Dear Berkeley Law Community,
Welcome to the start of the Spring 2021 semester! I always have thought that one of the joys of academia is that each semester offers the wonderful and exciting sense of a new beginning. Never has it felt that way more than now. Tomorrow a new President will be inaugurated and a new administration will begin. I know that all of us begin the semester with some of our attention focused on the events in Washington, D.C. and the hope that that they provide for the future. Effective vaccines against COVID have been developed and now it seems to be a matter of how quickly they can be manufactured and distributed.
But I also know that we face another semester of online instruction. We begin the semester with the campus continuing to be closed because of the surge in the pandemic and orders from Alameda County and the City of Berkeley. As soon as health and safety orders and conditions allow, we will pursue making designated study space available to students in the building.
We thus must work even harder to create community and to do all we can to help one another. We will continue to have countless events to bring us together. For example, the Monday series of programs, focusing especially on race and the law and also on COVID-19 and the law, will continue and will move to Thursdays at lunch this semester. This Thursday, January 21, there will be a panel of faculty members discussing the Constitution and the lessons learned, focusing on the events of the last weeks in Washington, D.C. There will be many other programs, such as one on February 11 on the issue of reparations. There also will be many speakers and lectures. For instance, on Wednesday, February 3, at 5:00 p.m., there will be third annual Herma Hill Kay Memorial Lecture delivered by United States Court of Appeals Judge Diane Wood. And as always, there will be many programs each week sponsored by our centers, by student groups, and by faculty members.
We also will look to have more occasions for social gatherings. We hope you can join us for a special Berkeley Law Welcome Back Virtual Party on Thursday, January 21 from 4-5pm. We will have a Throwback Thursday DJ Livestream to kick off the start of the term so bring your 70’s, 80’s and 90’s dance requests! The link to join the party is https://youtu.be/6qfG7rPiD-E.
I know that some in our community are struggling. We continue to have a Student Emergency Fund (Student Emergency Fund Request) and a Staff Emergency Fund to assist those with economic needs. We continue to have virtual counseling services available both at the law school and through the Tang Center. Student Services is also available to support students as they navigate the start of the semester. You can find information on how to make an appointment with anyone in that office here: https://www.law.berkeley.edu/students/student-services/
I wanted to address a few things in this message: the policy for emergencies concerning classes; a request from the Native American Law Students Association concerning land acknowledgments; and plans for next academic year.
Procedures for emergencies impacting classes. Although I hope that we won’t encounter any widespread emergency situations this semester, we have to be prepared for the possibility that power outages, internet failures, or other emergency conditions may occasionally force the unexpected cancelation, delay, or interruption of class. In such an event, the instructor should try to notify students via bCourses. If an instructor is unable to send a bCourses announcement to communicate about such a situation, then, if possible, the instructor should call the Law School’s emergency number (510-642-6483) to report the problem. Word then will be disseminated to the students in the class, via bCourses announcement, as soon as possible. Note that this number is staffed during weekday business hours. Charles Cannon will be following up with additional information for instructors who teach outside of these hours.
There might be situations where an emergency prevents the instructor from being able to post an announcement on bCourses or to call the emergency number. So our general policy is that if the instructor does not appear, without notice, after 15 minutes students may assume that class is not going to meet that day (unless students have received other guidance from the instructor). Likewise, if a class is interrupted, students can assume after 15 minutes of continuous, unresolved interruption, and in the absence of any other information from the instructor, that the class will not resume.
We also ask instructors to tell students the best way to communicate with them about student emergencies, outages, etc. We again urge all of our instructors to be especially sensitive to the many ways in which students may be impacted by emergency circumstances. Our Student Services staff is available to help both instructors and students navigate these challenges.
Finally, instructors please note that if you have been granted essential employee status for purposes of using your office to deliver remote instruction (or for any other reason), you will not be permitted to use your office in the event of a power shutoff affecting campus. If you suffer a power outage at home that is not affecting campus, please do not come into your office unless you have already been granted essential employee status. If you have questions about essential status, please contact buildingoversight@law.berkeley.edu.
Land acknowledgement. The Native American Law Students Association has asked that instructors consider reading a land acknowledgment in the first class. (https://cejce.berkeley.edu/ohloneland). They also have provided instructors with the Professor Primer should they want to learn more. Of course, it is for each instructor to handle this in the manner he or she deems appropriate.
Plans for 2021-22 academic year. UC President Michael Drake and Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ have announced their expectation that we will return to primarily in-person classes for the Fall 2021 semester. I share that hope. With vaccines having been developed, there is cause for optimism that this will be possible. Obviously, it will depend on the public health situation, but we can begin this semester with the hope of being back together in the building in August. I will let you know about specific plans as soon as possible, but obviously no firm decisions can be made for some time.
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Finally, I want to close with a special plea for the semester: that we aspire to be a place where truly all ideas and views can be expressed and we always treat each other, even when we disagree, with kindness and respect. We saw recently in Washington the antithesis of reasoned discourse. We witnessed a profound challenge to democracy and the rule of law. My goal is that Berkeley Law will be a model of how people can disagree respectfully and within norms of civility. I worry that social media too easily allows us to hear only the ideas we like and to condemn those, even classmates and colleagues, with whom we disagree. But as lawyers, we always benefit from knowing the arguments on both sides. As individuals, we always benefit from having our thinking challenged by other viewpoints.
All of this, of course, is more difficult when we are kept separate by a pandemic. But my hope is that we all will take responsibility for promoting a culture of robust debate, tolerance, and unfailing kindness to one another.
I wish each of you all the best for an enjoyable and rewarding semester, and most of all, for good health at this difficult time. I look forward to many opportunities for conversations. As always, I will have “coffee” with the students every few weeks, as well as a staff and a student town hall later this semester. In the meantime, please don’t ever hesitate to reach out to me if I can be of help in any way. My email is echemerinsky@law.berkeley.edu and my phone is (510) 642-6483.
Warmly,
Erwin