COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: War Protests: General
UCSC cancels job fair, citing 'safety concerns' about military recruiting
Roger Sideman, SantaCruz Sentinel
January 10, 2007
SANTA CRUZ — Military recruiters scheduled to visit a UC Santa Cruz jobfair this month had crossed their fingers, hoping the campus anti-war
movement had lost steam.
But on Tuesday, university officials surprised local military officials,
along with dozens of other job recruiters, by postponing the Jan. 31 fair
indefinitely. UCSC officials cited concerns about safety following the
series of unruly protests that has accompanied job fairs and other campus
events since 2005.
"Our campus has a strong tradition of supporting free speech and the right
to demonstrate peacefully ... However over the past two years, nearly every
quarter has included events in which a few individuals chose to push their
protests beyond civility and safety," read a statement released by the
Office of Student Affairs.
The fair will be rescheduled when the university develops better rules and
strategies to ensure the safety of military recruiters and other targets of
campus protests. Additionally, a public forum Jan. 25 is planned by campus
administrators, who say they want to engage students to "better understand
campus activism and its impact on the campus"
Student anti-war activists, however, said no amount of campus dialogue
would change their determination to keep recruiters off campus while the
country is at war, especially as the Bush administration plans to deploy
more troops to Iraq.
"Administrators don't understand student activists' basic standpoint," said
Students Against War member Josh Sonnenfeld, "that military recruitment is
not wanted at UCSC and we will continue to act in a nonviolent manner to
ensure a military-free campus.
"We don't just want to make a statement — our goal is to impede and disrupt
their ability to use our bodies for their wars"
At previous campus job fairs, military recruiters set up their information
booths and groups of protesters force themselves inside the job fairs in an
effort to drive the recruiters off campus. Administration officials and
recruiters say student behavior has included spitting, shoving, threatening
speech and throwing fruit.
The greatest injuries to result from campus protests occurred in October
when students and campus police clashed during a visit by the UC regents
after about 200 protesters blocked entrances of a meeting hall with regents
inside. At least seven students were pepper sprayed or bloodied by police
batons. One protester was arrested on suspicion of battery against a police
officer.
In other incidents since the first major counter-recruitment effort in
April 2005, officials say one campus staff member suffered minor injuries,
car tires were slashed and rocks were thrown at a departing military van.
Jean Marie Scott, vice chancellor of student affairs, said UCSC is in a
tough situation because of federal law that strips federal funding to
universities that don't allow military recruiters on campus.
"Students not being flexible has made that a difficult task," Scott said.
At least two branches of the military were scheduled to show up at this
month's fair.
Marine Capt. Brian Lionbarger was hoping this time around student hostility
would subside as it did at UC Berkeley after a wave of graduating seniors
moved on.
"You keep going back because you never know how it's going to be, but I
don't expect the university has much control over that — they're offering
the career fair to us at our own risk to what happens," Lionbarger said.
Army Sgt. 1st Class Ray Ward, a Capitola-based recruiter, said he was
surprised by the job fair's postponement and eager to return.
Army and Marine recruiters said they'll keep returning as long as UCSC
proves to be a good source of recruits. At least a dozen students have
joined or shown interest in military programs over the last year, they said.
"We were told there would be a lot more uniformed and plainclothes police
this time," Ward said. "The university is going to have to figure out some
alternative to allow us to do our job there"
This archive consists of a topically organized selection of
articles culled by members of the Counter-Recruitment List Serve from printed
publications and web sites. The archive is not complete. We have chosen
material relevant to the work of