UC Berkeley Faculty Rally to Defend Free Speech and Protest Cuts

Hundreds of faculty and students flooded UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza on Wednesday to defend academic freedom and free speech amid the Trump administration’s escalating threats to withhold funding from the campus.

Both UC Berkeley and UCLA are among the 10 universities under investigation by the Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism after the Justice Department alleged that the schools failed to protect Jewish students during the widespread pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses last spring. UC Berkeley is also the subject of another investigation from the Department of Education over alleged “race-exclusionary practices” in its graduate programs.

The Trump administration said both of these may be grounds to withhold federal funding from the university.

“Academic freedom is under assault,” African American studies professor Ula Taylor told the crowd at Sproul. “When we accepted the honor to teach and conduct research at this public university, we did so because of a long commitment to academic freedom.”

Some speakers were scheduled to teach at the same time as the rally. Lecturer Matthew Parker’s solution was to bring his class to Sproul Plaza, where he spoke about the importance of maintaining an open dialogue — especially those with whom he “fruitfully disagrees.”

Professors also pointed to the university’s history of championing free speech and diversity efforts as a strength the federal administration is attacking. Demonstrators held signs that read “Education not censorship,” “We are the university” and “Free speech movement was born in Berkeley.”

“I love that here is where I first danced with a wheelchair-bound student who also taught me disability law,” Berkeley Law professor Claudia Polsky said. “I love that UC Berkeley science helped lead to the COVID vaccine, saving over 14 million lives. And best of all, I love that here, status cannot be bought: The only route to a personal parking space is to win a Nobel prize.”

UC Berkeley professors also spoke about their rising concern of political deportations after the detention of Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil last week. Amid chants to free Khalil, Polsky urged faculty to protect those who are vulnerable to similar arrests for the purpose of deportation.

“Today, let us learn the lesson of good instincts that were deployed too late. Our time is right now,” she said. “Trump’s attacks on Columbia University are just the beginning.”

Other professors also compared Khalil’s detention to the internment of Japanese Americans and the persecution of European Jews at the start of the Holocaust.

As faculty spoke at the rally, UC President Michael Drake was leading the UC Regents meeting in Los Angeles, where he announced a systemwide hiring freeze in anticipation of both state and federal funding cuts.

Drake called the funding uncertainties and resulting hiring freeze a “lose-lose proposition” for the country.

Other universities, such as Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Washington, announced freezes this week, citing similar uncertainties about federal funding.

Faculty vowed to return to Sproul on April 8 as part of a national labor action to protest cuts to education and research.