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UC Berkeley received research money–$2 million now, $8 million more over the next five years–and for something completely different, people protested its source because, well, corporations are always evil.
It didn’t matter that the smart PR of the Dow Chemical-sponsored graduate student research program (which, by the way, is primarily paying for fellowships for students to do their own research) pushes the fuzzy, friendly “sustainability” catchphrase. The protesters see right through it. All 20 of them.
The protest must go on! Because! Corporations! Are! Evil!
To be fair, the size of the protest seems proportionate to the much-greater hubbub over Berkeley’s BP deal, which establishes a $500 million partnership program to research alternative energy. Which is also evil.
BP protests were more heated and involved many a costume and oil barrel filled with molasses, and, as one student protester argued, “biofuel research proposed by BP doesn’t promote long-term sustainability.” But why protest a surprisingly-few-strings-attached donation for sustainability research? Because, according to one of the Dow protesters, “it shows a complete lack of democracy and disregard for our opinions.”
Oh.
So what are our priorities? Sustainability or democracy? Are we losing too much sleep over this to be rational? Find out the next time someone protests this program on Ring the Nuclear-Free Protest Bell!
Image Sources: Justin Gonzaga, Yaou Dou, Daily Cal; edited by Krista Lane
Sustainability Research Program Receives $2 Million Donation [Daily Cal]
Cal given $10 million by Dow Chemical to work on sustainability [SF Gate]
Comments:
Feb 15, 2008 at 10:22 am
[...] almost every single issue this past year regarding student influence over the University, regarding the independence of the University from external influence, and regarding any and all attempts to do something positive for the community or the student body, [...]