Kore Chan/File

An ASUC Senate bill introduced Wednesday criticizes the UC Berkeley administration’s decision to hold the majority of classes on Oct. 1 after an explosion left most of campus without power the previous evening.

The bill, authored by Independent Campaign for Common Sense Senator Solomon Nwoche, calls on administrators to promptly inform students of class cancellations after emergencies. The bill will be discussed at an ASUC Senate committee meeting Monday night.

After an explosion near California Hall on the evening of Sept. 30, electrical crews worked through the night to bring power back to campus buildings.

At 5:30 a.m. on Oct. 1, campus officials notified students, faculty and staff that power had been restored to all but 11 buildings, including Dwinelle Hall.

Classes took place as normal in all buildings except those 11, to the dismay of many students who felt they had been inconvenienced by power outages in several campus residence halls the night before.

“Even best-case scenario, let’s say your assignment didn’t have any technology component — you were stuck reading in the dark,” Nwoche said regarding students living in the residence halls.

The bill, SB 27, lambastes the campus’s choice to hold most classes as usual, calling it an “irrational decision,” but also lauds Chancellor Nicholas Dirks’ acknowledgement that there was a lack of communication from campus administrators after the incident.

The bill’s text suggests implementing a campus policy whereby administrators inform students of class cancellations before 1 a.m. after an emergency. Nwoche said he would like the bill’s language to be amended to request that the announcement come within a seven- to eight-hour window after an emergency, with classes being automatically canceled after that time.

Claire Holmes, associate vice chancellor for public affairs, explained the challenges of pinning down parameters for campus emergency response.

“It is hard to dictate emergency situations because they are unpredictable and constantly evolving,” she said. Holmes does, however, agree that students and staff ought to be given as much notice as possible of class cancellations.

Both Student Action Senator Sahil Pandya and SQUELCH! Senator Grant Fineman support having a discussion about the campus’s response after the incident, but said they remain uncertain about the text of the bill itself.

“The bill comes from a very good place,” Fineman said. “It’s important in a big disaster to get information out to students quickly and efficiently, but I do understand that the administration was dealing with a lot of moving parts.”

CalSERVE Senator Briana Mullen said she would not vote for the current iteration of the bill.

“We need to be smart about when we use bills,” Mullen said. “If we don’t make policy in tandem with administrators, they are not going to respect it.”

ASUC President DeeJay Pepito said she plans to work with students and administrators to review campus outreach during emergency situations.

“The process is ongoing and continuously improving,” Pepito said in a text message forwarded from her chief of staff, Austin Pritzkat.

Contact Kimberly Veklerov at kveklerov@dailycal.org.

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Zach Johnson/File

On Monday morning, UCPD removed crops planted by Occupy the Farm demonstrators on a portion of campus-owned land in Albany.

Last week, UCPD officers also dug up crops planted by the demonstrators on a parcel of land historically known as the Gill Tract, which UC Berkeley intends to develop. Development plans include a senior housing facility, a parking lot and a Sprouts Farmers Market grocery store. Protesters returned to farm on Saturday despite last week’s forced removal, which resulted in four arrests.

According to Occupy the Farm spokesperson Matthew McHale, the protest aims to make the land a community farm. The land previously held World War II barracks, and protesters hope to show it is still a usable natural resource.

“The fact that the UC needs to plow over the crops speaks to the power of our vision,”  McHale said. “If members were to see what an amazing agricultural resource this land could be, there would be a huge amount of push-back and resistance (against development).”

Protesters arrived at the mixed-use project Saturday morning, farming during the day and staying through the night until Sunday. Throughout the weekend, UCPD monitored the protest and alerted the demonstrators that they were trespassing, but officers made no arrests. By Monday morning, the protesters had left, and UCPD removed the plants.

Claire Holmes, associate vice chancellor for communications and public affairs for UC Berkeley, said it is important that the process of resolving the demonstration is legal and democratic, making sure all plans for the land are considered equally.

“There are some people in Albany who want a miniature golf course on the site, but those people aren’t down there establishing the golf site,” Holmes said. “(For the protesters to) unilaterally take over that spot over interests of other groups in the community — that is inappropriate.”

Occupy the Farm member Lesley Haddock, however, said that community farm advocates have been going to city meetings for the past 15 years. According to Haddock, the problem does not lie with Albany but with the university, which has had poor dialogue with the public on the issue.

“We’ve held over 10 public forums over the last year and invited the UC every single time, and they’ve never shown up,” Haddock said.

