The occupation of UC Berkeley’s anthropology library ended Saturday evening when campus administrators agreed to meet the demands of protesters and restore the library’s hours.
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10 comments
January 22, 2012 at 2:04 pm
zunguzungu
To my eyes, this action seemed like a really successful partnership between faculty and students, in that it was driven by students — and faculty did not try to co-opt or guide it — but the anthro faculty *did* play a really important role in constraining the administration from using the kind of force they no doubt otherwise would have. The anthro chair made it clear that they were not part of the occupation, but sort of ambiguously represented the faculty as both guarding students from admins and guarding library from students (in other words, both supervising admins in defense of students and supervising students in the name of admins), and the end result was that the admins had to do what they never want to do: actually negotiate. Faculty presence may not have been the deciding factor, of course; students drove this and deserve the credit. But faculty definitely exerted influence on how the situation would play out, limiting/guiding *both* students and admins. In short, the anthropology department stepped the heck up, and in a really productive way. I saw the signup roster of anthro faculty on thursday night; at least one professor at a time covering round the clock shifts,; three people had signed up for 2AM to 4 AM friday morning. The chair set that up in a day. My hat is off to those folks.
January 22, 2012 at 4:51 pm
Michael Cross
I took part in a similar action in my first job at the University of Calgary, Alberta, in 1964. Students and some faculty protested the reduction of library hours. It was the beginning of activism at a new university that would see protests against racism at the Calgary Stampede, among other events. Nice to see it come round again.
January 24, 2012 at 1:04 pm
Anderson
(1) Berkeley has an anthropology library? Was the main library full?
(2) Anyone purporting to “administer” a *school* should treat reducing *library* hours as the very last thing to be done … certainly far behind an across-the-board administrative pay cut.
January 24, 2012 at 2:25 pm
silbey
True story: several years ago I was in a meeting at my (then) institution, talking about a master building plan for the campus. The presenter wanted to talk about moving the library off campus, as it was right in the center of the quad–a critical place–and could be used for much better things.
January 24, 2012 at 2:57 pm
Vance Maverick
Anderson, Berkeley has lots of individual libraries as well as a main one. I’ve spent many happy hours in the music library, for example.
January 25, 2012 at 9:41 am
Anderson
The presenter wanted to talk about moving the library off campus, as it was right in the center of the quad–a critical place–and could be used for much better things.
Jesus wept. I bet nobody got up at that point and said, “we’ve heard enough, thanks for your time.”
After all, how much money does a library *make* for the university? Just a big hole in the ground you pour money into. A stadium would be much more profitable.
… Vance, I was more like “yes, Berkeley *would* have a separate anthropology library.” The separate music library, given the different media and access technology, is more common I suspect.
January 25, 2012 at 12:10 pm
silbey
Jesus wept .
Exactly! And their argument was exactly what you said: it doesn’t make money for the university!
I bet nobody got up at that point and said, “we’ve heard enough, thanks for your time.”
The faculty in the room had a snit fit (I snitted along with them), and, to his credit, the President said “we’re not moving the library.”
They did put a café in it, though.
January 26, 2012 at 7:18 am
zunguzungu
For what it’s worth, Berkeley’s music library is a “real” library, in that it’s big and pretty and a whole multi-floor building. There are a few like that, like the new East Asian Library. The anthro-library is perfectly nice, but much more modest; there is a staircase that goes up to another room of stacks, but the main part is just two biggish rooms (inside Kroeber, the anthro building). But it sure doesn’t make any money for the university!
January 26, 2012 at 7:53 am
Vance Maverick
And for what it’s worth (even less), in my day, the music library was just part of the second floor of the music department. With tall windows overlooking the green heart of the campus, but not like the cool new building (which I’ve only seen from outside).
January 26, 2012 at 8:17 am
Anderson
“They did put a café in it, though.”
Few campus buildings cannot be improved with a cafe, I will happily concede.