Less of a Life in Limbo as California Governor Jerry Brown Pardons Vietnamese Former Inmates

Governor Jerry Brown has pardoned three former refugees from Vietnam, including two from Orange

From pardon letter.  Credit: Tung's Facebook

County.  The pardons give the two of them we talked with a chance to continue with their lives outside prison as they seek to make the wider Vietnamese community aware of the struggles their fellow released inmates encounter as they seek to rejoin society, for crimes committed as kids. The news was also reported in Vietnam.

The pardons come as U.S. has agreed to honor an earlier commitment to not send deportable Vietnamese nationals who came here as refugees back to Vietnam, a country most of whom have little knowledge of.

Tung Thanh Nguyen at VFF
Photo credit: Daniel C. Tsang

We talked with Tung Thanh Nguyen, the founder of APIROC (Asians & Pacific Islanders Re Entry of Orange County) and Hai Trong Nguyen, who became the first Vietnamese beneficiary of a new law allowing early release for inmates whose crimes were committed as minors. Tung came at age 15 while Hai arrived at age 2.

Tung is a current Soros fellow who uses the grant to engage in community work building a model deportation support system.  His activism has been profiled in a short, 10-minute documentary by Lan Hoang Nguyen, "Limbo" (Bị Kẹt).  The film, which premiered at the recent Vietnamese Film Festival in Orange, traces Tung's activism after he obtained (from Gov. Brown as well) early release after being a model prisoner, including helping some visitors to safety after a prison protest.  Literature on a table outside the screening sought the public's help in petitioning Gov. Brown to grant Tung a pardon.  He granted that wish to both Tung and Hai (and a third Vietnamese former inmate Truong Quang Ly) in time for Thanksgiving this month.  Each had been imprisoned for over a decade.

Documentary Short poster featuring Tung

Tung told us that the pardon is "no guarantee" he won't still be deported.  But the pardons do offer him and Hai a next step in a legal process they will follow as they provide paperwork to immigration authorities to rescind their deportation orders, hopefully.    Both Tung and Hai regret their criminal behavior (in a murder and a robbery case respectively) but are unable to apologize in person to the victims' families by state law that bars any contact.

However Tung says he hopes they will hear about how they are now committing their lives to helping the Vietnamese community, which is no doubt skeptical about helping released inmates. They both hope their example as bad kids turned into mature adults will convince the community to do more to reintegrate former inmates back into the family and into society.  Some 13,000 Southeast Asians in America are also at risk of deportation unless the U.S. adheres to the non-deportation agreement with Vietnam for those who arrived in the U.S. before 1995.

Panel discussion after Limbo and another documentary.
Photo credit: Daniel C. Tsang

In 2016 we interviewed another Soros fellow, Eddy Zheng, who also has committed his life to the community, in this case the Chinese American community in the Bay Area, after a similar pardon.  We are glad to learn that last year he was set to take the oath to become a U.S. citizen.  He had been incarcerated for over two decades.  -- Daniel C. Tsang

Ayala Case Raises Troubling Questions about UC Irvine Disciplinary Process

Chancellor Gillman at Emeriti/Retiree
Annual Reception 16 October 2018.
Photo copyright © 2018 Daniel C. Tsang

The case of renowned geneticist Francisco J. Ayala, who resigned from UC Irvine because of official sexual harassment findings against him, reached into an annual gathering of UCI Emeriti and Retirees last week when a member of the audience  had his question picked about the case, and posed to UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman, who was taking questions after a keynote address at the Pacific Ballroom in the UCI Student Center.

Asked to comment on the case, Dr. Gillman, in apparently his first public comments since June 28, 2018, when he announced the findings of a UCI investigation that led to Dr Ayala's resignation, told the gathering at a ballroom in the UCI Student Center that since Dr. Ayala “chose” to resign, the university never had to sanction him.  He suggested that Dr. Ayala, a major donor, agreed that his name would be removed from two buildings, the School of Biological Sciences and the Science Library.  Dr. Gillman lauded the way UCI conducted the process leading to Dr. Ayala's departure.

He did not address the effective "ban" from the campus on Dr. Ayala nor did he address publicized concerns from faculty about the way the process was handled. In August, 2018 Science magazine published a letter signed by over 60 faculty at UC Irvine and elsewhere protesting what they viewed as a draconian penalty as well as a flawed process, ending in "sanctions" that were "enacted in haste".

Dr. Gillman comments on Dr. Ayala's case 16 October 2018 (video)

At the risk of being accused of "himpathy" (see that OC Weekly piece supporting the complainants), let's explore why we agree the process was flawed and UC Irvine overreached when it denied Dr. Ayala his Emeritus status and banned him from participating in any future university activities.  

