UC Berkeley Geography Grad's Depository

Letter to Prof. Christopher Kutz, Chair, Berkeley Division, Academic Senate

Dear Prof. Kutz,

We, the undersigned UC Berkeley geography graduate students, wish to express our dismay at the “Open letter from the Academic Council to the University of California community,” dated November 30, 2009 (PDF). We assume that there will continue to be disagreements between the Council and many of us students about what constitutes a “necessary policy” in response to the state’s budget, especially given that we are noticing a pattern of privatization of the education system and tuition increases that predate this current crisis. We expect you to do better than only to blame the “state’s abrupt disinvestment” and hold the university administration accountable. However, the purpose of this missive is to bring up a more pressing concern.

The message in the Council’s letter that condemns building occupations, while perhaps expected and reasonable, misses a larger source of communal worry. As geographers, we are forced to ask ‘where?’: If peaceful protesters outside of Wheeler Hall in an open space are met with violence and barricades, where else is it that their concerns will be voiced? If deserving undergraduates face displacement out of the academy by economic sanction, where would you expect them to best confront this situation? If the administration is able to unilaterally shut Sproul and California Halls at Berkeley on the day of the anniversary of Mario Savio’s speech, where is it that the collective community can find that so-called “democratic access” that the Council’s letter mentions?

In other words, while one may (or may not) recoil at the immediate strategy of occupation, it highlights a larger problem not only of shrinking budgets, but of shrinking spaces to protest or otherwise exercise one’s rights. The police should not only be subject to a subdued and sedate “inquiry and review.” Perhaps the Council should consider that the use of police force, and even intimidation without direct force, are geared to entirely close our campuses to protest and divert attention out to Sacramento, which seems to be the hope of the Council and the administration. The Council’s letter states otherwise, but we find it hard to believe that a slap on the wrist of the police forces will keep our campuses “safe” for protests and free speech. In fact, the Council’s letter makes no mention of the presence of outside police and SWAT teams, and it remains unclear how the university is even able to inquire and review those, let alone assure us that those forces, which shouldn’t even be on campuses, will remain non-violent in the face of a peaceful protest.

We trust that the Academic Council will review these positions at its upcoming December 10, meeting.

Sincerely,

Glenna Anton, Javier Arbona, Teo Ballvé, Rachel Brahinsky, Jennifer Casolo, Erin Collins, Lindsey Dillon, Sapna Elizabeth Gardner Thottathil, Daniel Graham, Jenny Greenburg, Leigh Johnson, Julie Klinger, Miri Lavi-Neeman, Greta Marchesi, Nathan McClintock, Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, Diana Negrín da Silva, Raj Shekhar Singh, John Garrard Stehlin, Alex Tarr, Max Woodworth

Teaching the Budget and the Crisis

Here are some links to materials you can use for your own learning, talking to others, or preparing a class.

Teaching Resources « Created at UCSC for use throughout UC system. Includes: lesson plans, powerpoint slides, news and opinion pieces from the press and media, resources for action.

Budget Documents « Also via UCSC

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Members of the Faculty wrote to Birgeneau…

November 22, 2009 [via]

Open Letter from Concerned Members of the Faculty to Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau,

We, the undersigned faculty, are writing to voice our strenuous objection to the use of unwarranted violence by the police forces enlisted by the University of California at Berkeley to patrol the student demonstration outside of Wheeler Hall on Friday, November 20th.  It is now abundantly clear that in addition to UC Police, there were squads from the City of Berkeley and Alameda County, and that some of these police forces acted with undue violence at various points during the day, most conspicuously at mid-day and then again in late afternoon when they used batons against students and a faculty member.

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An Open Letter to Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau, University of California Berkeley

Dear Chancellor Birgeneau,

We write this letter in response to your email sent out on Friday, November 20, 2009, at 10:49pm (posted here), regarding Berkeley’s campus-wide protest of UC fee hikes, lay-offs and other cuts that have decreased the accessibility and quality of public education across the University of California’s campuses.  We feel that this email misrepresented Friday’s protests and is a disservice to the democratic debate that continues over the UC regents’ actions.

While we understand the spirit of your email, it does not bear much resemblance to the events that took place.  Indeed, we are insulted by the euphemistic claim that “a few members of our campus community may have found themselves in conflict with law enforcement officers.”  What we observed, and what is well-documented, was the police indiscriminately striking, shoving, and knocking over unarmed and non-aggressive students who were fully within their constitutionally guaranteed rights.  Further, to argue that the protests “necessitated significant police presence to maintain safety” makes a mockery of the fact that the only threat to safety on Friday was the police presence itself. The broken fingers sustained by two protesters and the bruises and welts sustained by many were not inflicted by their fellow peaceful demonstrators, but by the police themselves.  We deplore these actions, as well as the entrance of heavily armed Alameda Sheriffs and Oakland police onto our campus at a time when faculty and students were engaged in peaceful negotiations.

Such a misrepresentation of the events does not speak to the good faith of the Office of the Chancellor, particularly in how it deals with democratic protests on campus.  No irony was lost in the fact that Friday’s protests and police violence took place steps away from UC Berkeley’s “Free Speech Café”.  We believe that the student body and the general public deserve to hear a more honest summation of events from Berkeley’s administration, particularly regarding the violence inflicted on students.

Sincerely,

The undersigned UC Berkeley Geography graduate students,

Glanna Anton, Javier Arbona, Jenny Baca, Teo Ballvé, Rachel Brahinsky, Sandy Brown, Liz Carlisle, Jennifer Casolo, Erin Collins, Alicia Cowart, Shannon Cram, Juan David De Lara, Lindsey Dillon, Sapana Doshi, Anthony Fontes, Rozy Fredericks, Zoë Friedman-Cohen, Sapna Elizabeth Gardner Thottathil,  Jennifer Greenburg, Ju Hui Judy Han, Katy Guimond, Leigh Johnson, Julie Klinger, Sarah Knuth, Jessica Lage, Miri Lavi-Neeman, Nicole List, Seth Lunine, Nathan McClintock, Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, Diana Negrín, Youjeong Oh, David Pieper, Shaina Potts, Tim Rowe, Kao Shih-Yang, Rajshekhar Singh, John Stehlin, Jason Strange, Alex Tarr, Alberto Velazquez, Mary Whelan, Max Woodworth