But it may be too late for dialogue between the protesters and UC Berkeley administration. Both Holmes and Nicole Almaguer, Albany city clerk, said that the campus and city have come to an agreement and that the development plan will continue.

“The protesters have every right to have a voice at the table,” Holmes said. “However, a majority has already decided how they would like to see the land used.”

Click here to watch a video of Occupy the Farm’s second day of occupation in Albany, Calif.

Contact Mary Zhou at newsdesk@dailycal.org.

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Around 4:30 a.m., UCPD issued a 10-minute warning to the protesters — who had been occupying and farming a southern portion of a university property, known as the Gill Tract, since Saturday afternoon — to vacate the property or face arrest.

One protester, a UC Berkeley affiliate, was arrested for trespassing and resisting an officer, according to UCPD spokesperson Lt. Eric Tejada. Tejada said the protester was registered in the student directory but could not confirm whether this person is an active student.

The rest of the protesters moved off of the land willingly, and the university allowed the protesters to keep coming back to the land to collect their belongings, according to Claire Holmes, campus associate vice chancellor for public affairs.

Around 9:20 a.m., a tractor was brought in to remove the crops occupiers planted over the weekend, and two more individuals were arrested for trespassing and refusing to follow police orders. A fourth person was arrested around 10 a.m, Tejada said.

Occupy the Farm made a public announcement Sunday morning that they planned to break down their tents early Monday morning and continue to farm throughout the day, said Occupy the Farm spokesperson Matthew McHale.

“The UC’s use of police intervention was completely unnecessary and unreasonable, especially after we publicly declared we were leaving later today,” McHale said.

University officials took action this morning because they wanted to choose a time when they felt they could vacate the lot as safely as possible and with the least amount of disruption to the community, Holmes said.

Currently, Occupy the Farm protesters are in close proximity to the property and have called for a public reconvergence at 5 p.m. to decide what to do next, said  Lesley Haddock, a demonstrator and a UC Berkeley junior.

According to Holmes, police are still near the tract to monitor the situation, and there will be police present throughout the day.

Contact Megan Messerly at mmesserly@dailycal.org

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Zach Johnson/Staff

More than 100 community activists occupied and farmed a portion of university-owned research land in Albany this weekend in the latest iteration of the Occupy the Farm movement.

The group assembled to oppose recent proposals to develop the southern portion of an Albany plot of land known as the Gill Tract, owned by the Regents of the University of California. The proposals suggest developing the lot into a national chain grocery store, Sprouts Farmers Market while another parcel is slated to become a senior housing complex.

Occupy the Farm activists said they would rather see the land developed into a urban farm that could be used to educate the community and to conduct research on how to improve soil quality.

“This piece of land is unparalleled in terms of being an agricultural resource,” said Matthew McHale, an Occupy the Farm spokesperson. “We envision not only a resource for growing food but for community resilience.”

Around 1 p.m., Occupy the Farm activists congregated in front of Albany City Hall before marching south on San Pablo Avenue to the portion of the Gill Tract north of Monroe Street. The group walked behind a banner that read “Sprout Farms Not Grocery Stores.”

Several cars met the group at the property, bringing truckloads of dirt, an assortment of plants as well as some chickens and goats. The group tilled the soil and planted hundreds of plants, including lemon cucumbers, mustard greens and Yukon Gold potatoes, into the afternoon.

Saturday’s movement is the first major effort to cultivate the Gill Tract since last spring, when the group assembled farther north on the property to protest the development of the same senior housing facility and a different grocery store, Whole Foods Market. In September, Whole Foods canceled its plans to build on the Gill Tract, citing project delays.

Urban-farm activists continued to break into the property throughout the summer and into the fall to care for their crops, arguing that the land should be accessible to the community because it is owned by a public university.

The northern portion of the tract farmed last spring is a Class 1 agricultural land, and it is extremely nutrient-rich and conducive to farming. In September, it was placed under the purview of the UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources and is currently prepared and ready for planting, according to Claire Holmes, campus associate vice chancellor of public affairs.

This spring, farmers hope to prove that the southern plot of land, which was once host to military barracks, is also agriculturally viable.

Some community members and Albany city officials, however, believe the land would be better be served with commercial development that would bring economic growth to the area.

“We could bring life to San Pablo,” said Albany Mayor Peggy Thomsen.

Campus officials issued a statement Thursday urging city residents to prepare for an occupation, noting that they would closely monitor the situation. UCPD was at the tract on Saturday and advised the group several times that the property is closed to the public, but no action was taken.

