UCSB students respond to Chancellor’s role in controversial telescope project

Students at UC Santa Barbara are speaking out as university Chancellor Henry Yang sits on the board of a controversial telescope project in Hawaii.

Thousands of protestors on Hawaii’s Big Island are blocking a road to the top of the state’s tallest mountain in order to prevent the massive Thirty Meter Telescope project from being built on what some call sacred land.

The project has been in development for more than a decade, but some Native Hawaiians believe the project being built atop Mauna Kea would desecrate a sacred space. Protestors are currently blocking construction crews from reaching the building site.

Supporters say the telescope will bring high-paying jobs and a better understanding of the universe.

Yang sits on Thirty Meter Telescope’s board, along with two other UC staff members.

UCSB responded to the controversy Friday, saying “Thirty Meter Telescope is not a UCSB initiative or effort.”

But Yang’s connection to the Telescope has already led to an online petition with hundreds of signatures asking him to step away from the project.

UCSB student Jeike Meijer is not a Native Hawaiian, but she says she stands behind the protests.

“I find myself to be an advocate for indigenous issues as an indigenous person,” she said.

She says Yang and the school need to listen to these protests and understand how building the telescope will alienate some indigenous communities.

“I hope that Chancellor Yang and that the UC listens to the protests and listens to the voices of indigenous peoples in Hawaii, and on this campus, and stop with the building of this telescope,” Meijer said.

UCSB admitted the most Native American first-year students of any UC school in 2018, according to data from the UC Office of the President. But Meijer says there is still progress to be made.

“There’s been a lot of struggles indigenous people have had on this campus and a lot of fights that we’ve had to make,” she said. “To get our voices heard, to get funding for things. There’s a lot of things that still need to change… There’s obviously ways in which Native students aren’t being respected, and this telescope is kind of one of them. It’s not listening to the students, it’s not caring how that might affect the Native Hawaiians on this campus and how that might create an unsafe feeling on campus or feeling of being disrespected on this campus.”

NewsChannel 3 reached out to the Thirty Meter Telescope board for comment and is waiting to hear back.