UCSC anti-war group SAW makes demands of administration concerning career fair.

The letter detailed the measures taken to contain free speech on campus by the administration, and made several demands of the university in respect to the upcoming fair on April 11th. SAW’s letter and the continuation of meetings with administrators, are attempts to protect students’ ability to protest military recruitment and ensure that administrators do not prevent students from seeking non-military jobs.

Sources inside the administration suggest that over $10,000 is being spent on tactics to repress possible student protests at the April 11th Job Fair, including bringing in police from outside Santa Cruz. The last use of outside police was at Tent University in the Spring of 2005, where it was reported that almost a hundred students were wounded and 19 arrested for ‘trespassing’ on their own campus. With Wednesday’s letter to administrators, SAW will provide legal options to ensure a safe job fair.

As a leading figure in the campus anti-war movement, SAW was recognized as a “credible threat” by the Pentagon’s spy program (TALON). In response to the spying scandal, UCSC’s administration condemned the surveillance of students and solicited the right to free speech. Students hope that the administration will go beyond rhetoric to protect students’ protest rights. As such, SAW’s letter lists 6 sensible and legal tasks administrators can easily adhere to.

Students offer the administration these options weeks before the next on-campus Career Fair in order to mediate discussion. Resolutions will hopefully be met by the end of March.

On April 5, 2005, Students Against War organized over 300 students to successfully kick military recruiters out of a campus job fair. On October 18, 2005, SAW held a Queer Kiss-In that effectively prevented the military’s ability to recruit. April 11, the next visit by the military to a campus job fair, will mark more than a year since they have been able to effectively recruit at UC Santa Cruz. April 11 also marks the first campus recruitment effort since the Pentagon spying scandal broke.