I found this video to be most disturbing, but not for the more obvious reasons. I am (was?) a supporter of Tent University, but the impression I got from viewing this video (and conversing with some of Tent University’s organizers) is that students were intent on getting arrested in order to make the UCSC administration/police/anyone who represents “the man� out to be the worst kind of enemy. Don’t get me wrong--my overall feelings towards Chancellor Denton and the UCSC administration are not exactly positive. I dislike many of their bargaining tactics and I detest the new Chancellor’s use of rhetoric: it pits security against free speech in a manner I find, for lack of a better word, icky. It’s the worst kind of political spin and it upsets me to no end. That said, whoever “edited� that video is involved in a similar kind of spin. Granted I wasn’t there for the entire incident, but it seems pretty apparent that the video was cut in such a way as to include only the most upsetting images. For instance, where was the footage of the police warning students to disperse? Where were the images of the police slowly but surely gathering their forces? It’s not that these things didn’t happen. The editor just doesn’t want you to see it.

As I understand it, the aim of Tent University was to provide an alternative environment for education in a way that symbolically represented the displacement of learning. However, as UCSC offers very few classes after 8:00 PM, that seemed to me a perfectly reasonable curfew for protesting. What does hanging around and chanting into the wee hours of the morning prove? Students don’t camp when they take classes at UCSC. Why should they camp at Tent University? What does this accomplish? If Tent University organizers were clearer on their principles, perhaps this unfortunate incident could have been avoided.

After all is said and done, I wonder how much of the resistance was truly motivated by the desire to peacefully protest, and how much of it was motivated by a youthful and/or liberal need to be extreme. As a diehard Democrat, this kind of behavior irks me for it gives conservatives exactly the kind of ammunition they need to group and attack all liberals alike. After spending years as a union member and an employee for a government bureaucracy, I have learned that getting things changed and making a statement don’t always coincide. I ask the participants of Tent University to consider what is most important to them.

Still, I only observed the first few minutes of the debacle. I’m sure this argument would be more valid coming from someone who witnessed the entire thing. I also applaud people who are willing to fight for what they believe in, for it takes bravery and dedication. The aforementioned protesters exhibited these traits last night. I just think their energy and decisions were misguided.