Skip to main contentIn a rare move of political activism prompted by the plight of three former students charged with arson, two Portland State University professors are calling on public officials to stop using the term "terrorism" as a catchall for political dissent.
Mary King, chair of PSU's economics department, and Barbara Dudley, adjunct assistant professor of political science, co-wrote a faculty senate resolution earlier this month that criticizes statements made by the media and public officials (particularly a local law enforcement panel known as the Joint Terrorism Task Force) linking nonviolent political dissent to terrorism.
The resolution, which passed 46-9, does not refer to any specific cases, but King says she was moved in large part by the fate of one of her students, Jeremy Rosenbloom, who received a bachelor's degree in liberal arts in March. 'I know him," King says, "and the idea of him spending a big part of his life in jail appalls me."
Rosenbloom, 25, is one of four activists accused of setting fire to three trucks belonging to an Estacada logging company in June 2001. Two other defendants, 20-year-old Jacob D.B. Sherman and 23-year-old Angela M. Cesario, are also PSU students, both having taken classes as recently as this past summer. (The fourth defendant, 28-year-old Michael J. Scarpitti--better known as Tre Arrow--was never a PSU student. He remains at large.)
The resolution decried the use of "inflammatory terms such as 'terrorism' and 'ecoterrorism,'" which could be prejudicial and "dramatically increase potential sentences." It was sent to the mayor and city commissioners.
Dudley says she wanted the resolution to apply to the Muslim community as well as environmental activists. A proposed phrase implying that property damage does not constitute terrorism was scrapped after some faculty members expressed concern they would be seen as advocating illegal activity.
Doug Hall, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, was among those arguing to delete the phrase. "It is right that we say we're against overusing the word 'terrorism,'" he says, "but we should not make a statement that de facto condones property destruction as a valid form of protest. The message this gives is that the PSU faculty condones violence."
The resolution is an unusual example of PSU inserting itself into the realm of civic debate, said faculty senate secretary Sarah Andrews-Collier: "It's the first time our faculty senate has taken on any external issue I can think of in a decade."
WWeek 2015