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The following is summarized from the UCSD Faculty Coalition letter sent to Senior Vice-Chancellor Acadamic Affairs Paul Drake on April 5th 2010. (Full letter reposted at http://www.walkingtools.net/?p=437) I will summarize some key information from the letter in bullets, with contextual information noted. Letters of support requested (see below.) • As the letter makes clear, professor Dominguez is being charged based on his celebrated artistic practice. • The charges stem from a Virtual Sit-in against www.ucop.edu on March 4th, a day of protest against fee increases at the University of California. • Dominguez’s tenure at UCSD is threatened, and the administration (Drake’s office) has threatened criminal charges based on a prima facie misrepresentation that the Virtual Sit-in was a botnet. (The former being legal, the latter being criminal.) • The nature of Dominguez’s art practice is known to Drake’s office. In fact, the AVCSS received and approved a promotion file in 2009 that describes the nature of the research. Dominguez was granted tenure based on that file. • Dominguez has held virtual Sit-ins against UCOP in the past, with no repercussions. This is highly indicative that the current actions against Dominguez are not motivated by the Virtual Sit-in, but possibly by other research being carried out by Dominguez and his colleagues. Note: I work with Ricardo on the Transborder Immigrant Tool Project – which is in fact one project supported by the UCSD supported walkingtools.net project. The research team also includes Amy Carrol and Micha Cardenas. • After a spate of recent hate-crimes on campus, including the hanging of a noose in the Geisel Library at UCSD, no criminal charges were brought. • The B.A.N.G. lab website was temporarily shut down on March 4th for exercising free speech, yet the Koala (a publication and website at UCSD with a history of racist provocations) is deemed by Chancellor Fox to be protected free speech. Just to add a little more information for the concerned public, a UCSD auditors’ investigation of the Transborder Immigrant Tool project began well before the March 4th events, triggered by a complaint that remains confidential. Since that time, we have been informed by the auditors that the investigation has been expanded due to a letter from US Congress members Duncan Hunter, Brian Bilbray, and Darrell Issa. The possibility that the persecution of professor Dominguez is related to TBT or other research is therefore highly plausible. I also want to make it very clear, I was involved in the March 4th virtual sit-in as a participant. Yet no administrative charges have been brought forth against me, and I have not been visited by detectives. The full letter (reposted) can be read at: http://www.walkingtools.net/?p=437 General letters of support for professor Dominguez can be emailed to: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask] , [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask] , [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask] These are: Mary Anne Fox, Chancellor, (858) 534-3135, [log in to unmask] Lawrence Pitts, Provost of the UC, [log in to unmask] Arthur Ellis, Vice Chancellor for Research, [log in to unmask] Stephanie Burke, Assistant Vice Chancellor, (858) 534-3913, [log in to unmask] Paul Drake, Senior Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs, 858.534.3132, [log in to unmask] and [log in to unmask] Seth Leher, Dean, Division of Arts and Humanities, UCSD, [log in to unmask] Kristina Larson, [log in to unmask] Amy Rosen, [log in to unmask] Grant Kester, Chair, Department of Visual Arts, [log in to unmask] Ricardo Dominguez, Associate Professor, Department of Visual Arts, UCSD, [log in to unmask] Myself Sites: http://bang.calit2.net/ http://bang.calit2.net/xborder/ Brett Stalbaum Lecturer with Security of Employment Department of Visual Arts University of California San Diego