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LTTE: CWRU faculty letter to President Kaler and Provost Ward

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

Anonymous Colleague, Professor

Anonymous Colleague, Associate Professor

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Anonymous Colleague, Assistant Professor

Anonymous Colleague, Assistant Professor

Anonymous Colleague, Assistant Professor

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