An expected 40,000 visitors converged on the UC Berkeley campus for Cal Day Saturday, including prospective students and their families as well as a handful of Occupy protesters.
While visitors had free access to campus museums, exhibitions from various academic departments and a concert by Dr. Dog on Memorial Glade at 4 p.m., various groups of organizers and protesters seized the day as an opportunity to spread the word about topics ranging from minority enrollment at the university to education cuts.
Cal Day saw a few notable changes this year. Campus spokesperson Gretchen Kell said in an email that there were 370 unique events, a new record for Cal Day. Much of this increase came in the form of “activities geared toward young children” in order to entice locals and alumni to visit along with prospective students.
“While it is a great day for prospective students, Cal Day is designed for and attracts people from all over the Bay Area and beyond,” said Kell.
Among the visitors to campus was an array of protesters and activists. BAMN organizers and the ASUC Defend Affirmative Action Party distributed literature throughout the day to spread awareness about university minority enrollment.
“(At an event like this,) we can really get the word out,” said BAMN organizer Caroline Wong.
Around 12:30 p.m., about 30 activists with Occupy Education Northern California began a general assembly, during which activists discussed the California state budget and cuts to education in general.
Beezer de Martelly, a graduate student in the music department and an Occupy organizer, said that Cal Day presents an opportunity for outreach to prospective students and their families.
“Working with incoming parents and talking with them about some of the work we are doing would be an interesting way to expand the conversation,” said Martelly.
The general assembly, held on the steps of Sproul Plaza, attracted only a handful of prospective students.
Liliana Castro, a prospective student who sat in on the general assembly, said that the Occupy Movement was part of what attracted her to UC Berkeley.
“Out of all the schools we visited, people (at Berkeley) seem like they’re involved and passionate,” said Castro.
However, the vast majority of prospective students did not participate in the general assembly and instead focused on the various information booths and presentations.
Connor Brooks, a prospective freshman in the College of Engineering, said that controversies over education cuts and the Occupy Movement had little impact on his decision to come to UC Berkeley.
“(The Occupy movement) hasn’t really factored in that much, actually,” Brooks said. “I just want to come to Berkeley because it’s a really good school.”
Comment Policy
Comments should remain on topic, concerning the article or blog post to which they are connected. Brevity is encouraged. Posting under a pseudonym is discouraged, but permitted. The Daily Cal encourages readers to voice their opinions respectfully in regard to the readers, writers and contributors of The Daily Californian. Comments are not pre-moderated, but may be removed if deemed to be in violation of this policy. Click here to read the full comment policy.
“Obviously they’re going to use it for their own propaganda purposes”
Which they will use to justify their own abuses of their own citizenry -and if you think being pepper sprayed for getting in a confrontation with the police is anywhere near the same order of magnitude as a country were people are executed for things that wouldn’t even rate a day of jail here in the States, then you have some real problems with your own conscience. The fact that you Occupy people are willing to punk yourselves to the lowest of the low just to get an audience doesn’t say much for your own moral compass.
Occupy a job and quit crapping in public places you 9%ers!
I wonder what DAAP’s pitch was? It must have been like, “Welcome to Cal, we all think your spot should have gone to some unqualified black kid, oh well. But now that you’re in, join our group so you can make sure your future children won’t stand a chance!”
I’ll bet UCPD had a booth handing out safety information complete with the suggestion that it’s in your best interest to ‘be honest and forthcoming’ when talking to law enforcement.
http://police.berkeley.edu/safetycounts/
Fail, it’s in you best interest to avail yourself of your right to remain silent.
http://www.aclu.org/files/assets/bustcard_eng_20100630.pdf
The only reason to come to Berkeley for prospective students should be to join the Greek system and not be pathetic GDIs.
Being a Greek must make you feel really cool right?
Yes. Alcohol does actually cool core body temperature by enlarging capillaries. And also you get really cool when you’re dead from alcohol poisoning or maybe falling off the roof of your frat.
The “Greek” system is just a huge haven for illegal activities and public nuisances…kinda like an institutionalized version of Occupy Oakland :P
Nooooo, actually I think that Occupy imbibes less…
Both the Greeks and the Occupy kooks are age-advanced adolescents with insecurity issues.
Saying this while logged in as a Guest. Identify yourself before libeling others
So what did he say that was factually incorrect, kook?
I’m glad the science/engineering folks didn’t have to encounter this – we want the best talent, not the ones that like to complain the most.
Complaining is worthwhile and productive if the thing that you are complaining about is unjust and wrong. I mean, you can’t say that every rights movement in the history of the world was just full of “complainers”…as an American, you’re the product of a rights movement!
”Complaining is worthwhile and productive if the thing that you are complaining about is unjust and wrong.”
That pretty much rules out whatever Occupy and BAMN are whining about, doesn’t it?
Depends on whether or not you think that it’s fair the richest 1% of Americans should own 40% of the country, and that if you are that rich then you can actually make all of your money by investing your money and not actually working.
