There’s more to the story of Cal Poly lecturer detained by campus police

In late January, The Tribune published an article regarding how Dr. Sarder Sadique, a lecturer of color in the Cal Poly College of Engineering, was pulled over on campus on Oct. 5, 2019, and handcuffed by university police.

The story generated little discussion and outrage, possibly because access to the article was buried behind The Tribune’s online pay wall (otherwise known as a “subscriber exclusive”).

Space does not allow me to recount (nor does The Tribune allow non-subscribers to review) Dr. Sadique’s experience.

I do wish to point out some issues that deserve more emphasis.

First, Cal Poly contracted with an investigator from the Attorney General’s Office. The investigator did not work under the direction of the Attorney General, but rather under President Armstrong’s direction.

Second, The Tribune article failed to address the fact that the university handed over police interview reports that were heavily redacted — pages and pages of black blocks hiding the particulars of the officers’ decision-making during the incident.

Third, it failed to emphasize the fact that Dr. Sadique was handcuffed for over 30 minutes, despite offering no resistance to the officers — a fact verified by watching the police bodycam videos.

I am even more appalled by the fact that Dr. Sadique was given very little consideration by his department and the College of Engineering, especially given that the stop occurred only two weeks into his teaching career at Cal Poly. The trauma and humiliation he experienced were not taken into consideration when his teaching was evaluated.

He was not rehired and was shown the door as he was teaching his last class. Like so many lecturers at Cal Poly, Dr. Sadique was seen as expendable, replaceable and somehow not deserving of humane consideration.

Perhaps the matter that should be of gravest concern to the university community was the behavior of President Jeffrey Armstrong.

As Dr. Sadique was addressing the trauma of the police stop, the union informed Cal Poly of the incident in a manner laid out by our union contract. President Armstrong responded by sending an email to the entire Cal Poly community that was markedly hostile to the union and exhibited no concern for Dr. Sadique.

In fact, President Armstrong maintained that a search of campus police records found no such incident, thus casting doubt on Dr. Sadique’s honesty. Earlier that same day, though, President Armstrong privately contacted the union and indicated he knew the date of the incident and wanted confirmation from the union.

The behavior of Cal Poly and President Armstrong does not represent a university trying to be more inviting to students, staff and faculty of color. Rather, it represents corporate crisis management whose purpose is protecting Cal Poly’s image. Dr. Sadique and the campus community deserve better.

Neal MacDougall is an associate professor in the Agribusiness Department at Cal Poly and is the Faculty Rights Chair for the Cal Poly SLO chapter of the California Faculty Association (CFA).

This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 10:30 AM.