Chapman University Community Against Torture

When John Yoo - former deputy in the Bush Administration's Office of Legal Counsel and primary architect of Bush administration policies endorsing the use of inhumane torture against detainees in U.S. custody - began a visiting professorship at Chapman University's School of Law last month, the Los Angeles Times described it as an opportunity for Yoo to enjoy "calmer waters" than that which he is generally used to experiencing at U.C. Berkeley, where he is a tenured professor. An escape to the heart of conservative, suburban Orange County is just the respite Yoo was looking for, the paper seemed to suggest, in the wake of igniting a maelstrom of criticism for authoring memos that outlined the "legal" rationale for utilizing interrogation techniques historically considered by the United States and other Western countries to be illegal torture. The Times intimated that hardly anyone at Chapman, a university that once heralded the reverent philosophical principles of Albert Schweitzer as its guiding light, would bat an eye at Yoo's presence on campus and within its broader community. "For the most part," Times reporter Susannah Rosenblatt wrote Feb. 11, "students at Chapman...have taken Yoo's presence in stride." She wrote that law students seem to value his policy experience and even quoted one current student as saying "any publicity's good publicity."

The aim of this petition is to send a clear message to the world that John Yoo does not represent Chapman, that the policies Yoo endorsed while serving the Bush Administration are not emblematic of who Chapman is or what the university community stands for. If you are a current student, an alum, the spouse or partner of a current student or alum, the parent of a current student or alum, a Chapman staff member, a former staff member, a current or former member of Chapman's administration or faculty, a donor to the university, or in any other way a part of the Chapman family, express your love for the university you hold dear by signing this petition and standing against those things which Yoo has come to represent: the use of inhumane, torturous tactics like waterboarding, the illegal practice of secretly transferring prisoners to countries known for their use of torture, a complete disregard for the U.S. Constitution, and the trampling of our nation's most cherished values and ideals. The more signatures that are collected, the louder and stronger our voice becomes. Sign the petition, indicate your relationship to Chapman, and help the world understand a side of  our beloved university that too often is overlooked and disregarded.