HALA (Hampshire Animal Liberation Advocacy) Unrecognized

Mission Statement
The purpose of HALA is to promote awareness of animal liberation issues in the Hampshire community as well as the regional community. To promote discussion of animal liberation at Hampshire and within the region. To promote awareness of and provide support for veganism and vegetarianism in and outside of the Hampshire community. To continue networking with regional animal liberation advocates and to provide support for political prisoners related to animal advocacy. HALA is a feminist, actively anti-racist organization.

HALA applied for student group recognition in the Fall of 2008, but was denied recognition by the Hampshire Administation. During the F2008 Semester it existed as an unfunded and unrecognized student group, but returned as a recognized group in F2009.

Smash the State, Crush the Cage
In November of 2007, Hampshire College was host to the controversial Smash the State, Crush the Cage conference. SSCC was a three day event commencing on November 9th, 2007 that was designed to "empower and fortify the &lt;a href="Animal liberation movement"&gt;animal liberation movement&lt;/a&gt;." &lt;ref&gt;http://halaconference.50megs.com/FAQ.html&lt;/ref&gt; The organizing student group, Hampshire Animal Liberation Advocacy (HALA), put together a schedule that included over 15 speakers and three bands. Conference organizers arranged for free food and housing to be provided for over 100 attendees. Some of the speakers included animal liberationist and former political prisoner &lt;a href="Peter Daniel Young"&gt;Peter Daniel Young&lt;/a&gt;, antivivisectionist physician Dr. &lt;a href="Jerry Vlasak"&gt;Jerry Vlasak&lt;/a&gt; and ecofeminist author Dr. Pattrice Jones. Hampshire was publicly criticized by anti-animal rights bloggers like &lt;a href="Wesley J. Smith"&gt;Wesley J. Smith&lt;/a&gt; &lt;ref&gt;http://www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog/2007/10/hampshire-college-permits-smash-state.html&lt;/ref&gt; and the Speciesist's Corner &lt;ref&gt;http://thespeciesistscorner.blogspot.com/2007/09/gathering-of-lunatics.html&lt;/ref&gt;.

A week before the conference was set to take place, President Ralph Hexter abruptly demanded that HALA rescind the invitation to &lt;a href="Jerry Vlasak"&gt;Jerry Vlasak&lt;/a&gt;, publicly repudiate the tactics of the &lt;a href="Animal Liberation Front"&gt;Animal Liberation Front&lt;/a&gt; and provide a list of names of all conference attendees. This decision followed pressure from the University of Massachusetts and Hampshire cognitive and natural sciences deans Chris Jarvis and Neil Stillings. During a meeting with HALA organizers, Stillings infamously quipped, "I don't think college should be a platform for activism;" a phrase that incensed many Hampshire students and alumni. Following an alumni call-in and a sit-in of president Hexter's office, HALA compromised by moving Dr. Vlasak's talk off campus to Food for Thought Books but refused to turn over a list of names of conference attendees. The importance of anonymous registration at the conference was highlighted when President Hexter admitted to students during the sit-in that he had spoken with the &lt;a href="Federal Bureau of Investigation"&gt;Federal Bureau of Investigation&lt;/a&gt; about the conference. This revelation prompted HALA to assert that Hampshire was betraying its activist heritage by being complicit in the &lt;a href="Green Scare"&gt;Green Scare&lt;/a&gt;. Hexter was later admonished by the &lt;a href="ACLU"&gt;ACLU&lt;/a&gt; of Western Massachusetts for railroading Dr. Vlasak. &lt;ref&gt;http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Hexter.Hampshire.College.11.07.pdf&lt;/ref&gt;

The Amherst Bulletin published a story on the conference, but got many details wrong including the omission of any reference to an e-mail interview conducted by staff writer Kristen Palpini and a HALA representative, the misspelling of Dr. Vlasak's name and a reference to the "Animal Liberation Federation" (sic). &lt;ref&gt;http://www.amherstbulletin.com/story/id/66317/&lt;/ref&gt;

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