The College Fix

In a campus-wide email on Monday, UC-Berkeley chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau linked the fatal shootings in Tucson with the failure of Congress to pass the Dream Act, which would legalize that status of certain illegal aliens.

“I believe that it is not a coincidence that this calamity has occurred in a state which has legislated discrimination against undocumented persons,” wrote Birgenau. “This same mean-spirited xenophobia played a major role in the defeat of the Dream Act by our legislators in Washington, leaving many exceptionally talented and deserving young people, including our own undocumented students, painfully in limbo with regard to their futures in this country.”

He also said the killings, which left six dead and many wounded, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona), were precipitated by a “climate in which demonization of others goes unchallenged and hateful speech is tolerated.”

Former UC regent Ward Connerly, a former UC regent best known for spearheading a successful effort to ban race and gender-based criteria for university admissions in California, found Birgenau’s remarks to be inappropriate.

“Chancellor Birgeneau has a history of making extraordinarily distasteful comments,” Connerly wrote. “This rises to the top. Just because UC is a sanctuary for illegal immigrants doesn’t mean that Arizona needs to be.”

Connerly wasn’t alone in his criticism. Glynn Custred, a retired Cal State professor who serves on the board of the California Association of Scholars, wrote that the chancellor’s e-mail was “logically invalid and shallow,” citing a lack of evidence connecting the alleged shooter to mainstream political ideology and rhetoric. He also questioned whether it was appropriate to bring up the Dream Act with respect to the shooting.

“In this way Birgenau demonizes, by implication, anyone who disagrees with him on a policy issue, the Dream Act, on which reasonable people might disagree,” Custred said. “It is also ideologically inspired and exploitative, since he takes advantage of this horrible act in order to advance his own policy preference and ideological stance.”

Some students reacted more positively to the chancellor’s remarks, while still taking issue with its political nature. Dylan Moore, a sophomore at Berkeley, thought Birgenau’s intentions were good.

“I don’t think it’s surprising that something like this would happen to a Democratic Congresswoman in such a conservative state,” said Moore. “It is also important to have an open dialogue on campus about controversial issues, and I think that Berkeley does that quite well.”

He added, “I don’t think that it was necessary to bring in the failure of the DREAM Act.”

Berkeley junior Rick Chen was less impressed.

“I was quite disappointed by the chancellor’s campus-wide e-mail, but unfortunately not surprised,” said Chen. “The Chancellor has had a history of using his office to ask the campus to adopt his political views, such as scaremongering the campus into believing Berkeley’s competitiveness would disappear.”

With many in the media and government blaming heated rhetoric for contributing to the massacre, Birgeneau’s statement may set the tone for discussion of the event on campus.

Gabriella Hoffman is the Advertising Manager at The California Review. She studies at the University of California, San Diego, and is a member of the Student Free Press Association.

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