reopening<\/a> of the MCC and its removal of all artwork, which included \u201cfree Palestine\u201d messages and a poster of Martin Luther King Jr., \u201creconciles\u201d with campus policies of free expression.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cAnything that\u2019s on the walls is actually campus speech, not student speech, not MCC staff speech, it\u2019s campus speech,\u201dsaid Interim Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion Fabrizio Mejia. \u201cAnd so we\u2019re working with MCC staff to help verify what that looks like.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lyons also brought up what he referred to as the \u201ctrust factor,\u201d which he described as campus faculty\u2019s freedom to \u201cteach, publish, discuss and discover as per their academic interests and expertise.\u201dHe 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cNever, and I mean never, will we see at (UC) Berkeley what we have seen lately elsewhere across this country,\u201d Lyons said.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Abnusy added that the recent protests in Iran against the Islamic regime have led to Iranian students receiving \u201chateful, threatening messages on social media\u201d and a student being allegedly \u201crejected\u201d by a professor for an excused absence due to mental health concerns.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u2019s policy not to allow UCPD to aid immigration enforcement. However, he noted that if officers have a judicial warrant, it would be \u201cimpossible\u201d for campus to block access to any areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chancellor Rich Lyons and the ASUC held their semesterly meetingWednesday night to discuss questions from ASUC officials and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[95689,26927,764,51363,95691,95686,35815,2871,95687,19378,95685,26928,65871,14761,143,145,144,40935,40936,95688,14759,95690],"class_list":["post-207419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-anamaria-abnusy","tag-asuc","tag-berkeley","tag-chancellor-rich-lyons","tag-david-robinson","tag-executive-vice-president-isha-chander","tag-fabrizio-mejia","tag-ice","tag-interim-vice-chancellor-for-equity-and-inclusion-fabrizio-mejia","tag-iran","tag-iranian-students","tag-isha-chander","tag-martin-luther-king-jr","tag-multicultural-community-center","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-office-for-the-prevention-of-harassment-and-discrimination","tag-ophd","tag-senator-anamaria-abnusy","tag-ucpd","tag-vice-chancellor-for-legal-affairs-and-chief-campus-council-david-robinson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}