Updated Sept. 28, 4:30 p.m. to include an additional statement on university policy from Dan Mogulof
A speech by Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz at UC Berkeley might be blocked because organizers didn’t give campus police the required eight-week notice for the event.
Dershowitz’s lecture, tentatively titled “The Liberal Case for Israel,” is planned for Oct. 10. But Rabbi Gil Yosef Leeds, director of the Chabad Jewish Student Center, which is sponsoring the lecture along with the pro-Israel student club Tikvah, said today that an initially approved 500-seat classroom was pulled because of the advance notice requirement.
“As of last night, Berkeley had reserved a large campus lecture hall for us, but because of a newly instituted policy requiring [giving] UCPD 8 weeks advance notice, so far they have denied on-campus space,” Leeds said in an email. “The semester isn’t even eight weeks old.”
UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof pointed to the school’s “Major Events Hosted by Non-Departmental Users” interim policy statement announced on Aug. 14, which states that a request form must be submitted to campus police “at least eight weeks prior to the event” for audiences of more than 200 people.
“If they wish to host Mr. Dershowitz 12 days from now on Oct. 10, we have offered the students a number of venues that can accommodate an audience of 199 people,” Mogulof said in an email. “If, however, having a larger audience is more important to the hosting student organization than holding the event on the date they initially proposed, we would be happy to work with them to reschedule the event for a day at least eight weeks from now so that we can maintain compliance with policy.”
Mogulof said the policy applies only to non-departmental applicants. That means a speaker hosted by a UC Berkeley department would not have to follow the guidelines. Leeds said among his follow-up strategies is to seek a UC Berkeley department to sponsor the lecture.
Dershowitz, who could not be reached for comment, said on TV’s “Fox & Friends” this morning that he was being deprived of his free speech rights and accused UC Berkeley of being unfair to pro-Israel speakers.
Dershowitz, an emeritus professor of law at Harvard, wrote “The Case for Israel” in 2003 and often addresses the issue on college campuses, including an event last night at Columbia University in New York.
His bid to speak at UC Berkeley is the latest in a series of recent efforts to focus on free speech rights on the campus. Several right-wing speakers, including former Breitbart News editor-at-large Ben Shapiro, have visited amid accusations that the campus was shutting out right-leaning speakers.
Conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos made a 15-minute appearance on the steps of UC Berkeley’s Sproul Hall last Sunday, costing the university an estimated $800,000 to provide security. He came after student organizers canceled a “Free Speech Week” that was to include Steve Bannon, President Trump’s former adviser, and conservative author Ann Coulter.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions singled out the need for free speech at UC Berkeley in a lecture earlier this week at Georgetown University’s law school.
“The American university was once the center of academic freedom — a place of robust debate, a forum for the competition of ideas,” he said. “But it is transforming into an echo chamber of political correctness and homogeneous thought, a shelter for fragile egos.”
Meanwhile, Leeds is confident the Dershowitz lecture will take place.
“I’m sure it’s on,” he said. “It’s just a matter of how this will play out.”
All student-sponsored events on our campus are governed by a policy that went into effect on August 14, 2017, well before this particular invitation was issued. The policy is available through the link below. Please note the clearly stated requirement for eight-week advance notice (item #5 on page #5) for all events with audiences larger than 200 people—which applies in this instance given the students’ initial request for an audience well in excess of 200 people.
The events policy: http://deanofstudents.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/documents/Events-Policy-Draft-8-14-17.pdf
Earlier today, we informed the student organization that the campus looks forward to supporting and facilitating planning for this event once they decide how they wish to comply with the policy requirements. As soon as they do so we can move ahead and confirm timing and location for the event. Fortunately, there is more than a single option.
If they wish to host Mr. Dershowitz 12 days from now on October 10, we have offered the students a number of venues that can accommodate an audience of 199 people. If, however, having a larger audience is more important to the hosting student organization than holding the event on the date they initially proposed, we would be happy to work with them to re-schedule the event for a day at least eight weeks from now so that we can maintain compliance with policy.
We are committed to supporting all of our student organizations and their ability to bring speakers of their choice to campus. What we cannot do is afford special treatment to certain student organizations that we could not offer to all. The best way to ensure equitable treatment is through adherence to existing policy.
This is a most ridiculous argument for putting stops into having a pro-Israel speaker on your campus. What are the 8 weeks needed for? If your department is unable to plan staffing 2 weeks in advance, then you need to change the way you do staffing. 8 weeks or 3 months or next year — the arbitrarily chosen number is meant to discourage students from inviting speakers. If you are indeed “committed to supporting students” – then drop the unnecessary requirement and facilitate an event. Do your job and stop making excuses.
As a graduate of UCBerkeley, I continue to find reasons to be ashamed of the university. Their lack of ability to open and protect the campus to people of all opinions, specifically, to conservatives goes against everything that UC Berkeley was once known for. Dershowitz
said he’d sue UCBerkeley if they won’t let him talk; I hope he gets the
chance to sue them. They could use a lesson or ten….
When it comes to Israel, now it’s the left against the left, if the other left is not left enough to bash Israel… So sad.