In response to the strike, the University turned to law enforcement to defuse the situation.

Here Chancellor Roger Heyns, along with Frank Madigan, the Sheriff of Alameda County, appealed to Governor Ronald Reagan to declare Berkeley in a “state of emergency” so as to authorize the dispatching of extra police to the area. Heyns also went to great lengths to paint the members of twLF as terrorizers of the Berkeley community.

Here the Chancellor suggested to the campus that the state of emergency would not affect “normal campus life”—a sign of how truly disconnected he was.