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Forty-Seven Berkeley Faculty Members Sponsor No Confidence Resolution Against Birgeneau: Meeting to Take Place Monday Afternoon

From the U.C. Berkeley Academic Senate Website
Wednesday November 23, 2011 - 06:00:00 PM

NOTICE OF SPECIAL MEETING
BERKELEY DIVISION OF THE ACADEMIC SENATE
Monday, November 28, 2011, 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Chevron Auditorium, International House, 2299 Piedmont Avenue
Summary of Business 


A special meeting of the Berkeley Division was requested by forty-seven
members of the Division: Elizabeth Abel, Professor, English; Kathryn
Abrams, Herma Hill Kay Distinguished Professor of Law, Law; Patricia
Baquedano-Lopez, Associate Professor, Education; Brian A. Barsky,
Professor, Computer Science; Patricia Berger, Associate Professor, History
of Art; Deborah Blocker, Associate Professor, French; Jean-Paul Bourdier,
Professor, Architecture; Natalia Brizuela, Associate Professor, Spanish and
Portuguese; Wendy Brown, Class of 1936 First Professor, Political Science;
Judith Butler, Professor, Rhetoric; T.J. Clarke, Professor Emeritus, History
of Art; Lawrence Cohen, Professor, Anthropology; Robert Dudley,
Professor, Integrative Biology; Wayne M. Getz, Professor, Environmental
Science, Policy and Management; Cecil Giscome, Professor, English; Peter
Glazer, Associate Professor and Chair, Theater, Dance and Performance
Studies; Suzanne Guerlac, Professor, French; Yoko Hasegawa, Associate
Professor, East Asian Languages and Cultures; Lyn Hejinian, Professor,
English; Leslea Hlusko, Associate Professor, Integrative Biology; You-tien
Hsing, Professor, Geography; Jean Lave, Professor Emerita, Education;
Zeus Leonardo, Associate Professor, Education; Gregory Levine, Associate
Professor, History of Art; John H. Lie, Professor, Sociology; Michael L.
Lucey, Bernie H. Williams Professor of Comparative Literature and
Professor, French; Colleen Lye, Associate Professor, English; Samer
Madanat, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering; Brent D.
Mishler, Professor, Integrative Biology; Rasmus Nielsen, Professor,
Integrative Biology; Richard B. Norgard, Professor, Energy and Resources;
Michael O’Hare, Professor, Public Policy; Nancy Peluso, Professor,
Environmental Science, Policy and Management; Daniel Perlstein,
Associate Professor, Education; Paul Rabinow, Professor, Anthropology;
Juana Maria Rodriguez, Associate Professor, Gender and Women’s
Studies; Leslie Salzinger, Associate Professor, Gender and Women’s
Studies; Susan Schweik, Professor, English; Ellen L. Sims, Professor,
Integrative Biology; Jeffrey Skoller, Associate Professor, Film and Media
Studies; Sandra Smith, Associate Professor, Sociology; Shannon Steen,
Associate Professor, Theater, Dance and Performance Studies; Estelle
Taricia, Associate Professor, Spanish and Portuguese; Barrie Thorne,
Professor and Interim Chair, Gender and Women’s Studies, and Professor,
Sociology; James Vernon, Professor, History; Sophie Volpp, Associate
Professor, East Asian Languages and Cultures/Comparative Literature;
Richard A. Walker, Professor, Geography. 


The special meeting of the Berkeley Division is scheduled for Monday,
November 28, 2011 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. in Chevron Auditorium,
International House. In accordance with Division Bylaw 5(B), this notice
of meeting is being sent to the members of the Berkeley Division at least
five days of instruction prior to the meeting. 


The forty-seven members of the Division who requested the special
meeting propose one resolution as the business for the meeting. The
resolution is noticed in the order of business that follows this summary. 


Gary Holland
Secretary
Berkeley Division 


ORDER OF BUSINESS 


I. Business
Consideration of the following resolution. 


Resolution proposed by: Wendy Brown, Professor, Political Science; Barrie
Thorne, Professor, Gender and Women’s Studies/Sociology; Judith Butler,
Professor, Rhetoric.* 


Whereas, Non-violent political protest engages fundamental rights of free
assembly and free speech, and 


Whereas, November 9th efforts by protestors to set up and remain in a
temporary encampment near Sproul Hall constitutes non-violent political
protest, and 


Whereas, These non-violent actions were met with a brutal and dangerous police
response (see, e.g.,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buovLQ9qyWQ&feature=share), a
response authorized in advance as well as retroactively justified by Chancellor
Birgeneau, Executive Vice Chancellor Breslauer and Vice Chancellor for Student
Affairs LeGrand, and 


Whereas, This is the third time in two years that such police violence has been
unleashed upon protesters at Berkeley, with resulting bodily injuries to
protestors, student and faculty outrage, a series of expensive lawsuits against the
university, a tarnished university image, and a severely compromised climate for
free expression on campus; 


Therefore be it Resolved that the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate has
lost confidence in the ability of Chancellor Birgeneau, EVC Breslauer and VC
LeGrande to respond appropriately to non-violent campus protests, to secure
student welfare amidst these protests, to minimize the deployment of force and
to respect freedom of speech and assembly on the Berkeley campus. 


II. Other matters authorized by unanimous consent of the voting members
present 


* Corrected November 18, 2011.