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Sunday, November 19, 2006

Warfare at Washington State...

...between a couple of College Republicans and a couple of Ethnic Studies professors.

The College Republicans seem to be winning.



Professor David Leonard apologized last week for demanding that College Republicans member Daniel Schanze stop filming him during [an on-campus political] demonstration.

When Schanze didn't stop, Leonard demanded to see his student identification card.

"This situation is unfortunate for all involved, and I regret that it happened," Leonard wrote in a letter that appeared on www.cougster.com.

"At the time, my request was based on my understanding of the student code of conduct, the faculty manual, and my job description, and not an attempt to intimidate or stifle discussion," he wrote. "Regardless, my actions have added fuel to the fire. For this, I apologize."

...[T]he political action chairman for the WSU College Republicans said he considered Leonard's actions a "gross display of power" in an attempt to stifle his opinions.

"I had every right to film and document what was going on," he said.

Another College Republicans member, Dan Ryder, said he was called a "white (expletive)" by professor John Streamas.

Streamas admitted to using the phrase but said it wasn't directed at any individual student. [Was it said in the singular or plural? The quotation suggests singular, as in white shit or white fuck. That would be one person.]

Streamas and Leonard are both professors in the Department of Comparative Ethnic Studies.

Both Schanze and Ryder have said they planned to file formal complaints against the professors through WSU's Center for Human Rights.



Richard King, interim chairman of Comparative Ethnic Studies, has spoken with Streamas and Leonard about the incidents.

King has watched video clips and talked to people who were at the demonstration.

"I don't want my faculty going around calling people names," he said.

In his letter, Leonard wrote that he went to the demonstration after speaking to several upset students. He hoped to engage the protesters in a dialogue, but the protester he talked to seemed more interested in "playing to the camera" than having a discussion, he wrote.

WSU Provost Robert Bates said it's clear that the language professors used during the demonstration was regrettable but it didn't necessarily break any laws.

The university will investigate to determine whether the conduct crossed the line or was simply an argument, he said.

"Everybody has a right to free speech," Ryder said. "But when a professor of a university, a paid state employee, while he's on the clock, comes out and intimidates students and tries to use their power to impose their beliefs on students -- when that happens, that is unacceptable."

Streamas said he didn't want to do an interview but wrote in an e-mail message that the use of the fence was a provocative symbol.

"It is a violently racist symbol, no different from Nazis carrying a swastika through a Jewish neighborhood or the KKK rallying around a Confederate flag in a black neighborhood," he wrote.



Voici les combattants:

Professor Leonard comes to us from Don DeLillo's White Noise.

Professor Streamas says one of his turn-ons is "world peace."