Since the 1960s, the University of California at Berkeley has been a symbol of student protest and counterculture, the home of the Free Speech Movement, a beacon to which young protesters across the nation look for new ideas on how to inspire change. As well as being the nation's finest public university, many also see it as one of the most superb illustrations of a tolerant, politically active atmosphere.
So, the latest news from the Students for Justice in Palestine has shocked many students in activist communities across the country. On April 9, 2002, 1,000 participants rallied to kick off the National Divestment Campaign and then hundreds initiated a sit-in in U.C. Berkeley's Wheeler Hall. The action, though peaceful in intent, disrupted classes in that building — no one is denying that — but the absurd charges brought against participants and the excessive punishments that have resulted have crossed the line of what are just repercussions of civil disobedience and of what constitutes unfair abuse of power by the school's administration.
On the day of the protest, 79 students were arrested and charged with trespassing, and six were also accused of resisting arrest. Roberto Hernandez, a senior at Berkeley at the time, was charged with assault and battery of a police officer. Despite the Superior Court of Alameda County's dismissing all charges including those against Hernandez and granting all the protesters factual finding of innocence, 37 protesters face suspension, and Berkeley is withholding the degrees that graduates from the Class of 2002 earned.
Hernandez in particular is paying a high price for his political involvement at Berkeley. Because his BA degree is on ice, he cannot officially enroll in a Ph.D. program in ethnic studies into which he was previously admitted, and, moreover, his fellowship award is also in jeopardy and may be permanently lost. Should this happen, Hernandez will not be able to earn his Ph.D., as he has no other means of funding his graduate education, and he will undoubtedly suffer for the rest of his professional life for a single political action.
The Students for Justice in Palestine are organizing a rally today, when Hernandez's student conduct hearing is scheduled to begin, but if the April 9 events are any indication, the protests are likely to be ineffective.
What occurred is not only a setback for Palestinian justice activists, but a violation of the First Amendment. All citizens have the right to protest on public property, and U.C. Berkeley is a public institution. The courts affirmed this, forcing the school to lift a ban placed on the Students for Justice in Palestine, and yet individual participants continue to be targeted. Berkeley has decided to take justice into its own hands.
Should universities, especially publicly funded universities, be allowed full autonomy in these matters? Do they have the right to censor students and lay punishment on them when they voice opinions that are contrary to the views of administrators? The issue is not divestment but the freedom to express dissent. The courts should have precedence over administrations of individual universities like they had over the University of Alabama in 1956, when the university's board of trustees banned Autherine Lucy from campus. If this type of authority is permitted to rest in the hands of universities, any kind of political dissent could be repressed. Civil liberties are already slipping away. Censorship of students could quickly escalate into a climate in which any political dissidents on campuses across the nation could be targeted.
This case may turn into an unofficial precedent on Berkeley's policies regarding student activism, and if Berkeley takes a hard line against students whose beliefs conflict with the beliefs of the administrators, surely less liberal schools will follow suit, and the national tradition of college activism that became so popular in the 1960s may fade away. Natalya Efros is from Plano, Texas. She can be reached at eefros@princeton.edu.
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