UNL police continue to monitor Ayers aftermath

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is taking every step possible to monitor the wave of safety concerns raised in the wake of William Ayers' proposed visit to campus, members of UNL's terror assessment team said Wednesday.

The team also said UNL will pursue action against the responsible individuals to the greatest extent possible.

But the ability to react to messages that create safety concerns is limited, University Police Chief Owen Yardley said.

"For (a message) to warrant action there have to be certain elements that the situation meets," Yardley said. "If those circumstances aren't met, you can't take legal action against it.

"In a lot of cases, the messages are anonymous and it becomes even more difficult."

Yardley, speaking alongside UNL associate psychology professor Mario Scalora, said characterizing the messages as threats was "inaccurate" because of the wide range of messages received.

Scalora, who works with the threat assessment team, added that "threat" is a term that can be broken down into multiple subsections, each carrying a different implication and warranting a different approach.

"A terroristic threat is a very specific term," Scalora said. "Frankly, those cases are rare.

"There was very rarely a direct threat ... The majority of threats received were hypothetical or veiled threats."

Chancellor Harvey Perlman has been the target of criticism from certain UNL faculty since the decision to rescind Ayers' offer to speak at a College of Education event this past weekend. The most consistent claim is that Perlman infringed on academic freedom by restricting the university's ability to bring a controversial speaker to campus.

In its Nov. 5 meeting, the UNL Faculty Senate proposed bringing in an independent body to investigate whether academic freedom had been infringed upon.

The resolution was tabled until the senate's meeting next month.

Marjorie Kostelnik, dean of the College of Education and Human Sciences, said that while the action to uninvite Ayers was unfortunate, safety concerns and the potential for violence at the Nov. 15 event made it necessary for UNL to go back on its original plans.

"We had a chance as a college to weigh in on this, to talk about it," Kostelnik said. "We were disappointed that the cancellation occurred, but at the same time, once the safety of the students and faculty and staff was looked at ... it was understood, and we believe that that was where we were at that point.

"The chancellor really supported our college through this whole process. ... I appreciated the opportunity for the faculty to be able to tell me what they thought."

Kostelnik said that within a 24-hour period last month, her office received "over 250 e-mails and over 100 calls."

"They were all angry," Kostelnik said.

University Police and the threat assessment team were called in to give guidance to the College of Education staff on how to respond to the messages that Kostelnik described as "furious."

UNLPD also solicited information from Kostelnik to benefit its investigation into and assessment of the messages.

Yardley said UNLPD continues to investigate the matter. Scalora said it can be difficult handling messages that suggest a cause for concern but do not explicitly state any intent on action because "First Amendment rights protects a large range of speech ... and most of the people that pose a threat are those people that have the potential to escalate to violence."

In a statement released to the Daily Nebraskan, Perlman said:

"Threat assessments are very specific using real information in context ... We will continue to use the best information that we can get to act in the best interest of the university community.

"We are dealing with "risk" not certainty ... Further, we will not tolerate people threatening this university and will seek prosecution at every opportunity where the law permits."

Yardley said the university continues to monitor the safety situation, paying attention to messages sent to the university along with the discussion taking place on the Internet.

Scalora reiterated the complexity of monitoring safety concerns for the university, stating that the simple words that may be construed as a "threat" do not have the same bearing as anger, intensity and the potential for individuals to move to the next level.

Yardley said these situations are best handled out of the media spotlight to keep potential copycats and other volatile individuals in the dark as much as possible.

"We'd prefer to keep it low-key," he said, "so people can go to events without having to worry."

jonathancrowl@dailynebraskan.com