Daniel Simmons, a law professor at UC Davis, is vice chair of the University of California Academic Senate. He wrote the following op-ed for the March 4 issue of The Sacramento Bee.

The University of California is witnessing some of the most difficult circumstances in its history.

Budget cuts, layoffs, furloughs and salary reduction, and increases in student fees, coupled with the economic uncertainty faced by the state and nation, have generated anxiety and tensions for people in all walks of life.

Internal attacks

Political and religious turmoil add pressure to this vessel of uncertainty. In the middle of it all, the UC system is faced with internal attacks that disrupt the fabric of reasoned and sensitive debate.

The racist behavior by individuals at UC San Diego is one of the most recent manifestations. At UC Davis, someone carved a swastika on the door of a Jewish student. Organized protesters at UC Irvine disrupted the exercise of speech with a systematic attempt to deny a speaker his right to be heard and an audience its right to listen. Mobs have thrown burning missiles at a chancellor’s residence when he and his spouse were asleep inside. Protesters have occupied buildings and destroyed university property, all of which increase demands for security and maintenance expenditures at a time when core activities are being cut.

‘None of this helps’

Angry protesters frequently attempt to bar the Board of Regents from conducting its business and in fact have physically restrained individuals attending board meetings. Many students believe that all of this activity causes their voices to be heard. The cacophony is palpable. None of this helps to solve the problems caused by state budget cuts nor advances the cause of California higher education.

Many university leaders, myself included, condemn the behavior of some individuals at UC San Diego. Stupid and insensitive manifestations of racism have no place in a community based on learning and discovery.

I also reject the idea that these acts are a reflection of the culture of the San Diego campus community. I condemn the destructive behavior of individuals that seems to be snowballing across the campuses.

Freedom of expression

Nonetheless, the university must recognize the rights and needs for all persons to be able to express their views, even views that we find abhorrent. By protecting the right to speak of the most obnoxious members of the community, we protect our own rights to express our views. The university is a rich and valuable enterprise only because of the diversity of views, cultures, races, religions, and ideas that thrive within the community.

Most important, in order for the academic enterprise to thrive, or even to survive, members of the community must adopt a manner of discourse, however passionate, that reflects civil behavior and sensitivity to the views and passions of others.

Participants in the educational enterprise must be willing to learn from the divergent speech, viewpoints and cultures of others that is the hallmark of the University of California.

Students, faculty, and staff must all be willing to grow by the accumulation of uncensored knowledge so that each of us can assess the difficult issues that we face in the cauldron of uncertainty that marks recent history.

Nooses, vandalism, rocks, setting fires, do not spread knowledge; indeed, their intent is the opposite, to stop learning and restrain discovery.

We all should learn to respect the divergent views of people we encounter within and outside of the university and our own communities.

Embrace someone who is different from yourself, introduce yourself, and say you are my brother or my sister and we will walk through this world together.