UC Berkeley OTR: Cal to Protestors: "Yeah, We're Gonna Need Those Trees Back"

Cal to Protestors: "Yeah, We're Gonna Need Those Trees Back"

Posted by tallblonde 07/24/2008 3:14 PM
Category: News

Bye!

Over a year and a half after taking to the trees, Save the Oaks, a group protesting the University's plans to build a "Student Athlete High Performance Center" on what is now a grove playing host to 150-year-old oaks, may soon no longer have a branch to call home. That's right: The tree-sitters have lost their legal standing, which is mostly surprising because I was not aware they had any to begin with. The fact that they recently threw buckets of urine and feces at the police and requested marijuana as part of their provisions may have contributed to that idea. The university reportedly had been spending upwards of $40,000 a day on security and other costs associated with attempting to starve the protestors out of their leafy abodes.

An injunction against the University preventing construction of the center because of the possibility that it would collapse--being build on the Hayward fault line and all--has been lifted, clearing the way for the police to evict the protestors from the grove outside Memorial Stadium. Construction should begin in seven days on the We Have Nobel Laureates And We're Not Afraid To Use Them (On The Football Field) Center. Or maybe it's the We Invented the Atomic Bomb and All We Got Were These Lousy Tree Sitters Center.

In any case, while I still don't think it's right to cut down trees that have been here longer than the university in order to build a nice big gym for a bunch of athletes, it's about time we all just moved on. It was a lost cause from the beginning; there's no way Zachary RunningWolf goes up against Jeff Tedford with recruiting on the line in the wake of a 7-6 season and wins. It's ridiculous to think this will help anybody but the athletic department anyway, as I'm pretty sure medical schools consider MCAT scores a better test of your abilities than your basketball team's record, but it's high time Cal indulged in a $120 million monstrosity that serves only a select few of its student population--the select few who, I'd like to note, don't pay tuition.

When I chose to come to Cal, it was because of the 30 top-10 rated graduate schools and not the exclusive athlete clubs; the atmosphere of inclusion of people from all walks of life and not the placement of "student"-athletes on some sort "holier-than-thou" pedestal; the spirit of protest and not the police barricades preventing those brave enough to stand up for what they believe in from getting food and water. Call me a crazy hippie all you want, but I hope, at some point in all of our lives, we can find it in ourselves to determine something really is worth going out on a limb for.

Get it?

+ 2 comments

Anonymous says,

It would be nice if you would fact check your statement before posting it. You said:

"In any case, while I still don't think it's right to cut down trees that have been here longer than the university in order to build a nice big gym for a bunch of athletes, it's about time we all just moved on."

Well, the University planted those trees after the stadium was built. If you are still in the area, take a trip into Minor Hall, and look at all of the large construction photos of the stadium. You can also go over to Doe Library and (if it is still there) look at the picture of the hills when South hall was first built.

I also wish that your time at Cal would have taught you a little about the importance of a well-rounded education. This includes athletics as well as academics. Sure, not everyone is a student athlete, and sometimes student athletes do get unfair preferential treatment. However, if you cannot see the importance of athletics to the university, including the academic departments, then it is a said day indeed that Cal failed you.

Furthermore, this is not about building a "nice big gym for a bunch of athletes," but rather it is about building office space, training facilities, and medical facilities for the athletes, the coaching staff, and the students. It is about improving facilities that are the worst in the Pac-10, and among the worst in the nation. It is about providing equal opportunity for male and female athletes (apparently you missed the part where female lacrosse athletes change in their cars due to a lack of adequate facilities). And most importantly, it is about moving those mentioned above out of the seismically unfit stadium to a facility that will be among the safest on campus in the event of an earthquake. Posted 07/24/2008 6:14 PMReply

tallblonde says,

First, I'm glad that someone is still reading what I'm writing, even if it is only monthly at this point.

Second, I completely agree with you. I know that athletics are important to a well-rounded university; I know that lots of people need this gym--not just athletes, but their trainers and masseuses, too; and, while I did not personally know that the oaks were planted after the university was built, I appreciate you having the journalistic integrity to do some research before posting anonymously on this anonymous blog. What I'm trying to give here is a different perspective, one that doesn't take all this bullsh*t so seriously. It's been nothing but "those goddamn mangy hippie tree-sitters" and "If I Were A Tree I'd Die For Cal Football" for the past 2 years, almost, and I think that's ridiculous. People are more up-in-arms about building a gym (and, I guess, office space) than they are about things that really matter--like, I don't know, the war? I'm putting aside reason, for example, the fact that none of the protesters were affiliated with the university, that they were all crazy, that the stadium needs to be seismically retrofitted, and that those women's lacrosse players need to have a gym to change in, so that it looks more like it really should: A squabble between two opposing viewpoints that, while costing everyone and their mother millions of dollars, isn't really going to mean that much in the long run. Posted 07/25/2008 1:21 PMReply