On Thursday last week, campus leadership dismissed UC Berkeley lecturer Peyrin Kao — the latest casualty in the administration’s war on Berkeley’s free speech foundations. Kao’s censuring proves yet again that free speech at UC Berkeley is no more than administrative marketing. It’s a principle invoked when convenient and easily discarded when costly. This semester, […]
Tag: Berkeley
The Supreme Court has Empowered Cities to Crack Down on Homeless Camps
City of Grants Pass v. Johnson In June of 2024, the Supreme Court handed down its most important decision concerning homelessness in decades. In City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, the Court decided that a prohibition on public camping does not violate the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause of the Eighth Amendment. The case concerned […]
Missing Middle Housing in Berkeley: Housing’s Goldilocks Still Not Quite Right to Many
On the 24th of this July, Brayden McLean, outfitted in a hospital visitor sticker on his shirt, stepped away from his newborn triplets to ask the Berkeley City Council, “where will [my childrens’] generation be able to live and thrive in Berkeley?” While largely considered to be a progressive city, Berkeley has become an epicenter […]
California: The Most Over-Hated State
When I first came to Berkeley, I was well aware of the Bay Area and its reputation. Friends and family, both in-state and out, hit me over the head with tales of crime, homelessness, poverty, and stuck-up tech CEOs. Although the last admonishment was warranted, as soon as I arrived Berkeley struck me with its […]
A Conversation with UC Berkeley’s Homelessness Outreach Coordinator: The Past and The Future of People’s Park
This interview with UC Berkeley’s Homelessness Outreach Coordinator Ari Neulight was conducted before the university announced a comprehensive housing plan for the current People’s Park residents on March 9th. We hope that a conversation with Mr. Neulight will shed light on the homelessness crisis around the campus and the numerous obstacles that unhoused people in […]
Who’s at People’s Park? Mutual Aid Networks on the Rise!
In April of 1969, the University of California purchased the site that is now People’s Park. Located just blocks away from the University of California, Berkeley campus, People’s Park has been a community center for refuge, recreation, and political activity since its very origin. Today, the University wants the Park gone more than anything […]
The Debate Around Reopening K-12 Schools in the Bay Area
Covid-19 has undoubtedly harmed our most vulnerable communities disproportionately. This effect has not just been seen on overall public health— it is also apparent throughout our education system. Due to the structure of public school funding, each school throughout the state differs enormously with varying degrees of resources. Public schools are beginning to face unprecedented […]
Student Housing: The Rise and Potential of Mini-Dorms
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Mini-Dorms. No, it’s not some DIY sculpture of a room. It’s a developing housing issue facing students in college towns all around the nation. If you aren’t lucky enough or can’t afford the housing near your university, chances are, you’ve considered living in a mini-dorm. Basically, a mini-dorm is a privately owned home that has […]
Development: A Dam Problem
It seems odd to juxtapose “environment” with “refugee”. The environment is a set of conditions that cultivate the life of beings. By definition, it is suited to the livelihoods of certain humans, just as humans are suited to their environments. Both participate in a symbiotic relationship, so the term “environmental refugee” indicates a very […]
Racial Inequalities Permeate the Legal Marijuana Market
The date April 20th seems to be a holiday at the University of California, Berkeley and various other college campuses throughout the state. Walking through campus on this unofficial holiday will lead to encounters with dozens of food trucks and tables occupied by eager students trying to sell their snacks for those suffering from “munchies,” […]
The Rent Is Too Damn High: A Guide On What Not To Do When The Rent Is Just Too Damn High
If you don’t know who Jimmy McMillan is, you’re missing out. McMillan is the founder and currently one of three members of The Rent Is Too Damn High Party, where he ran as a gubernatorial candidate in New York in 2010. At the gubernatorial debate that year, McMillan was then quoted on live television shouting, […]
America’s “Welfare State” Isn’t Faring Well: Misconceptions Surrounding America’s Homeless
As the clock struck 7:00 pm, the homeless shelter on Dwight Way was thrown into the full swing of Tuesday night Womxn’s Clinic. Student volunteers from UC Berkeley’s Suitcase Clinic funneled in, followed, of course, by the ladies of the occasion, homeless females from every corner of the city. I stood waiting in front of […]
Thinking in Color: Disputing Identity Politics
On the 9th of November, 2016, in the wee hours of the morning, the news networks proclaimed Donald J. Trump the president-elect of the United States. From my vantage point, I watched hundreds of Berkeley students on Sproul Plaza collectively react in unmitigated horror as the man whom they reviled so personally claimed the highest […]
Money Talks: The Cost of Free Speech on Campus
Free speech comes at a steep price for the UC Berkeley campus: since the election of Donald Trump, the campus has put $1.5 million, taken out of a meager $2.6 million operations budget, towards the protection of free speech. This does not include the expenses the City of Berkeley was left with following the damages […]
Why isn’t the United States Killing the Death Penalty?