We come to that conclusion after a lengthy conversation with a senior UC Irvine faculty member who requested anonymity.  This faculty member believes contrary to what the Chancellor stated last week, Dr. Ayala was in fact "coerced" into resigning and giving up his Emeritus status, as well as having his name removed from two campus buildings.  

While UCI faculty had intervened earlier in the process so that his initial mandatory leave (while the investigation was going on) was changed earlier this year to voluntary leave, with which the faculty privilege and tenure committee had concurred, this faculty member understands that the University had threatened Dr. Ayala with "severe" consequences should he not resign immediately after the investigative findings were issued.  Dr. Ayala, according to this faculty member, took it to mean he would lose his pension and his campus residence unless he resigned.  If that is the case, it was hardly a "voluntary"  decision to resign. Accepting he had to resign, Dr. Ayala was able to retire after his long, if marred, service to the University and keep his home.

Faculty facing disciplinary actions in fact have the right to bring their case to the Privilege and Tenure committee, before the University finalizes any sanctions.  In the Ayala case, given what surely looks like a coerced departure, he was not able to complete the process.  Thus the process was made flawed by the University's insistence that he resign.

Given the fait accompli, supporters of Dr. Ayala are considering initiating a campus petition to ask the University to give Dr. Ayala the Emeritus status denied him when he resigned abruptly.

With the removal of Dr. Ayala's name from two campus buildings 
UCI will now have two new chances

Before  Ayala was sanctioned. 
Photo copyright © 2015 Daniel C. Tsang

to solicit "naming opportunities" for the two buildings from other major donors.  In fact the library administration was not notified before UCI announced in 2010 that Dr Ayala's name would be placed on the Science Library. (I am now told that neither was the dean of Biological Sciences.) As a working librarian I recall being surprised, as were the rest of my library colleagues, when UCI issued a 22 April 2010 press release about that.  That was the first any of us in the libraries on campus heard about it, thus denying the libraries its own naming opportunity. 

At the time I thought the building naming was done rather arbitrarily and by administrative feat.  The campus Administration apparently gave Dr. Ayala  the power to name his own building, when none of the money from his Templeton Prize went to the libraries.  But today in the aftermath of the "findings", the Administration no longer listens to Dr. Ayala. His tremendous sway has surprisingly evaporated, rather quickly.  Like in Communist countries, he has become a non-person.  Even the name of his spouse, Hana, has been removed from the list of donors, as if she is responsible for her husband's acts. And the UCI libraries has already amended the finding aid for the documents relating to the then Ayala Science Library architectural plans, noting that UCI Chancellor had now removed "Ayala's name" from the two buildings.  -- Daniel C. Tsang.

Remembering Esteemed Bibliographer Eddie Yeghiayan

Shatin, Hong Kong --  An email sent Saturday 12 May 2018 (received the next day here) from his nephew Armen informed me that my close friend and colleague at University of California, Irvine, Libraries, the incomparable bibliographer Eddie Yeghiayan, had passed away that morning, in his sleep.

I am currently on a Fulbright in Hong Kong and this news made me too sad for words.  Now, after a few days, I am beginning to put some words in print.

He was 78 when he left us, born in Ethiopia of Armenian heritage, he felt free after his retirement to devote himself to compiling a massive, multilingual compendium on the Armenian genocide, published in fact by the Vatican press.  It was his ultimate triumph after a career at UC Irvine devoted to being a really dedicated librarian who was a philosophy bibliographer.

His triumph at the libraries there was the creation of the critical theory archive and its massive collection of bibliographies about the top cultural theorists of the time, who came to Irvine to lecture.  He even became a media sensation, appearing in Derrida, where he was filmed talking about the French critical theorist's archive at UC Irvine.  (It was the only time I spoke to Derrida, where I managed to utter "enchanté", as the regular visiting UC Irvine professor sat in the audience for an Irvine screening.)  The dialog is reprinted in a spinoff book, Derrida: Screenplay and Essays on the Film by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering Kofman (Manchester University Press, which records Eddie saying: "This is the entire Derrida archive beginning there almost to the end, there's about 100 boxes.  We see Derrida pacing through the archive..." 

Speaking once with Eddie about a summer in the late 1960's I spent living in Berkeley with friends from Hong Kong, I showed him a photo of the apartment complex. He quickly pointed out that he had lived there before, in the same complex, when he pursued his undergraduate studies some years  earlier.  So it was inevitable that we took a trip to Berkeley together to relive old times.

He was my regular companion at Chinese eateries, even as I at time wrote short blurbs for the OC Weekly.  And we would also go together to many of the Vietnamese International Film Festivals that started at UC Irvine and continued in Orange County, and which I covered for my radio program, Subversity Show, and later its podcasts, as well as review for the OC Weekly.

Eddie, who was short but not slim, had an uncomfortable experience eating at Irvine's Taiwanese eatery modeled after a school classroom, Class 302 on Culver Drive.  The furniture seemed more appropriate for elementary school so it was not a huge success our eating there.

