On Tuesday the Daily Cal published two op-eds with opposing views on the Memorial Stadium and Student Athlete High Performance Center project. The first one, by ASUC senators Dave Rhoads and Gabe Weiner, discussed the importance of the athletic center to student and employee safety. The second, written by UC Berkeley student and Free Speech Free Trees member Matthew Taylor, argued for preserving the oak grove because of its intrinsic sacred nature.

There’s been a lot said on the stadium lawsuit and the athletic center, but the majority of opinions in the news comes from campus administrators, city officials, lawyers, and other Berkeley community members. This proposed project is one of the most contentious and significant issues to hit UC Berkeley, and it’s important that student have their voices heard on this subject.

The Daily Cal is a great medium for students to express those views. The opinion section not only runs editorials, which are the opinions of the Senior Editorial Board, but also publishes op-ed and letters, many submitted by students. The Daily Cal Opinion Page is a forum for the campus and community and one of the most accessible resources available for students to air their thoughts.

So the next time your student group is organizing a special awareness event, or if an article in the newspaper rubs you the wrong way, tell us. Let your opinions be known. You can submit letters and op-eds to opinion@dailycal.org.

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Last Monday, we published an op-ed written by a UC Berkeley student who is an undocumented immigrant. As stated in the column’s editor’s note, it is Daily Cal policy not to print unsigned letters or op-eds, unless the writer would feel threatened if his or her identity were revealed.

There was a post last week by Justin Azadivar, who uses the pseudonym Beetle Aurora Drake on the Berkeley blog Beetle Beat, questioning the omission of the writer’s name.

Given the writer’s status and the current contentiousness of the issue being discussed, opinion page editor Andrea Lu and myself decided to withhold the name. Though the submission appeared unsigned in print and online, the Daily Cal contacted the writer several times before publication to understand the reasoning behind the request. Publishing the writer’s name could have exposed the writer or the writer’s family to hate crimes and potentially made them more susceptible to deportation. Read the rest of this entry »

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