"The second petition is calling for Denice Denton to resign."

This request is silly and extreme. Sure, let's oust the new Chancellor, make an even bigger spectacle of Tent University, and risk having the Regents replace Ms. Denton with someone who is far less sympathetic!

Some people seem to have no sense of the history of our University, or indeed, of the history of our State. Have we forgotten Clark Kerr, the UC president who was somewhat sympathic to the Berkeley student protest movement of the sixties -- just not sympathetic enough for the student protestors, and a little too sympathetic for the electorate and Reagan?

There were a lot of sad faces among the student protestors when Reagan finally succeeded in deposing Kerr. The University administration, and the State, made a hard right turn, the extreme actions of the Berkeley student protestors having opened the door. The damage -- especially in terms of education funding -- persists to this day.

Perhaps it would have been better to cooperate with Kerr, a sincere person who wanted to work with the students and improve their institution.

And perhaps it would be better to cooperate with Ms. Denton, also a sincere person who wants to work with today's students and improve their university experience.

Also, it may not be appropriate for someone who accepts a paycheck from the University (and probably also enjoys the University's highly subsidized health insurance options, well-funded pension, vacation pay, sick leave, and due process hiring/promotion/grievance/firing rights), to criticize his own employer in public. Were Mr. True in private industry, he could be fired for this, and perhaps rightly so. At some point, you have to decide whether you're on the team or not. Petitions, hunger strikes, and things like that can harm the team. It's irrational for the University to be paying students and employees who spend so much time fighting against the University. Let these people air their criticisms in constructive ways, or go study and work elsewhere.

(This is the first time that I have felt it necessary to post anonymously. I am truly afraid of the attacks that have been and will continue to be levied against people who dare to criticize Tent University on other than a high theoretical level. Frankly, I'm also fed up with the amount of coverage that Tent University has received here, while other, more immediate issues go unnoticed. I hardly visit S.C. IndyMedia anymore, because I know I'll just find another front page story about Tent University. And I consider the use of words like "brutality" an insult to people who have suffered through real struggles. I'm thinking of people like Charlayne Hunter-Gault, who had to be escorted to university by federal officers -- because she was Black. That's a struggle, worthy of a word as heavy as "brutality".)