Freedom isn 't free. It costs $800 per officer. : AZ IMC

About twice a month, somewhere between the hours of five and seven pm, you can find a small group of dangerous political dissidents clustered in a room on the third floor of the University of Arizona’s Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Building. This group of individuals, largely comprised of UA graduate students and left-leaning members of the Tucson community, is what is known as the Tucson chapter of World Can’t Wait/ Refuse and Resist, a nationwide activist collective dedicated to the removal of the Bush regime from the White House.

This group has, in the past, been responsible for marches involving up to one hundred Tucsonans marching from the UA campus to the Federal building downtown under the banners of “Drive Bush out the Bush regime”, or “End the Iraq War” (occasionally, a few of them can be spotted between cars during rush hour wearing mock prison and military uniforms in a direct attempt to ridicule US military treatment of enemy combatants in Guantanamo Bay). You may also remember them from various tabling or pamphleteering exercises on the UA campus. In December, the UA WCW/RR people were also responsible for an open lecture on the UA campus by the Reverend John Fife, one of the founders of Humane Borders, a group that openly encourages the humane treatment of illegal immigrants.

It is for all the above listed reasons that the administration of the University of Arizona and the University of Arizona Police Department have chosen to curtail their actions, monitor their website and myspace page, and deny them any opportunity for a redress of grievances.

On October 5, 2006, the WCW/RR group staged a rally dubbed the “drive out the Bush regime rally” on the UA mall. According to WCW/RR activist, and former WCW/RR steering committee member, Stephanie Woods, at any given time during the rally, there were roughly 100 members of the Tucson community (unaffiliated with the UA), and up to 300 UA students present and taking part in the action. Despite the relatively large turnout, the event went off smoothly, with the exception of one angry individual shouting abuse at the congregation, and the post-rally naming of one protester as a “fucktard” by a disaffected rightwing blogger.

According to Woods and Sgt. Eugene Mejia of the UAPD, also in attendance were a small contingent of UAPD officers. Woods claims that following the rally she was approached by UAPD Chief, Anthony Daykin, who complimented her and the group on their smooth execution of the event.

Following the October rally, the group planned to hold a “resistance through the arts festival” on the mall—the desired affect of which would be to highlight nonviolent forms of public discourse and information dissemination through music, visual arts and the written word. The festival was staged to take place on November 4, and as it was an undertaking planned and organized by WCW/RR, Pima Community College students, and various other community members, it was looked forward to as the crowning action of the year.

That event has never taken place. Somewhere between October 5 and November 4, something caused the attitude of the UA administration and the UAPD towards the group to shift radically. Three days before the event, WCW/RR were notified by the UAPD and UA Mall Services that they would be required to purchase security from the UAPD if they were to be allowed to hold the festival. This security would be provided to the group in the form of two to three off-duty UAPD officers, at a total cost of $1,600. This requirement, levied on a group that depends solely on donations (and does not even qualify for tax-exempt status), effectively quashed any possibility of the festival taking place on the set date.

“Had that group submitted to me their plans for that event in time, they would not have had that problem,” said Associate Dean of Students, Veda Kowalski. “But, I did not even hear of the event until three days before it was to take place.”

This assertion, however, is untrue. According to both Woods and Program Coordinator, Diane Newman of UA Mall Services, Woods and WCW/RR had submitted the requisite paperwork on October 18, well before the two week period required by the university to process requests for use of mall space. Once the paper work is submitted to UA Mall Services, it moves through Risk Management for assessment, and on to Kowalski’s desk. Kowalski is charged with all issues regarding first amendment issues on campus, as well as having the final word on the utilization of the campus mall.

“They didn’t tell me how many people were expected to be in attendance, nor did they indicate how many bands were to be present,” said Kowalski, addressing her security concerns around the event.

This is also untrue. Woods had notified Newman that there were scheduled to be twelve bands throughout the day, and that there were likely, at any given point during the day, to be between 50 and 100 people in attendance.

Of the security requirements, Sgt. Mejia had this to say: “Someone over there must not be able to read. I said that it was recommended that they have security, not that it was required.”

This, however, also appears to be untrue. In an email to Woods, Newman put the security requirements in no uncertain terms. “Sgt. Mejia, UAPD, and Veda Kowalski, Dean of Students, have told me that you must have two officers for your event,” said Newman. “The approximate charge for those officers is $1,600. If you do not hire officers, then I must cancel your event. If you do hire the officers, then either Beth Lopez (of the UAPD) or Sgt. Mejia must call me to let me know. Then your event is a go.”

