Grand Jury Investigation of UCI Protesters Gives Lie To UCI's Commitment to Free Speech

Updated 11 February, 2011: 100 UCI faculty sign letter against criminalizing campus protests.

Updated 4 February 2011: Conspiracy Charges are brought by DA against Irvine 11: LA Times blog entry.

Updated 1 February 2011: To listen to the podcast of this program, click on:
There is now a petition online against criminalizing the student protests: petition.



Despite UC Irvine's professed commitment to the First Amendment [watch UCI video above on Free Speech], troubling recent signs indicate that the heavy hand of the law is coming down on student protesters on campus, reinforcing UCI's new reputation as a new site of student resistance (and repression).

A criminal pretrial for 19 UCI students who staged a labor protest last year is imminent (March 7, 2011) while a grand jury has apparently been empaneled to investigate the activities of UCI's Muslim Student Union.

For this evening's edition of Subversity, we talk with Carol A. Sobel, a SantaMonica- based civil rights attorney for six MSU students and former students who were called in January 2011 to testify before the Orange County grand jury investigating, apparently, conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor! One, a UCI student, was subpoenaed outside a classroom. The MSU was suspended during Fall Quarter 2010 for an incident relating to protests during the talk given by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren last year on campus. Even UCI Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, who appeared on Air Talk on KPCC late last week with Carol Sobel, agreed that criminal charges should not be pursued. All this crackdown on free speech makes one wonder about UCI's real commitment to the First Amendment. Is it all just talk?

To listen to Carol Sobel and show host Daniel C. Tsang on KUCI discussing the ramifications of this widening legal tangle facing UCI students, listen to Subversity this evening at 5-6 p.m. on KUCI, 88.9 FM in Orange County, California. The show is also simulcast via kuci.org at the same time.

Full disclosure: Carol Sobel was one of the show host's attorneys when he successfully sued the CIA for spying on him.

Sexual Minorities To March Again at Tet Parade on Bolsa

Updated 1 February 2011: To listen to the podcast of this program, click on:



A year after participating in the first such Tet parade on Bolsa at in Westminster, a contingent of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Vietnamese and Chinese Vietnamese plan to march again.

We talk again to Gina Masequesmay, from CSU Northridge, about the planned march and whether or not this year's event, slated for 9:00-noon on 5 February, is happening with less controversy than the previous year.

The organizers also plan to have panel discussion from 2-3:30 pm at the Nguoi Viet Daily News Community Room, 14771 Moran St. Westminster, CA 92683.

The show airs from 5-6 p.m. today on 24 January 2011 on KUCI, 88.9 FM in Orange County, California, and is simulcast via kuci.org.

Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and More

On this federal holiday commemorating the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we bring you portions of his speech at Riverside Church in 1967 a year before his assassination where he spoke out against the Vietnam War. He linked racism, poverty, and militarism.

The program comes from Making Contact, the National Radio Project: Beyond the Dream: MLK and the Anti-War Movement, which first aired in 2003.

We also air another Making Contact program, where Harvard law prof. Charles Ogletree talks about the arrest of Harvard prof. Henry Louis Gates that ended up eventually with the famous "beer summit" at the White House. Ogletree has written a new book, “The Presumption of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Race, Class and Crime in America.” The Making Contact program, The Presumption of Guilt: Charles Ogletree on the Arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr., was first recorded by the National Radio Project at the African American Art & Culture Complex of San Francisco, on October 21st, 2010.

Our thanks to National Radio Project for permission to air their programs.

The Subversity show airs from 5-6 p.m. today on KUCI, 88.9 FM in Orange County, California, and is simulcast via kuci.org.

Remembering KUCI DJ Jessica Hoke

Update: Due to unforseen circumstances, this program was not re-aired.


Beginning the new KUCI Winter Season 2011 on a somber note locally, Subversity again remembers KUCI DJ Jessica Hoke (left). We air the first hour or so of the memorial service held 10 December 2010 on the Gateway Plaza below Langson Library at UC Irvine.

Subversity show, a KUCI public affairs program, airs on Monday, 10 January 2011, from 5-6 p.m. on 88.9 FM, and is simulcast via kuci.org.

The most recent report on the memorial service appeared in the New University:
Memorial Held for Hoke.

See also other articles on Hoke under her show name, "The Exposure", on the KUCI Full-text Archive.

Musical Interlude with Award-winning UCI Student Wan Yeung on the Pipa

Subversity, a KUCI radio public affairs program, kicks off the new year with a musical interlude and airs a live performance by an award-winning UCI student musician specializing in the Chinese string instument, Pipa.

Currently a guitar major at University of California, Irvine, Wan Yeung (Yeung Ngai Wan) began playing the Pipa when he was 12 while living in Hong Kong. By the age of 18, he was honored as the champion of the Student Chinese Instrumentalists in Hong Kong. The following year (2007) he received an award for being the champion of the Hong Kong Student Pipa soloists.

Wan recently won a gold medal in the Amateur Adult Category at the 2010 Chinese Instrument International Competition U.S.A held at California State University, San Jose.

At UC Irvine's School of Music, he is a recipient of The Regents’ Scholarship as well as The Edna Helen Beach Scholarship.

Wan’s first CD of traditional Chinese Pipa music, “Restoration”, was released in late 2009.

He has acquired quite a following in the local Asian community and performs often when a Chinese lute soloist is requested. For more information about his music, see his web site.

The Subversity radio show airs from 5-6 p.m. Monday 3 January 2011 on KUCI, 88.9fm in Orange County, California, and is simulcast via kuci.org. The show host is Daniel C. Tsang.