As faculty at Case Western Reserve University, we respectfully ask President Eric W. Kaler and all other administrators to refrain from deploying police officers to detain and arrest student protesters.
We urge campus officials to consider the free speech and freedom of assembly rights of students, faculty and staff. As Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and Police Chief Annie Todd expressed recently:
“Cleveland is a city for everyone, and we must respect the thoughts, feelings, and voices of those who come from various backgrounds. These diverse perspectives are what makes us special, and ultimately stronger, as a city. Our community deserves venues where they have the ability to constitutionally-express their opinions openly without fear of criminal interference.
“We support 1st Amendment rights and implore CWRU leadership to consider this and think about how the decisions they make and the actions they take—especially against those who are abiding by the law—will influence some of the progress we have collectively made as a city. At the same time, we urge individuals to demonstrate peacefully.”
We appeal to President Kaler and other campus officials to consider their decisions in recognition of our community’s collective need for reconciliation and healing and not to punish the students who have been engaging in peaceful, nonviolent protest. Students have suffered over the course of this conflict, and the university ought to treat them with empathy as it resolves the matter collegially and without recourse to punitive measures.
Karen Beckwith, Flora Stone Mather Professor
Timothy Black, Professor
John Broich, Associate Professor
Jenny Brynjarsdottir, Associate Professor
Cassi Pittman Claytor, Associate Professor
Avidan Y. Cover, Professor of Law
David Crampton, Associate Professor
Danielle Czarnecki, Visiting Assistant Professor
Dale Dannefer, Selah Chamberlain Professor of Sociology
Ananya Dasgupta, Associate Professor
Mary Patrice Erdmans, Professor
John Flores, Associate Professor
Cristián Gómez Olivares, Associate Professor of Spanish
David Gurarie, Professor
Ayesha Bell Hardaway, Professor of Law
Mark Joseph, Leona Bevis and Marguerite Haynam Professor of Community Development
Jessica Kelley, Professor
Walter Lambrecht, Perkins Professor of Physics
Kenneth F. Ledford, Hiram C. Hayd Professor in History, Associate Professor of History and Law
Stacy McGaugh, Professor
Chris Mihos, Worcester R. And Cornelia B. Warner Professor of Astronomy
Pete Moore, M.A. Hanna Associate Professor of Politics
Ann Nguyen, Associate Professor of Social Work
Todd Oakley, Professor
Dana M. Prince, Associate Professor, Mandel School of Applied Sciences
Lihong Shi, Associate Professor
Ted Steinberg, Adeline Barry Davee Distinguished Professor of History
Henry L. Zucker, Associate Professor of Social Work Practice
Anonymous Colleague, Professor
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