UC Berkeley students may vote this spring on whether it should be the official policy of the ASUC to call for Chancellor Robert Birgeneau’s resignation.
A bill being introduced to the ASUC Senate at its meeting Wednesday would place a referendum on the 2012 ASUC general election ballot asking students if the ASUC should call for Birgeneau to resign. The bill was authored by senior William Skewes-Cox and states that “numerous highly controversial and questionable decisions have been made … under the leadership” of Birgeneau.
Cooperative Movement Senator Elliot Goldstein sponsored the bill. Goldstein said he was approached by Skewes-Cox to sponsor the bill and that his personal views are not expressed in the bill language.
The bill points specifically to Nov. 9 Occupy Cal protest, which involved police use of force on protesters attempting to set up an encampment. Emails released last month showed that Birgeneau did not object to reports of the baton use at the time.
“Just getting (this question) on the ballot shows that the ASUC has at least acknowledged that this is something that needs to be talked about,” Skewes-Cox said.
Campus spokesperson Janet Gilmore said in an email that she was unable to comment on the referendum at the time.
Nov. 14 senate committee minutes state that Skewes-Cox spoke to senate members about passing a bill asking for Birgeneau’s resignation.
Per usual process, the bills introduced at Wednesday’s meeting will be passed on to committee for further discussion and will likely be considered by the entire senate at a future meeting.
Due to the deadline to pass referendums through senate for this year’s elections, the bill will need to pass both committee and the entire senate next week. If it does, it would appear on the ballot along with a referendum to renew the the Class Pass, which gives students unlimited free rides on the AC Transit and Bear Transit bus systems.
Chloe Hunt is the lead student government reporter.
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The state’s cutting funding, so lets cut our chancellor ‘cuz we don’t like how things are being run and every time he tries to fire people to cut costs, we complain and say that there are better way to cut costs ‘cuz firing people is mean or something and I like smoking pot or something and drinking a hell of a lot because it’s fun and the state should pay for my tuition ‘cuz I don’t wanna.
Fuck the ASUC for being a bunch of asses.
Fuck Birgeneau for supporting money wasting programs such as the Dream Act.
I think more students would support an ASUC referendum calling for the *ASUC* to resign.
And anyone who *wants* an ASUC position should be automatically disqualified from that position.
That’s my opinion of a bunch of people who make much ado about nothing, and do nothing.
Yeah guys! Lets get Birgeneau to resign so that the UC can spend money trying to find a replacement! Great plan!
An amount of money which is so tiny compared to the UC’s whole budget that it will make no difference. People get fired and hired all the time. This is about the fact that police violently engaged students under his watch…bringing him some justice for that is worth at least a little money.
Except that he’ll get a retirement/severance package. Every little bit adds up and blaming police actions on Birgeneau is stupid and naive anyway.
Firing both the ASUC and Birgeneau sounds like a great plan. A bunch of no-good liberals.
Yeah, f* respecting other peoples’ opinions, especially when liberals support your right to civil liberties and personal rights unlike the “conservatives” nowadays.