Last May, three weeks after the initial occupation began, nine Occupy the Farm protesters were arrested — two who remained on the Gill Tract and seven who were outside the entrances to the encampment. Charges were never filed against the protesters.

Some Albany community members staged a counterprotest on Saturday, riding bicycles around the Gill Tract and carrying signs with the name “Occupy the Farm” struck out.

Albany resident and counterprotester Preston Jordan sees Occupy the Farm’s actions as an attempt to circumvent a democratic system that is already working.

“There are issues throughout history that call for civil disobedience,” Jordan said. “But I don’t think this calls for that.”

Occupy the Farm activists set up an encampment Saturday night on the property, and six tents were still standing as of 10 a.m. Sunday morning.

In the immediate future, the group plans to continue planting, cleaning up the land and being “good stewards,” McHale said.

“Farming is about the long game — setting down roots,” McHale said. “Putting plants in the ground is hope. It is inherently oriented toward the future.”

Megan Messerly covers city government. Contact her at mmesserly@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @meganmesserly.

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UC Berkeley has initiated the search for a new executive vice chancellor and provost following the announcement of current Executive Vice Chancellor George Breslauer’s retirement.

According to Claire Holmes, the associate vice chancellor for university communications, the search involves forming a committee to identify and vet potential candidates for the position in a process similar to last year’s search for the campus’s new chancellor.

Breslauer will end his seven-year term as executive vice chancellor and provost in December. According to an article by the UC Berkeley News Center, Breslauer originally planned to retire in June but postponed his retirement in order to assist Chancellor-designate Nicholas Dirks, who will assume office in June.

Breslauer joined UC Berkeley in 1971 as a specialist on Soviet politics and foreign relations in the department of political science. He was appointed Chancellor’s Professor in 1998 and served as the chair of the Center for Slavic and East European Studies until 1994 and the department of political science until 1996. After a one year tenure as the executive dean of the UC Berkeley College of Letters and Sciences, Breslauer took the office of executive vice chancellor and provost in 2006.

Justin Abraham is a news editor. Contact him at jabraham@dailycal.org.

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Tony Zhou/Staff

The Daily Californian has obtained almost 140 emails sent between UC Berkeley administrators detailing how they reacted to the Nov. 9 Occupy Cal protest.

The emails, received by the Daily Cal from the campus’ Public Records Office at noon Wednesday, paint in broad strokes how campus officials responded to the Nov. 9 protest. While nitty gritty discussions of the handling of the protest were not played out over email — the campus crisis management team held conferences calls at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Nov. 9, according to the emails — the development of the campus’ public relations response to the protest can be seen in the emails sent throughout the day.

The emails were obtained through a Public Records Act request made by the Daily Cal shortly after the Nov. 9 protest.

• A previous release of emails showed Chancellor Robert Birgeneau did not initially object to the use of batons against protesters. This batch of documents highlights Birgeneau’s insistence that he be kept informed of the events on campus — he was in Asia on the day of the protest — giving added gravity to the previously released responses.
• The documents show campus officials deriding state Senator Loni Hancock, D-Oakland, and state Assemblymember Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, who had voiced support for the Occupy movement at a campus rally before the protest. In one email, Birgeneau wrote that “as usual Skinner and Hancock only know how to do damage.”
• The emails demonstrate the difficulty of coordinating a response to the campus-wide protest: several threads center on mundane problems such as a broken conference call code number. They also show a sizable reliance by campus officials on external newsgroups — dozens of emails reference reporting by the Daily Cal or other media groups as the basis for campus public relations publications.
• The correspondence also provides colorful insight into campus officials’ treatment of the protest beyond the bland statements often released by the campus. In one email to Birgeneau and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer, Associate Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs Claire Holmes describes a meeting with long-time protester Dumpster Muffin — who Holmes gave a sticker — while in another message campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof states his desire to send the protesters “on a slow boat to Sacramento.”

The emails can be viewed through DocumentCloud, an internet-based file hosting site. The title of each document contains the names of campus employees included in the email thread (oftentimes there are several emails contained in each document). The documents can be searched by those names using the interface below.

If you notice anything you consider particularly interesting or important, please email the reporter or comment on the article page below.

Clarification(s):
A previous version of this article may have implied that campus officials created the nickname “dumpster muffin” to refer to a protester. In fact, Dumpster Muffin is a self-given name by the individual.