At 2:19 pm on February 14th, I was basking under the pleasant skies on memorial glade, a common pastime of any Berkeley student on a sunny day. At 2:19 pm on February 14th, Nikolas Cruz had entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with the intention of committing murder. The current discourse surrounding the Parkland high school […]
A Call for Caution: India’s Aadhaar
India is a land of dualities. Venture into New Delhi, and one can see the smog create a portrait with the fiery sunset, hear the chimes of temple bells form a paean mixed with the deafening honks of the traffic, and experience order among a chaotic mass of people.India is a complex society that necessitates […]
Dear Mr. Sanders: Tuition-Free Education is a Handout to the Rich
As an eye-catching, sloganeering, vote-winning policy, tuition-free public university is certainly a crowd pleaser. It was for Bernie Sanders, and his left-wing doppelganger in Britain, Jeremy Corbyn, is discovering the same thing. It’s the kind of policy that sounds big, bold, and revolutionary — especially to their young, usually middle-class college student supporters. However, as […]
Sanctuary Showdown: Jerry Brown versus Donald Trump
On October 5, 2017, Governor Jerry Brown openly defied the federal government. With the passage of State Senate Bill 54, California became a sanctuary state in direct defiance of President Donald Trump’s stringent immigration policies. However, while this seemingly appears to be a bold and unprecedented action on the part of California, the idea of sanctuary […]
Zucchini-gate or Bust: Berkeley’s Battle for Affordable Housing
Standing at the podium in front of the mayor and eight City Councilmembers, cameras zooming in, lights blurring, voices fading to a dull murmur in the background, one citizen was brave enough to brandish an anti-housing weapon no one had ever thought to wield: a zucchini. At the Berkeley City Council meeting on the night […]
A House Divided: What Must Be Done to Achieve Campus Détente
Note: The views in this article are those of the author alone, and do not represent the views of any organization in any official capacity. A favorite talking point of the Right is that students at liberal universities, Berkeley especially, live in a bubble. Whenever the students of UC Berkeley embarrass themselves in front of […]
A Dance with the Devl(in): Insight to the Fracturing of the Berkeley College Republicans and How It’s Still Dangerous
Note: The views in this article are those of the author alone, and do not represent the views of any organization in any official capacity. Even to outsiders, it is hard to miss the drama surrounding the Berkeley College Republicans that has drawn national attention by inviting controversial speakers and giving rise to protests that […]
Antifa: A New Political Resistance?
They showed up wearing black clothes and masks, throwing fireworks and smashing glass windows. They threatened people recording them, and attacked those who stood in their way. They set fires and threw Molotov Cocktails. Later, they were described as “Ninja-like” individuals who used “paramilitary tactics”. But this wasn’t a civil war or a terror attack. […]
When the Music Turns Off, Matisyahu’s Actions Begin
UC Berkeley’s spacious areas like Memorial Glade and Lower Sproul Hall serve as a center stage for concerts with big name performers. Last April, reggae singer Matisyahu performed a free concert to a large and engaged crowd on Lower Sproul hosted by the Berkeley Hillel and UC Berkeley’s Jewish Student Union. The concert was a […]
Disinvestment, Political Motives Mar the University of California
Late last year, the UC Regents passed a budget deal which provided the system with an injection of $119.5 million in new funds, in addition to $25 million from the state in return for enrolling 10,000 new California undergraduates over the next three years, starting with 6,500 this fall. The budget deal also called […]
To Discuss or to Protest? That is the Question
Berkeley’s campus atmosphere is ripe with tension from protests. Numerous campus events have been interrupted by the likes of By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) and Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists who seek to convey their platforms through upheaval and disruption. While their message is certainly conveyed, it comes at the cost of an educational dialogue, […]
Feminism’s Glass Ceiling
Women: they’re everywhere! Mothers, actresses, professors, Presidents – you name it, and a woman will be it. This development, however, is recent. It is only in the last 100 years that society has recognized that women are also human beings, with the capacity to deserve human rights. It is for this reason that today, society […]
Internal Politics Color Gerrymandering Fight in Berkeley
After a yearlong, virulent, and expensive fight, Measure S passed in Berkeley, California–establishing a student-age supermajority city council district. Measure S was a taboo political word; it was, quite frankly, a gerrymander. It designed the City Council maps to give an electoral advantage to a specific group–students. But the story was not that simple. The […]
Popping the Berkeley Bubble
“So…why’d you pick Berkeley?” my new friend asks, looking at me over the rims of his glasses. It’s a frequently asked question during Welcome Week, the favorite of awkward strangers-turned-conversationists in the dorms. Walking down Telegraph Avenue, I think about the answer as I take in the melange of people and activities around me. There’s […]
The Empty Ballot
On House of Cards, Frank Underwood quipped, “Politicians can’t resist making promises they can’t keep.”[1] As the ASUC elections dawn upon Berkeley, our fledgling politicians await unknowing freshmen on Sproul Plaza, hoping to sell overambitious platforms and promises they won’t be able to fulfill. Those who have survived this rite of passage in previous years avoid […]
A Freshman’s Perspective on the Recent Police Brutality Protest
I grew up in Redmond, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. “Home” to me meant verdant parks. Quiet streets. Quieter nights. The calm darkness of those nights was unbroken except for the occasional passing taillight of our city cops’ fancy Dodge Chargers. When I was three or four, my parents told me what to do in […]
Berkeley Police Department’s Solution to Racial Profiling
Since late 2009, the Berkeley Police Department (BPD) has been in talks of a “fair and impartial” policy. This October, the city plans to fully roll out a policy to reduce police bias. The policy includes employee training and procedures to limit racial bias. The Berkeley City Council voted in June to adopt the policy […]
Free Speech and the Right to Curse at a Police Officer
Most pedestrians of Sproul Plaza have probably noticed that the University of California Police Department (UCPD) has been cracking down on bicyclists in recent weeks, handing out dozens of tickets to students in violation of the university’s ”Dismount Zone” policy. A relatively unknown and ignored rule, the Dismount Zone is a designated area on south campus where bicyclists are required […]
The Young and the Homeless
Written by Marine Chalons As the busiest street in Berkeley, Telegraph Avenue is a window into two worlds. Everyday thousands of students march up the street until it dead-ends in Sproul Plaza, where the nation’s finest public university awaits them. But to others of the similar age, Telegraph is not part of the daily commute. […]