 We're not modes of revenue. We are students, researchers. We are students, period, and we care about our libraries. In February of 2022, we received an email in the department about the closure of the anthropology library. Granted students and faculty got organized, and they occupied the library that generated a dialogue with Jeffrey Mackey Mason, who is the head librarian at the university, kind of like they got to a compromise. And when that happened, they left the anthropology library open for another year, kind of like in a limbo. So in 2023, we received notice again that the anthropology library was going to close. This isn't the first time they've tried to close our library. This library has there's been attempts to close this library for the last 20 years. And every time there's an occupation, when we heard that the library was going to be closed this year, the first thing we did was occupy the library. And so we stayed here for two nights with something in the stack. The turnout we had there, I think, was really inspiring. And that's what really kicked off. I think that's why we have a movement in any sense. For graded students, they are taking a tool for our own research. So they are telling us, well, you will have access to the same collection in the main stacks. But it's not true. It's taking more time for us to get there. It's taking immediacy and putting barriers between us and the resources that we need. That is how it impacts us. The meeting that my colleagues and faculty had with the chancellor, Carol Chris, what she said is that ultimately, these are financial choices that she has to make. So it seems like this is her decision. Ultimately, she has the power of keeping the anthropology library open. This is about priorities. And I think that the message that they are sending with these priorities are that our academic resources are not as important, that our learning and our research is not that important. And that is heartbreaking. One of our grad students at the end of the meeting asked Chancellor Chris, if all these testimonies don't change your mind, what would? And she kind of just said $400,000. $400,000 is worth more to her. More than the accessibility to our community partners, to students, to the field of anthropology, to the department. This is something that was built up by specialist librarians, or specialty librarians, that were hired using the money endowed by Georgia Mary Foster. They put their name on this building because they donated a lot of money to make sure that our collections were continuously added to and were preserved. This endowment is 20 or 30 years old, I would say. And they're going to take their name down. So what does that say to people who want to donate now, philanthropists who want to donate to Berkeley now? The anthropology library is this incredible repository of human existence. Our library is a historical touchdown. It is so important to minority culture specifically to indigenous cultures because there is no other library in a US public university that has so much extensive documentation of indigenous struggle and triumph and culture. And that goes for several other minority groups as well. And that's why we're trying to look to escalate against the administration to protect our libraries and all of the valuable materials within it. We brought these concerns to Carol Christ and her response was verbatim, we all need to make tough decisions. This was said towards a professor who told her that they have been working in the anthropology department for over 20 years, that the library is the backbone of the department. It is the backbone of humanity's research. And then that's when she said, oh, tough decisions, right? The administration has proven really unwieldy in coming to any sort of compromise about this issue. They just keep telling us that the budget isn't there. We have talked with, we've had people talk with Carol Christ. She blamed library workers for not making due with the resources they had. She said that there was nothing that they could do and that this was just not something that was really worth debating anymore. This is just how it's going to be. We are a little lost about where we're supposed to go from here. We are hoping to plan more escalating events that are going to put some more pressure on the university, but where that leads exactly is difficult. We're not being nice anymore. That's basically the gist of it. So we're going to do some escalation measures. So first things first, we have the Save the Anthropology library campaign. That is an Instagram account. We're also trying to organize some more occupations. This will occur in shifts. So you can go to the library and stay after hours through the night. And we'll be rotating people for the next coming weeks. If you're sitting here thinking, oh, I don't go to math. I don't go to physics. I don't go to anthropology. Those don't affect me. And if you're thinking, I don't even use libraries. This is not a library-specific fight. This is a fight against the politics of austerity that the university is continuing to perpetuate, that it doesn't have the resources to take care of its students when it takes hundreds and thousands and millions of tuition from us every year. When we have community partners visit us. For example, the day that we met with the chancellor, the tribal chairwoman from the Malin Lake Kitsitika, one of the elders, and also from Big Pines Paiute came to visit. One of the elders went for a walk that morning, even though it was raining like cats and dogs, and said, yeah, your library's closed. Yes, it was. Because they've been slowly squeezing it down to the point where it's barely opened at all anymore. Until they finally destroy it. And I know other faculty who are recently hired, including some of our native partners, we could have chosen other places to work. But this public university means something to us. And its role in the world. And having a special resource like this that is open and free to our community partners, to people who live right here in the East Bay, it's a unique thing. It is a gem of a resource that is irreplaceable. Once you break it down, it's really hard to build this thing up again. You burn it. That's it. I never once thought, as a UC product, I'd ever have to be defending my libraries, or that it would be suggested to me that I better find the money somehow, rather than paying for a fleet of golf carts like she does. That I'm supposed to find the money to keep the books on the shelves. These are the basic tools of us at a university. Never once did I ever think I'd have to face this in all my time at the UC, which is why I'm going to fight for it. Reporting for Kaltziwi News, I'm Christopher Avila.