Approved Minutes
Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate
November 28, 2011, 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Chevron Auditorium, International House
Page 1 of 8
Approved Minutes
MINUTES OF SPECIAL MEETING1
BERKELEY DIVISION OF THE ACADEMIC SENATE
Monday, November 28, 2011
The Berkeley Division met in a special meeting on Monday, November 28, 2011, called to order
at 3:05 p.m. at International House, Chevron Auditorium, pursuant to call. Professor Bob
Jacobsen (Physics), chair of the Berkeley Division, called the meeting to order.
I.
Business (Handout A)
The special meeting was requested by 47 members of the Division, to consider a
resolution regarding protest at Berkeley (Resolution A – see appendix). After the
meeting had been noticed, the authors revised the resolution and it was accepted to
replace Resolution A. The Revised Resolution A and three additional resolutions,
Resolutions B, C, and D, were distributed at the special meeting.
Chair Jacobsen clarified that the topic of discussion would be limited to the role of
protest at Berkeley, the November 9, 2011 protest at Sproul Hall and police response,
and relevant administrative policies. The underlying reasons for the protest were not
within the scope of this meeting.
Chair Jacobsen reviewed meeting management procedures and proposed an
organizational motion (also included in Handout A) to facilitate discussion. Divisional
Council and the resolution’s authors had consented to this proposal. Professor Judith
Butler (Rhetoric and Comparative Literature), one of the three authors of Resolution A,
was recognized.
Main Motion: Professor Butler moved to accept all four resolutions: Revised
Resolution A, Resolution B, Resolution C, and Resolution D. The motion was
seconded.
(Resolutions B, C, and D are included in the appendix).
Revised Resolution A:
WHEREAS, Non-violent political protest engages fundamental rights of free
assembly and free speech, and
WHEREAS, November 9th efforts by protestors to set up and remain in a temporary
encampment near Sproul Hall constitutes non-violent political protest, and
WHEREAS, These non-violent actions were met with a brutal and dangerous police
response (see, e.g.,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buovLQ9qyWQ&feature=share), a response
authorized in advance as well as retroactively justified by Chancellor Birgeneau,
Executive Vice Chancellor Breslauer and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Le
Grande, and
WHEREAS, This is the third time in two years that such police violence has been
unleashed upon protesters at Berkeley, with resulting bodily injuries to protestors,
Approved Minutes
Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate
November 28, 2011, 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Chevron Auditorium, International House
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student and faculty outrage, a series of expensive lawsuits against the university, a
tarnished university image, and a severely compromised climate for free expression
on campus;
THEREFORE be it resolved that the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate:
1. Opposes all violent police responses to non-violent protest, whether that protest is
lawful or not.
2. Condemns the UC Berkeley administration’s authorization of violent responses to
non-violent protests over the past two years.
3. Demands that Chancellor Birgeneau, Executive Vice Chancellor Breslauer, and
Vice Chancellor Le Grande take responsibility for and repudiate such policing as it
occurred over the past two years.
4. Demands that these administrators develop, follow and enforce university policy to
respond non-violently to non-violent protests, to secure student welfare amidst these
protests, and to minimize the deployment of force and foster free expression and
assembly on campus.
Proposed by: Wendy Brown, Professor, Political Science; Barrie Thorne, Professor,
Gender and Women’s Studies/Sociology; and Judith Butler, Professor, Rhetoric
Organizational motion: Professor Butler moved an organizational motion, which was
seconded.
Move that the meeting commit the current resolution to a quasi-committee of the whole
for discussion, subject to the following rules:
*) The committee of the whole shall end at 4PM, or when no members wish to speak,
whichever occurs first
*) After preliminary speakers, each speaker shall have no more than 3 minutes. No
member may speak again while others are waiting to speak for the first time.
Amendment to the organizational motion: It was moved, and seconded, to
shorten the speakers’ time from three minutes to two.
Vote: Majority in favor.
Vote: The organizational motion as amended passed unanimously.
Discussion:
Quasi-committee of the whole began with Professor Butler’s presentation of the Revised
Resolution A. (The Senate had been unable to distribute the revision in advance of the
meeting due to campuswide technical problems).
