Your own piece of history
If you ask any random passerby what they know of the University of California, more likely than not, if they identify it all, they'll spit out words like "protests' and "free speech" and "crazy liberals." Even now, decades after it's all been said and done, so much of Berkeley's identity remains associated with events like the Free Speech movement. Forty years ago, more than its academics or athletics, it was college students who spoke out that put Berkeley on the map.
But I've attended that same university for the past six semesters, walked past the same Sproul Plaza where thousands once gathered. And I've never seen anything (this past September notwithstanding) that merits or compels the continued association. Berkeley, for a very long time, had moved past that. While it still had its share (or rather, more than its share) of the crazies, protests were a thing of the past.
And then, that all changed this morning. I was walking to my anatomy lecture in Wheeler, and instead of the usual humdrum of students, there are police barricades and yellow tape and a crowd of people under umbrellas climbing on top of trees and pedestals looking in on the building. A minute later, you could hear fire alarms going off simultaneously in Barrows and Dwinelle. Some of the students were hanging out the side of a second story window in Wheeler. There were picket lines you couldn't cross, and bullhorns and chants of this being "our university." I had my Berkeley protest.
Less than twenty four hours since the incident began, a number of editorials have disparaged the protests at useless and detrimental and a waste of time. I agree that no matter of protesting, of yelling and screaming and taking over buildings is going to make the Regents change their mind. In fact, outside of some nominal bad publicity, these protests will hardly affect them at all. And I also concede that the relentless fire alarms and chanting and some 4000 students that were prevented from getting to classes in Wheeler (I had two in there today) proved to be wholly countereffective. At the same time though, I admire all those students that stormed into Wheeler or stood up against police barricades. They're a lot braver than I am, to risk everything that they are. I knew I wanted to go to Berkeley long before I ever started high school. Getting that acceptance letter one day, the "big envelope" from Berkeley was one of the few things that remained a motivator throughout high school. I'm the only person that knows how hard I worked to get it. Looking back now, it would've killed me .. physically killed me to have worked at that and not been able to afford coming here. Getting something that you've spent years working towards, only to have it denied because of something as trivial and ridiculous as money is inexplicably, ridiculously unfair. Bravo to everyone who stood up to say they weren't okay with creating such circumstances, that they weren't going to stand by and watch as Californians, the people to whom the University of California has its first and foremost responsibility, are denied opportunities because of an insanely high tuition. True, someone down the road may say that Berkeley's protesting amounted to nothing .. it most likely won't have an affect. But no one can say Berkeley took it lying down, that they didn't do anything. Fifty years later, this is still our university.
But I've attended that same university for the past six semesters, walked past the same Sproul Plaza where thousands once gathered. And I've never seen anything (this past September notwithstanding) that merits or compels the continued association. Berkeley, for a very long time, had moved past that. While it still had its share (or rather, more than its share) of the crazies, protests were a thing of the past.
And then, that all changed this morning. I was walking to my anatomy lecture in Wheeler, and instead of the usual humdrum of students, there are police barricades and yellow tape and a crowd of people under umbrellas climbing on top of trees and pedestals looking in on the building. A minute later, you could hear fire alarms going off simultaneously in Barrows and Dwinelle. Some of the students were hanging out the side of a second story window in Wheeler. There were picket lines you couldn't cross, and bullhorns and chants of this being "our university." I had my Berkeley protest.
Less than twenty four hours since the incident began, a number of editorials have disparaged the protests at useless and detrimental and a waste of time. I agree that no matter of protesting, of yelling and screaming and taking over buildings is going to make the Regents change their mind. In fact, outside of some nominal bad publicity, these protests will hardly affect them at all. And I also concede that the relentless fire alarms and chanting and some 4000 students that were prevented from getting to classes in Wheeler (I had two in there today) proved to be wholly countereffective. At the same time though, I admire all those students that stormed into Wheeler or stood up against police barricades. They're a lot braver than I am, to risk everything that they are. I knew I wanted to go to Berkeley long before I ever started high school. Getting that acceptance letter one day, the "big envelope" from Berkeley was one of the few things that remained a motivator throughout high school. I'm the only person that knows how hard I worked to get it. Looking back now, it would've killed me .. physically killed me to have worked at that and not been able to afford coming here. Getting something that you've spent years working towards, only to have it denied because of something as trivial and ridiculous as money is inexplicably, ridiculously unfair. Bravo to everyone who stood up to say they weren't okay with creating such circumstances, that they weren't going to stand by and watch as Californians, the people to whom the University of California has its first and foremost responsibility, are denied opportunities because of an insanely high tuition. True, someone down the road may say that Berkeley's protesting amounted to nothing .. it most likely won't have an affect. But no one can say Berkeley took it lying down, that they didn't do anything. Fifty years later, this is still our university.