Pace Students for a Democratic Society

After walking at the Pace University undergraduate commencement on May 23rd, 2007, Pace University adminstration officials have decided to withhold Lauren Giaccone’s and John Cronan’s degrees pending the resolution of criminal and disciplinary charges stemming from their arrests at a protest in November 2006.

John and Lauren were made aware of this via email yesterday (May 29) from Geoff Harter, the Judicial and Compliance Officer for Pace.

The students, members of Students for a Democratic Society, held a protest calling for President David Caputo’s resignation when it became public that Caputo was making an annual salary of $700,000 as classes were being cut, tuition and other fees were being raised and faculty positions were being eliminated.

We find this an appalling and underhanded move. We call on President Caputo, Chairman Bianco and other Administration officials to drop the charges against these students, as well as the pending charges against Brian Kelly. The university has suffered enough embarrassment and will only further hurt its image in the eyes of alumnus, current and prospective students, as well as their parents.

Withholding the degrees will cause unneccesarry and unwarranted hardship for the students when they go to begin their careers. Such action is disproportionate to the allegations made against these students whom are accused of protesting without a permit.

Sign our petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/lg11679n/petition.html

Please email the following email addresses as well and express your outrage over this latest event. But, please be respectful when doing so. These are the decision makers at the University but ultimately the President has the final say in the matter.

Steve Friedman (Interim President): sfriedman2@pace.edu

David Caputo: dcaputo@pace.edu, president@pace.edu

Dean O’Grady (Dean for Students): mogrady2@pace.edu

Geoff Harter (Judicial and Compliance Officer): gharter@pace.edu

A huge victory for Pace SDS! President Caputo resigns….

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/nyregion/16pace.html?ex=1337054400&en=19649f7d2ddc3eb4&ei=5124&partner=facebook&exprod=facebook

Congrats to everyone, students and faculty alike, who worked so hard to make it a reality!

Next SDS meeting will be Thursday night (2/1) @ 9PM, in the Student Union.

 New people welcome!

See you there!

The New York Times wrote an article on the current situation at Pace University and President Caputo’s struggle to keep his job. Check it out.

*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*

PACE FACULTY PROTEST STUDENT ARRESTS ON CAMPUS
contact: Dr. Amy Foerster afoerster@pace.edu
Dr. Christopher Malone cmalone@pace.edu
Dr. Roger Salerno rsalerno@pace.edu
Dr. Thomas Henthorne thenthorne@pace.edu
Dr. Sid Ray gray@pace.edu

Pace University faculty from both the New York and Westchester campuses
will assemble at 1 Pace Plaza in Lower Manhattan Monday afternoon at 12:30
PM to express their views regarding the recent arrests of five individuals
on the Pace University campus.

Three Pace students and two local activists were arrested on November 15,
2006 for assembling in front of the university and calling for the
resignation of the institution’s president, Dr. David Caputo. While students
were peacefully assembled, Pace officials authorized the NYPD to conduct
arrests on university grounds. Two students were held overnight and another
was let go the evening of the arrest. They face court proceedings later this
month.

Faculty governing bodies on both the Pleasantville and New York City
campuses condemned the arrests at their most recent meetings and demanded
that the university drop disciplinary and criminal actions against affected
students. They also urged the university not to serve as a complainant in
criminal proceedings against the students.

Faculty members attending the event have written letters urging President
David Caputo, Vice President of Student Affairs Darnita Killian and Dean for
Students Marijo O’ Grady to drop campus disciplinary proceedings against the
students, and these materials will be delivered to President Caputo’s office
immediately after the 12:20 event.

*Update*

Faculty speak to concerned members of the Pace community

Credit: Steph Robayo

CLICK HERE TO SIGN!

To:  Pace University

We the undersigned members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Movement for a Democratic Society(MDS), and friends thereof, denounce the actions of Pace University in regards to the planned arrest of several SDS first amendment activists on November 15, 2006 at the downtown campus. The targeting of these activists for their efforts to organize an SDS chapter at Pace is reprehensible. President David A. Caputo and the Pace administration have violated the civil rights of the student population and we join with SDS Pace in calling for David Caputo to step down now. members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Movement for a Democratic Society(MDS), and friends thereof, denounce the actions of Pace University in regards to the planned arrest of several SDS first amendment activists on November 15, 2006 at the downtown campus. The targeting of these activists for their efforts to organize an SDS chapter at Pace is reprehensible. President David A. Caputo and the Pace administration have violated the civil rights of the student population and we join with SDS Pace in calling for David Caputo to step down now.The SDS organizers at Pace were exercising their first amendment rights to demonstrate on the campus of the university wherein they are matriculating students. At the time of their arrest they were demanding the right to free expression and to speak with President Caputo and Dean of Students O’Grady for a redress of their grievances. Instead they were arrested for standing on the sidewalk of the very university they pay to attend.

Members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Movement for a Democratic Society(MDS), and friends thereof, denounce the actions of Pace University in regards to the planned arrest of several SDS first amendment activists on November 15, 2006 at the downtown campus. The targeting of these activists for their efforts to organize an SDS chapter at Pace is reprehensible. President David A. Caputo and the Pace administration have violated the civil rights of the student population and we join with SDS Pace in calling for David Caputo to step down now.The SDS organizers at Pace were exercising their first amendment rights to demonstrate on the campus of the university wherein they are matriculated students. At the time of their arrest they were demanding the right to free expression and to speak with President Caputo and Dean of Students O’Grady for a redress of their grievances. Instead they were arrested for standing on the sidewalk of the very university they pay to attend.If a matriculated student cannot express her/his views in a nonviolent manner something is seriously amiss. If Free Expression is denied on the grounds of a college campus where is it protected?

