For over 50 years, the University of California has managed the Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory – the "brains" of the US nuclear weapns complex – under contracts with the US Department of Energy (DOE). Every nuclear weapon in the United States arsenal was designed by a UC employee!

Several generations of UC students, faculty, and staff have worked to oppose the UC’s weapons lab management.  The UC Nuclear Free campaign stands on the shoulders of their legacy. Founded by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation in 2001, UC Nuclear Free has gone on to become one of the strongest and most visible student-driven grassroots campagins in the country.

There is an inherent moral dilemma for a university in supporting, researching and developing nuclear weapons – weapons capable of destroying civilization and most life on Earth.  In addition, multiple UC faculty committees have determined over the years that the UC manages the labs in the fasion of an "absentee landlord."  By providing an illusion of oversight at these facilities, without actually providing any oversight, the UC has acted to shield the labs from Congressional and public scrutiny, despite the facilities' highly secretive, militaristic and environmentally destructive legacy.

Some of the best and brightest minds of our generation have chosen to study and do research at the University of California. For some, their energies are being channeled into the production of weapons of mass destruction. Recruitment efforts will increase soon as the labs prepare for the pending retirement of 20% of their workforce within the next 5 years. Devoting research capabilities to the development of weapons of mass murder is a perversion of the stated purpose of institutions of higher education.

By managing the nation's primary nuclear weapons labs, the University of California is associating higher education with the creation of weapons that are immoral and whose use or threat of use would be illegal under international law. The University of California's greater social role should be to shine a light on truth and contribute to the social good, not act as a cloak to prevent public scrutiny of the development of weapons of mass murder.