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The WarnMe emergency alert service was an opt-in system when it was introduced in 2008, but now everyone with access to CalMail will be enrolled unless one chooses to opt out.

An email about the updated system will be sent to all addresses in the CalNet directory, according to a campuswide email sent March 9 by campus spokesperson Claire Holmes.

The transition to an all-inclusive alert system began last year and was not a product of the shooting that occurred at the Haas School of Business Nov. 15, according to campus Director of Emergency Preparedness and Homeland Security Stephen Stoll.

There was no incident that caused this development — rather, the software used for the alerts now has the capability to be opt-out, Stoll said.

“Everyone will start off receiving the alerts to their CalMail, and they will have the option to change their priorities so they could receive their alerts by text, on their cellphones, work phones, etc.,” he said.

Those who do not wish to be alerted to campus emergencies, natural disasters and other crises will have to sign a form saying they do not want to be contacted through WarnMe, Stoll said.

There are currently 32,000 people signed up to receive WarnMe alerts. The campus is also working to enroll nonaffiliates in WarnMe, including some parents, in six months.

“We are not going to allow all parents to join the WarnMe because the system won’t be able to handle it,” Stoll said.

UC Berkeley is not the only campus with such an alert system. UC Davis, UC San Francisco and Vanderbilt University have similar systems.

“There needs to be a comprehensive system in place to notify folks in the case of emergency,” said ASUC External Affairs Vice President Joey Freeman in a text message. “WarnMe is a critical component of the campus’s emergency communications and response system and has the potential to save lives.”

The system will not send a mass of texts, and an occasional text could save a life, said senior Maricel Quirindongo-Crespo.

“I think it’s good for people’s safety,” she said. “I personally keep forgetting to sign up, so its a good thing they are making it automatic.”

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Mary Zheng /Staff

In a shift from the massive police presence at the first Occupy Cal encampment in November, UCPD has not confronted the camp established last Thursday, aside from announcing general dispersal orders nightly.

The Occupy Cal camp, which moved from the steps of Sproul Hall to those of Doe Memorial Library on Tuesday, has gone mostly unwatched by UCPD officers, according to UC Berkeley senior Alex Kim.

Under the California Education Code, people on UC campuses cannot bring tents or set up a campsite without authorization from a university official.
When the first tents were being erected on the UC Berkeley campus on the afternoon of Nov. 9, at least 50 officers from UCPD and Alameda County Sheriff’s Department physically confronted the hundreds of protesters, making arrests, taking down the tents and allegedly injuring several people.

After the camp was established, several UCPD officers were positioned near the it to keep watch of the protesters at all times until the camp was cleared out eight days later.

According to Kim, the most interaction the protesters have with UCPD during the current encampment occurs when two officers stop by the camp nightly — one reads the dispersal order, the other videotapes, then the two return below Sproul Hall.

UCPD spokesperson Lt. Eric Tejada would not confirm how many officers have been assigned to watch the camp, but he said UCPD monitors it on a regular basis.

While some Occupy Cal protesters think the change in UCPD’s approach is in response to the alleged Nov. 9 violence as well as the pepper-spraying incident at UC Davis, UC Berkeley Associate Vice Chancellor of Public Affairs Claire Holmes attributed it to the circumstances that have surrounded the encampments.
“No two protests on the UC Berkeley campus are alike, and, if a response is at all warranted, it is unique,” Holmes said in an email. “We continue to monitor and assess the situation and will continue to reach out to the group to encourage them to leave on their own accord.”

The current Occupy Cal camp consists of 10 tents and not many more protesters on hand at any given time except during general assemblies.
Camps at other UC campuses have also met little police resistance recently, although no universitywide police policy has changed, according to UC spokesperson Dianne Klein.

Klein said UCPD still has the option of using force “appropriately.”

Four days after first appearing on campus Nov. 14, Occupy UC Davis drew national and international attention when Lt. John Pike of UC Davis Police Department pepper-sprayed approximately 15 seated protesters.

That encampment returned to campus Jan. 9 and has been met with little resistance from the UC Davis Police Department, even though encampment members have blockaded the door to the on-campus U.S. Bank location at least eight times.

The Occupy UC Riverside camp — established before the Jan. 18-19 UC Regents meeting on campus — has remained despite alleged violence at the meeting and a dispersal order sent to the protesters from UC Riverside Chancellor Timothy White on Tuesday.

UC Berkeley graduate student Joshua Anderson — who has participated in both Occupy Cal encampments — said he is glad he has not been beaten or forced out but does not feel any sympathy from UCPD officers.

