In 1966, California was experiencing a series of violent college campus protests… similar to what is happening today.
Students and faculty were engaged in protests, demonstrations, strikes, and violence related to the draft, civil rights, discrimination, and women’s liberation.
Although these “protests” occurred in colleges throughout America, they were particularly bad at the University of California, Berkeley.
Governor Ronald Reagan declared that the “leftists” on campus had “transcended legitimate protest, having more to do “with rioting, with anarchy” than “academic freedom.”
He blamed university administrators and faculty, who “press their particular value judgments on students, for a leadership gap and a morality and decency gap on campus.” He demanded a code of conduct be imposed on faculty to “force them to serve as examples of good behavior and decency.”
Reagan condemned and criticized College presidents and school faculty for not stopping the rioters and for letting the “liberal activists” go unpunished under “the excuse of academic freedom & freedom of expression allowing protests and demonstrations to go on.”
Reagan’s response should be a blueprint for how today’s governors and politicians should be handling college presidents, professors, and students from breaking the law, destroying property, taking over buildings, causing violence, discriminating against the Jews, and impeding fellow students’ Constitutional rights.
The antisemitic/anti-Israel protests should have been shut down once they crossed the line of free speech and protest or became violent. Also, racist rioters should have been arrested and expelled.
Watch this short video showing how Gov. Reagan handled the college protests.