Preliminary speakers were introduced; Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and Executive Vice
Chancellor and Provost (EVCP) George Breslauer discussed actions taken in anticipation
of the November 9 protest. The Chancellor has called for an official review of the
incident. EVCP Breslauer invited the campus community to engage with him over the
next few months in discussion about campus policies regarding nonviolent protests.
Approved Minutes
Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate
November 28, 2011, 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Chevron Auditorium, International House
Page 3 of 8
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Harry Le Grande, Graduate Assembly President
Bahar Navab and ASUC Vice President for Academic Affairs Julia Joung also spoke.
Procedural motion: Chair Jacobsen proposed to recommit to quasi-committee of the
whole for an additional 15 minutes.
Vote: The procedural motion was approved by consensus.
Discussion:
Highlights of the discussion included the following points:
 Speakers called upon the administration to take responsibility for the November 9
incident. Changes to administrative policies are needed to prohibit the use of force
against nonviolent protestors, and the PRB report recommendations must be
implemented.
 The four resolutions address different aspects of the issue and are
complementary.
 If the main motion fails because of problems with some of the resolutions,
Resolution C is a good alternative as it focuses on the core concerns with the
November 9 incident.
 The faculty should unite in support of the right to nonviolent expression.
 More faculty should be present at future protests as observers.
 Student opinion and protest against the state’s divestment in higher education is
valid and should be given consideration.
Chair Jacobsen noted the need to preserve adequate time in which to dispose of the
resolutions. He suggested closing the speaker queue, ending quasi-committee of the
whole immediately, or extending the meeting. There were objections to extending the
meeting past 5:00 PM due to childcare responsibilities of some faculty. It was the
consensus of the body to limit speakers to those in line and to shorten their speaking
times from two minutes to one.
When the 15-minute extension of quasi-committee of the whole had expired, the
Division was called back into session.
Professor Butler called the question and it was seconded.
Motion: To close debate:
Vote: Passed with a two-thirds majority.
The main motion passed.
Vote: 336 in favor; 34 opposed
Motion: It was moved, and seconded, to submit the main motion above to a mail
ballot of the Division.
Discussion:
Chair Jacobsen clarified that a subsequent mail ballot of the entire Division would
prevail and could reverse the vote just taken.
A straw vote was taken and was inconclusive.
Approved Minutes
Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate
November 28, 2011, 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Chevron Auditorium, International House
Page 4 of 8
A parliamentary inquiry was raised at this point, which objected to further action on the
main motion since the Division chair had already declared the motion passed.
Parliamentarian Vogel affirmed that a vote could be taken at the meeting and if the
motion passed, the parliamentary inquiry could be resolved after the meeting, but before
the mail ballot was conducted.
Organizational Motion: It was moved, and seconded, to recommit to quasi-committee
of the whole to facilitate discussion on whether to hold a mail ballot.
Vote: The organizational motion was defeated by a majority.
The motion for a mail ballot was defeated.
Vote: 165 in favor; 218 opposed
II.
Other matters authorized by unanimous consent of the voting members present
None
Motion to adjourn was moved, and seconded. Without objection, the meeting was adjourned
at 4:45 p.m.
Gary Holland
Secretary, Berkeley Division
Handout A:
Proposed Organizational Motion;
Revised Resolution A: “Senate resolution on administrative authorization and
justification of police violence against non-violent campus protestors,” proposed
by Professors Wendy Brown (Political Science), Barrie Thorne (Gender and
Women’s Studies/Sociology) and Judith Butler (Rhetoric)];
Resolution B (revised) proposed by Professors Brian Barsky (EECS) and Jonathan
Simon (Law);
Resolution C proposed by Professors David Hollinger (History) and Thomas
Laqueur (History);
Resolution D proposed by Professor Kurt C. Organista (Social Welfare).