This the not first time Kowalski has been accused of withholding or limiting mall availability for events of a political nature.

In September of 2006, a group of UA faculty including then Head of the Department of History, Karen Anderson, the Head of the Department of Women’s Studies, Laura Briggs, and several student representatives of various activist organizations, held an event on the UA mall entitled the “911 cultural forum”. The aggregate group of faculty and students had submitted all the requisite forms on time, and been approved by the Office of the Dean of Students, Risk Management, and Mall Services. However, shortly before the event, the group was notified that they were going to be required to cut the event short, from four hours to only one, the end result being that each speaker would only be allotted ten minutes to speak. The order came directly from Kowalski, who cited what seems to be a selectively enforced rule concerning amplification during daylight hours on the mall (amplification is only permitted between noon and one pm, and between five and seven pm).

Kowalski received a barrage of complaints from both faculty and students. In an email written by Anderson to Kowalski concerning the matter, Anderson voiced her concerns over the restriction: “It is my concern that we should be encouraging students who actually want to hold an intellectually based discussion of serious public issues. Why restrict the time? This also restricts the speakers and audience participation. Isn’t this kind of exchange what the university is supposed to be about?”

Joel Feinman, a UA law student who was set to speak at the event, asked of Kowalski in an email similar to Anderson’s, why the of the Dean of Students Office turned a blind eye to certain campus functions, while shutting others down by selectively enforcing rules.

“I am writing to inform you that I find this action outrageous and a violation of the core principles of learning and open-mindedness that this university supposedly celebrates, not represses,” said Feinman, who went on to challenge the actions of the administration, “If the University of Arizona is going to censor well-meaning, non-partisan public debate on the most crucial issues of the day, let it do so publicly, and explain to the wider community why it protects mud wrestling and fraternity tug-of-war over events that seek to educate and enlighten,” said Feinman.

It was not until Feinman informed Kowalski that he had contacted local media, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the National Lawyers Guild regarding the issue that Kowalski decided to reverse her decision and allow the event to take place as originally planned.

Following the forced cancellation of the Resistance Though the Arts festival by the Office of the Dean of Students, the group was invited by the UA debate team to take part in a debate on the curtailment of civil liberties in the post-September 11 United States. The debate was cleared through Mall Services, and was set to take place in Alumni Plaza on the campus on November 17.

WCW/RR mistakenly posted the date of the event on their website as well as on their myspace account as being November 10. Immediately following the erroneous posting, Diane Newman of Mall Services received a phone call from UAPD Detective Dana McReynolds. According to Newman, McReynolds was concerned that WCW/RR were planning to disrupt a homecoming event that was scheduled to take place in the plaza on that day. Newman then called WCW/RR Steering Committee Member Stephanie Woods and demanded to know what the group was planning.

Det. McReynolds also contacted the head of the UA Debate team, Tawfik Maudah, demanding to know what the groups were up to.

No one from WCW/RR was ever directly contacted regarding these concerns by a representative of the UAPD.

In an open letter sent to UA President Robert Shelton on November 14, WCW/RR voiced their concerns over the incident:

“We are simply outraged that the UAPD is monitoring our website. Such surveillance is a tactic appropriate for a police state, not a university. We feel quite adamantly that such monitoring, of us or any other group, should stop immediately.”

When asked whether the UAPD was monitoring WCW/RR, UAPD Spokesman, Sgt. Eugene Mejia said, “I doubt if we have either the time or the resources to monitor these people’s website.”

When asked why both Mall Services and the head of the Debate Team had said they were contacted by an individual claiming to be a UAPD detective, Mejia said he would have to call me back.

I then received a phone call from UAPD Commander, Bob Sommerfeld, who informed me that he could not answer any questions I had concerning any of the issues addressed in WCW/RR’s letter to Shelton, or any investigation into the WCW/RR group, but would have to defer any inquiries I might have to Shelton himself.

All subsequent attempts to contact Shelton on my part regarding the issue have been unsuccessful.

I recently contacted Det. McReynolds and asked her what the nature of the investigation into WCW/RR has been, at whose behest it is being carried out, and to what extent UAPD has been monitoring their actions. McReynolds told me that she did not, at that moment, have time to speak with me, but that she would call me back. She has yet to get back to me.

