The University of California at Irvine has decided to shorten, but not eliminate, a ban placed on the Muslim Student Union following an incident in February, in which students continually interrupted an Israeli ambassador’s speech to the university. 

Eleven students total were arrested after Michael Oren, Israeli ambassador to the United States, spoke at UC Irvine and was continually interrupted by students in the crowd in February.

The first interruption was ‘Michael Oren, propagating murder is not an expression of free speech,’ according to a Los Angeles Times article published February 9 on the subject.

Throughout Oren’s speech in February, there were 10 interruptions. After the fourth interruption, Oren had to take a 20 minute break before returning to his speech.

After each interruption, students were escorted out of the room by police officers and went cooperatively. Students were held in a nearby room until the speech ended and were then released, according to the L.A. Times article.

After an investigation immediately following the speech, the university decided to ban MSU for one full academic year. MSU has maintained through statements on its website the students involved were acting on their own accord and not on group orders. The group also said the suspension amounts to collective punishment.

In a news release on the MSU website after the initial suspension, MSU President Asaad Traina said suspending MSU would deprive Muslim students of a sense of community.

‘Depriving Muslim students a venue to associate jeopardizes their rights under the First Amendment and is an act of marginalization at a time when Muslim students and Muslim youth already feel besieged,’ Traina said in the news release.

MSU officers could not be reached for comment.

Earlier this month, after a two-month appeal process that included several meetings with MSU officers and the careful review of new evidence, the university cut the ban in half, meaning the group can begin activities again in December of this year, according to an appeal statement from MSU.

‘The decision reduced the MSU ban to the end of the calendar year, instead of the end of the academic year,’ said Cathy Lawhon, the director of media relations of communications at UC Irvine, ‘and changed the length of probation and amount of community service that must be completed by the group.’

The members of MSU must complete a collective 100 hours of community service to be reinstated. The organization will be on probation for two years, and MSU leaders will meet once a month for one year with the director for student conduct to discuss First Amendment rights and the responsibilities of leadership, according to the appeal statement from MSU.

There has yet to be any backlash against the university for the change in its decision, but since UC Irvine is a quarter school, classes have not started yet, said Mark Petracca, the chair of the political science department at UC Irvine.

Manuel Gomez, vice chancellor for student affairs, said in the MSU appeal statement that although the decision was difficult, the process represents UC Irvine’s commitment to values, principles and tolerance. Gomez said he is confident the university will move forward as a stronger and more respectful university.

medelane@syr.edu

Published on September 21, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Meghin: medelane@syr.edu | @meghinwithani