Approved Minutes
Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate
November 28, 2011, 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Chevron Auditorium, International House
Page 5 of 8
APPENDIX:
RESOLUTION A: as noticed (replaced by Revised Resolution A)
Whereas, Non-violent political protest engages fundamental rights of free assembly and
free speech, and
Whereas, November 9th efforts by protestors to set up and remain in a temporary
encampment near Sproul Hall constitutes non-violent political protest, and
Whereas, These non-violent actions were met with a brutal and dangerous police
response (see, e.g., http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buovLQ9qyWQ&feature=share), a
response authorized in advance as well as retroactively justified by Chancellor Birgeneau,
Executive Vice Chancellor Breslauer and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Le Grande,
and
Whereas, This is the third time in two years that such police violence has been unleashed
upon protesters at Berkeley, with resulting bodily injuries to protestors, student and
faculty outrage, a series of expensive lawsuits against the university, a tarnished
university image, and a severely compromised climate for free expression on campus;
Therefore be it Resolved that the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate has lost
confidence in the ability of Chancellor Birgeneau, EVC Breslauer and VC Le Grande to
respond appropriately to non-violent campus protests, to secure student welfare amidst
these protests, to minimize the deployment of force and to respect freedom of speech and
assembly on the Berkeley campus.
Proposed by: Professors Judith Butler (Rhetoric), Wendy Brown (Political Science), and
Barrie Thorne (Gender and Women’s Studies/Sociology).
On November 24, 2011, the Revised Resolution A was transmitted with the
accompanying explanation:
Dear Academic Senate Colleagues,
We write as authors of the “Senate Resolution on Administrative Authorization
and Justification of Police Violence Against Non-Violent Campus Protestors”
that triggered the call for a special meeting of the Academic Senate on Monday,
November 28, 2011.
We formulated this resolution in the immediate aftermath of police violence
against UC protestors on November 9th. Since that time, we have learned that
our resolution is being misconstrued in two important ways. First, some have
misread the resolution as unqualifiedly defending the Occupy Cal encampment
and as arguing that students have the right to pitch tents on campus whenever
and wherever they like. Second, some have misread the resolution as proposing
a blanket “no-confidence” vote on three administrators, effectively soliciting
their resignations.
Neither of these positions or effects was our intention. Rather, we are concerned
about a pattern of violent police responses to non-violent protests (three
Approved Minutes
Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate
November 28, 2011, 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Chevron Auditorium, International House
Page 6 of 8
instances in two years) on our campus, and we are calling on the Senate to bring
such responses to an immediate end.
On the first matter, let us simply clarify: The resolution has no position on when
and whether tents and encampments may be permitted on campus but does
maintain that tents are non-violent.
On the second matter, we have chosen to exercise our authorial prerogative to
amend the proposed resolution. The “Whereas” clauses remain unchanged but
we have revised the “Resolved” clause as follows: [See Item I, Main Motion, in
the minutes of this special meeting for the full text of the revised resolution.]
The full resolution, revised, is attached to this email.
We look forward to a civil, thoughtful and productive discussion on Monday.
Very best,
Wendy Brown
Judith Butler
Barrie Thorne
RESOLUTION B
Whereas, The “right of the people peaceably to assemble” is enshrined in the First
Amendment of the Constitution of the United States;
Whereas, Section 9(a) of Article 9 of the California Constitution establishes that “the
University of California constitutes a public trust;”
Whereas, Demonstrations consisting of both explicit and symbolic speech are a
fundamental part of the public discourse in modern democracies and have been an
important part of many social movements both nationally and internationally;
Whereas, Police violence against non-violent demonstrators on the Berkeley campus
involving the use of batons, pepper spray, and direct physical force has caused personal
injuries to students and faculty including broken bones;
Whereas, Police violence against non-violent demonstrators has been consistently and
repeatedly perpetrated over the last two years in at least five separate incidents on the
Berkeley campus;1
Whereas, The repeated incidents of police violence suggest that the Administration and
the UCPD have adopted a policy of preemptive use of force against non-violent
demonstrators who they anticipate may engage in acts of civil disobedience; and
Whereas, The Administration and UCPD appear to have not followed the
recommendation of the June 14, 2010 Report of the Police Review Board (“Brazil report”)
to clarify the proper lines of authority and their approach to non-violent civil
disobedience on the Berkeley campus despite this confusion having been identified in the
Report as a possible source of unnecessary violence;
Approved Minutes
Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate
November 28, 2011, 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Chevron Auditorium, International House
Page 7 of 8
Be it therefore RESOLVED, that:
1. It is the sense of the faculty that the physical safety of campus community members
(including police officers), and respect for their rights of political expression, dictate that
police should not be deployed preemptively with riot weapons and tactics in response to
non-violent demonstrations.
