Last week I went to the UC Regents meeting at UC San Francisco, and was humbled to be there for the UC Board of Regents' vote to award honorary degrees to the over 700 Japanese Americans who were enrolled at the UC in 1941-42, but could not complete their degrees because they were unjustly incarcerated for being Japanese Americans and sent to concentration camps during WWII.  Sad sad chapter in U.S. history!  It took over 60 years for the UC to finally recognize the injustices done to these former UC students.  In 1972, the UC suspended the practice of awarding honorary degrees, and even without the moratorium on honorary degrees, the UC doesn't allow for more than 4 honorary diplomas to be awarded on any given UC campus each year. So the vote taken last week was to suspend the moratorium and limit on degree numbers. 

I was honored to be able to meet Grace Amemiya (pictured above), who testified before the Board of Regents.  Her testimonial was very touching. The quote that really hit me was when she said, "Yes you can start life again with just 2 suitcases."  Her spirit was amazingly inspiring.  She shared that when she was 8, she decided she wanted to be a nurse and that she wanted to go to Cal. At 18, in 1939 she enrolled as a freshman at Berkeley, getting to fulfill her dream of becoming a Cal Bear.  But then 3 months after Pearl Harbor was bombed, she and her Japanese American UC classmates were taken away to the concentration camps. Grace was 6 units away from graduating! It's hard to share over the blogsophere how amazingly positive and youthful Grace's spirit was. She's now 88, and I would never have guessed that!

All Japanese Americans who were enrolled at any UC campus in the 1941-42 academic year, living or deceased, will receive an honorary University of California diploma, which will read, "To restore justice in the groves of academia" in Latin.  If you know of anyone who fits that description, please help restore justice by contacting the UC at honorarydegree@ucop.edu or by calling (510) 987-0239.

For a great audio report of the Regents' vote, and a bit of Grace's testimonial, go to the California Report.

The funniest part of the Regential action was that Regents were trippin' over themselves trying to ensure they got credit on the record for the vote.  They were also fighting over who was on record as making the motion to pass the resolution, and over who would be on record as being the Regent who seconded the motion.  Ugh! I wish they would be so anxious and excited about taking a proactive, bold leadership stance in fighting for the UC budget from the state!  If only...!