UPDATED: April 25, 2011, 8:39 p.m.

In this article, information about the Student Activism Team was incorrect. The SAT is comprised of staff members from UC Davis Student Affairs only. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

The University of California Davis administration has been accused of spying on and infiltrating peaceful student protests during the past year as students continue to rally against tuition hikes.

After California Gov. Jerry Brown announced a $1.4 million cut to higher education in January, students and faculty at UC Davis began voicing their thoughts and opinions through peaceful protests.

Just a decade ago, tuition was $3,000. Today, tuition is $13,000, and financial aid continues to be cut, said Eric Lee, a junior political science major and a self-proclaimed spokesman for students against rising fees.

But at one of these peaceful protests on March 2, a student questioned a woman dressed in plain clothing about her position. The woman said she was an administrator. Later, students looked up the woman’s name and discovered she was, in fact, a police officer, Lee said.

This led to students accusing the UC Davis administration of spying on their protests throughout the past year.

UC Davis students received a 280-page document from the university, accessed after filing a public records act request, that confirmed university and police authorities have been organizing for more than a year by holding orientation meetings over the summer and on weekends, Lee said.

Cres Vellucci, a member of the Board of Directors of the Sacramento County American Civil Liberties Union, said the document ‘showed a chilling picture of a university, saying it wanted to ‘help’ students, but the unmistakable tenor suggested that UCD wanted to monitor and control free-speech activities.’ Vellucci has been helping students with their struggles against the university.

And although walkouts and rallies run by infuriated students continue on campus, the main concern is the students’ rights to privacy and free speech, Lee said. The students are not satisfied with the information received in the document and are filing another request for more.

In this request, Lee said, students are also asking UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi to dismantle the Student Activism Team and to issue a written apology.

The Student Activism Team is made up of faculty and staff members, Student Affairs staff and members of the police department, and has a goal of keeping the campus safe, Katehi wrote in an opinion article published March 14 in the UC Davis newspaper, The California Aggie.

After a March 4 demonstration in which 300 students threatened to march on Interstate 80, the Student Activism Team took action, Katehi wrote.

Lee said the UC Davis administration has also started ‘snooping’ the Facebook pages of students to obtain information about planning protest events.

‘This should perk the ears of students who use devices like Facebook to organize events,’ Lee said. ‘Some organizations, like the police and school administration, are not interested in protecting privacy when our interests are against theirs.’

The university’s purpose for chaperoning students during demonstrations is to ensure the safety of all students and to help address issues, Katehi said in her opinion article.

‘We accompany demonstrators to ensure their safety and the safety of those in their path,’ she wrote.

Katehi also wrote in the opinion article that she was pleased with the university and campus law enforcement efforts, saying the focus is completely on ‘ensuring the safety and protection of our entire campus community during protests, demonstrations and emergencies.’

But Lee said Katehi’s actions — especially calling in the Student Activism Team for the March 4 demonstration — are unnecessary. He emphasized that no harm has been created by the students’ peaceful protests.

‘There hasn’t been a single injury that hasn’t involved a police officer,’ Lee said. ‘It’s just regular nerds like me, holding signs with puns written on them.’

acptachi@syr.edu

Published on April 19, 2011 at 12:00 pm