UC Irvine MSU Suspended For Multiple Violations

MSU gets a “red card” and are out for one year.

Today the Jewish Federation of Orange County released documents to the OC Register which reveal that in fact UC Irvine has suspended the Muslim Student Union for one year, effective Sept. 1, 2010. One might expect that I would be thrilled at the news. And for a while today, I savored the news. After all, I have been calling for the University to take action against this group for inciting hated against Jews since May 2006, when I called for UCI to ban the MSU.

The decision, a MUST read, is a very detailed account of what happened and the school laws that were broken during the Oren incident. This includes:

Other forms of dishonesty including … fabricating information, furnishing false information, or reporting a false emergency to the University….Disorderly and lewd conduct. Participation in a disturbance of peace or unlawful assembly, obstruction or disruption of teaching, research, administration, disciplinary procedures or other University activities…

According to the documents, the MSU refused to answer every time they were asked about their actions. They took the 5th. The University has hundreds of pages of documentation, testimonies, and hours of video footage they reference. There are 31 pages of emails and notes from their meetings where they planned the disruption, and instructed their members to lie to the school if asked if they planned it as a group. They knew that if it was revealed they orchestrated the disruption, they would violate the rules. So they conspired to lie to university authorities and the police.

This is a very serious issue, and for a moment I want to focus on their violation of student conduct codes. The MSU was emboldened for years because they were impervious to punishment. We documented numerous other occasions where they broke school rules. This is also not the first time they tried to shut down a Jewish student event. However, this is the first time that Chancellor Drake, himself, was present and witnessed their conduct.

If the MSU felt they needed to lie to the university and police about their actions, what else are they lying about? The leadership of the MSU at UCI, the flagship Muslim group on the West Coast, has now been caught in the act of a conspiracy to violate university, student, and possibly civil codes. The MSU believes that any act is permitted for their goals of delegitimizing Israel, slandering Jews, and creating an atmosphere of intimidation on campus.

If they will lie to the University, risking serious academic consequences, how much more so will they be willing to lie to the campus where threat of academic suspension doesn’t exist? A group that will engage in a conspiracy of lies in order to further their goals of delegitimizing Israel, will not hesitate to defame Jews to the student body. They will not hesitate to spread egregious lies and accusations against anyone that disagrees. The same maybe true of other campus groups affiliated with the MSU and MSA.

Now back to why the satisfaction that I feel that the group was finally punished is muted. While the University has in fact banned the MSU for one year, the University failed its students, the community, and all universities…again.

The suspension of this hateful group should have been accompanied by a major press conference where the Chancellor outlined the reasons for the suspension. Drake had a chance to show moral leadership explaining that these activities will not be tolerated on UC Campuses. He could clearly outline the reasons they were suspended, condemn their behavior, and send a clear message that this kind of group has no place on ANY campus.

Instead, the letter written May 27, 2010, was supposed to be kept a secret.

UCI released the documents only through the Freedom of Information Act. They planned on keeping this entire episode a secret. Why does the University continue to protect this group of students? Til today – no University representative has EVER publicly condemned the MSU, or distanced themselves specifically from the MSU.

The suspension says that no current executive officer of the MSU can register another group during the year. However, it does not preclude non-officers of the MSU from creating a new Muslim group at UCI in the fall.

The students are appealing the decision, according to Husam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Predictably, he called the university’s actions “unprecedented, heavy-handed and draconian.” CAIR blames the suspension on politics, “It appears to be politically motivated to silence any future peaceful and legitimate criticism of Israel’s brutal practices”.

Apparently, the MSU students learned their dishonesty from more seasoned professionals.

Read more on the OC Register. Download the letter here.