Readers Write

READERS WRITE

"The bottom line is that these codes will be used against the very people they are supposedly designed to help."

by Jonathan Rose

Recently, U-M President Fleming has released several versions of "anti-discrimination" codes. These codes will create a judicial apparatus at U-M whereby the University administration can punish students for speech and acts deemed discriminatory. The University administration has worked consistently over the past ten years to try to impose non-academic codes of conduct on students. Students have always rebuffed this dangerous inroad on civil liberties. Anticode activists have pointed out that the administration will use the code to deter and punish activism that is not in the administration's (always conservative) interest. The unified opposition to a code on campus by student activists is being deliberately undermined by the administration in the Fleming codes. The codes are aimed at dividing long-allied civil rights activists.

Black, gay and lesbian activists are being given lip service in support of their right to be free of violence and intimidation in the form of a code which will punish speech through the use of administration-controlled tribunals. Given that the administration has been trying to impose a code for ten years, the fact that they choose to "help" these traditionally oppressed groups by giving them a code should be highly suspect. The administration has always refused, except under extreme popular pressure, to do anything to make this campus less homophobic or racist. Activists need to realize that the codes will be expanded to punish other "offensive" speech. Conduct codes will be used against activists. That is the primary goal and purpose of enacting them. The bottom line is that these codes will be used against the very people they are supposedly designed to help.

The possibility of a private police force unleashed to arrest people at the University for what they say and bring them before a kangaroo court for trial is upon us. In addition to the Fleming code is the attempt in Lansing to deputize U-M security so that they become a private, armed police force with the power to arrest people. We must resist with every energy now.