Berkeley Students Love the Trees, Hate the Tree-Sitters

Posted on May 23, 2008
Filed Under News, The Daily Prereq | By Mike Dang

Every time someone cuts down a tree, a UC Berkeley student cries…right? Well, it’s not the 60’s anymore, and nowhere is that more apparent than the former capital of college-hippie central, according to a story in The Economist. UC Berkeley is planning to build a new fitness center in a stadium-adjacent oak grove, but a group of tree-sitters have taken up residence in the threatened oaks for more than 16 months to stop the expansion. And there’s nary a Berkeley student among the leaves.

When the campus police chief wrote an open letter to students explaining how to deal with tree-sitters, 90 percent of the 400 kids who wrote back wanted to get rid of the tree-sitters even faster. Granted, the university has promised to plant three trees for every one getting the ax, and being the targets of excrement-flinging protesters can piss off even the most ardent environmentalists. But who ever thought the day would come when students were the normal ones in Berkeley?

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3 Responses to “Berkeley Students Love the Trees, Hate the Tree-Sitters”

  1. More Tree-Sitters Abandon Berkeley Oaks : theprereq.com on July 3rd, 2008 11:21 am

    […] up their 15 minutes of fame? Never! I say if the school wants to get ‘em outta there quick, mobilize the students. Berkeley kids hate sharing the […]

  2. Judge Gives UC Berkeley the Oak-ay : theprereq.com on July 24th, 2008 11:55 am

    […] saga - it looks like the end is near. After more than a year of protesting tree-sitters, lawsuits, angry students and 40,000 pages of documentation, a judge has ruled to lift the injunction that has derailed the […]

  3. Berkeley Oaks Have Been Cut, Tree-Sitters Continue Occupation : theprereq.com on September 9th, 2008 4:18 pm

    […] protest began in May 2008 when the university announced they’d be building a new athletic faci…. In effect a grove of trees adjacent to the construction site would have to be destroyed. Months of […]

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