The problem is that they have just hurt the cause – displaying themselves as a group that likes camping in tents in public areas (seriously? this is just asking to have a negative connotation associated with your group), getting in the way of people trying to be productive, and making ridiculous demands like forgiving all student debt makes some of their valid points very difficult to take seriously – thus the perception that their protests are useless.
”The problem is that they have just hurt the cause”
I submit it’s not so much of a “cause” as just a general beef, that some people have more than they do. Sorry, but I’m not especially sympathetic to people who waste their opportunity at Cal by taking useless fluff majors that allow them more time to protest, then wonder why they can’t seem to get ahead in life when they have a degree that has no value whatsoever in the marketplace.
[Depends on whether or not you think that it's fair the richest 1% of Americans should own 40% of the country]
Given that they also pay about 40% of the taxes, that sound fair to me. Or do you think merely having more than someone else makes you a criminal, even if the reason you got it is that you worked for it? I don’t know about you, but one of the reasons I went to Cal was NOT so I could work my butt off in school, then work my butt off at a job once I got out, just so I could make the same salary as someone who isn’t as educated or motivated as I am. Likewise, I hold nothing against those who applied themselves more than I did, and if they have more money that I do, it’s not because they stole it from me.
You people pissing and moaning about the 1%, as if they are the source of all our problems, really need to grow up and start taking responsibility for your own lives.
Sorry, I should have clarified – I meant complaining about useless/nonsensical things.
Is the the same Occupy movement whose sponsors are in of all places, TEHERAN, to piss and moan about human rights and economic inequality?
“American Professors Gather in Tehran for Occupy Wall Street Conference
10:39 AM, Apr 21, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER
An alarming news report from Iran’s Press TV, a propoganda arm of the Iranian government, showing American professors gathering in Tehran to discuss the Occupy Wall Street Movement:
The professors interviewed on Press TV include Alex Vitale of Brooklyn College, Heather Gautney of Fordham University, and John Hammond of City University of New York.”
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/american-professors-gather-tehran-occupy-wall-street-conference_640543.html
In case you haven’t figured out by now, the Occupy “movement” is nothing but a bunch of fringe extremists, nutcakes, dimwits and cranks. Time to get a clue that these people aren’t playing with a full deck.
This is how fucking ignorant you are. You immediately condemn members of the Occupy movement for holding a conference in Tehran, because you think Tehran=Iran=terrorist=human rights violators.
But you apparently have no idea that, prior to the Tunisian, Libyan, and Egyptian revolutions, one of the largest movements against government oppression of human rights occurred during the failed Green Revolution in Iran over the last few years. Wouldn’t it make sense to hold a conference about inequality and human rights in a nation where the people have suffered at the hands of their government for decades? Wouldn’t those people know a thing or two about how economic inequality and human rights violations are both perpetuated and struggled against?
Not only are these people playing with a full deck, but they also know they house stacks the odds against them. Time to try to shut down the casino.
[This is how fucking ignorant you are. You immediately condemn members
of the Occupy movement for holding a conference in Tehran, because you
think Tehran=Iran=terrorist=human rights violators. ]
Actually, the Islamic Republic of Iran IS a country run by bonafide terrorists. Not only do they supply money, weapons and logistics to groups such as Hamas and Hizbollah, but they brutalize and terrorize their OWN people as well. Really now, are you that f*cking CLUELESS to not be aware of that? If you think Ahmedinijad and his crew give a rat’s ass about “human rights”, then you’re clearly out to lunch. These profs are what Stalin used to call “useful idiots”, the type of people who will sell out their own country and allow themselves to be used as propaganda pawns by some third-world tin-pot. Utterly disgusting and pathetic.
Nice reading comprehension skills. “Not only do they supply money, weapons and logistics to groups such as
Hamas and Hizbollah, but they brutalize and terrorize their OWN people
as well.”
As I wrote, “But you apparently have no idea that, prior to the Tunisian, Libyan, and
Egyptian revolutions, one of the largest movements against government
oppression of human rights occurred during the failed Green Revolution
in Iran over the last few years.”
People fighting against government repression = people being brutalized and terrorized. This wasn’t a conference where Occupy protesters met with the fucking government, you dumbass! They met with the people who have been terrorized and brutalized!
Hey, Waah-waah, do you really think a country like Iran is going to give people visas to come to their country and discuss “human rights” unless they can use it for their own propaganda purposes? In addition, why would anyone go to Iran of all places to discuss the Occupy movement, unless it was part of some anti-American propaganda agenda?
I have said it once before, and will say it again. You clearly are NOT the sharpest tool in the shed…
Obviously they’re going to use it for their own propaganda purposes — but that’s a pretty small price tag for getting to actually talk to people who participated in a revolution.
If you think that protesters and university professors from several American universities traveled all the way to Iran in order to produce anti-American propaganda, you have a serious paranoia problem and lack of understanding about anything that has happened in Iran recently.
Do you even know what the Green Revolution is, without looking it up on wikipedia?