Relationship with UC full of conflict
By Charles Proctor
June 6, 2004 9:00 p.m.
The passing of Ronald Reagan not only closes a chapter on part
of the nation’s history, but part of the University of
California’s history as well.
It is a history marked by stormy student protests at UC
Berkeley, FBI infiltration of the university, and culmination in
Reagan, then the governor of California, sitting at a UC regents
meeting and asking the university to fire its own president.
Reagan’s repeated ““Â and sometimes fiery”“
entanglements with the UC leaves at least part of his legacy in a
gray area.
“It was not one of Reagan’s shinier moments,”
said Archie Kleingartner, a professor in the UCLA Anderson School
of Management who was an assistant professor at the school in the
1960s.
Reagan, who became one of the most popular presidents in
American history, began his political career as a less-than-popular
governor among UC students in 1967.
Though he made many accomplishments for the state, Reagan also
worked with the FBI to wage an intense campaign against the
student-led Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley, a campaign that
would end in the firing of then-UC President Clark Kerr and
culminate years of feuding between Kerr and the FBI.
The nationwide Free Speech Movement provided students a forum to
voice discontent with issues ranging from the Vietnam War to civil
rights, and declare their unwillingness to accept the
government’s authority.
Then-FBI director J. Edgar Hoover suspected the movement was
also a front for communist sympathizers. FBI agents were observed
at student protests, snapping photos and jotting down the names of
protest leaders.
Hoover tried to pressure Kerr into clamping down on the protest
movement, but Kerr refused. Frustrated, Hoover turned to a rising
actor-turned-politician and darling conservative spokesman who had
just announced he would be running for governor of California.
When the FBI sounded Reagan out on his willingness to pressure
student protesters, he seemed ready to listen.
A 2002 investigation by the San Francisco Chronicle revealed
that Reagan and the FBI were in contact throughout Reagan’s
gubernatorial campaign, and that some of their conversations had
revolved around how to deal with the protest movement at
Berkeley.
In one meeting, FBI agents briefed Reagan on “communist
efforts to influence the students” at UC Berkeley and told
him that Kerr’s removal from his position as UC president was
“vital,” according to the Chronicle.
Afterward, Reagan thanked the FBI agents for an
“interesting” meeting.
Reagan began campaigning partly on the promise to clean up the
“mess” at Berkeley. It was a political move that was
likely not motivated entirely by the FBI, as many Californians had
expressed fears that Berkeley was becoming a subversive campus, and
Reagan’s promises to clean house fell on sympathetic
ears.
“It politically gained him a lot of votes to make those
comments,” Kleingartner recalled. “A lot of parents at
the time thought their children were going to hell.”
Paul Von Blum, a UCLA communication studies professor who was a
Berkeley student during the Free Speech Movement, said,
“Basically, (Reagan) won the election as governor by running
against Berkeley students.”
But his campaign promises also played well into Hoover’s
hands. Hoover showed his gratitude by making it clear that he
supported Reagan, even though he had a policy of not endorsing
candidates in an election.
Reagan won the state election by over 1 million votes and
immediately got down to tackling the issue of Berkeley. In a Jan.
5, 1967, speech from the steps of the Capitol, Reagan turned praise
for the UC’s quality into a veiled threat.
“We are proud of our ability to provide this opportunity
for our youth and we believe it is no denial of academic freedom to
provide this education within a framework of reasonable rules and
regulations,” he said.
“Nor is it a violation of individual rights to require
obedience to those rules and regulations, or to insist that those
unwilling to abide by them should get their education
elsewhere,” he continued.
Berkeley students did not take kindly to Reagan’s
declaration that they should shape up or move out. Protests
continued, during one of which students burned an effigy of the
governor.
But Reagan was undeterred. He had barely moved into his offices
in Sacramento when he showed up at a UC Board of Regents meeting on
Jan. 20, 1967. When he walked into the meeting, Kerr left the
room.
Sitting among the people who dictate policy for the university,
Reagan made the case for firing Kerr. The regents debated the
matter, then put it to a vote. It ended 14-8 in favor of firing the
president.
After the firing of Kerr, the Free Speech Movement continued and
Reagan remained determined to root out what he perceived to be
subversive elements within the university.
In July 1969, two of his aides met with a representative from
the FBI to discuss how the governor could shut down the Free Speech
Movement.
“Governor Reagan is dedicated to the destruction of
disruptive elements on California college campuses,” the FBI
representative wrote in a memorandum to Hoover.
According to the memo, Reagan also broadly outlined the
different ways he could disrupt the campus movement. For example,
Reagan said if any protest groups had a bookstore on campus, he
would see to it that building code violations were brought against
the bookstore.
Reagan also suggested the state government work with Department
of Defense officials to conduct a “psychological
warfare” campaign against the protesters.
It is unclear if Reagan followed through with his proposals, but
his history remained inextricably entangled with the Berkeley
campus. Again in 1969, Reagan called out the National Guard to help
quell student protests at Berkeley when protesters began to
overpower police officers sent to contain them.
The Guard occupied the campus for 20 days and ended the protest
by blanketing the campus with tear gas from helicopters. One
student was killed and dozens injured in the riots. Many people
still question whether Reagan’s use of force was
appropriate.
Reagan was popular enough in the state to win two four-year
terms as governor. And afterward he won two terms as president, one
by winning all but one of the 50 states.
As Reagan continued to climb the political ladder, his
accomplishments and charisma blotted out some of the legacy he left
behind as governor of California.
His passing comes just over six months after Kerr passed away in
December. As the nation begins to lose such prominent figures, Von
Blum also said it risks losing a “comprehensive”
perspective on people like Reagan.
“I think it is being lost,” he said. “And it
ought not to be lost.”
With reports from Adam Foxman and Emily Inouye, Bruin
staff.