The roots of this type of tandem action by the UAPD and the Dean of Students Office may be traced back to the UA Faculty Senate minutes of May 5, 2003, wherein plans to develop and implement a “central tracking system administered by the Dean of Students Office” (AKA the Student Information System) and “Student Behavior Assessment Committee” were discussed. Kowalski is the primary architect of these systems.

(Senator): “Why is this Student Behavior Assessment Committee needed at all, since we already have the Student Disciplinary Procedures?”

“Kowalski responded that the faculty wanted a body made up of faculty, staff, and professionals in various areas, such as police, that will review and talk specifically about student threatening behavior on campus and advise the Dean of Students Office about issues of level of threat and risk and impact on the community, and advise Kowalski (sic).”

While it may be true that the Student Behavior Assessment Committee and the Student Information Systems were conceived and implemented at a time when the UA community was still reeling from a shooting rampage that took place on campus in late October of 2002, claiming four lives (three of which were faculty members, the fourth being the gunman), and while Kowalski asserts that the tandem truncation of events and monitoring of WCW/RR members has nothing to do with this system (although this seems to be exactly what is going on), it may also be true that the use the Dean of Students Office and the UAPD have put these systems to is nothing more than an abuse of a system put into place under good faith.

Even at the time of the inception of the SIS and behavior assessment systems, some voiced concern. In the Faculty Senate meeting minutes of May 5, 2003, the Senators asked of the assembly: “If the Dean of Students Office has the authority to appoint the Student Behavior Assessment Committee, and to impose sanctions, this could be likened to having a prosecutor appoint the judge.”

In the November 14 letter to President Shelton, WCW/RR requested a meeting with the president so that the group may voice their grievances and establish a better report with the administration. President Shelton did not feel that the groups concerns over a double standard out of the Dean of Students Office, or the fact that the UAPD was monitoring a non-violent activist group on campus were pressing enough to merit any form of response until nearly one month after the fact. Even when that response came, it was in the form of a brief email from Vice Provost and Dean of Students, Melissa Vito. That communiqué referred to the group’s concerns as “issues that you recently experienced in scheduling and utilizing mall space.” There was no mention of either forced security demands, or of police monitoring.

On Jan 17, once the holidays had passed and classes had resumed, WCW/RR sent another letter to Shelton, reiterating the concerns initially voiced in their original letter, and again ‘demanding’ a meeting with Shelton himself.

The next day the group received a response from Shelton. “I understand from your very direct emails that you “demand” a meeting. I will do my best to accommodate; however, I ask that you recognize my calendar that gets booked heavily well in advance.”

WCW/RR responded immediately, requesting that Shelton name three dates that would work into his schedule so that the two parties could settle on a meeting time that would work well for all parties. Shelton has yet to respond.

Following the Vito email, Greg Knehans, a political sciences major at the UA, and member of WCW/RR commented: “There is a term in architecture for what they (the UA administration) are doing. It’s called an explosion wall. When you’re designing a space in which there is a potential for an explosion, you make one wall weaker than the others, so, in the case of an explosion, that one wall will blow out, and the others will remain standing. That’s what they’re trying to do: give us a meeting with someone lower down, keep pushing off our requests-- they can say that they’ve been cooperating, when really, they’re just dragging this out and hoping we give up.”

Be it an ‘explosion wall’, a presidential icy shoulder, or an on-going investigation hidden behind a veil of silence, the actions of the UA administration and UAPD have had a definite chilling effect. The numbers of active members in WCW/RR have dwindled, involvement of Pima Community College students has all but disappeared, and outside members of the Tucson community have dropped off. It has had, as Woods put it, a “demoralizing effect”.

The last thing the world needs is more crybaby, pussy activists.

Believe me, no one cares about your opinions except your small collection of fellow losers on campus. I firmly believe that you don't realize the vast majority of people are laughing at you.

You've been doing this anti-Bush shit since 2000. And what have you achieved? Nothing. He will serve his full two terms in office and then retire.

Save your breath. No one cares....

While you sit back and think that every thing is going to be okay. things in this world are happenening and at a fast rate. You really don"t care about something untill you have gone thruogh it yourself or it has touched you in a certain way. especially when it hits YOUR heart. then you want to do something about it. That is what is wrong with you people who don't care about nothing but your ol mighty dollar!!! Now thats real!!!