By A special investigator is looking into the November 2011 Cal State University Board of Trustees meeting, where student protesters clashed with police officers after the board approved a 9 percent tuition increase.
The protests resulted in the injury of an officer and the arrest of four students.
According to Erik Fallis, a CSU spokesman, there are many ongoing investigations at other universities due to an increase in student protests. He said the CSU felt it was important to also gain the perspective of an outside review.
The CSU has asked Ron McCarthy to perform the investigation. McCarthy is the president of a firm that conducts independent reviews and studies for federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, an ex-officio trustee, told the CFA that the minutes of the November meeting had been “sanitized.”
“The chamber distorted the minutes and embellished them,” said Peggy O’Neil-Rosales, Cal State Long Beach President of the CSU Employees’ Union.
Four students were arrested at the meeting, including CSULB student Seth Andrew Newmaeyer and San Diego State University graduate student Ashley Allison Wardle.
After the arrests, each student faced heavy repercussions, according toO’Neil-Rosales.
CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed wanted to expel or suspend Wardle from school for up to two years and intended to charge Newmaeyer for the replacement of a glass door that was shattered during the protest, O’Neil-Rosales said.
“It’s to send that message to students to silence them,” she said. “It’s to say that repercussions will happen to them if they protest.”
Early estimates of the cost to replace the door were around $30,000, reflecting the cost of replacing the glass, hardware and door assembly, Fallis said via email.
Multiple unions and organizations signed a petition, made calls and wrote emails to the chancellor urging amnesty for the students, said Donnie Bessom, a Students for Quality Education organizer.
“We bombarded them with calls,” O’Neil-Rosales said.
She said students such as Wardle “have a right to express [their] displeasure with the constant tuition increases.”
Bessom, who was present at the meeting, said Newmaeyer was not responsible for breaking the glass door. He said footage taken of the incident shows an officer wedging a baton between the doors and that the officer was responsible for breaking the glass.
“In relation to the November meeting, there are no campus disciplinary hearings or actions currently ongoing,” Fallis said.
The special investigator is looking into the board’s minutes of the meeting and focusing on officers’ behavior that day, according to CSUEU President Pat Gantt.
Bessom said he found it odd that officers drew the line between themselves and protesters at the glass doors, something they’ve never done before.
“We kind of felt, if they had listened to us and given us time, it would have been fine,” Bessom said.
