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The Dean to the Left is the One in the Right

Via email to the good people at "Boalt Hall":

To Boalt Hall students, staff and faculty:

Associate Dean Bob Berring has already written to you concerning the disruptions on the first day of classes, Monday August 17th, by a group of approximately 70 people protesting the presence of Professor John Yoo on our faculty. In all likelihood, there will further protests with the purpose of disrupting Professor Yoo?s class, and spillover effects interfering with other classes and activities. Professor Berring will keep you apprised of our efforts to balance our respect for freedom of speech with our insistence that our teaching and other functions go on.

I write separately, however, to address the substance of the protests and to update my Spring 2008 comments on the controversy surrounding Professor Yoo's work in the Bush Administration concerning presidential power, torture, and measures combating the threat of terrorism.

Also, if you don?t want the entire exegesis below, I was interviewed about the protests for three or four minutes on KQED radio: [here].

The dean has, of course, gotten it right and I point with pride to his leadership. No doubt, commentators on this thread will disagree with me or with the dean or with both, but what can I say? Those commentators are ignorant, or mistaken, or proceed upon a normative view that departs radically from principles upon which the success of our society depends. Or all three.

You can find DE's statement posed in the comments. Apologies in advance for the piecemeal fashion in which it comes, but %$@-ing Google Blogger only allows 4,000 characters per comment.

Full post as published by Nuts & Boalts on August 20, 2009 (boomark / email).