Sunday, April 21, 2013

Courtesy of the Protests


Ryota Ogura
Section 02
A Tale of Two Campuses

When I recall the pepper spray incident on UC Davis campus, I think of policemen spraying peaceful group of protester sitting in, but I may have to change my thought. The article talks about how the response of two schools, Berkley and Davis, against the protestor is different. I can say that’s because Davis’ administration is bad and mean, but I also think that is because there were some problem in the way they protest. Even though the protest did not bring up rebellion, if they occupy a certain place, drink, and draw graffiti, which obviously is vandalism, can we still say that they are peaceful? Moreover, it really does not make sense to me that they protest against the tuition hikes, which mean school will need to cut an extra cost and use it for educational purpose, and they ended up in making school spend some extra money to take care of what they left. I think the protests of Davis are not treated as they wanted to be, and I think that is because of the way they protest. We have freedom of speech on campus, and we have the right to protest. However, this does not mean that every action is forgiven under the name of “protest”. Administration is just a group of people after all, so we may need a proper manner and etiquette to protest, and to receive a respectful response from administration.     

Q:Why do you think the response of two administrations were so different.

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