In a rare emergency meeting, UCLA’s division of the
Academic Senate will vote on a controversial resolution today
condemning the U.S. presence in Iraq and calling for international
oversight of Iraq’s reconstruction.
“The last time UCLA faculty as a body spoke in protest was
during the Vietnam War ““ and this war is no less
momentous,” said philosophy Professor Barbara Herman.
Organizers called the assembly a “historic development in
the annals of campus-based anti-war protests” in a statement,
saying to their knowledge no other university has taken a formal
stand on the war since the United States invaded Iraq.
Despite general agreement that the end of military conflict in
Iraq is imminent, more than 200 members of the Senate requested the
body discuss UCLA’s stance on U.S. involvement with a postwar
Iraq.
During the meeting, the division will vote to “condemn the
United States’ invasion of Iraq” and “deplore the
doctrine of preventive war the president has used to justify the
invasion,” as said in the resolution.
The resolution also recommends a “call for the
establishment of a postwar representative government in Iraq,
answerable to the United Nations, which guarantees to Iraqis
inalienable personal, political and civil rights.”
“It took almost a decade of the United States’
direct involvement in the war on Vietnam before a special meeting
of the faculty was called at UCLA in 1970,” said Professor
Maurice Zeitlin, a sociology professor who helped draft the current
resolution.
While all members of the Academic Senate are invited to attend,
the meeting is not open to the public, a restriction some students
are none too pleased about.
“The Academic Senate is not the United Nations, it’s
not the State Department, it’s a bunch of faculty. Maybe
it’s their legal right to shut students out of a meeting, but
it’s not their moral right,” said Bruin Republicans
chair and former Daily Bruin Viewpoint columnist Andrew Jones.
Jones originally thought the closed session was a violation of
the Brown Act, which says most state bodies must allow the public
to be present at their meetings, but later retracted that
allegation.
The Bruin Republicans plan to hold a protest outside the meeting
to ask that the Senate vote down the resolution and allow the
public to be present at the meeting.
Jones said a passing of the resolution would be a “huge
embarrassment” to UCLA and said he would make it his job to
see that faculty are embarrassed of their campus if indeed the
movement passes.
Mark Sato, director of Bruin Republicans faculty/staff
relations, said it is “irresponsible to invest so much time
and energy into a political statement” when issues such as
increased student fees and budget cuts deserve more attention.
UCLA’s division of the Academic Senate has a membership of
more than 3,300 that includes both current and emeriti UCLA
faculty. Two hundred faculty members must attend the session for
the vote to be valid.