UC General Counsel Thomas Cunningham writes to Vice President James Corley (cc’d UC Berkeley Chancellor Clark Kerr and UC President Robert Sproul) about the legal opinion surrounding UC’s hoped-for acquisition of the land occupied by the Schools for the Deaf and the Blind.

Cunningham enumerates why the site take-over will not be an easy process, especially due to Article IX Section 6, of the California Constitution specifically prohibits this sort of transfer. This section of the state Constitution specifies that one public academic institution (e.g. the University of California) is not allowed to take over a site willingly occupied by another (e.g. the Schools for the Deaf and the Blind).

Cunningham sums up any confusion on whether the schools would be covered under this constitutional code, although the Deaf and Blind schools are not obtaining revenue from the public school funds, they are in fact legally considered apart of the public school system and therefor covered by such title with their future dependent on the California State Department of Education.

Cunningham deliberately informs the counsel on the idea of transferring the Deaf and Blind schools to a new location.  If the Department of Education transfers the Deaf and Blind schools to a new location, there will be no legal binding for the University not to obtain the land.