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Thursday, April 11, 2024

New Berkeley Chancellor - Part 2 (things not said & what about UCLA?)

The appointment of Richard Lyons as the incoming chancellor of UC-Berkeley which we noted yesterday included various statements by him and others. You'll find references below. Notably, incoming chancellor Lyons didn't touch on the demonstrations taking place at Berkeley or the People's Park issue. 

We also do not know where the search for a new UCLA chancellor - a process going on at the same time as the Berkeley search - now stands. The next regular Regents meetings are in mid-May. Of course, there is no guarantee there will be a UCLA candidate by then. In addition, if someone is chosen earlier, the Regents could schedule an off-cycle meeting for the formal selection. 

The Regents are meeting behind closed doors today to elect officers and make appointments to standing committees for 2024-25.*

From California Today (NY Times):

...Though Berkeley is a public institution with a storied history of protest, [outgoing chancellor] Christ has largely avoided becoming the center of similar controversies. But recent incidents have tested the university. On Tuesday, video showed a law professor, Catherine Fisk, trying to grab a microphone and cellphone from a student who had stood up to speak on behalf of Palestinians at a student dinner that Fisk was hosting at her home with her husband, Erwin Chemerinsky, the law school dean.**

Pro-Palestinian groups said that the student, Malak Afaneh, who belongs to Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine, was assaulted and that her free speech rights were violated. Chemerinsky said in a statement that the student’s actions were an inappropriate attempt to turn a social occasion at his home into a forum for political speech. At a news conference after the board’s vote, Lyons did not discuss that incident or other recent protests, noting that he had not yet taken over as chancellor.

But he said that campus officials were considering how to balance the need to protect free speech and keep Berkeley an open “marketplace for ideas” against rules to ensure that protests and speech do not infringe upon the rights of others...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/11/us/richard-lyons-uc-berkeley-chancellor.html.

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Official announcement by UC President Drake:

https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/university-california-president-michael-v-drake-md-announces-appointment-new-uc-berkeley

Video of vote of the Regents and statement to the Regents by Prof. Lyons:

https://ia600300.us.archive.org/6/items/regents-board-public-comment-4-10-2024/Regents-Board%20UC-Berkeley%20chancellor%204-10-2024.mp4

Detailed CV of Prof. Lyons:

https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/sites/default/files/2024-04/lyons-CV.pdf

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*https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/april24/noms.pdf.

**The video is at:

https://ia601406.us.archive.org/35/items/a-laugh-a-tear-a-mitzvah/UC-B%20Law%20Dean%20Chemerinsky%20vs%20anti-Israel%20protesters%20at%20home%20dinner%20for%20students%204-9-2024.mp4. For details, see:

https://reason.com/volokh/2024/04/10/berkeley-students-post-anti-semitic-cartoons-disrupt-dinner-at-dean-chemerinskys-home/.

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