Conservative Students on Political Hostility at Cal
Five UC Berkeley conservatives give firsthand accounts of clashes with others on campus, describing the tactics of those who oppose them to be “unnecessarily provocative.”
One of the students interviewed is Naweed Tahmas, external vice president of the Berkeley College Republicans:
As a Republican on campus I am targeted frequently. I have been spit on on several occasions. I have had drinks thrown on me. I have been punched in the face.”
When I was punched it was election night. I was not wearing Trump gear, but I was recognized. It was after Trump’s win. Two individuals came up and punched me in the face. This was my first semester at Berkeley.
Read more at The New York Times
Berkeley Rugby Player Paralyzed
Robert Paylor, a 20-year-old Cal sophomore, suffered a devastating injury playing for the Bears at the national rugby championship game over the weekend. As of today, more than $350,000 has been donated to his GoFundMe to help with treatment.
“The injury paralyzed his lower body with limited motion in his arms,” his family said in a statement. “This will be a long and difficult journey for Robert and his outcome is uncertain. But we know his faith and determination will get him as far as he can go in regaining mobility.”
The Silk Road
UC Berkeley is now home to the first institutionalized center in America for the study of the Silk Road—an ancient network of trade routes through Asia.
The center was funded by philanthropist Oscar Tang and his family. Tang founded other Asian studies centers at Princeton and Columbia as well.
Oscar Tang says that the new Tang Center at Berkeley is “part of my family’s ongoing effort to enhance knowledge and understanding of the great Chinese civilization and its relationship to the rest of the world.”
Watching Cal’s Language
Ana-Belén Redondo-Campillos, a Berkeley Spanish and Catalan lecturer, says she worries her classes will be canceled due to campus budget reductions for the Arts and Humanities Division. These reductions, according to the division’s dean Anthony Cascardi, could put Cal’s educational reputation in jeopardy.
“We have to be extremely careful about how we in turn allocate resources so that we do not lose our position of excellence in foreign language instruction,” Cascardi wrote in an email, as previously reported by The Daily Californian.
Read more at The Daily Californian
