Chancellor Robert Birgeneau voiced support in an email Tuesday for the demonstration in Sacramento planned for March 5, promising that senior campus officials would join students in their protest of “the state’s disinvestment from public higher education.”

UC Berkeley Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Harry LeGrande and several deans will travel to the capitol on March 5, according to Birgeneau’s email sent out Tuesday afternoon.

Birgeneau urged faculty to allow students to make-up work they might miss that day, and also urged staff supervisors to allow their staff to participate and schedule replacements.

Read the text of the email here:

Monday, March 5th, is being organized as a day of peaceful mass demonstration in Sacramento in a movement to support public education.  Across the UC system, various faculty and staff organizations and student groups, including the University of California Student Association, the ASUC and the GA, are calling on faculty, staff and students to support the effort in Sacramento.

We endorse our campus community’s desire to advocate for the University of California and public higher education on March 5th.  Although the January budget announced by Governor Brown was hopeful for the University of California in several respects, we need to continue our advocacy efforts in Sacramento to speak out against the state’s disinvestment from public higher education and call for the reinstatement of funding and stabilization of the budget.  Several buses are being arranged to facilitate transportation to and from Sacramento for those wanting to attend the rally.  The web-site for sign-up for buses is located at: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFYyTmtjNjJtbGk4djhGQTJuN1FUZXc6MQ

We urge faculty to be flexible about providing make-up opportunities to students who miss classes or examinations that may have been scheduled for March 5th.  Faculty who wish to participate in advocacy activities on that day but who have teaching obligations are expected to arrange for alternate coverage of their class.

Staff wishing to participate in the March 5th rally in Sacramento should arrange in advance with their supervisors for time off through an alternative work schedule or vacation.  Supervisors are encouraged to grant such requests provided that the work needs of their unit can be met.

Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer, Vice Chancellor, Student Affairs Harry LeGrande, and several Deans will be joining those traveling to Sacramento on March 5th.

We know that our campus community is passionate and committed to the important issues that we face in higher education.  We support their efforts to protest safely within the constraints of our campus guidelines as set out in our Time, Place and Manner rules http://students.berkeley.edu/uga/regs.stm (Secs. 300ff) and Berkeley’s honorable tradition of free speech and activism as outlined in our Principles of Community http://www.berkeley.edu/about/principles.shtml

Further information about supporting UC Berkeley through advocacy is available on the Cal Advocacy website:  http://alumni.berkeley.edu/services/advocacy

Robert J. Birgeneau
Chancellor

George Breslauer
Executive Vice-Chancellor and Provost

Bob Jacobsen
Chair, Academic Senate

Vishalli Loomba
President, ASUC

Bahar Navab
President, GA