Inside the Current Issue

From the Editor

I am disturbed by the Carol Lang case (see interview on page four). I would be disturbed by it even if she is guilty - although how I would ever be able to come to that conclusion is not immediately clear, since the City College of New York (CCNY) seems to have done everything in its power to black out information about this case, from denying access to her June hearings to refusing to release to The Advocate their Public safety "Incident Report Forms" (see "City College Reinstates CCNY4, But Charges Still Pending" by James Hoff, May 2005).

But even if she is guilty, the actions of the administration frighten me. And they're intended to do just that - to frighten students and employees away from opposing the agendas of the CUNY bureaucrats, especially when they involve ties to the military.

While the GC may remain a quiet oasis, complete with Marxist-influenced social "science" and humanities departments where one can sip department-financed wine and discuss whether Marx is read more profitably through Spinoza or Hegel, there's increasing noise across the CUNY system which sounds like progressives getting hit harder and harder. But this noise is also a reflection of a larger wave which is sweeping across campuses nationally. And it's not just loud-mouths like Ward Churchill, who purposely taunt their mainstream opponents, who are being targeted - it seems to be hitting a large variety of faculty, students and employees, whether they are organizing or just daring to publicly offer their nonconservative opinions.

This isn't to suggest that there's some vast conspiracy theory afoot, with its origins in either a PNAC three-drink lunch or some cold, dark crevice of Karl Rove's reptilian brain. We live in a time of Rightist reaction in America. My older friends assure me it's gotten as bad as the Reagan years, although then we had crumbs of the welfare state to nibble on (since swept away by a Democrat, no less). Maybe I'm just a vulgar Foucauldian, but all I see is right-wing Power taking advantage of this historical juncture, trying to dislodge its opponents from their roosts and resting places. (And now, if it ever was, the time is Right.)

I encourage everyone to read the interview with Carol Lang. Can you imagine being accused of a crime, the head of your work sending out an email repeating the accusations to thousands, being arrested days later while you are at work, being suspended without pay for four weeks - all this without ever having a trial or even an administrative hearing - then having your hearing judged by an official who is intimately linked to your accuser, and finally having to face five more weeks of unpaid suspension? When NYPD officers shoot someone, they immediately go on paid leave until an investigation is conducted. Why are CUNY employees treated differently?

Besides Lang's ordeal, which I think speaks for itself, let me mention one more thing. In a past life I too was that person at "every demonstration" - from polite two-people pickets to full-blown anti-globalizations fracases. After 15 years, I've never been arrested - and if I was, I sure as hell wouldn't throw a punch at a cop. I've sat through far too many trials of my friends for Assaulting an Officer for that. In fact, it seems to be a police strategy to rough people up and then charge them with assault. CCNY President Williams, a former sherriff's deputy, is undoubtedly familiar with this trick, one of the oldest in the cop book. But it is no easy thing to not react when you see officers hurting other people - twisting their arms or banging their heads against walls, or yelling in your face - and one must keep a kind of meditative zen cool. After 30 years, Carol Lang must be a master at this.

While I certainly don't agree with all of Lang's politics, there is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that she is my master when it comes to holding her temper in a tense situation. The idea that this five foot tall woman would, after 30 years, strike an officer during a demonstration at her very own workplace, is totally ludicrous. And ultimately it is this that makes me not believe a word of the accusations against her.

Lang asks that people attend her final arbitration hearing on Tuesday, November 29 at 10am at 1633 Broadway (and 50th St) on the 10th floor. There, a professional arbitrator will be decide if she will be suspended for an additional five weeks without pay, as CCNY officials have suggested happen. The Advocate seconds this call.

-- Spencer Sunshine