NEWS

Berkeley College Republicans allege discrimination by campus administrators

By Steve Sexton and Jen Kolin
September 22, 2003

BERKELEY -- Members of the Berkeley College Republicans today accused UC Berkeley administrators of discriminating against Republicans in enforcing university policy.

As the College Republicans prepare for an event tomorrow featuring UC Regent and Proposition 54-backer Ward Connerly, administrators are telling the club it must pay several thousand dollars for police protection for Mr. Connerly but cannot use any funds allocated to the club by the student government, the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC).

“It is essentially an effort to preclude us from bringing conservatives to campus,” said Andrea Irvin, president of the Berkeley College Republicans. “I don’t know why we should have to pay for security for a UC regent when it is the university that has failed to provide an environment on campus that is safe for conservatives.”

The university has said 10 police officers must be present at the event, an unprecedented amount of protection for speakers, even conservative ones, and especially for university officials.

University policy requires the university to remain neutral on political or religious matters, and thus precludes the university, the ASUC, and the Graduate Assembly from sponsoring or funding political or religious activity.

“As a state instrumentality, the university must remain neutral on religious and political matters,” the policy states. “The University cannot sponsor or fund religious activities, and cannot sponsor or fund political activities, except when authorized for University purposes by The Regents or the President or their designees.”

Administrators have said the Connerly speech tomorrow, hosted by the College Republicans and the California Patriot, constitutes political activity and consequently cannot be supported by the university or funds derived from the university.

The ASUC and Graduate Assembly, however, have reportedly spent $35,000 on a campus campaign against Proposition 54, the Racial Privacy Initiative that would ban the state from collecting race data on school admissions forms and job applications. The ASUC and Graduate Assembly expenditures on the campaign include mandatory student fees, collected by the university and dispersed to the student government.

ASUC Vice President Anu Joshi told the Daily Californian that the student government has plans to distribute propaganda throughout the state, in clear violation of the ASUC’s own spending rules, which forbid the use of funds for off-campus political activities.”

In addition, the student government last week sponsored a speech by Jesse Jackson, founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and an ardent critic of Connerly and Proposition 54. His opening remarks bashed Connerly and the proposition and came amid an anti-Proposition 54 rally on Sproul Plaza.

“This is discrimination plain and simple,” said Amaury Gallais, Bay Area Vice Chairman for the California College Republicans. “If the political activity agrees with the views of the campus officials, they turn a blind eye. But when the Republican students want to bring a university regent, their funds are frozen.”

A university spokesperson could not be reached for comment Monday morning.

In conversations with administrators regarding the upcoming Connerly event, officials brushed aside the Republican students’ concerns about university expenditures on anti-Proposition 54 expenses.

“Our problem is not with the university being politically neutral,” Irvin said. “We want it to be neutral, but as banners against Proposition 54 hang from campus buildings and our student leaders organize pledge drives against it and school administrators wear anti-Prop 54 buttons, the university is anything but neutral on the issue. In fact, they have created a climate on campus whereby a regent needs a swarm of police to keep him safe from his critics who feel justified in spewing hateful invective and inflicting harm on him. Neutrality would require them to support our event with Ward Connerly.”

Student leaders have been active in voter registration efforts aimed at increasing turnout among students opposing Proposition 54. A banner on the ASUC’s Web site urges a “no” vote on the proposition, as well.

The UC Board of Regents and UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl have voiced opposition to the proposition, as they are permitted to do, according to university policy.

Copyright 2003, California Patriot Foundation