Student activism highlights from the Associated Students of the University of California, Berkeley records

Black and white photograph of students with a sign saying, "our struggle is just commencing"
From file, “Student Political Parties” (carton 80)

The Associated Students of the University of California, Berkeley records are now open to researchers at The Bancroft Library. The Associated Students of the University of California, Berkeley (ASUC) is the officially recognized students’ association of the University of California, Berkeley. The ASUC is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, and is the largest and most autonomous students’ association in the nation. Founded in 1887, the ASUC continues to operate separate from University governance. The ASUC controls funding for all ASUC-sponsored clubs and organizations, provides resources and student programming, oversees commercial activities and student services including the Cal Student Store and Lower Sproul Plaza in partnership with the ASUC Student Union, and advocates for students on a University, local, state, and national level.

The collection includes ASUC constitutions, executive office files, Student Advocate’s Office files, senate bills, agendas, and resolutions, committee files, financial and budget materials, planning and renovation files, ASUC program files, and other material documenting student services, groups, and activities from 1893 to 2012.

The collection also contains materials documenting student activism on campus, including the Free Speech Movement, People’s Park advocacy, affirmative action, the Third World Liberation Front, divestment in South Africa, and LGBTQ rights.

Black and white El Diablo de la Gente newspaper featuring a graphic of a raised fist holding an ink quill pen and a person with metal chains over their mouth.
El Diablo de la Gente newspaper, October 20, 1972 (carton 82)
Black and white flyer featuring photographs of student candidates running for ASUC senate.
Flyer for the Young Socialist candidates running for ASUC Senate (carton 74)
Black and white flyer with handwritten and typed text.
Free Speech Movement rally flyer (carton 39)
Illustration of UC administrators on yellow paper.
Protest flyer against UC investments in South Africa, 1978 (carton 51)
Black and white flyer with text and illustration of a hand holding a torch.
People’s Park Negotiating Committee flyer (carton 82)
For more information about the collection, access the finding aid and/or catalog record for the Guide to the Associated Students of the University of California, Berkeley, records (CU-282). Interested in transferring your student records to University Archives? Find out more here.

Changing the Course of Wildfire Management in California: Highlights from the Harold Biswell Papers

A black and white photograph of a man assessing forest conditions
Harold Biswell in the field assessing forest conditions

The Harold H. Biswell papers are now open to researchers at the Bancroft Library. Harold H. Biswell (1905-1992) served as a faculty member in the School of Forestry from 1947 to 1973. Biswell was a researcher, teacher, and advocate of the use of prescribed burning for fire management. Prescribed burns are intentionally-set fires for purposes of forest management, fire suppression, farming, prairie restoration or greenhouse gas abatement. The Biswell papers include photographs and slides of controlled burns and survey images of California forests, chaparral, and ranches. The collection also contains articles by Biswell and others, reports, booklets, survey and research material, School of Forestry theses, and other material related to controlled burning and forest ecology.

Color photograph of a person lighting a controlled burn
Photograph from a report on controlled burning in California ponderosa pine forests

 

Indigenous peoples were the first to use cultural burning for managing vegetation and wildlife habitats. “Cultural burning” refers to the Indigenous practice of intentionally setting fires in alignment with traditional belief and knowledge systems to revitalize habitats or provide a desired cultural service, such as promoting the health of vegetation and animals that provide food, clothing, ceremonial items and more. These practices were disrupted by European colonization and forced relocation of Indigenous communities from the lands they had been maintaining for centuries. In 1850, California passed the Act for the Government and Protection of Indians, which outlawed intentional burning. These bans, guided by a strategy of fire suppression, led the way for a rapid increase in destructive wildfires, as well as the inability for Indigenous people to practice traditional cultural burning practices.

A black and white photograph with six potted lettuce plants. The three on the left have a sign "burned." The three on the right have a sign "unburned." The burned plants have grown more than the unburned plants.
“August 4. 1952, lettuce plants grow in soils from heavily burned and very lightly burned (unburned) spots at Hoberg’s” negative HHB 2137

 

Despite opposition and direct criticism, Biswell continually advocated for developing new policies for prescribed burning. Biswell staked his academic reputation on demonstrating that prescribed burns improved ecosystem health and reduced wildfire threats. The Forest Service began to examine its fire exclusion policy in the early 1970’s, and in 1978 the national policy was changed to encompass total fire management including prevention, suppression, and use. Prescribed burns are now recognized as a critical tool to reduce the severity of wildfires.