Open Letter From a Concerned Student
December 13, 2009 by Pegah Zardoost, under Blog.
[Note: This was written on Friday, December 11th in response to the arrests at Open University. It is an open letter and is intended as such and someone suggested that I also put it on our blog. If you are not informed about the arrests of Friday, December 11th, the San Francisco Chronicle has a basic article, for information purposes: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/12/BAET1B2R1N.DTL]
Chancellor Birgenau and Dean Poullard,
I write to you as a dear, concerned friend of one of the students arrested this morning and as an ally of the movement that got him there in the first place, and a participant in the Open University, who just happened to not attend last night. I am in shock that the week of nonviolent studying and events has been ended like this. I am appalled that University of California Police Officers were told to arrest dozens of students and some community members while they were essentially sleeping from a campus building around 5 A.M. in the morning on a Friday. I feel betrayed and I have lost all trust in the system that I thought had some courtesy. I was there on Monday night through Tuesday morning and the few officers left to keep guard were essentially cordial and congenial. They would come in and tell us they were leaving for the night, for example, and that another officer was going to come replace them.
As you know, the first scheduled finals are tomorrow morning at 8 A.M. I highly doubt that these students will be able to make that session, and even if so, I can’t imagine how they can be in any state to study for the rest of their final examinations after a traumatic experience such as this. This is already getting national news coverage and luckily there were some university faculty and AFSCME members there as the students were taken away.
I ask at minimum that the U.C. Berkeley students involved be given academic amnesty in this situation.
This is appalling. We are a premier academic institution with a history of activism and civic involvement. This is absolutely not the way that a week of the nonviolent use of a campus building should end. It is certainly a horribly-ineffective P.R. move. What can public opinion be about university police arresting students from a campus building before dawn on a weekday? This is not September 24th, it is not November 18th, 19th, or 20th. This institution needs a real evaluation of its priorities and of the values it espouses. I have an immense amount of love for my campus and community. I have an immense amount of spirit as well – I have rushed the field and taken pictures with Chancellor Birgenau and your wife Mary-Catherine at Memorial and Stanford Stadium. I have gushed about how amazing this place is. I have dedicated my time and energy to convince admitted high school students to choose Cal, and I wear my Blue & Gold with pride.
But that was yesterday. Today, I am a heartbroken undergraduate who feels betrayed by a university she once loved and now can only view with disdain. In my year-and-a-half as a Berkeley student, I have admired the beauty of our campus on a nearly daily basis. Its beautiful foliage, buildings, and pathways have captivated me. However, none of that will ever appear the same to me. I assure you that even years from now, as an alumna walking through our campus, I will never be able to appreciate its beauty the way I did on Day 1 or Day 100, because I can never forget being awoken early on a Friday morning right before final exams, by a text message from a friend who tells me he is on a police bus, arrested. I can never forget shooting out of bed, not knowing what I can do, frantically trying to get to campus but hearing that that bus is already on its way to a jail. Calling news organizations only to be met with answering machines and voice-mail boxes, wishing I could scream across the phone line, and having to send out emails instead.
Today, my university has left me helpless and scared.
With the utmost sincerity,
Pegah Zardoost
University of California, Berkeley | Class of 2012
Pre-Law, Intended – Classical Civilizations
Leadership Alumni Award Scholar
Membership Director, Cal Berkeley Democrats
pegah.zardoost@gmail.com
(951) 531-4224
