In response to the recent pepper spraying of students at the University of California at Davis by campus police, the University Council of Students passed a statement defending students' "inalienable right to peaceful assembly" during its final general body meeting of the semester last night.
Following last week's incident at UC Davis, students around the country have spoken out against the use of excessive force on protesters.
The UCS statement appeals to the Brown administration to reinforce its commitment to students' freedoms and right to protest. "UCS calls on the Brown University Administration and the Department of Public Safety to express support for students' right to demonstrate peacefully without fear of violent recourse," the statement reads.
UCS Vice President David Rattner '13 stressed that the statement should not be seen as an endorsement of the Occupy movement or any other protest but rather of the broader idea of freedom of speech and protest.
Todd Harris '14, chair of the Academic and Administrative Affairs Committee, suggested sending the statement directly to UC Davis administration in addition to distributing it on campus.
The Harvard Undergraduate Council also passed a recent resolution condemning the incident at UC Davis, Rattner said. Brown's UCS statement goes a step further by demanding that the UC Davis police force and Chancellor Linda Katehi be held accountable for their actions, he said.
Earlier in the meeting, Daniel Pipkin '14, the council's UCS/UFB liaison, presented on the progress his committee made this semester on the Capital Closet, a project aimed at limiting costs of student events. As part of the project the Undergraduate Finance Board worked with administrators to extend a temporary agreement to waive the media services fee, causing the $70,000 previously spent annually by the UFB on media services for student activities to be permanently moved to Computing and Information Service's budget
The money saved by the change will be funneled back into use for student groups, Pipkin said. Pipkin said he was hopeful this will allow them to start a conversation about eliminating the payments for groups of lesser categorizations.
Michael Lin '14, chair of the Admissions and Student Services Committee, said his committee has submitted a formal proposal for the addition of a printing station to Pembroke campus, an initiative that has been loosely discussed by the council this semester.
Holly Hunt '13, a member of the committee, said she will be meeting with administrators — including Marisa Quinn, vice president of public affairs and University relations, and a representative from Computing and Information Services — to discuss changes to Morning Mail.
The changes could include appearance and functionality changes, including the ability to click titles to jump to their entries and possible categorizations of events. The discussion is still in the brainstorming phase, but Hunt said she expects the meeting to be "very productive."
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the Undergraduate Finance Board signed a $70,000 contract with Media Technology Services this semester to allow Category III groups to use media services equipment without paying rental fees. The Herald regrets the error.
