The student government of the University of California at Berkeley is kicking off the academic year by considering a “no confidence” vote for Janet Napolitano as the incoming president of the UC system.
The ASUC Senate will debate SB 2, titled Bill in Support of Undocumented Students and Immigrant Communities, on Monday, The Daily Californian reported.
“The ’no confidence’ comes from a lot of history — [Ms. Napolitano] has deported over 2 million undocumented immigrants,” said ASUC Sen. Sean Tan, who authored the bill, the report said.
“There’s a lot of fear in terms of what is her main priority as UC president, because she comes from a background of surveillance and apprehension and security,” he added.
The UAW Local 2865, a UC student workers union, has called for a retraction of Ms. Napolitano’s appointment.
“We call for a president devoted to rebuilding our capacity for teaching, research, and learning — not a specialist in cyber surveillance, law enforcement, and border security,” the union’s press release states.
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If the bill is passed, ASUC External Affairs Vice President Safeena Mecklai will present a list of priorities, including “holding mandatory annual trainings for the rights of undocumented citizens, holding town halls for the UC campuses in both Northern and Southern California regions and ensuring that Secure Communities will not be implemented on UC campuses,” the Daily Californian reported.
The bill also calls for a review of the UC president’s selection process because some students felt that they were unfairly represented in Ms. Napolitano’s appointment.
“We as a senate could look at possible policy changes on how the UC president is selected, because we had a real problem with how student voices weren’t heard,” Ms. Mecklai said, according to the report. “My fear is that we’ll only attack Napolitano and not the process, and in 10 years, this will happen again.”
Friday was Ms. Napolitano’s last day as secretary of homeland security.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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