Letter to the Editor—Faculty Members to Provost: Let Students Govern

Loring Pfeiffer and Stephen DiamondMarch 7, 2017Dear The Santa Clara editors:As faculty members at the University, we were disappointed to learn that the Provost's office intervened last week to overturn the Student Senate decision denying Turning Point USA’s (TPUSA) application to become a registered student organization (RSO). As reported in The Santa Clara, the Student Senate engaged in a careful review and vigorous debate prior to reaching its decision. TPUSA appealed the decision to the student Judicial Branch and it was denied. Without any additional information that we are aware of, the Provost’s office elected to review in secret the decision and then announced that they had reversed it and granted TPUSA RSO status.A central and prominent activity of TPUSA is their Professor WatchList, which “outs” what TPUSA determines are faculty with whom they disagree ideologically. Such lists can lead to the harassment of faculty, and the American Association of University Professors has deemed them “a threat to academic freedom.”Nevertheless, it is not on our own behalf that we write to you. We support students' right to free speech, and we welcome diverse points of view on our campus. Some of us, for example, believe that TPUSA should be granted RSO status, while others agree with the Senate that they should not. But we all agree that this was a decision that should have been made by students in accordance with their interpretation of the Constitution of the Associated Student Government.We write, therefore, to express our concern about the University administration's interference with, and undermining of, student decision-making on the campus. The TPUSA intervention follows in the wake of the inappropriate censoring of The Santa Clara's reporting of comments made by a donor and trustee earlier this quarter. Thus, we want Santa Clara students to know that faculty members support student advocacy and free expression on our campus. In the realms of both journalism and politics, Santa Clara students know and are doing what they feel is right, and they are practicing the Jesuit values that our institution espouses. As faculty members, we recognize that and are proud of the work students are doing. We will continue to advocate on students’ behalf to members of the administration, and we will work to empower and amplify students’ endeavors on campus.Sincerely,

  1. Loring Pfeiffer, Department of English
  2. Stephen Diamond, School of Law
  3. Tim Urdan, Department of Psychology
  4. Michelle Burnham, Department of English
  5. Barry Posner, Department of Management and Entrepreneurship
  6. Erick Ramirez, Department of Philosophy
  7. Danielle Morgan, Department of English
  8. Kathleen Maxwell, Department of Art and Art History
  9. Robin Tremblay-McGaw, Department of English
  10. Kirk Glaser, Department of English
  11. Bruno Ruviaro, Department of Music
  12. Barbara Kelley, Department of Communication
  13. Leslie Gray, Department of Environmental Studies and Sciences
  14. Cary Yang, Department of Electrical Engineering
  15. Iris Stewart-Frey, Department of Environmental Studies and Sciences
  16. Elizabeth Dahlhoff, Department of Biology
  17. Patt Ness, Department of Theatre and Dance
  18. Michael A. Santoro, Department of Management, Leavey School of Business
  19. Nicholas Leither, Department of English
  20. Naomi Andrews, Department of History
  21. Ed Maurer, Civil Engineering Department
  22. Scott LaBarge, Depts. of Philosophy and Classics
  23. Stephen Carroll, Department of English
  24. Hsin-I Cheng, Department of Communication
  25. Juliana Chang, Department of English
  26. Mohammad Ayoubi, Department of Mechanical Engineering
  27. John S. Farnsworth, Department of Environmental Studies and Sciences
  28. John Kennedy, Department of Music
  29. Julia Voss, Department of English
  30. Amy Randall, Department of History
  31. Amy Lueck, Department of English
  32. Michael Lasley, Department of English
  33. Marilyn Edelstein, English Department
  34. Nina Tanti, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
  35. Sreela Sarkar, Department of Communication
  36. Rohit Chopra, Department of Communication
  37. Samuel Lee, Department of Finance, Leavey School of Business
  38. Justin P. Boren, Department of Communication
  39. Katherine Saxton, Department of Biology
  40. Robert Shanklin, Department of Philosophy
  41. Alberto Ribas, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
  42. Matt Driscoll, Department of English
  43. Cruz Medina, Department of English
  44. Robert Numan, Psychology
  45. Robert Michalski, Department of English
  46. Meg Gudgeirsson, Department of History
  47. Kathryn Bruchmann, Department of Psychology
  48. Trish Serviss, Department of English
  49. Jill Pellettieri, Department of Modern Languages & Literatures
  50. Charles F. Byers, Marketing Department & Department of Communications
  51. Linda Kamas, Department of Economics
  52. Sarita Tamayo-Moraga, Department of Religious Studies
  53. Roberto Mata, Department of Religious Studies
  54. Terry Beers, Department of English
  55. Maria Bauluz, Department of Modern Languages & literatures
  56. Barbara Burns, Child Studies
  57. Deirdre Frontczak, Marketing Department
  58. W. David Ball, School of Law
  59. Shannon Vallor, Department of Philosophy
  60. Brian McNelis, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
  61. Jackie Hendricks, Department of English
  62. Lisa Kealhofer, Anthropology/ESS Depts.
  63. Kirsten Read, Department of Psychology
  64. Chad Raphael, Department of Communication
  65. Elsa Li, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
  66. Nancy Unger, Department of History
  67. Tracey Kahan, Department of Psychology
  68. Nicholas Tran, Department of Mathematics & Computer Science
  69. Anna Sampaio, Department of Ethnic Studies
  70. Patti Simone, Department of Psychology
  71. Luis Cheng-Guajardo, Department of Philosophy
  72. Jane Leftwich Curry, Department of Political Science
  73. Sharmila Lodhia, Department of Women’s and Gender Studies
  74. Shireen AlAzzawi, Department of Economics
  75. Francine Gordon, Management Department, Leavey School of Business
  76. Kieran Sullivan, Department of Psychology
  77. Amy Eriksson, Department of Communication
  78. Katharine Heintz, Department of Communication
  79. Maura Tarnoff, Department of English
  80. Jackie Schmidt-Posner, Professor of Practice, Leavey School of Business
  81. Ariel Schindewolf, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
  82. Denise Krane, Department of English
  83. Michael Kevane, Department of Economics
  84. Margaret M. Lucero, Department of Education
  85. David E. Skinner, History Department
  86. Teresa McCollough, Department of Music

Letters to the Editor can be sent to editor@thesantaclara.org. 

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