Student banned from SF State

Jason "Quddus" Archie, arrested on campus last semester for a parole violation, has been barred from returning to SF State.

Archie, a black studies major who expected to return to the university after his release from prison in August, was told instead that he must not come within 100 feet of the campus, according to Archie's attorney Herman Franck.

Archie's present parole officer, Kevin Smith, said the parole board imposed the ban during Archie's initial parole revocation hearing in March, in which he was sentenced to six months in prison.

Archie, 26, who was on parole for voluntary manslaughter, was arrested Feb. 21 by parole officer James Quen with the assistance of University Police officers after a verbal confrontation with English lecturer Virginia Elliott five days before.

According to Elliott, the Feb. 16 conflict between her and Archie had been resolved in a meeting after the incident. Elliott said she wanted no disciplinary action taken against Archie. Nevertheless, Quen felt Archie's demeanor had violated the conditions of his parole.

Archie's arrest led to charges of racism and incompetence within the UPD. As an outspoken Associated Students legislator involved in the May 1993 Malcolm X mural controversy, many saw Archie as a marked man by the administration, and his arrest as an excuse to remove him from campus.

The UPD countered these charges by saying the arrest was out of their hands. Archie's parole officer, they said, had total jurisdiction over Archie. Others questioned why UPD gave up jurisdiction by contacting his parole officer in the first place.

The Archie case continued to be a major thorn in the administration's side as more details surfaced throughout the semester regarding the UPD's conduct and Archie's past.

At the time of Archie's arrest, UPD Chief Kim Wible told the Gater she did not understand why Archie was arrested.

"There was no crime," she said in March.

Wible's statement rings hollow to many of Archie's friends and supporters on campus, who believe it was Wible who requested that Archie not be allowed back.

SF State international relations student and Pan Afrikan Student Union member Troy Buckner-Nkrumah picked up Archie when he was released from prison and took him to his first appointment with his parole officer.

According to Buckner-Nkrumah, Archie told him after the appointment that the parole officer said SF State's police chief had called the parole department and said that Archie was a threat to the campus and asked that he not be allowed to return.

The Gater has not been unable to reach Archie for comment.

Franck, who appealed Archie's case all the way to the state Supreme Court, said that he never saw any document that would imply that Archie's ban from SF State was imposed at the original hearing. He said it was his understanding that the SF State administration had requested the ban upon Archie's release from prison.

"Archie told me (the Parole Department) made him sign a paper agreeing to the SF State ban, or else they'd send him back (to jail)," Franck said.

Wible declined repeated requests for an interview.

But in a written statement, SF State's director of public affairs Ligeia Polidora wrote, "At no time was any request made by any member of the (UPD) to restrict Archie's access to this campus. The parole office was contacted (by UPD) only to clarify the conditions of Archie's parole."

Student Discipline Director Robert Westwood concurred.

"If Chief Wible had called his parole officer to suggest (the ban), she would have discussed it with (her supervisor) Dr. (Penny) Saffold -- and that didn't happen," he said.

In a letter in response to inquiries about the Archie case by PASU (which supports Archie's return to campus) Saffold wrote, "Chief Wible did not call Mr. Archie's parole officer to ask that a stipulation be added to keep him off campus ... Since Chief Wible made no request ... no letter will be written (by her) asking such a stipulation be overturned."

"Based on the (computer) records I have here, the school administration had nothing to do with (the ban)," said regional parole director Ron Chun.

According to parole agent supervisor Tony Raya, SF State administration would not have had to suggest the ban for it to be imposed.

"Our prime concern is the safety of the community. We need to take precautionary measures. If not, we would be remiss in doing our job," he said. "We are obligated to take some kind of action to protect students and staff."

Nevertheless, a source inside the parole department, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, doesn't think the parole department acted entirely on its own.

"I suspect we were asked to impose this condition of parole," the source said.

According to the source, Wible and a high ranking official in the regional parole department were "schoolmates."

"That's probably how it was done, informally," the source said.

Assistant Regional Administrator Miriam Joscelyn -- third in command for region two of the parole department -- graduated from law school with Wible.

She said she received a phone call from Wible after Archie was arrested.

"I got a message from Kim .. Chief Wible, and I called her back," she said.

Although Joscelyn said she could not recall what she talked to Wible about, she said the conversation was strictly professional.

"I was not asked to relay any request. I wouldn't have done it if she had. I would have referred her to the field division," she added.

Wible refused to answer questions regarding her conversation with Joscelyn. Instead, she referred the Gater to public information officer Lt. Stephen McClain.

"The department has no further comment on the (Archie) case," McClain said.

Archie, who is still listed as a continuing student with the Admissions and Records office, is appealing the ban from SF State with the parole department, said parole agent Smith.

Spring 1995 Golden Gater coverage of the Archie case is available online at The Golden Gater's Hot Topic index at URL: http://www.journalism.sfsu.edu/www/pubs/topics/asrep.htm.

[ Golden Gater Online November 9, 1995 ]

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