Free Speech Movement

While this editorial board and the campus community may differ vastly on where we each stand, we can all agree on one thing: We must remain firmly committed to protecting students.

Though Berkeley’s 2024 mayoral race is still more than a year out, the slate is taking shape early, as Councilmembers Kate Harrison, Sophie Hahn and Rigel Robinson all announced their candidacies this week. 

As of today, there is no memorial on campus to honor the students and locals who gave their lives in the Vietnam War, despite there being a similar monument for every prior major 20th-century American war.

A keystone of any academic setting is the presence of dissent and discourse, which is amplified on campuses that seek to explore the intersectional nature of human experiences within any region. 

The grit and determination of female trailblazers past and present has paved the way for female politicians and female centered legislation. 

Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of Berkeley Law since 2017, has been at the forefront of free speech advocacy for the past four decades. From previously serving as the dean of UC Irvine School of Law and holding appointments at the law schools of Duke University, the University of Southern California and DePaul University, to penning influential articles and books on the principles of freedom of speech, Chemerinsky is a leading voice.

Over the past decades, movements starting from the Free Speech movement in the mid-1960s to recent protests like the United Automobile Workers, or UAW, strike have shown trends of significant differences and similarities that have translated over time.

At the center of the Free Speech Movement was Mario Savio, a campus student who led the student protests and movement that culminated with campus students winning the right to political free speech.

Interviews with UC Berkeley community members revealed a diversity of perspectives regarding what exactly freedom of speech means to campus students and faculty alike.

David Lance Goines was a man of many titles, from calligrapher, printer, artist, political activist to a “peculiar fellow.”