UC-Berkeley Community Sad That School ‘Capitulated’ to Trump Administration
“They’re living on the fumes of the real Berkeley values. But they’ve come and gone.”
The school handed over the names of people who were pushing antisemitism on campus. That’s why people are sad. Just stunning.
Politico reports:
‘It’s a capitulation’: Berkeley grieves as its university bends to Trump
Amid the foot traffic this week at Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza — for decades the beating heart of student unrest — the only hint of resistance to Donald Trump’s campus investigation were the scattered copies of the university’s student newspaper, its front page decrying Berkeley’s “capitulation” to the White House.
What was more revealing was how many people at this point — even here — were unsurprised that the University of California, Berkeley, folded to the Trump administration after it turned its attention from East Coast schools to the West.
“Sure it’s a capitulation,” said Russell Bates, a longtime activist and 50-year resident of the city. “They’re living on the fumes of the real Berkeley values. But they’ve come and gone.”
In the plaza, fraternity brothers manned a small table for Delta Upsilon. A single member of campus police slowly pursued a naked, dreadlocked man wandering past a bake sale. Nearby, a pair of students sold “ethically sourced” shirts and jeans. Besides the student newspaper, the only suggestion of civil disobedience was a lone 76-year-old man holding a Palestinian flag.
Over the past week, UC Berkeley has faced backlash over its decision to disclose the names of 160 students, faculty and staff to Trump administration officials investigating claims that Berkeley administrators have allowed a culture of antisemitism to take root. Union representatives argue that by choosing not to resist the government’s demand for names, the Berkeley administration has betrayed the school’s “legacy of free speech” and, in an open letter to Chancellor Rich Lyons, warned the university was inching toward becoming an arm of an “authoritarian regime.” Judith Butler, one of the university’s most influential and famous faculty members, said the school has descended into “Kafka-land” while others warn of a “chilling of academic freedom.”
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Berkeley has been insane since I was in high school, 60 years ago. Its values were not so much fumes as the byproducts of smoke. And occasionally mushrooms.
Just who, exactly, is the Berkeley “community” quoted in this article? How many are they? How representative of the student body are they? Are all those cited even students or faculty members? I am getting tired of the false consensus implied by headlines reading, ‘Harvard Students protest’ ( when there were 30 students and perhaps 10 miscellaneous activists demonstrating), or ‘Berkeley Students Block Jews’ Access to Campus’ (when 100 radicals from across the Bay area riot in front of Sather Gate). It creates the widespread perception that all or most of the student body is supporting some radical position when in reality there may or may not be general support—or even much support—for the protesters.