freedom of speech

This fall, the campus celebrates the achievements of the 1964 student movement that made Berkeley famous for extending the First Amendment’s definition of free speech to the University of California.

We don’t want “free speech” that is condoned by the administration. Let us explain. Chancellor Nicholas Dirks is tasked with defending and bettering the institution of UC Berkeley.

Those were my thoughts upon reading Chancellor Nicholas Dirks’ message of Sept. 5. It came late on a Friday afternoon — one of those irritating, one-way messages that signs off in bold, “Please do not reply to this message,” thus clothing an imperative — “do not reply” — in the language of civility: “please.”