Professors Ask Chancellor to Oppose Patriot Act

Sixteen months after more than 100 UC Berkeley professors unanimously passed a resolution asking former Chancellor Robert Berdahl to support their condemnation of the USA Patriot Act, sponsors of the act are now turning to Chancellor Robert Birgeneau to assert the campus's opposition in court.

Faculty are aiming to throw support behind a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against U.S Attorney General Alberto Gonzales last month. The union is backing an unnamed Connecticut librarian who is seeking removal of a gag order provision in the act, which prevents him from going public with his experience to Congress.

In hopes that UC Berkeley will join the suit through filing an amicus curiae brief-a document bringing new information to the court by an outside advisor-faculty members are pushing the chancellor to give his support.

The case is the most effective avenue through which the university can help lead the nation in overturning the act, said UC Berkeley German professor Daniel Wilson, who co-authored the 2004 resolution.

"It's very difficult to find a court case that can challenge the act because anyone who receives a subpoena is prohibited from talking about it. That's why the Connecticut case is important," Wilson said. "I think it's the only hope to challenge the Patriot Act."

Since the act's passage six weeks after Sept. 11, its provisions-namely the enhancement of government access to phone, library and Internet records of individuals under investigation-have been denounced by critics, who claim it infringes upon privacy rights.

Last year, the UC Berkeley Academic Senate, along with the faculty-governing bodies at UC Irvine, UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz campuses, joined the ranks of colleges and universities nationwide who have contested the act's constitutionality through written resolutions.

Others who have done so include the University of Oregon and Stanford University.

Through UC Berkeley's resolution, faculty aimed to create the legal standing necessary for the university to "challenge and resist" government tactics that violate the protections of the U.S. Constitution.

The resolution requested the appointment of a campus spokesperson to handle all requests by the government for student and faculty information in order to prepare a legal argument in the case that the university decides to go to court.

"One of the things we wanted was to be able to find out how much activity there was and retort," said UC Berkeley professor emeritus Susan Ervin-Tripp, one of 10 sponsors of the resolution.

But while the leadership of the senate has been supportive since the resolution, Wilson said, it remains unclear how Birgeneau views the act, or if he will back the court case.

"We're not even sure the chancellor is really aware of the resolution because he wasn't chancellor at the time," he said. "But there have been positive signs he would like to work with us on this issue."

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