The fascists have won!

Hooray.

The Administration is practically bound at this point to disallow ANY faculty members to ever rent a room on campus for anything now…because someone, somewhere might not like what they’re doing. Then, these asshats will show up and cause a scene and THEN argue that campus is unsafe with group X on it. Nevermind that it’s unsafe because they (the asshat fascists) are making it that way.

Talk about self-fulfilling prophecy!

I might add that it really reminds me of the Anti-Hate Task Force looking for racism in the blackout and then hollering about it in the press to make themselves look relevant with the culmination being that the apparently non-racist mixed-race student who started it all had to change the entire thing.

If anyone is making campus unsafe, it is these types of social police running amok challenging everything they don’t like and then forcing it to leave/change to something more palatable for them.

I…dare I say…hate them.

“The Administration is practically bound at this point to disallow ANY faculty members to ever rent a room on campus for anything now”

How does that logically follow from disallowing Pacifica Forum from using rooms in the EMU? Right, it doesn’t. You’re overstating the effect of this decision, which does not, so far as I can tell, ban them from getting a room on campus, just the EMU. Disallowing them from using those rooms actually makes sense in addressing most of the issues raised by sane people.

This is not about a host of groups, not about a host of ideas. This comes as a response, to physical attacks, threats and harassment. While I disagree with their bigoted statements, that is not the foundation to ask their removal, threats and harm to students is. The Pacifica Forum is group who has been espousing hate speech for years and has ties to known violent groups through its membership.

Their presence on campus, is creating an unsafe environment, this environment exists because of them. It has been getting worse and now students are protesting it. Not the other way around CJ. We didn’t protest then say its unsafe, we are protesting their comments and statements. This call for them to leave campus came when it information arose that their speech incited violence and has led to at least one assault. Now numerous cases of harassment and a general feeling of insecurity drives the push to move them off campus

“While I disagree with their bigoted statements, that is not the foundation to ask their removal, threats and harm to students is.”

Bullshit. This is just the only argument that the morons who protested the forum and caused all of this hoopla came up with to justify their cleansing of the campus thoughts arena. I don’t like what’s going on at Pacifica, and I even went a couple of times to see for myself. The most pathetic part about the safety trope is that it only arose after the ‘I can scream loud’ crowd showed up and antagonized the situation. It actually works out quite nicely for the thought police. Here’s how it goes:

Step 1: Find a group on campus that you don’t like
Step 2: Round up your friends, wear a bandanna and start shouting loudly
Step 3: Antagonize the situation until people cry and feel unsafe, GOAD THEM
Step 4: Complain to the university that you feel unsafe now
Step 5: Conveniently ignore that you are a large part of the problem
Step 6: Plead with the ASUO to make some sort of statement
Step 7: Wait and see what happens
Step 8: If the group is silenced and banned, celebrate. If not, return to Step 1.

I’m not CJ either.

“You

While we are at it, I feel unsafe with stupid people on campus. Can something be done about that?

“So the ASUO has made a grand proclamation to move the forum to another room.”

your reading comprehension continues to astound me

Sorry, not rents…”reserves” a room that is partially funded by students.

Darren, I was thinking that while they seem innocuous, stupid people really are a safety issue on campus. Who knows how many injuries, threats, assaults, and so on have been carried out by stupid people over the years.

Maybe we should find out where they are, scream at them, and see if one of them will threaten us with something so that we can get them out of here? It seems like a great idea really, and it would be a boon for the university.

Can someone clearly explain to me how this is a “safety” issue? I dislike PF as much as the next rational-thinking person, but I don’t understand how they actually threaten anyone’s safety. And calling someone a nasty name doesn’t do it for me, I want specific threats or intimations of violence. There’s been lots of talk about “safety” but it’s woefully short on concrete examples and details.

“I was only referring to the ASUO meeting last night where it was stated that they are going to move the next PF meeting to Agate Hall”

And I was referring to you saying: “the ASUO has made a grand proclamation to move the forum to another room,” when the actuality is, according to Drew’s original post: “UO

OC fan…you’re right. That thread is pretty boring and not really threatening. Just a bunch of bigots talking to each other. I hear you on your personal experience, which I can’t imagine was any fun, but anecdotes aside…it’s hard for me to buy into the ‘get rid of em’ argument merely because they have warped world views and mean things to say a lot of the time.

