{"id":13762,"date":"2014-04-16T14:27:05","date_gmt":"2014-04-16T21:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?p=13762"},"modified":"2015-02-08T13:19:49","modified_gmt":"2015-02-08T20:19:49","slug":"4-14-14-tesc-town-hall-meeting-a-bust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/4-14-14-tesc-town-hall-meeting-a-bust\/","title":{"rendered":"4-14-14 TESC ‘Town Hall Meeting’ a Bust"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Student ACAP member<\/p><\/div>\n

Olympia, WA @ TESC (4-14-14) —\u00a0<\/strong>The ‘Town Hall’ meeting called by Professor Peter Bohmer and several supporting campus sanctioned student organizations proved to be anti-climactic. Fewer than 2 dozen attended, possibly closer to 15, among which were this reporter, Ray (student editor of TESC’s Cooper Point Journal), one faculty member, and an advocate of the now settled lawsuit against the City of Olympia alleging the municipality engaged in illegal political profiling of area dissidents.<\/p>\n

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ACAP member posing for photographer in public ‘Town Hall’ meeting @ TESC<\/p><\/div>\n

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Ray takes photos during ‘Town Hall’ meeting @ TESC.<\/p><\/div>\n

The ‘rules’ of the meeting were written on the chalk board, the first short presentation of the ‘problem’ discussed the John Towery lawsuit where a government agent successfully sought confidences from a coalition of local anti-war activists. The Fort Lewis military command formally admitted in a lawsuit brought against them in federal court that Mr. Towery had, indeed, been acting as their agent. The first speaker attempted to correlate that as an effort to ‘spy’ on Evergreen students and criticized what he claimed to be dissembling from TESC campus police when they denied sharing information they acquired about student dissidents with other government law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n

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professor Peter Bohmer<\/p><\/div>\n

The next speaker was professor Peter Bohmer, who laid out a 4-point proposal seeking to require the school’s administration to discipline anyone found to be sharing information gleaned from observing students on campus and their activities\/associates.<\/p>\n

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Following these two speakers, the floor was thrown open to questions. None (at least initially) were forthcoming. This reporter asked to address the small group and they consented. His remarks were limited to about 3 minutes. This was later expanded to 7 minutes out of consideration for the small number of attendees and few questions. One faculty member expressed concern over being being monitored on campus, despite being a State employee. Other ‘liberal’ faculty members were curiously absent.<\/p>\n

Attendees were cautioned during the 3-minute comment to delineate between academic freedom and an expectation of privacy on a public tax supported college campus–especially in public venues or at public events. It was pointed out how instructors were State employees who had no more right to privacy than any other employee while at their workplace–i.e. none! Professor Peter Bohmer knows he is under close scrutiny by government investigators, thus has attempted to conflate academic freedom with privacy in an effort to use the former as a shield against investigation and monitoring his Marxist driven political activities–many involving ‘direct action’\/civil disobedience. e.g. block or shutting down Port of Olympia functions and attempts to prevent or interfere with troop movements between Fort Lewis and the Port of Olympia.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit complaining of government attempts to monitor said activities has not, to date, gained much traction in federal court. Serious doubts exist as to whether it will succeed. Larry Hildes, a member of the National Lawers Guild, has been the attorney of record for the plaintiffs. Federal Judge Ben Settle, a local attorney from the Shelton area before being appointed to the bench, has presided over the case which is proceeding in the federal courtroom in Tacoma.<\/p>\n

As always, the event reflected TESC culture remains schizoid\/paradoxical about 1st Amendment principles such as academic freedom, freedom of the press, rights (or NOT) to privacy in public forums, photography, and a firmly grounded understanding of where the boundaries lie without conflating them. It remains hostile to universal application of 1st Amendment principles involving the press, preferring to rely on vague\/fuzzy notions of what’s ‘polite’ rather than the letter of the law. The school appears to have many students, staff, and faculty who lack the grasp of a high school civics class student in these matters–a college with a master’s in public administration degree curriculum where graduates will be assuming roles as judges, public officials and administrators, even leaders in the business community will leave the school dangerously ill informed, but powerful. More Town Meetings are in order, but to address the failure of this public institution to adequately educate its charges.<\/p>\n

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TESC Faculty member concerned about being monitored<\/p><\/div>\n