Remembering Chang-Lin Tien
DEAR EDITOR: After hearing about Chang-Lin Tien’s death, “Chang-Lin Tien, UC Berkeley Chancellor and Scientist Dies,” (Oct. 31), I began to reflect on my own memories of him.
Before I attended UC Berkeley in 1991, I never knew the head of my future alma mater would be Chang-Lin Tien — a short, smiling man who would have no problem passing for one of those family friends or “uncles” that your parents are always cajoling you to remember. I actually knew nothing about this man until my second semester.
I did not feel any real ownership of the school before I met him. For me, this was just another institution where those in charge were not sympathetic with their words. After meeting him at the Chancellor’s Welcoming Dance — just one handshake — I was shocked to know one of my own countrymen was in charge of one of the most prestigious public colleges in the world.
Here are a few snapshots: His jovial nature as he walked through campus, high-fiving students on Sproul Plaza; his bad engineer haircut and rimmed glasses; his heavily accented war cry on behalf of Cal’s football team; Cal’s blue and gold sweatshirt over his shirt and tie.
One weekend, I was showing the campus to two visiting friends from UC Irvine when I bumped into Uncle Tien walking around. I stopped him and introduced my friends to him. He had no idea who I was but he chatted congenially with them, recalling his days at Irvine as the vice chancellor and inquiring after the touch stone places at Irvine that he used to frequent. In parting, I took a picture of Uncle Tien with my friends. In it, you see a man smiling proudly, as if my two friends were his children and he was proud of their achievement.
The Chinese have a saying, “Teacher for a day, father for a lifetime.” I like to think Uncle Tien was always proud of the students who call Cal their alma mater, and I like to think he took special pride in seeing Asian Pacific American students survive and thrive there. I believe that the growing Asian population and racial diversity on campus was his vision and goal.
Having a few years behind my Cal experience, I can now speak on the reason why Uncle Tien was the defining part of my college. What I felt then and what I can say now is this: Uncle Tien made me realize that it’s possible to succeed — even in America. We hardly ever hear about APAs succeeding on the evening news, so having Uncle Tien as the chancellor of UC Berkeley was an inspiration.
When I remember him, I will always remember hope. When all is said and done, there’s really only one thing you need to remember when you think about Uncle Tien: “Go Bears!” — with the Chinese accent and all.
Roger Lee
Via e-mail
In Defense of Racial Privacy
DEAR EDITOR: I wish the authors of the opinion piece “Melting Pot or Not: The Evolving Multiracial Face of America” (Oct. 31), Ignatius Bao and Shilpa Patel, would reexamine their thoughts on what America stands for. On C-SPAN recently, Lani Guiner and Tom Hayden gave their thoughts. “What's wrong with quotas? Quotas mean democracy.” They truly believe this. The left needs numbers; they need a perpetual racial tracking system in place and when race-based preferences are implemented, the process becomes not liberalism, but racial socialism. The left has made it clear that it has no intention of upholding the principles of Proposition 209, endorsed by the voters six years ago. This is why Ward Connerly must move ahead with the Racial Privacy Initiative. If we are to become “One America,” the Asian Pacific American community must move away from the attraction of identity politics and move us towards social cohesion — unifying, rather than balkanizing the diverse peoples of the great state of California. If the choice is between leftist Tom Hayden and Ward Connerly, for the sake of our country, make the right choice.
Philip Melnick
San Francisco
Stop Police Violence in our Schools
DEAR EDITOR: On Oct. 11, police officers from three precincts, including a SWAT team and Sheriff’s Department, responded to the call of a disturbance at Thurgood Marshall High School. Some officers were dressed in riot gear. The police officers entered the school showing little to no restraint and began attacking students and teachers in an attempt to quell the disturbance. The police officers, fully-grown and trained men and women, began beating unarmed children (male, female and all children of color), and being verbally abusive and physically abusive by hitting the children with batons. One officer even had the audacity to pull a gun on the students.
Our children deserve better then this and the actions of the police should be considered criminal and abusive. If a teacher were to respond to a conflict between students in the manner that the police did they would lose their credential, their job and be sued for child abuse. Police officers should never be considered to be above the law nor should their badges be a “get out of being charged with abuse” free card. Officers should be trained to physically restrain a child without harming the child. This type of training is available and should be expected to be the way police handle our children and youths. Our schools should be a weapons free zone for both students and adults.
The events of Oct. 11 were an abuse of power by the SFPD, and all commanding officers involved should receive an official reprimand and disciplinary action. All officers involved should be reprimanded and be made to serve a minimum of 40 hours of community service/volunteer time working for teachers and students at Thurgood Marshall. The SFPD should also offer a public apology to the families of Thurgood Marshall High, the SFUSD and the teacher’s union. Each of those education stakeholders should also receive the apology in writing. The SFPD and the SFUSD should offer, publicly, a plan for a non-violent response to various school disturbances and this plan should be developed with parents, teachers and other community-based education organizations such as Justice Matters. Another part of this plan should explicitly state when the police can exercise violence as a means to settle a disturbance at a school and clear protocols for how that decision should be made. In addition, Teachers4Change calls on the San Francisco Board of Education to hold a public hearing on the Thurgood Marshall matter as well as issue a formal apology from the San Francisco Unified School District for their inappropriate treatment of the teachers and parents of the Thurgood Marshall community during and since the incident. Teachers4Change also recommends that the following or its equivalent be adopted by both the SFPD and the SFUSD as a first step to prevent further violence in our schools and in our neighborhoods:
The Ten Commandments to End Police Brutality in our schools (Please note ‘youth,’ ‘children’ and ‘students’ refer to people 17 years of age and younger):
Thou shalt not:
• Assault youth for talking disrespectfully.
• Speak disrespectfully to youth in order to anger and/or taunt them, at anytime.
• Use violence as an initial means of ending conflict.
• Use weapons to quell a weaponless disturbance.
• Use gang tactics to intimidate or assault children.
• Assault or hurt children because they are “unruly” or “don't listen to you.”
• Threaten to hurt or kill youth who are unarmed.
• Attack youth out of anger or frustration.
• Attack youth who are unarmed.
• Abuse, threaten, assault or arrest a person for recording any police action in our schools.
Teachers4Change
San Francisco
Correction
In the story “Chang-Lin Tien, UC Berkeley Chancellor and Scientist Dies” (Oct. 31), the date of the UC Berkeley memorial for Tien is Nov. 14.
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