CAMPUS

The Cost of Protests: Tree-Sitting and Marine Bashing at Berkeley

For many of the protests taking place on and around campus, it’s time to see the writing on the wall. While their aims may be genuine, the protestors have cost both the city and the university at a time when neither Berkeley nor UC can afford these publicity stunts. And the chances for these demonstrations to succeed are slim, to say the least. The UC Regents will not budge on the BP deal, which brings valuable funds to our university. The new stadium and athletic center will be built. And the Marines, if anybody, will never retreat from Berkeley.

In response to the Marine protest, Move America Forward, a conservative activist group, is now running television ads lambasting Berkeley by name. Is this what Mayor Bates and Code Pink wanted? Probably not, but their stubbornness and refusal to grant the Marines their rights to recruit from the best public university in the country have cast shame upon themselves and, by extension, our city and university. According to the Contra Costa Times, the city of Berkeley spent $93,500 on overtime police officers at the recent protests.

Another protest erupted, as an individual named “Fresh” climbed into the tree across Dwinelle Hall. Refusing to leave, the police barricaded him in with a fence, and posted two officers and a squad car on him every hour until he came down. Most people probably didn’t even know why he was up there. Did he even know? His laundry list of complaints included the war in Iraq, Native American remains, and the UC Regents. For approximately two weeks, he berated passers-by, making noise, not change. The financial costs of keeping him and passers-by safe are at press time unclear.

The tree-sitters still up by Memorial Stadium are no better. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that $367,000 has been spent by UC Berkeley to protect the protestors with fences and guards. That, by the way, is more than three full-ride scholarships to Berkeley. And this report came out three months ago in December 2007. It’s anybody’s guess how much it is now. So it’s acceptable to protest against education budget cuts, but squandering three full rides is no big deal. Is that progressivism in action?

I would expect most students to share in my indignation. But, as one friend recently quipped, the major political movement on campus is apathy – not progressivism or conservativism. That is evident in distribution of The Daily Californian, the low turnout in campus elections, and in the very demonstrations draining our financial resources. Rest assured once the city and campus have to cover the costs with a tax or fee increase, you’ll see the creation of a bipartisan coalition railing against “greed” and “wasteful spending”. Couldn’t we nip this in the bud now, and avoid having to go through this later?

To be fair, UC Berkeley has a rich history of free speech and of broaching controversial ideas. This is true on the right (Islamo-fascism Awareness Week) and on the left (the three aforementioned demonstrations). Such a legacy shouldn’t change, and will not change after these protestors cease their activities. But these protests bring little but ridicule to our community. Where we were a city of tolerance and ideas, we are now a city of obnoxious tree sitters and of contemptuous Marine-bashers.

A major “leadership deficit” is also at play here. Our public officials are failing to serve our interests as citizens and students. Major Bates and Chancellor Birgeneau have been remarkably quiet about the costs of these demonstrations, the former probably on account of his tacit approval of Code Pink’s actions. Nevertheless, their silence on this issue is deafening, given how loudly they complain about Governor Schwarzenegger’s recent budget cuts, or about reductions in federal assistance to local communities.

Of course $400,000 and a 10% across the board cut are on completely different financial
scales, but cutting costs should be a priority for both men. The ASUC raised little attention to the subject, squabbling over Fresh’s motives instead of protesting against the financial strain he was putting on the campus. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara Miller was expected to make a ruling on the Memorial Stadium two months ago.

Lambasting Berkeley’s Marines was offensive, considering their selfless service to their country. And draining valuable funds to protect protestors is harmful to all of us. Cal’s “progressive” community needs to organize their demonstrations in a more respectful and organized manner, so that Berkeley’s free speech legacy lives on in a way that benefits, not harms, its intended audience.

Thomas D. Owens was a Staff Writer for The California Patriot, the Collegiate Network member publication at University of California Berkeley. This article originally appeared in the April 2008 issue of The Patriot.