UC Berkeley has removed Cesar Chavez\u2019s name from a student center after a New York Times investigation detailed serious allegations of sexual abuse by the late labor leader.<\/p>\n
Soon after the report, Chancellor Rich Lyons and Benjamin Hermalin, the executive vice chancellor and provost, announced a formal review of the building\u2019s name. A campus committee<\/a> solicited public comment and unanimously recommended its removal.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen these allegations came to light, we moved quickly to do the right thing,\u201d Lyons said. \u201cThe committee\u2019s review was thorough, the community\u2019s voice was overwhelming and the conclusion was clear. That so many students, faculty and staff engaged in this process exemplifies UC Berkeley at its very best.\u201d<\/p>\n The unnaming was approved this week by UC President James B. Milliken following overwhelming support from students, staff and faculty.<\/p>\n Berkeley has previously unnamed five other buildings<\/a>, each time because the legacy of the structure\u2019s namesake was found to be incompatible with the university\u2019s guiding values<\/a>.<\/p>\n A proposal from alumni and campus leaders to remove Chavez\u2019s name argued that continuing to honor him could hurt the very students who make regular use of the building, which houses the Gender Equity Resource Center, the Transfer Student Center and the Student Parent Center, among other programs.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the name is retained, many members of the campus community, especially survivors of sexual violence and harassment, may experience harm, including retraumatization, alienation, and a diminished sense of belonging,\u201d wrote the group, which included Fabrizio Mejia, interim vice chancellor in the Division of Equity & Inclusion, and alumnus Abel Guill\u00e9n, who as a student led the 1995 effort to dedicate the building to Chavez.<\/p>\n The proposal also pointed out that the state of California had already renamed the March 31 holiday as \u201cFarmworkers Day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Of the 455 public comments submitted, 95% advocated for removing the tribute to Chavez. Many of the responses, including Latinx students and faculty, voiced support for survivors of sexual violence, and wrote that while the farmworker movement and Latinx leaders should be celebrated, Chavez did not need to be individually honored.<\/p>\n Faculty from the Chicanx Latinx Studies Program, the Social Sciences Division and the School of Education also penned a letter of support<\/a> for removing Chavez\u2019s name.\u00a0<\/p>\n Metal letters spelling out Chavez\u2019s name were pried from the building by a facilities crew early Thursday. The building will be known as the Student Center<\/a> until the separate process of renaming <\/a>is complete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UC Berkeley has removed Cesar Chavez\u2019s name from a student center after a New York Times investigation detailed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[95891,143,145,144],"class_list":["post-271075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-campus-buildings-and-places","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271075","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=271075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}