Letters to the Editor: UC’s treatment of protesters disgraces its free-speech legacy

To the editor: In 1990, UC Berkeley held a graduation for members of the class of 1970, whose ceremony was canceled due to the anti-Vietnam War protests. (“UC police seek approval for more pepper balls, sponge rounds, launchers, drones,” Sept. 19)

At the time, I was proud to see an article in The Times quoting history professor Leon Litwack, who said at the ceremony: “The class of ’70 occupies a unique place in our legacy. It’s a familiar phrase from your era: If you don’t like the news go out and make some of your own. You did ... and because of you the University of California has become synonymous around the world with the exercise of free speech.”

After reading that the UC Board of Regents voted to increase the stockpiles of weapons after student protests, those words now ring hollow. As one of those students who missed out on my graduation in 1970, I am outraged and urge UC alumni to let the regents know that we support the students’ “exercise of free speech,” free from retaliation and violence.

Kathy Masaoka, Los Angeles

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To the editor: As a UC Berkeley faculty brat growing up in the 1960s, I witnessed the Free Speech Movement, anti-war protests and the political theater of People’s Park, where militants and hippies faced off against then-Gov. Ronald Reagan’s National Guard.

At 12 years old, I inhaled my first tear gas as it swept across the playground of my middle school. Those were exciting, troubled and transformative times.

Reflecting on his UC presidency during that tumultuous decade, Clark Kerr famously stated: “The university is not engaged in making ideas safe for students. It is engaged in making students safe for ideas.”

Today’s UC regents should take heed of these words. Stockpiling weapons across our campuses violates the core principles of a liberal education, not to mention America’s distinguished tradition of civil disobedience.

Nonviolent student protests address real problems and represent one of the hallmarks of an open society. As my not-very-radical father used to say, “Attacking students as the problem eliminates the possibility of a solution.” That’s what I tell my students too.

Andrew Apter, Santa Monica

The writer is a professor of history at UCLA.