To her credit, Chancellor Christ has made it one of her priorities to increase housing for Berkeley students, staff and faculty. It’s not easy. Apart from financial constraints, a major problem is the availability of land. Space for campus housing can’t be created ex nihilo; it often means displacing others— and that lies at the heart of the protests around two campus housing projects: People’s Park and the Anchor Project in North Berkeley. Writing for the BFA, Professor Kristin Hanson has contributed a summary of the proposals, of some community opposition to them, and a bit of history of UC Berkeley’s land.
Berkeley is not unique in its continued pursuit of land acquisition in its immediate environment. Private universities such as the University of Chicago and Columbia are notorious for land grabs in their immediate vicinity. There have been many rumors that the Berkeley administration has its eye on the large land holdings, potentially made available by the closure of Mills College, but we are still awaiting details. If Berkeley is going to swallow up Mills, then at what cost and for whom?
Displacing populations is just one dimension of universities operating as landlords, as we know from the struggles of student tenants in Albany Village, who have been on a rent strike during much of the pandemic. They are calling on the university to take advantage of the state’s rental assistance program (SB91); there is a petition circulating with more details. But Berkeley is not the only campus that is making life difficult for student tenants. UC San Diego is proposing substantial rent hikes for graduate student housing, which has also led to an outpouring of protest.
Why is the university applying fiscal pressure to the most vulnerable populations in these time times of economic crisis? If the university has to raise rents, why did it withdraw the progressive furloughs that could have provided funding to offset rent increases and provide funding for those in need? COVID-19 has not only revealed the inequalities within the university, but has become the occasion to amplify them.
Michael Burawoy and Celeste Langan for the Board of the Berkeley Faculty Association.