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Issue of armed
sheriffs on UH
campus revisited
Faculty, staff and students
By Susan Kreifels
will devise guidelines for
management of future
campus demonstrations
Star-BulletinThe University of Hawaii-Manoa administration has appointed a committee of faculty, staff and students to look at its decision to put 40 armed deputy sheriffs, canines and paddy wagons on the campus during student protests last month.
Dean Smith, UH senior vice president, said he wants the committee to propose guidelines for the management and conduct of similar demonstrations in the future. He asked that recommendations be made by early May.
Doric Little, associate professor at the John A. Burns School of Medicine and Native Hawaiian Center for Excellence and chair of the UH-Manoa Ethics Committee, will chair the committee.
The administration called the sheriffs on campus after a student sleep-in and protests concerning tuition increases and other issues.
Other than a brief scuffle during a Board of Regents meeting, the protests were peaceful.
UH President Kenneth Mortimer said the decision to call sheriffs was made after students planning on-campus protests told UH officials they could not be responsible for the actions of protesters from outside the university system. Mortimer said, however, that he had nothing to do with the decision.
Mortimer said Eugene Imai, UH senior vice president of administration, made the decision to bring in the sheriffs. Imai said that in hindsight, he should have made it clear that the deputies were to stay off campus.
Mortimer said the administration supports "the free exchange of ideas as long as this does not pose a risk to the safety and security of the university, our faculty and students."
Other committee members:
Margarita Ayala, freshman member of UH-Manoa Student Conduct Committee; Karen Cross, Program on Conflict Resolution, Matsunaga Institute for Peace; Ikaika Hussey, a UH senior; Jared Ishimoto, a member of Student Conduct Committee; John Rieder, English professor and member of Faculty Senate Committee on Professional Matters; and Brent Sipes, associate researcher and member of Student Conduct Committee.
University of Hawaii