We call upon the board of trustees to request President David Caputo’s resignation now in order to ensure that Pace University ceases all attacks on free expression and the civil rights of its student population. We demand that Pace University stop the harrassment of Students for a Democratic Society, a student-led political organization which has indeed applied for a charter. In light of the fact that Dean of Students O’Grady informed Brian Kelly in no uncertain terms that SDS will be recognized - we demand full and unconditional recognition now.

We further demand that Pace University inform the New York Police Department and the District Attorney’s office that they will not be a complainant in this matter and want to see all of the spurious charges against the SDS activists dropped now. We demand that all disciplinary charges against individual SDS members be dismissed immediately - fliering on a college campus is a right, not a crime. Our institutions of higher education must do everything in their power to protect free expression and we demand that the students’ right to freedom of speech and assembly be recognized immediately.

Lastly, we demand a letter of apology from President Caputo to the students whose civil rights he has violated.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

CLICK HERE TO SIGN

The following resolutions were passed at yesterday’s emergency Westchester
Faculty Council meeting:

********************** 

Emergency Faculty Council Resolutions passed 11/21/06

The following motions were passed at our meeeting this afternoon

1. We, the members of the Westchester Faculty Council, will submit the date and time and place of demonstration events to University officials for safety purposes but not for permission to meet; we hereby announce the WFC sponsored student rally scheduled for 12-12:30 pm on Wednesday, November 29, 2006 in Dining Room A, Campus Center, PLV

2. We the Westchester Faculty Council protest the arrest of students who were peacefully demonstrating on November 15, 2006 at One Pace Plaza. We believe the university action was a violation of its stated mission to promote civic engagement. 

3. We the Westchester Faculty Council:

a. request an explanation of why the SDS application to operate as a university club has been denied as incomplete for the past number of months;

b. request an explanation why university policy has been selectively enforced against the SDS;

c. request that this reply be received by November 27, 2006.

4. We the Westchester Faculty Council request that all university criminal
and disciplinary charges against affected students be dropped immediately.

11/20/2006

Dear Mr. Caputo:

In 1791, when the First Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified thereby forever institutionalizing the right of free speech/free expression, our nations founders did not mean that it was a neat idea but it could sometimes be abridged by American universities who’d rather not deal with or hear from their more politically outspoken students.

In 1948, when the United Nations decided to enshrine the right of free speech/free expression in it’s “United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights” thereby officially granting it international recognition, they did not mean to suggest that although it was among the most fundamental of human rights, in actuality it’s proper exercise is at the whim of those who hold power at any given time.

In 1964 when Berkeley students stood atop a police car and used it as a speakers podium insisting the the university administration lift it’s ban on on-campus political activities, thereby finally acknowledging students’ rights to free speech and academic freedom, they were not were not saying it would be so nice if the university would please grant them those inalienable rights others had fought so hard for and were not asking permission.

That is why it is such an outrage, Mr. Caputo, to hear of the recent arrest, disciplinary hearings and investigations into the five students who sought simply to peaceably assemble and exercise their first amendment right of free expression. The students, all members of Students for a Democratic Society, have repeatedly but peacefully sought full recognition of the Pace SDS chapter as a student organization and have repeatedly been denied. Now we learn that when they simply gather on the grounds of their own campus to air their grievances over the universities actions they are arrested and threatened with further disciplinary actions.

Is this what the Bill of Rights framers, the UN Declaration of Human Rights drafters, or the Berkeley Free Speech students had in mind when they so passionately argued that the rights of freedom of speech and expression were fundamental? In fact, more than being civil rights, they are now rightfully thought of internationally as the most basic of human rights, above and beyond all others. Human rights are not surrendered when one registers at a university or should a schools administration feel uncomfortable with it’s more politically outspoken students. Again, if Free Expression is denied on the grounds of a college campus where is it protected? Historically, violaters of this intrinsic right litter the political landscape. Similarly today, would be violaters would, no doubt, end up on the wrong side of history.

As members of sds/mds NYC, but more importantly, as advocates of free expression, we stand in complete support of the Pace 5 and demand that all charges be dropped, all disciplinary actions halted, and a full apology be issued to the students who’ve had the misfortune of witnessing their civil AND human rights so brazenly violated.

Devra Morice

Mike Morice

SDS/MDS NYC

When you’re doing something right, people who feel protected by the system (the few that they are) feel threatened. It has been brought to our attention that there is an email account, PaceSDS@gmail.com, that isnt ours. If you receive any emails from that account, please ignore it. Clearly, it is someone being affected by our organizing…by our disruption of the status quo.

The arrest of protesting Pace students on Wednesday on Pace property, at the
apparant behest of University officials, signals to all of us the contempt that this
administration has for peaceful assembly and free speech.The protesting students who
were removed from their own university campus and kept  in holding cells over night
were neither in the way of the regular operation of this institution, nor were they
outrageous in their actions and demands.

Many of us on faculty cannot understand how President Caputo could either allow or encourage the arrest of  his own students for exercising their constitutional rights. This arrest comes at a time when the faculty is considering a vote of no confidence in both Caputo and the Board of Trustees. I cannot help but conclude that such an outrageous act will hasten this decision.

Not only does such an arrest have the potential of turning existing students against this university and precipitating an exodus of some of our best students, but it also sends up a signal to many that this is not a good place to come for a free and open exchange of opinions and ideas.

While I cannot speak for all faculty, I can say that a very large number of us (in all likelihood the overwhelming majority) will do whatever we can to stand by these students and show our support for them in the days ahead.

Roger Salerno,
Professor of Sociology