the university insist
on bold-faced lies to students and faculty who raised concerns about the
issue?
These lies have cost many students, faculty and community members many,
many long hours of planning and action to get the university to tell the
truth after consistently lying. We have invested our time, money, and
life to bring justice to these civil liberties and academic freedom violations.
The very least we deserve is a public apology from our university, an
institution that has vowed to ensure an environment of free thought and
open learning through academic freedom and civil liberties.
—Ruth Obel-Jorgensen is a graduate student of social
work and president of the Campus Peace and Civil Liberties Coalition.
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