www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/01/09/elec04.berkeley/index.html
In this edition, Meriah Doty returns to her alma mater, University of California at Berkeley. BERKELEY, California CNN - Its been almost 40 years since the Free Speech Movement shook the University of California at Berkeley in 1964 and reverberated across the nation, establishing Berkeley as the ground zero of the anti-war movement. But recently, most students there had final exams and winter break on their minds and not radical causes. The Free Speech Movement was started by students angry they were not allowed to use campus facilities for their anti-war and other campaigns. It inspired campuses across the nation to follow suit with large, organized student protests and solidified Berkeleys reputation for liberal politics and radical left-wing ideals. Forty years on, although most students agree the school has a liberal environment, its reputation as a hotbed of radicalism seems a little out-of-date. I think its definitely more conservative than it has been in the past, graduate student Lih-Chuin Loh said when asked if Berkeley had changed. If it is liberal, its hard to tell because the demonstrations here are pretty weak, to be honest.
However, Eggars said, the city of Berkeley is more liberal than the students. Philosophy professor John Searle, who in 1964 became the first tenured professor to join the Free Speech Movement, said that Berkeley is not too different from any other American university. Read more on how professor Searle was involved with the FSM Berkeley had a liberal element in the student body who tended to be quite active. I think thats in general a feature of intellectually active places, Searle said. And there is a distinction to be made between Berkeley the city and United States Berkeley, the university. But the city is much more to the left than it was prior to all of this, Searle said. Searle also said that, unlike now, disruptive students protests were a part of daily life on Berkeleys campus in the 1960s. One era to another Cognitive science major Owen Laine, a junior at Cal, is living proof of a contrast between student life in the Vietnam generation and today.
Eric Schewe, editor-in-chief of United States Berkeleys student newspaper, The Daily Californian, discussed the validity of Cals reputation for left-wing political thought. We have an - if not high profile, well-funded from unknown sources - conservative campus group called the Berkeley College of Republicans, Schewe said. When protests are held, they are still staged in front of the campus administration building Sproul Hall to this day - the very place where Free Speech Movement student leader Mario Savio stood on a police car in December of 1964 and gave a famous speech before leading a sit-in inside the building. The Free Speech Movement and everything that happened here in the 60s was a big reason I wanted to come out here, said Brant Rotmem, an international environmental politics major and a sophomore. I wanted to come out to Berkeley because it has this huge reputation for forward thinking. Christine Baker, a senior and anthropology major said, Im very proud of that legacy.
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