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December 21, 2010

Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr. Attorney General of the United States The United States
Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530-0001

Dear Mr. Attorney General:

Recently, I read, with great interest, a letter sent to you from a group of Puerto Rican
scholars from the U.S. who expressed their concerns relating to the presence of police
officers on the Rio Piedras Campus of the University of Puerto Rico. I am a Professor of
Chemistry in the College of Natural Sciences at UPR-RP, a position that I have held for
twenty-two (22) of the twenty-seven (27) years that I have been at UPR. Our research
work is focused upon the invention of new synthetic organic chemistry for applications
to the pharmaceutical industry and human health. In that capacity, I have directed the
thesis research of twenty-four (24) PhDs, published one hundred thirty (130) scientific
articles in peer-reviewed journals, presented over three hundred fifty (350) scientific
presentations in venues all over the world, serve as a scientific consultant for a large
chemical company and am a member of the scientific advisory board for a
pharmaceutical company. Our work is funded by the National Science Foundation. I
obviously care a great deal about the current situation at the University. This letter is
written to you as one of many faculty members who welcome the return of some order
to the campus, albeit with the presence of trained police at the entrances and in
selected locations on campus.
The situation over this past year has been dire at times. We have had our laboratory
broken into, vandalized and robbed on two occasions, both of which happened when
the State police were absent. Laboratories in the hands of thugs and hoodlums can be
very dangerous when chemicals and equipment are involved and are unprotected.
Students and professors have been harassed and attacked and prevented from
entering the Campus by “hooded student protestors” armed with sticks and boards.
When they were able to enter, these students and professors have been physically
assaulted in their offices and in their classrooms. A police presence at UPR is a
necessary evil because of the unruly situation at UPR. What would happen in the
universities represented by the above scholars, if they were so treated upon trying to
reach their offices and laboratories? For long periods of time, students could not
perform their research because the infrastructure of the university had completely
collapsed. The hooded vandals cannot be allowed to cavort about unchecked to destroy
everything within reach. This is difficult to prevent even with a police presence, because
these individuals are quite determined to disrupt university activities. Yesterday, during
a calculus exam, they set fire to books in the library!. Fortunately, the police were in
place and the perpetrators were caught and arrested. The sprinklers caused damage to
many books. However, it could have been much worse without a police presence on
campus to stop further acts of vandalism. These are acts of desperation by criminals,
not of students protesting a surcharge to help balance the university budget. The police
are facilitating the return of function to the University.
In what is a clearly politically charged arena, there are issues which emerge that reveal
a darker side to thee above issues at the University. A few days ago, a local newspaper
reported that a large group of science faculty had signed a letter applauding the
Chancellor’s decision to bring State police onto campus to restore order. They
characterized the letter as “written in English” and signed by a group of “professors with
foreign names”. I have personally experienced these types of bigoted statements many
times in my tenure at UPR. I would be most interested in how you and the
aforementioned scholars would feel if similarly labeled in such a demeaning way. One
of my colleagues questioned my concerns stating that: “The letter was written in English
and most of the names are “foreign”. What’s the problem?” This “strike”” has been very
polarizing. We would welcome these US and Canadian scholars to visit us and see for
themselves, what is happening at UPR. It is true that tough economic issues will be
with us for some time. However, the university is beginning to work again: a reality
greatly facilitated by the presence of “NYC-trained” riot police who are exercising
professional restraint under very challenging circumstances.
Thank you for your giving me your time and attention on this important matter. I would
conclude with this link to the front page of the Huffington Post today which describes the
library incident and others with AP pictures (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/).

University of Puerto Rico cc Professors and Scholars copied in e--mail .