University of California administrators have been frustrating Republican students and faculty, as well as the many community members who just want to break free of politically correct censorship. But in a small claims court in Hayward, CA, we won a small victory.
On the last day of instruction, two UC Davis attorneys got on the early train to go to court in Hayward, a two-hour train ride away. They were there to defend Interim Chancellor Ralph Hexter on a small claims case for a mere $484.33 by a part-time lecturer in Comparative Literature. Based on my calculations of published salaries, cost of transportation, and UC expense allowances, it cost the taxpayers of California no less than $772 to fund that quixotic escapade. If you add the time it took for all the admin associated with the job using just the salaries of attorneys Donald Dudley and Anne Maas, it cost at least $1,160 to prepare for this court hearing and produce the two heavy customized binders for court.
Why would UC Davis, which like all UC’s is constantly claiming they are strapped for cash when they raise tuition, spend over twice the sum in question to send not one, but two attorneys to litigate what would seem to be a trivial financial matter?
I prosecuted the Chancellor on behalf of all students and taxpayers, especially Republicans and conservatives, whose tax dollars are being used against them by a government-funded educational system. I had asked the expenses associated with attempting to see Milo Yiannopoulos in Santa Barbara and Davis to be paid directly by the Chancellor since he had failed in his promise to, as he expressed it in an open letter on January 13, “affirm the right of our students—in this instance, the Davis College Republicans—to invite speakers to our campus. Any public university must do everything it can to make sure that all members of its community are free to express their views—both because free expression is a right guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution and enshrined in University of California policy, and because it is an essential ingredient of excellence in higher-education teaching and research.”
Although Hexter further promised that the “Student Affairs office, the Davis College Republicans, campus security personnel, and others are taking all of the appropriate measures to create a safe and secure environment,” that was not the case at Davis on January 13, and it certainly didn’t hold true at a February 1 event at UC Berkeley, also put on by its Republican students. Both events were shut down precisely because of the administration’s unwillingness to protect the diverse group of ticket-holders for the event from angry, regressive left activists.
Large media outlets, including The LA Times, Wash Post, and The Daily Caller, all confirmed unchecked violence. The Davis College Republicans proclaimed in a letter to the campus that the administration “provided DCR what we see as false information” to compel them to permit the administration to shut down the event.
Chancellor Hexter deemed it fit to spend more taxpayer money, and the university agreed to defend a man who makes in excess of $400,000 per annum plus a $10,000 automobile allowance and numerous perks, to prosecute a half-time lecturer working for $32,779 who was out of pocket about $500 to see one of the only conservative speakers to set foot on our campus.
It was not until June that the Milo drama came to an end. On June 9, Alameda County ordered the University to pay up. It was obvious, the judge explained, “I don’t usually say this in court, but you need to pay him.” This dealt the UC a blow, as they had been hoping to avoid my attempt, as Mr. Dudley put it, “to make a free speech issue out of this.”
Recent political events show that it is in the courts that these battles will be won and lost. In one small claims court far away from any U.C. campus, a judge decided that university administrators would no longer have carte blanche to punish students and faculty whom they believe to be too conservative.