Photo copyright © 2015 Daniel C. Tsang

My happiest memory of him was when he attended after his retirement the graduation party of my  student assistant, Tatevik.  She also was of Armenian heritage.  I really love this photo of him (right).

He also attended a critical theory conference, coming back on campus -- we stayed in hotels in Irvine so he could conveniently attend.  At the event, it was astonishing, but totally understandable, to see
Chancellors Professor Gabbie Schwab kneeling in front of Eddie, in a public tribute to all his contributions to the critical theory discipline.

I wrote about a 2015 critical theory event (that Eddie didn't attend) at UC Irvine Libraries  in my blog post.  Here's some excerpts:

During the exhibits opening event 9 April 2015, in the Q&A session after the opening talk by UCI Humanities Dean Georges Van Den Abbeele, I related the anecdote of the New York Times calling Eddie up to ask if the newspaper could use a low-resolution photo of Judith Butler that Eddie had taken and posted online next to his bibliography on Butler.  Eddie - the unasuming and generous soul he was - offered to give it to the paper for free. To laughter, I said he could have asked for $1,000.   "He didn't want any money," I added. The photo was subsequently published in the 27 February 1999 edition of the NY Times, p. B11 to acccompany a story on "Attacks on Scholars Include a Barbed Contest With 'Prizes' " by Dinitia Smith that began on page B9.   This past Sunday Eddie recalled the New York Times had offered him $100 which he declined.  The photo is missing from the online version but Eddie is credited.

UCI Chancellor's Prof. (in Comparative Literature) Gabriele Schwab then spoke up thanking Eddie for his "most amazing bibliographies." UCI Humanities Dean Van Den Abbeele from the podium then said he "knew that" and had "consulted" Eddie's Lyotard bibliography "many, many times" and that "it is an amazing piece of work."  He later told me that while French philosopher Jean-François Lyotard had given him (the Dean) some pamphlets of his (Lyotard's) writings, Eddie's bibliography listed every one of them. 

At a time when library administrators at many places are urging librarians to collaborate with faculty more, Eddie stands as an exemplary example of the benefits of producing scholarly work that brings recognition to bibliographers and other librarians.   

Photo courtesy Eddie Yeghiayan

At my encouragement, Eddie penned his own tribute to Roger Berry, who headed Special Collections, and his favorite boss.   I also like this photo since it shows Eddie with his characteristic smile behind Roger Berry.

To me, no one could replace Eddie, nor could the University find a comparable replacement.  He was one of a kind.

Daniel C. Tsang

____________________________________________________

My past colleague Julia Gelfand and I sent out this email 15 May 2018 about Eddie to our colleagues:

Photo copyright © May 2015 Daniel C. Tsang

The family of Eddie Yeghiayan, former Librarian for Philosophy, French, Italian and English, and founding librarian for Critical Theory at UCI announced his passing on May 12.  Eddie retired in 2002 after devoting his entire professional career to the UCI Libraries.  He received his PhD in Philosophy from UCI in 1974 under the direction of the late Professor Abe Meldon, studying Hume’s theory of moral sentiments.  He went on to support and document the founding of the program in Critical Theory at UCI by creating extensive bibliographies of all the distinguished faculty, critics and scholars who shaped and defined that internationally acclaimed program.  A graduate of UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University where he also taught in the Philosophy Department, he received his MSLS from Berkeley in 1977 and returned to UCI that year to be the Humanities Bibliographer working under Marion Buzzard and with Roger Berry, Head of Special Collections, where the Critical Theory Archive was established.   Born in Ethiopia, Eddie came alone to the US as a young teenager joining his older brothers who were already working as an engineer and lawyer in the US.   

Eddie devoted his retirement to compiling an extensive bibliography of the Armenian Genocide, published in 2012.  Already online as a searchable database via the web site of the Glendale-based Center for Armenian Remembrance, the 1126 page bibliography was released in print by Vatican Publishing House.  In April 2015, the Libreria Editrice Vaticana issued  Eddie’s volume in Italian.  In Spring 2015 the UCI Libraries held an exhibit “Through Discerning Eyes: Origins and Impact of Critical Theory at UCI,” where the Welleck Lecture series was well documented with Eddie’s extensive bibliographies of the giants of the field and for which he is much recognized and highly cited.  He also appeared in a short video clip from Derrida directed by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering Kofman. 

Eddie is remembered as a very generous and engaging colleague, a terrific storyteller, who mentored many librarians and scholars in the scholarship of language and literature.  He loved words, film, international cuisines, was fluent in many languages and had a very well informed worldly view.  He leaves a brother, 4 nieces and nephews, several great nieces and nephews, and a large extended family around the world.   Information about services and memorials are forthcoming.

Julia Gelfand & Dan Tsang