I hear you on accuracy John. From what I know at this point it seems like the ASUO said they will be moved to Agate and the administration supported that idea with a caveat as to determine how to go about what’s next. For me, it’s not like they are in lockstep with one another, but the overall sentiment seems to be a lot more than, ‘move them to another room’. This is especially so because of the entire argument that a handful of WP asshats and their elderly emeritus friend have meetings on campus and are a safety hazard.

Your last tidbit is where I see the administration going. Rethink faculty access and the start of some P.C. testing of any event ever held on campus. Which gets us back to free speech, at least as long as this is still called a public institution. Granted, it’s likely more complex than that (i.e. the university having a rule against carrying weapons on campus despite state law indicating that it is ok with certain conditions having been met).

My scenario is only absurd because I’m using your NAMBLA example. Why not include something like Creationism, Communism, Socialism, Israel-Palestine, ‘Devil’ Worship, or any other contentious issue where people get together and say a lot of stuff that offends other people? This gets us back to the slippery slope in that the question must be asked, “Where does it stop?” If the UO’s take on something like their ‘Diversity Policy’ is any example of where things could go…it could easily get out of hand.

To OCfan – My guess is that Stormfronters shop at Safeway, eat at restaurants, pay off mortgages, pay taxes that pay public salaries and attend colleges and universities.

They also create websites for their agendae and obviously they write on blogs. If they end up paying attention to Pacifica Forum, should anyone be surprised?

Individual speakers at Pacifica Forum have tackled subjects and stated points of view that others strongly agree with. For this, the entire group and the broad range of opinions it represents, has been publicly labeled as racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, anti-immigration, etc., and guilty of something more nondescript known as ‘hate-speech.” As lightening rods go, why wouldn’t extremist groups show an interest?

Pacifica Forum has been and remains a group made up of those who attend it, as well as being open to any person who wishes to present a point of view. Where’ve you been?

@CJ: Ain’t it the truth?

If the group is barred from the EMU, then they no longer have the ability to reserve rooms out – right? From my understanding, the only eligible rooms (for a student, or faculty member) to reserve are in the EMU; all other rooms and conference places on campus are owned and operated by the UO adminisration – and thus under their discretion as to which groups they allow access to. It’s not a violation of 1st amendment rights to deny the groups access to a venue on their property. I guess the real question is how did they acquire a room at Agate Hall?

Just wanted to clarify a few things about my last post. I’m not attaching the following thoughts to an argument for booting the forum, because as I said I am now abstaining on the issue due to a new realization of what a sticky gray area it all is.

CJ: Let me be very clear: I grew up here. In eugene. Volksfront (the group behind the stormfront website) is already here. They have always been here and have been here longer than any of us have been alive, and they have been having kids. For me, college was a safe haven to get away from these people. Knowing that Eugene has a deep history of white supremacists is exactly where my fear originated from. Their shops are already here, in Eugene. That said, I agree that the protests could draw counter protests from these very scary people, which is one of the reasons that I’m no longer sure that it’s smart to actively pursue chasing the forum off campus. Then again, the fact that I’m scared to protest for fear of reprisal from scary people might be a reason to protest due to my not feeling safe, and said protesting might lead to said reprisals and… You’re absolutely right that it’s a giant ironic clusterf*** of “What came first, the chicken or the egg?” Like I said, I no longer have a stance because it’s a giant feedback loop of anger and not-accomplishing-much.

Java: We’re actually saying the same thing, dude. I am NOT surprised that the Pacifica Forum attracts the attention of these people, and I was already aware that these people were a part of my larger community (Eugene, as opposed to the UO.) This is why this linked thread made me scared of the Forum when I wasn’t before: It was, for me, confirmation that these groups had already noticed the forum.

Just clarifying what I was trying to say, again I will stress that I’m not arguing one way or the other. This is a personal history thing on my end, so I am definitely not suggesting that my unique perspective should drive policy. I think that CJ’s mentioned self-fulfilling prophesy is working both ways… And I’m staying the hell away from Agate hall. Other than that, it’s back to studying for me: Last week was my last protest that I’ll be attending personally. I don’t want them here, but moving them to the edge of campus makes it so I don’t have to cross paths with them… So relatively pretty content now.

I think we can all agree that it makes for a much more interesting news cycle than we had this time last year, eh?

Good question Java.

I don’t know. I believe in higher-ed being a good thing, but I also thought that Vincent’s article a ways back about the increasing worthlessness of a 4-year degree calls the Raison d’etre of the university into question somewhat.