By snoadmin
The Cal State University Board of Trustees has canceled a Dec. 5 special committee meeting on “presidential selection and compensation,” citing the possibility of student protests and a shattered glass door leading into the Chancellor’s Office.
The glass door was damaged at a Nov. 16 Board of Trustees meeting, after student protesters and police clashed outside the office.
“We don’t have a building where we can get large groups of people in and out,” CSU spokesman Erik Fallis said in reference to the damaged entrance door.
The Daily 49er published a Nov. 28 letter to the editor from Students for a Quality Education, which called on supporters of the group to “band together and unite peacefully” at the December meeting.
Members of the ReFund California Coalition led protests at the board’s November meeting.
“We made this decision based upon our experience at the last board meeting where a large number of protesters attended, which is difficult to manage under the best of circumstances,” CSU Board Chair Herbert L. Carter said in a statement, also citing damage to the glass door.
But Donnie Bessom, Cal State Long Beach Graduate Student Association president and SQE organizer, said the group was not planning a protest.
“We wanted to make our message clear to the media by speaking at the open meeting in a more somber tone,” Bessom said. “We were going to ask for amnesty for the peaceful protesters who were arrested on Nov. 16; ask for transparency during tuition votes; and to review the police protocols when dealing with peaceful protests.”
“This is a sad day for democracy,” he added.
Four protesters were arrested at the November Board of Trustees meeting, but the Los Angeles County District Attorney has dropped felony charges of assaulting a police officer against CSULB student Seth Andrew Newmaeyer.
Instead, misdemeanor charges of obstructing police, disturbing the peace, vandalism, trespassing andparticipating in a riot have been referred to the Long Beach City Attorney’s Office.
Newmaeyer could have faced three to five years in a state prison.
“There is evidence on YouTube that this suspect yanked on the main entrance to the Chancellor’s Office in an attempt to enter and disrupt the meeting,” an LA County District Attorney’s Office charge evaluation said. “However, once he let go of the door, another suspect then used a device to shatter the door, causing injury to two officers and necessitating the replacement of an expensive door.”
The board has cancelled its meeting amid calls by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom to reconsider a 9 percent tuition hike passed at its November meeting, and, for some CSULB students, that doesn’t sit well.
“[The board is] avoiding the calls from various politicians and coalitions to reconsider the tuition increase by using the unqualified excuse that students will be exercising their first amendment rights,” said James Suazo, president of the College of Liberal Arts Student Council.
“It’s amazing that the board of trustees is going to such lengths to sidestep students … it makes me critically question where the values of the trustees really lie.”
Before the cancellation of the meeting, the California State Student Association had planned to meet with CSU officials on Dec. 19 to discuss how “to ensure that students are able to peaceably assemble on CSU campuses..”
The CSU board said it would consider its Dec. 5 agenda in January when it meets again.
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