Chancellor Rich Lyons and the ASUC held their semesterly meetingWednesday night to discuss questions from ASUC officials and the public, some of which concerned the reopening of the Multicultural Community Center, federal immigration enforcement on campus and the campus climate for Iranian students.
The meeting was conducted in hopes that discourse between students, the chancellor and his senior staff would promote a more conversational environment, rather than the “rigid Q&A structure” of the past, according to Executive Vice President Isha Chander. Lyons began by addressing questions that were submitted to him from ASUC officials prior to the meeting.
ASUC senators inquired about how the February reopening of the MCC and its removal of all artwork, which included “free Palestine” messages and a poster of Martin Luther King Jr., “reconciles” with campus policies of free expression.
“Anything that’s on the walls is actually campus speech, not student speech, not MCC staff speech, it’s campus speech,”said Interim Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion Fabrizio Mejia. “And so we’re working with MCC staff to help verify what that looks like.”
Lyons also brought up what he referred to as the “trust factor,” which he described as campus faculty’s freedom to “teach, publish, discuss and discover as per their academic interests and expertise.”He commented on the termination of professors at other universities for teaching their subjects in class, and emphasized the importance of students being free to learn.
“Never, and I mean never, will we see at (UC) Berkeley what we have seen lately elsewhere across this country,” Lyons said.
During follow-up questions, ASUC Senator Anamaria Abnusy raised concerns about the lack of response to her report to theOffice for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination, or OPHD, in light of recent discriminatory posters about Abnusy allegedly placed around campus.
Abnusy added that the recent protests in Iran against the Islamic regime have led to Iranian students receiving “hateful, threatening messages on social media” and a student being allegedly “rejected” by a professor for an excused absence due to mental health concerns.
She asked how OPHD will subsequently support Iranian students and other communities.Neither Lyons nor his senior staff responded directly to questions about campus climate for Iranian students.
SB 98 was also brought up out of concern for the federal immigration enforcement presence on campus, to which Lyons reaffirmed campus protocol of providing an email notification if federal immigration enforcement is confirmed on campus.
One public question from an undergraduate student asked if UC Berkeley plans to affirm its campus as a sanctuary space for undocumented and immigrant students.
Lyons deferred the question to Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs and Chief Campus Counsel David Robinson, who said while the university cannot interfere with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, it is the university’s policy not to allow UCPD to aid immigration enforcement. However, he noted that if officers have a judicial warrant, it would be “impossible” for campus to block access to any areas.