The Administration and WUPD know that the SWA made a promise to me, twice for emphasis, to support me (and others, I am sure) if we were to face retaliation. They seemed to imply that this may involve another direct action, such as occupation of a building.

If anybody resorts to direct action, please don’t tell them I sent you. I heard Dean Jim McLeod endorse civil disobedience as a great American tradition. You can tell them he sent you. I heard Chancellor Wrighton thank the SWA for reminding us all to treat our workers better, in his 2004 Commencement Address. You can tell them he sent you. That is his right, and his privilege, as Chancellor, the one at whose desk the buck stops. Perhaps they will invite you back into another building as honored guests, as they did before. Why don’t you ask?

Please remember, I came as a worker, a Lecturer with a year to year contract and no career path. I was never a leader or advisor of that group, though I was an early endorser, and I attended their meetings and supported their goals, if not all their tactics. I did not incite the students to do anything, certainly not the hunger strike.

Why not have a real career path for Lecturers, with tenure for collage teaching? WashU used to have this (for example the late David Hadas, a full professor who never published anything, as a point of honor). This is under discussion as the still evolving “Professor of Practice” proposal. Why not have our classes out on the Swamp? If WUPD will leave us alone, that is…

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I did not attend this because I do not smoke pot and it is not my scene, but the students I asked informed me that the WUPD officers they conversed with said they were concerned not so much about pot as “outside agitators” of some sort. The new SDS, perhaps? This occurred about the same time as the WUStock incident described above.

It is illegal for activists and “outside agitators” to smoke pot on the WashU campus.

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That having been said, the issue of privilege and selective enforcement of the law keeps coming up in our discussion of these issues. I probably made myself very unpopular by pointing out that WUPD has had a similarly lax policy towards marijuana use. One cannot really overdose on pot. The ill effects on one’s health generally take a long time to develop, hence the essay on the long term dangers of marijuana, as punishment for public pot smoking on campus. I know WUPD cracks down from time to time. Just last year, or the year before, they busted a fraternity. I believe I recall that the StudLife coverage talked around the issue of drug abuse. If we are going to be open and honest about underage drinking, why not marijuana and other drugs as well? The issue is not only safety, it is privilege. One can generally get away with a lot more in the WashU Bubble.

Drug laws are selectively enforced everywhere. Political dissidents, for example, are more often busted for pot. This is no secret. It was official Nixon Administration policy, and everybody knows it is still common practice. Race and class are factors as well.

Lecturer Dr. Jerome Bauer

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As a resident of U Drive, I have to ask, do you live in a bubble? The crime rates in St. Louis are INSANE compared to the rest of country. Not long ago a police officer was murdered on the Loop, practically your and my doorstep, and you want the police to spend their precious time making sure a few students whisper when they’re walking home at 10:00? The muggings and crime in U City have been getting worse and worse in the 3+ years I’ve been here, in your neighborhood, and somehow student noise is your priority? What planet do you live on?

Prof@WashU is right. Unless you moved into your home prior to 1853, I’m not sure what exactly you were expecting.

As for the rest of the commenters who don’t understand the logic of this column, I’m from a college town with university that enforces underage drinking laws and parental university drinking policies down to the letter. Several students have DIED from binge drinking in the past year because underage students are too afraid to take their friends to the hospital when they’ve had too much to drink because they will be punished and put on probation for doing so. This is why I commend Wash U for its reasonable alcohol policy and for creating a community that has a support system for those with true drinking problems while letting the rest of us use our own common sense.

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WUPD, I too like your style. I appreciate your polite way of harassing and surveilling your political opponents, or those whom you are ordered to regard as such. Speaking now only for myself, I thank the plainclothes security guard who identified himself as such, shook my hand and congratulated me for teaching free classes to the other unemployed, at Spring 08 WUstock. He accepted a free t-shirt for Cervantes Free University. Next, he called WUPD, and I was surrounded by no less than three police officers in full uniform, who stood looking fierce and embarrassed, in full public view in the middle of the Swamp, before they gave up and let me go without incident. Was I about to create a disturbance by giving away what the University will no longer pay me to do for them?

Marijuana violators, despite the stated policy of zero tolerance, are given a slap on the wrist: an essay assignment on the health risks of pot. Alcohol abusers are tolerated, at the expense of our neighbors. Rebel Lecturers, sit-in participants, and other political dissidents are not beaten up, tasered, or maced in the face, as they are elsewhere in our city. WUPD, I like your style. Speaking strictly for myself…

Washington University in St Louis and other class I “research” universities have been described as the bastard offspring of non-profits and multinational corporations. They receive public funding, tax breaks, and many other concessions. Let’s rethink this.

My loyalty is to Washington University of Utopia: what the school COULD be, most definitely NOT what it is now.

Lecturer Dr. Jerome Bauer
–local homeowner and taxpayer
–with at least 10,000 hours of sweat equity in WashU, and at least as much right to a voice here as any Trustee with a bag of money or any tenured professor
–who has never, and never will, post to StudLife pseudonymously or anonymously

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To CB (the dude who thinks people respond to rewards and punishments):
Go to college. The rational world of economics doesn’t work in the real world, and the students know that better than those in the “real world”.

To WU Senior:
You are in the real world. Wake up. Have a beer.

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Should 18-20 year olds be allowed to drink responsibly? Yes. But these are examples of irresponsible drinking and they should be dealt with accordingly.

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You want a “mutually respectful” relationship with authorities, but fail to mention the residents who call those authorities. If you respect the residents, there is no need for the authorities. Students over 21 absolutely can participate in gatherings with alcohol – just not in my yard. Nor can you use my fence as a toilet or doodle board on your way home. You are worried about the student’s quality of life in “these neighborhoods”? How insanely selfish. What about the resident’s quality of life?

How are we residents working to maintain a mutually respectful relationship with students? So far, by not having you arrested. By uprighting our own dumpsters, picking up your trash, hosing your urine off our fences in the mornings, and simply posting signs asking for your respect and quiet after 10:00. By not videotaping you in the middle of these illegal acts. What will you do?

When you leave Wash U property and come onto mine, you make a choice – a choice to fall under my eye and the jurisdiction of the U City police. As a permanent resident and a taxpayer, I look forward to U City’s support in stopping these illegal activities.

Real laws come with real neighbors. That’s what this comes down to – respect for others and the law. You’ll realize that once you come back to the real world.

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Not to mention that students who live off-campus take on certain responsibilities that come with living in the “real world,” like neighbors who aren’t college students… and the University City PD.

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