Dear Harvey Mudd community,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On April 9 and April 10, a member of our staff and a member of our faculty were approached in their offices with campaign materials by masked members of the\u00a0Mudders Against Murder (MAM)<\/a>\u00a0group. Their\u00a0petition<\/a>\u00a0demanded that the College \u201ccuts all ties with defense, defense product suppliers, weapons manufacturers, and weapons manufacturing-affiliated companies\u201d including ties with organizations such as Google, Amazon, Amazon Labs, Juniper Networks, General Motors, etc. The petition demanded that the Clinic Program and OCS \u201cdeliver a written commitment to our demands and a concrete plan with next steps\u201d by April 16 and April 17.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yesterday, the recipients received follow up emails from [MAM email address removed]; these emails are appended below. These messages from MAM state, \u201cwe are reminding you that the deadline for a response is tomorrow night, (4\/16 and 4\/17). <\/strong>Otherwise, we interpret this as a refusal to engage and will be forced to escalate.\u201d The emails do not indicate what form of escalation is being contemplated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There has been discussion among various leadership groups at the College about this matter and many steps have been taken. Given the nature of the most recent messages, we have been encouraged by the Department Chairs Committee to share this information broadly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some members of our community have expressed genuine concern for their safety and security, including in the presence of masked protestors that are unknown to them. Some are wishing to now work from home and expressly not be on campus for events that may be targeted. Some want more information about our philosophy on engaging Campus Safety and when they should call the police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the initial delivery of the petitions to both Clinic and OCS, various steps have been taken by different members of our community to invite students into dialogue on the issues of concern to MAM group members. Despite these steps, MAM\u2019s stated position is that anything less than full and immediate compliance with the group\u2019s demands will be regarded as a \u201crefusal to engage.\u201d Some of the recent steps to engage have included: <\/p>\n\n\n\n We are not aware of any direct response from MAM regarding these steps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n