Thread: 'Activist' UCSD professor facing unusual scrutiny

'Activist' UCSD professor facing unusual scrutiny

By Eleanor Yang Su, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 9:27 p.m.

UCSD professor Ricardo Dominguez is facing unusual scrutiny from campus police and auditors for his involvement in two divisive projects — one that helps migrants find water stored along the border and another that disrupted the UC president’s Web site through a virtual sit-in.

Dominguez, 50, is a self-described activist and new media artist who is accustomed to stirring up controversy. But he said he’s troubled that his tenured status may be revoked for work that promotes his academic specialty of electronic civil disobedience.

His supporters said Dominguez’s academic freedom is being trampled because he targeted administrators last month over its financial management. The sympathizers include coalitions of more than 50 faculty members at the University of California San Diego.

Others, including three Republican congressmen who have written to UCSD Chancellor Marye Anne Fox, said Dominguez should not be using taxpayer money to develop programs that aid illegal immigrants.

Last week, UCSD police questioned Dominguez about whether he committed a crime with the virtual sit-in.

Dominguez had publicized the March 4 event online. About 400 students, faculty and staff participated, each triggering a reloading of the UC system president’s Web site by registering for the sit-in. The computer program that Dominguez helped create also prompted a series of messages to appear, including, “There is no transparency found at the UC Office of the President.â€

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Support grows for 'activist' UCSD professor

By Eleanor Yang Su, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Thursday, April 8, 2010 at 10:39 a.m.

UCSD Professor Ricardo Dominguez works in the field of electronic civil disobedience, and has become the target of two investigations related to his work, including scrutiny from three conservative congressmen from San Diego County who question his work helping illegal border crossers find water stations in the desert.

'Activist' UCSD professor facing unusual scrutiny
A UCSD visual arts professor facing heat from campus administrators, auditors and police over two of his controversial projects has canceled a meeting with auditors for Thursday morning after receiving advice from about 200 supporters during a rally.

Ricardo Dominguez was scheduled to meet the auditors to discuss a virtual sit-in he staged last month on the Web site for the president of the University of California system. The event, which disrupted the site’s operations, was held to protest budget cuts and what Dominguez called the increasing privatization of the public university.

Officials at the University of California San Diego are looking at whether the sit-in amounts to a “denial of service attack,â€

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Aiding and abetting illegal immigration IS professional misconduct involving unethical behavior, it's a federal crime!

a virtual sit-in he staged last month on the Web site for the president of the University of California system. The event, which disrupted the site’s operations

Isn't that called hacking? Isn't it a federal crime? If he did not have authorized access to that website and disrupted service, what he did is illegal and should get him up to 20 years in the federal pen.

Hope he loses his tenure, job and gets a nice prison term.

Originally Posted by miguelina

Aiding and abetting illegal immigration IS professional misconduct involving unethical behavior, it's a federal crime!

a virtual sit-in he staged last month on the Web site for the president of the University of California system. The event, which disrupted the site’s operations

Isn't that called hacking? Isn't it a federal crime? If he did not have authorized access to that website and disrupted service, what he did is illegal and should get him up to 20 years in the federal pen.

Hope he loses his tenure, job and gets a nice prison term.

Right on. I saw this little twit on the local news last night. All he cares about is saving his own a$$ at this point. Loser.

Academic freedom must prevail / But potential criminal conduct deserves investigation

By San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board,
Saturday, April 10, 2010 at 12:04 a.m.

In at least one sense, UCSD professor Ricardo Dominguez is good at his job.

The professor describes himself as an activist and new-media artist. Well, activists and artists want and need to be noticed. With two recent undertakings – a proposed GPS-tool to help illegal immigrants navigate the border and find water stations and a virtual sit-in that disrupted the UC president’s Web site – Dominguez has gotten himself noticed. So much so that campus police and auditors are looking into his activities with an eye toward revoking his tenure.

Dominguez’ border-crossing tool has even gotten the attention of three San Diego County Republican congressmen who have written UCSD President Marye Anne Fox to say that taxpayers’ money should not be spent on a device that could aid illegal immigration.

There are two distinct issues in this little contretemps.

One is whether Dominguez committed a criminal denial-of-service attack on the UC president’s Web site by helping to write a program that forced a reloading of the site every time someone registered for the sit-in and that caused a series of critical messages to pop up on the site. Authorities by all means should investigate the matter and if the evidence warrants it, the professor should be held accountable.

The other matter at hand is academic freedom.

We happen to think Dominguez’ Transborder Immigrant Tool, a GPS-enabled cell phone that also delivers poetry over a speaker, was never meant to be produced in quantity and distributed widely to immigrants. The whole project, in fact, is a deliberately provocative piece of performance art by Dominguez and his collaborators, meant to engender just the reaction it has received.

We understand the sentiment of those who think it is a kooky waste of money at the public university, but Dominguez does work in the university’s Department of Visual Arts and his tool is really an art project.

The concept of academic freedom evolved for a reason. Researchers in a university must be able to pursue their interests free of political or other outside interference, with the merits of their work ultimately judged by their academic peers.

We no more want Reps. Brian Bilbray, Duncan Hunter and Darrell Issa pulling the plug on Dominguez’ quirky art than we want them establishing the reading list for English majors or tweaking the engineering curriculum.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010 ... t-prevail/

If anyone else had messed up the university's web site they would have been charged by now.
If any student had done it they would be suspended and charged by now.