Speech

To Protect Our Freedoms, We Must be Wise and Responsible in the Exercise of Our Rights

May 27, 2004

When the Muslim Student Union and the Society of Arab Students asked me to speak today, I did so gladly, with the clear understanding that I would represent our entire campus community, which I am glad to report, coincided with their goals for today’s rally. The burning of the symbolic wall is an intolerable act, a reckless and dangerous act and a personal affront to not only the students who built the wall, but an affront to our campus community. Let me also say, however, that the burning of the wall has not shaken my confidence in our campus—after all, we don’t yet know who burned the wall and while we all want a successful conclusion to the on-going investigation—the mere fact that the actions were against a symbol important to a group of our students, makes it an act of intimidation against the principles of our entire community and as such we all renounce it—as is evident in this campus rally.

When I receive pleas and even threats to shut down demonstrations on the campus, I defend our community, not only because I have historically been impressed with how we have handled controversy and conflict in the past, but also because I believe that there is no better environment than a University in which to be having these conversations. What better place to confront controversial views than a community possessing such vast intellectual resources as ours? What better way to turn what initially might seem like an ugly offense into an opportunity to examine, reflect, and educate ourselves and others? The University is ideally a place where we all share a commitment to the search for truth, even if we take different paths and make different stops along the way. What matters is not that we all have the same version of truth, but that we remain committed to the search and to certain fundamental principles—free inquiry, unfettered exchange of ideas, respect for diversity of opinions and values—that reflect closely those principles we share in a democracy. It is during times like this, that we all put aside our political differences to respect the liberties of free expression without intimidation or violence. This indeed is the purpose of this rally. The Chancellor, and the entire UCI leadership have indicated our opposition to any actions that attempt to silence our community’s voices, and expressed our commitment in support of students, faculty and staff to speak their minds, no matter how controversial the ideas.

I want to make it clear that I am speaking to no single individual or group, but to all of us as we work our way through the difficulties of standing up for what we believe is right in the face of equally passionate opposition. As the Chancellor and I have said on many occasions, we will not tolerate a violation of campus regulations or state and federal laws. If an individual is threatened, or if property is destroyed, we will pursue the responsible party with all the resources available to us. I sincerely hope that whoever is responsible for burning the symbolic peace wall is not a member of the campus community, and I hope the act wasn’t done our of hatred, but the very thought that it could have come from one of our own as a hate crime is extremely disturbing to me.

I know that when someone feels offended it is tempting to want to draw the line of free expression back to create more space between yourself and the offending speech. But think for a moment about what that means. For every time you might want to restrict someone else’s speech, there will be someone waiting to restrict your own. Every time you demand that another be silenced, someone can demand your own silence, perhaps at the very moment you want your voice the most. You cannot take away the right to free expression from someone else without taking it away from yourself, as well. And one of the reasons that freedom of expression is defined somewhat broadly is that once you start moving the line, who is to say where it should be placed?

What that means, of course, is that we are all protectors of this right, all guardians of one the most fundamental principles of our university community and our democracy. So in exchange for the freedom we have to say what we believe, we have an equally powerful responsibility to ensure that we do not infringe on someone else’s rights in the process.

If at any time you feel that a threat has been made against you personally, report that incident immediately to the Dean of Students or to myself. If you feel harassed or unsafe, bring that to our attention. We have various resources and services to help you if there is concern for safety, which is an important university concern. For those of you who do exercise your right to protest, keep in mind that you do not necessarily represent the views of the campus when you speak, but what you say does reverberate beyond us, as the burning of the wall clearly demonstrates.

The University is a community, a protected space in which we can discuss and debate points of view with both passion and reason. To that end, and in answer to some of the tensions of the past weeks, I will be putting together a working group to determine how we can best respond to incidents like the burned wall and to forward productive debate on some of these volatile subjects.

We are living in difficult times. We sometimes forget that the best way to protect our freedoms is to be wise and judicious in our exercise of our rights…and if we cannot be wise, if we cannot be reasonable…we can, at least, be respectful of others’ rights as a way to build a stronger campus community.

Manuel N. Gómez, Ph.D.
Vice Chancellor
Student Affairs