Mother Jones' latest Top Ten Activist Campus list is out. Berkeley is number nine.

9. UC Berkeley: True to form, 1,500 Cal students rallied at Sproul Plaza as the Iraq war began, demanding that Baghdad University be declared a sister school and that Berkeley refuse to provide student records to federal authorities. And 98 students were later arrested as they staged a four-hour sit-in, effectively bringing school business to a halt. "In many cases the students did not walk," says police captain Bill Coo-per, "so the officers had to drag them out."

That was an impressive protest, sure thing. Unfortunately for our activist reputation, it was a single moment in time, not followed up by any sort of impressive activism. If there was anything that symbolized the inability of campus activists to harness student dissent, that was it.

An informative comparison might be California JC's to the UC system. The JC's are number 2 on the list

2. California Community Colleges: On March 17, after California announced it was cutting $530 million from community colleges and hiking tuition by 120 percent, 10,000 students marched on Sacramento. Two weeks later, 4,000 students chanted, "Educate! Don't Incarcerate!" as they marched in Los Angeles, railing against cuts that would deprive 200,000 students of an education. Despite a $35 billion budget shortfall, Governor Gray Davis restored $245 million to the colleges and scaled back tuition increases to 50 percent. "The students should be proud of their involvement in the process," says Peter Ragone, communications director for the governor, "and proud of the fact that their voice has influence."

The UC's response was the usual unproductive bitchery outside of a Regents meeting, as well as an unconvicing 200 or so well-dressed students half-heartedly cheering in front of the Capital. And now efforts for fighting those increases have been abandoned during the battle against Prop 54.Email This Post!