A Letter to my Alma Mater

#opinions
The grand, neoclassical facade of Wheeler Hall on the UC Berkeley campus, viewed from a low angle in the late afternoon. The building's stone columns and wide steps are highlighted by strong sunlight and shadow, with the Campanile visible in the background against a clear blue sky.

It was with dismay this morning that I read the Daily Cal article: UC Berkeley turns over personal information of more than 150 students and staff to federal government. That you, the inheritors of this university’s mantle, would willingly comply with a political witch hunt reveals a profound and stunning ignorance of the historical moment we are in.

Your failure of courage raises some fundamental questions. What is the point of studying history if we learn nothing from it? What is the point of our own history if we simply repeat the same mistakes we made in the past?

We tell ourselves myths about Mario Savio and the Free Speech Movement, about the little circle of freedom in front of Sproul Hall, about how that history determined who we are now. But it is clear now that you have chosen to betray that legacy, siding not with Savio, but with the machine he warned us about. You aren’t willing to put your careers, never mind your bodies, upon the wheels and levers to make it stop.

You believe you’re saving the University. But you are destroying its soul.

Alexander Gude (‘08)