2. The faculty calls upon the Administration to implement the recommendations of the
June 14, 2010 Report of the Police Review Board (“Brazil report”).
3. The faculty calls upon the Administration to immediately clarify the division of
civilian and police authority over the response to campus demonstrations including
requests for mutual aid to outside police forces.
4. The faculty calls upon the Administration to make public the specific conditions under
which it is prepared to authorize UCPD (as well as other forces operating under mutual
aid) to use weapons and forceful tactics including, but not limited to, batons, pepper
spray, tear gas, rubber bullets, tasers, flash-bang grenades, and pressure point grips,
against demonstrators engaged in non-violent actions including linking arms and other
forms of passive resistance to arrest.
5. The faculty calls upon the Administration to announce that it will not authorize the
use of such forceful tactics to prevent or preempt the formation of any assembly deemed
unlawful that is composed in substantial part of students, faculty, or staff, and that
remains non-violent.
6. The faculty recommends that if a demonstration turns into an unlawful assembly
(e.g., an occupation of a building) then the Administration should engage in dialogue,
communication, and negotiation as the primary and preferred resolution approach.
7. The faculty recommends that if and when arrests are deemed necessary to restore core
university functions, the Administration not authorize the preemptive or
disproportionate use of weapons and forceful tactics including, but not limited to, batons,
pepper spray, tear gas, rubber bullets, tasers, flash-bang grenades, and pressure point
grips.
8. The faculty recommends that following any incident in which forcible methods were
used, the Chancellor should convene a public meeting with a minimum of delay to
explain the rationale of the decision to employ them.
9. The Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate shall establish a Senate Committee on
Demonstrations and Student Actions composed solely of faculty members to consult with
the Administration, UCPD, and students.
1
For example, at and around Wheeler Hall (on November 20, 2009, December 11, 2009,
and March 3, 2011), Tolman Hall (on September 22, 2011), and Sproul Hall (on
November 9, 2011).
Proposed by: Brian A. Barsky, Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences,
and Jonathan Simon, Professor, Law
Approved Minutes
Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate
November 28, 2011, 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Chevron Auditorium, International House
Page 8 of 8
RESOLUTION C
The Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate of the University of California hereby
condemns the over-reaction of police to demonstrations on our campus on November 9;
formally alerts the Chancellor and those who report to him that this incident has greatly
diminished confidence in the Campus’s leadership; calls upon the Chancellor to institute
special training for police forces employed on campus to deal with acts of political
expression and civil disobedience in the University and, more generally, to immediately
implement the recommendations of the Police Review Board (The Brazil Report) as issued
on June 14, 2010.
Proposed by: David Hollinger, Professor, History, and Thomas Laqueur, Professor,
History
RESOLUTION D
Whereas, nonviolent political protest engages fundamental rights of free assembly and
free speech, and
Whereas, the campus has established time, place, and manner guidelines by which it
encourages such activities, and
Whereas, protesters may sometimes engage in political noncooperation which includes
acts of civil disobedience – including the deliberate, open and peaceful violation of
particular laws, decrees, regulations, and
Whereas, there is a clear chain of command ending with the Chancellor, which
implements training and deployment of police to respond appropriately to protests, and
Whereas, campuses should exercise restraint in responding to peaceful protests and seek
to resolve the situation through dialogue, and
Whereas, we are outraged by the brutal and dangerous police responses against members
of the University community at UC Berkeley and other campuses,
Therefore be it Resolved that the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate
1) calls upon the Chancellor, EVCP, and Chief of Police to officially apologize to the
campus community for the behavior of the UCPD on Nov. 9, 2011
2) calls for immediate revision of policies and practices to minimize the danger of
excessive use of force by the police, and to better train the police to employ
nonviolent law enforcement that respects the rights of nonviolent protesters
3) affirms its support for the right of free speech and peaceful protest by all members
of the University community
4) affirms its strong opposition to the State’s disinvestment in higher education,
which is at the root of the student protests.
Proposed by: Kurt C. Organista, Professor, Social Welfare