Doxxing of Diablo Valley College professor to lead to resolution of academic freedom

Mahrukh Siddiqui, Editor-in-chief

In response to the doxxing of Diablo Valley College political science professor Albert Ponce, an academic freedom resolution will be presented to Academic Senate in the coming weeks.

In an email, Academic Senate President Beth McBrien said that the Social Science Division would be bringing the resolution, but that the date for when it would be presented had not been confirmed.

The resolution comes after Ponce had his personal information posted to online forums, also known as doxxing, over the winter break as a response to a lecture he gave on white supremacy in the United States in fall 2017.

The Inquirer covered the lecture, which was a part of the Social Justice Lecture Series on Facebook Live.

A conservative media outlet, The Red Elephants, says in an article that a student of Ponce alerted them to the video.

The student described Ponce as “a active supporter of La Raza and other organizations who want to give California over to Mexico,” according to the article.

Subsequently, the story was picked up by other conservative media outlets, including Breitbart and Fox News.

The coverage has led to numerous messages, emails and comments being sent to DVC and the Inquirer.

The President’s Office has said that they have received emails from people “sharing their opinion” on Ponce’s lecture.

Comments left on the Inquirer website used apparently fake emails and names.

The comments called Ponce a racist and belittled Mexicans.

The comments did not follow Inquirer guidelines and were not published. In some cases editors have disabled commenting on articles.