San Francisco State University - Controversies

Controversies

Controversies include:

• Student protests of military recruiters on campus (in which the administration defended its actions), and confrontations between students with differing views on the Iraq War (in which the administration defended its actions again).
• The National Lawyers Guild charged that the university violated due process rights of campus anti-war activists.
• The Campus Antiwar Network (CAN) has charged that the university violated due process rights of campus anti-war activists.
• A near-riot occurred on May 7, 2002, when a pro-Palestinian group attended a pro-Israel demonstration on campus. The pro-Israel students say that the Palestinian supporters chanted anti-semitic epithets at them, such as "Hitler should have finished the job." The pro-Palestinian group say the pro-Israelis started the conflict by calling them terrorists and using epithets such as "camel jockey." No violence occurred, but campus and city police were called in to defuse the situation.
• In 1994 a mural depicting Malcolm X was painted on the student union building, commissioned by the Pan-African Student Union and African Student Alliance. The mural's border contained yellow Stars of David and dollar signs mingled with skulls and crossbones and near the words "African Blood." The next week, after demonstrations on both sides, the school administration had the mural painted over, and subsequently sand blasted. Two years later a new Malcolm X mural was painted, without the controversial symbols.
• During the campus protests of 1968-69 to gain an Ethnic Studies program, school President S. I. Hayakawa drew the ire of students by pulling the wires from a loudspeaker so that protesters could no longer be heard. He also threw the first rock to destroy the existing Student Center making way for a new one to be built.