Taliah Mirmalek

UC Berkeley sophomore Sumayyah Din announced Sunday night that she will run for senator in this spring’s ASUC elections as an independent candidate.

Citing a threat to academic freedom, UC President Janet Napolitano and UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks have joined a chorus of officials from universities across the nation in opposing an academic boycott of Israeli institutions by the American Studies Association.

The American Studies Association National Council announced Wednesday that, after years of consideration by the association, it endorsed a resolution calling for an academic boycott of Israel.

On Tuesday the federal government dismissed a complaint that UC Berkeley administrators did not do enough to curb “an environment hostile to Jewish students” as a result of student demonstrations against Israeli policies.

Of the 65 students vying for an ASUC senate seat, only Naweed Mohabbat, Taliah Mirmalek, James Chang, and Raman “the Dictator” Veerappan have no party affiliation. A fifth candidate, Solomon Nwoche, recently formed his own party, “Independent Campaign for Common Sense”.