ASU Assault Charge

            TEMPE, AZ 
— A student recruiter at Arizona State University (ASU) is seeking help to
identify two female professors who harassed and injured her at the Tempe campus on Friday,
September 29. Emily Mitchel was
helping conservative ASU students recruit for a new student group, the
Caucasian American Men of ASU (CAMASU).  The two female faculty members
approached her recruitment table. 

 

            Emily, a field representative for the Leadership
Institute’s Campus Leadership Program, offered both women informational
flyers about the group but the women refused to look at the materials.  The two
women accused Emily of having “a racist agenda,” and called her
“a sexist.”

 

            When Emily asked if she could record the conversation for
educational purposes, the two women agreed.  But when Emily began recording, one
of the women got aggressive and tried to wrestle the camera from Emily.

 

            “She argued with me and then tried to steal my
camera,” Emily said of one of the women.  “She then took her thumb
and attempted to press the lens back into the camera body, trying to break
it.”

 

            “In the physical struggle to keep my camera, she dug
her nails so hard into my hand that her fingernails broke the skin and drew
blood,” Emily said.  “I somehow managed to physically pry her
fingers out of my skin and off my camera.”

 

            The camera was turned off and slightly damaged during the
altercation.

 

            It took some time for Emily to turn the camera back on. 
She asked the women for their names, but they refused.  After several attempts
to get their names to no avail, they did tell Emily that they taught in the ASU
College of Fine Arts. 

 

            Emily is unable to file charges until she can identify her
assailants.  She plans to file a police report with the campus police this
afternoon.  She is asking for anyone who can identify the two women to come
forward with their names.  Emily can be reached at CLP@leadershipinstitute.org.

 

            “This is completely unacceptable behavior from
faculty members and they shouldn’t get away with this,” said Mark
C. Smith, the advisor for the CAMASU group and a 1993 alumnus of ASU. 
“Emily is completely within her rights to pursue legal action.”

 

            Emily went to the College of Fine Arts
and spoke with Dean Kwang-Wu Kim.  Dean Kim said he did not
recognize the pictures of the two faculty members, but was appalled at their
behavior. 

 

            “ASU’s own diversity policy defines
discriminatory harassment as ‘touching a person in a manner that a
reasonable person would view as hostile, offensive, or intimidating,’ and
includes ‘damaging, defacing, or destroying’ someone’s
personal property,” said former congressman Steve
Stockman, director of the Campus Leadership Program.

 

            “These professors physically and verbally assaulted
Emily just because she disagreed with them, and then they were too cowardly to identify
themselves,” Stockman said.  “I think they’re the ones who
need a lesson in tolerance and diversity.”

 

            “Unlike some ASU student groups on the left, which I
understand do focus on students based on their ethnicity and gender, CAMASU
welcomes new members regardless of their race or sex,” Stockman said.

Michelle Miller works with the Leadership institute.