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UCMeP Honors the TOOL of the Year Dan “Big D” Mogulof…. Unlike these rebellious striking students, we learned a lot this fall…. And we learned it all from you, Dan. We learned the importance of clear communication. And we learned the value of low expectations….
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Unlike these rebellious striking students, we learned a lot this fall….
“I don’t think there’s an expectation it will be as large [as September].” --Dan in the San Francisco Chronicle, regarding the November protests
We learned the importance of communication: “All the suggestions that we have been lying is contrary to all the conversations we have been having with student mediators. We want to have a dialogue. We don’t want to shut down dissent, that’s not what we are about.” --Dan in the Berkeley Daily Planet
But we also learned that good communication requires flexibility: when “dialogue” is difficult, for instance, there’s always this.
We saw so many of these kind of productive conversations with students.
We learned the importance of firmness: “This is a quantum leap beyond what had been happening here. They didn’t just cross a red line – they leapt over it.” --Dan in the LA Times regarding police brutality student activism
You faced some major challenges: how can anyone talk to these students when they keep running away?
It takes a real TOOL to communicate with someone who’s just lying around doing nothing!
You remained brave even in the face of real and present danger! "This is what it looks like when a student group gets hijacked by extremist and violent elements. They need to make a choice, because we are going to identify them and remove them from the community." --Dan in the Daily Cal
These extremists ask “Whose university?” but they don’t even have the courtesy to wait for our answer!
You could always be counted on for accurate information. “The people occupying the building are not students. They’re from outside the campus community.” --Dan, interviewed by CBS5 news the evening of the Wheeler occupation
(Like we said, even the biggest TOOL can’t always get it right--what’s more important is how Anderson-Cooper-sexy you looked on TV!)
Only a wordsmith like you could make an unjust act look so thoughtful! The arrests of 66 protestors peacefully occupying Wheeler Hall [during Live Week] went down very quietly “because most of the protesters had been sleeping. We were going to do everything possible to avoid confrontation.” --Dan to the Berkeley Daily Planet
Oh Dan, who else but you could make arresting innocent students still in their PJs sound like a strategic success?
We so admire your ability to paint a picture with words… “Several hurled their torches at the building,” said campus spokesman Dan Mogulof. “Most of the protesters ran away when police arrived, but some of them threw torches and other objects at officers and patrol cars.”… Mogulof described these actions as endangering the lives of university officials. “We are very lucky that nobody was hurt,” he said. --Dan in the Berkeley Daily Planet
It’s especially impressive since you weren’t actually there to see the events you described!
Of course everyone has critics… “The discrepancy between university press releases and actual administrative plans … shows the administration’s unwillingness to accept responsibility for its actions. The failure to correct inaccurate information released to the public has misrepresented the indicted students’ behavior. It … reveals a lack of sincere communication between student protestors and the administration leading up to the arrests.” --Berkeley Student Advocates Office report on the Wheeler “live week” arrests
But we know they are just more of those pesky outside agitators! “What I witnessed was enough at variance with university officials’ accounts…to make me suspicious of the rest of those accounts…The distorted, unsympathetic statements released by campus leaders days after the protest again followed deliberation and caused real trauma to many students, including students who described a seemingly unbridgeable gap coming to separate them from a university they had loved.” --UC Berkeley Professor of Education Daniel Perlstein, eyewitness to the incident at the Chancellor’s mansion
UCMeP also wishes to recognize runners-up for the TOOL of the Year Award… “California will not tolerate any type of terrorism against its leaders, including educators.” --Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, San Francisco Chronicle “No students have been tasered at the UC Regents protest.” --UCOP Communications Director Lynn Tierney
There was certainly some tough competition… “Being president of the University of California is like being manager of a cemetery: there are many people under you, but no one is listening.” --UC President Mark Yudof, New York Times “If you tell me some union janitor doesn't understand it, O.K., but I don't understand why the Berkeley faculty doesn't understand that the problem is Sacramento.” --UC Regent Richard Blum, New Yorker
Our TOOL of the Year. Our TOOL of the year.
