The committee’s report is in - and its recommendation is to create another committee. On Friday, the four-member panel appointed by MSU President M. Peter McPherson to examine the undercover investigation of a predominantly student activist group released its final report.
The independent group’s verdict: MSU police handled an extraordinary situation as if it was commonplace, and the university should establish specific policies to handle any such investigations in the future.
The committee’s investigation was prompted by a April 2001 report by The State News that an MSU police had used an undercover officer to gather information about an activist group forming on campus. For several months beginning in February 2000, an MSU police officer posed as a member of United Students Against Sweatshops, which later became the registered group Students for Economic Justice.
The panel spent the past four months interviewing administrators and MSU police officials, including the officer placed undercover in the group, and reviewing the procedures MSU administration took during the incident.
It comes as no surprise to us that the panel concluded such an investigation should never occur on a college campus. An alternative should always be pursued to prevent a chilling effect on the free and open of exchange of ideas that takes place on college campuses.
The panel was right to note the Department of Police and Public Safety handled the investigation poorly, without the care and delicacy such an undertaking requires.
But rather than suggesting what policies should be implemented, the panel recommended creating the “Blue Ribbon Task Force on Student-Police Relationships,” chaired by McPherson.
While some may argue the panel did not go as far as it could have - declining to create a policy framework - they did their job and they did it well.
Many of the findings by the independent panel addressed points that have become heavy-hanging concerns in the MSU community. This will make the job of the Blue Ribbon Task Force more focused and help this group recover the recent efforts of MSU police to create a more positive relationship with students.
We urge this task force to move quickly to put in place policies that should have been adopted 30 years ago to address investigations of political organizations. The days of police intimidation of so-called “radical” groups that occurred here and elsewhere in the 1960s and 1970s should never again take place.
However, students and their campus organizations must remain vigilant and work to make sure that such policies are enforced. Without student-led efforts, it would be easy for MSU’s leaders to sweep this or other wrongdoings under the rug.
A policy statement by the MSU Board of Trustees will help to remove the intimidation factor that hangs over student life with the uncertainty that any new student group could have an undercover officer among its ranks - simply because university officials might be uneasy and uninformed about its purpose.
Overall, this policy will create a strong positive statement for student rights at MSU. Through such a policy, MSU officials can declare emphatically that students can feel secure in their right to free speech and the ability to form an organization without suspicion of criminal intent.
As any member of Students for Economic Justice should agree, that’s something that everyone can feel good about.