“The whole point of why we’re out here is to break the rules a little,” Anderson said.

Christopher Yee covers Berkeley communities.

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As of about 5:30 p.m. Monday, around 25 students remained on the Sproul steps in continuation of a protest that began Feb. 9 — three months after the Nov. 9 campus protest events drew national attention.

“Personally, I think the Occupy movement has never died down,” said UC Berkeley junior Micah Love. “I think it’s not as visible now not only here but across the country because of police repression of the camps. We’re here to create visibility.”

Protesters said a UCPD officer approached them around 12:05 a.m. Monday and said they were liable for misdemeanor or arrest.

However, campus police have not yet issued a dispersal order, and no protesters have been arrested.

“We are monitoring the situation,” said UCPD spokesperson Lt. Eric Tejada. “We’ll take action when it is needed … We’re hoping that they can ‘see the light.’”

This approach differs markedly from the Nov. 9 protest events, which elicited widespread condemnation from faculty and students after police used batons on protesters.

“We’re still assessing and trying to work to avoid a confrontation,” said Claire Holmes, associate vice chancellor for public affairs.

Protesters said there is no definitive time period to the length of their stay and continue to hold general assemblies every Monday and Thursday at 6 p.m. to discuss issues related to the Occupy movement.

“I plan on being out here as long as my body lasts, whether that means until the concrete and cold beat me or the UCPD (arrive),” said senior Frank Luna.

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Michael Gethers/Staff

A barrage of criticism was flung at UC Berkeley in late December, but, unlike that of past months, the controversy was not about Occupy Cal demonstrations or tuition hikes. This time, the complaints came from a far more familiar source.

After the campus began a maintenance project at People’s Park on Dec. 28, a long history of contention between UC Berkeley and the park returned to the spotlight.

The campus said the project’s purpose was to “provide students and the broader community with safer, more sanitary conditions,” in part by reducing the park’s rat population, according to a Dec. 28 campus press release.

However, the move drew fierce complaints from park activists.

The release said the project — which is ongoing — would not change the overall look of the park, leaving the park’s stage, community gardens and benches intact. But according to Terri Compost, an activist and gardener at the park, the work crews leveled structures that were historically significant for the park community, such as a pergola that volunteers put together after the campus installed a volleyball court in the park in 1991 that resulted in a span of riots and protests led by park activists.

Christine Shaff, communications director of the campus Facilities Services Department, said the campus sees the work as maintenance for the sake of safety and improving visibility in the park.

The contention surrounding the maintenance project is reflective of a broader conflict over control of the park between the campus and park activists, who believe the park ought to retain the egalitarian reputation it gained during the 1960s.

“The park is such an anomaly,” said UC Berkeley alumna and past park activist Carol Denney. “(The campus) tolerated a few days of tents and protests on campus but are as intolerant as you can imagine of People’s Park.”

Denney called the campus’s policy toward the park “overkill,” particularly in light of the recent Occupy movement.

Still, it is unclear exactly how the campus’s experience with the park has affected its attitude toward Occupy Cal, which was prevented from setting up permanent encampments.

“Our experience with these encampments is that they are never temporary,” UC Berkeley Associate Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs Claire Holmes told The New York Times in November. “We’ve had a long-term encampment at People’s Park for 43 years.”

The persistent tension could stem from a fundamental difference in the way the campus and park activists view the park’s ownership.

“In reality, it’s obviously a public park, and dealing with it as private property is totally inappropriate,” said longtime People’s Park volunteer Arthur Fonseca.

Shaff said the construction of the Anna Head residence hall directly across the street contributed to the need for maintenance at the park. But the construction of the new dormitory and plans to renovate buildings on Haste Street for student use have also drawn concern from park occupants who say the new building will mean more police presence in the park, which is currently patrolled by officers from UCPD.

Beyond the issue of maintenance itself, according to Fonseca, the sudden arrival of the work crews also upset many park-goers because they did not receive notice from the campus about the project ahead of time.

Jim Reagan, a member of the People’s Park Community Advisory Board — which advises UC Berkeley regarding the park’s programs and policies — said there was no notice from the campus about the work prior to the arrival of the work crews.

Over the course of the project, a flier from the campus was distributed through the park explaining the project and emphasizing that the overall look of the park would not be changed by the maintenance.

“I understand there are people upset, and we’re communicating with them,” Shaff said.

Annie Sciacca covers city government.

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