Every year, UC Berkeley admits more students than it did the previous year, and, every year, UC Berkeley has less and less space to put incoming undergrads. In an attempt to solve their own "crisis," Berkeley Admin are looking to demolish two cornerstone aspects of the UC's College of Natural Resources (CNR) : the Oxford Tract and the SOGA Organic Garden.
The Oxford Tract is a research centre for students studying Plant & Microbial Biology at Berkeley. Consisting of several greenhouses, as well as a large area of agricultural fields, the Oxford Tract has been utilised since as early as 1964 for a combined 39,700 sq ft of research potential.
The Student Organic Garden Association (SOGA) was founded in the 1970s, and has been maintained by students, for students ever since. Located northwest of, but on the same block as, the Oxford Tract, the SOGA Organic Garden has been handed down through generations of student volunteers who have a passion for teaching & learning Organic Permaculture practices. This 1/2 acre non-hierarchical learning space hosts lectures, classes, & weekly hours open to the Berkeley community (city residents included), making it a space of harmony, education, & community--all aspects that make a proud University flourish.
UC Berkeley is planning to sacrifice these two crucial spaces for the purpose of expanding a scarcity of Student Housing, an issue its been dealing with for over a decade now. Those of us with a special connection to either one of these spaces are beyond belief that we are coming under attack by the University. While we acknowledge the seriousness of having no place to put incoming students, if these two educational havens are demolished, those incoming students will be missing an opportunity to find their passions within these spaces (as many of us have), and those of us who have had the opportunity to appreciate them now will be heartbroken to see our arduous handiwork suffocated by bureaucratic cement.
Please sign this petition, which we will be sending to the UC Berkeley Administration to let them know that taking away spaces of education & community is not how you properly welcome newly admitted students.
In addition to signing the petition, if you are in the East Bay Area, please meet with us at Morgan Hall, Thursday Feb. 16 at 6pm, to show UC Berkeley that we are a community that cherishes these space, and that their neglect of our presence is both disrespectful & inexcusable.
