It’s been quite a week of news: the threat of revoking the visas of international students if they are not enrolled in “in-person” instruction; the announcement of a new President of UC, Michael Drake; and, at Berkeley, a spike in coronavirus cases attributed to fraternizing in the fraternities. All three could have significant ramifications for the organization of our campus, but we would also draw your attention to a less-publicized but no less significant event – the release of the first annual report of the Independent Advisory Board on Police Accountability and Community Safety, written by Nikki Jones (faculty co-chair) and Rachel Roberson (student co-chair).
Berkeley’s IAB was formed after the recommendation of the 2019 Presidential Task Force on University-Wide Policing, which itself was responding to recommendations of the Academic Council based on a 2017 UC-wide Public Safety Task Force report. The IAB report carefully defines keywords in recent public and academic debate about policing, such as community safety, defunding police, demilitarization, police accountability, police reform, and police abolition. It’s good to know that UC has been studying policing so carefully – the IAB report was largely completed prior to the broad social movement against policing that emerged in the wake of the killing of George Floyd – but we also applaud the Chancellor’s June 18 statement committing the campus to “immediate actions” the report recommends:
Including placing restrictions on the use of force on campus; moving the campus toward demilitarization; reducing the scope of police responsibilities; removing the police department’s headquarters from its prominent place on Sproul Plaza — a persistent demand from Black students and staff; and building up an independent team of unarmed mental health professionals to respond to wellness checks and mental health emergencies on campus.
In addition to swiftly implementing the IAB’s recommendations, the campus should undertake a public discussion of the report’s broader analysis of policing, capitalizing on statements made by the incoming UC President to the LA Times. As an African American who has himself experienced “harsh and disrespectful” policing, President Drake expressed himself forcefully: “The demilitarization of police and the working on of relationships between police and communities have a great deal of promise there. I’m very eager to see if we can, in the moment, move to more respectful security for all of us so that we don’t have to be intimidated by those people whose charge it is to protect us.”
It is the collective responsibility of the campus community to ensure our leaders follow through on their commitments to make the university a safer and less intimidating place for all.
Michael Burawoy and Celeste Langan for the Board of the Berkeley Faculty Association.