Solidarity shown during UC walkoutStory and photos by Sarah Morrison
“No cuts, no fees, education should be free,” chanted thousands of UC Berkeley faculty, staff, workers and students as they protested in Sproul Plaza against state budget cuts, increased fees, lay-offs, and poor management of the UC system during yesterday’s campus-wide walkout.
While the protests began at 7.15 am yesterday with strikes initiated by the University Professional and Technical Employees union (UPTE) and the Coalition of University Employees (CUE) throwing up a picket line at the campus, by midday the plaza was crammed full with an estimated 5000 protestors in a scene reminiscent of the Free Speech Movement of the 1960s.
Outlining how budget cuts have led to staff shortages, reduced pay, and a lack of vital university services, UC Berkeley professor of art history Timothy Clark, who has taught at the university for more than 21 years, stressed how the Berkeley community felt they had been let down by the UC Board of Regents and the California Legislature.
“The UC won’t wear us down and if they think we won’t fight back then they are mistaken,” he said. “The crisis is real but from crises comes choices. The fight is begun and the fight will continue.”
Placards reading “Democratize the Regents,” “Layoff Yudof,” and “Keep the UC Public” filled the plaza as speeches seemed to centre on the undemocratic actions by the office of the UC President.
Concerns have mounted after President Mark Yudof declared a state of fiscal emergency in the summer and set up the Gould Commission on the Future of the UC. According to protesters, UC actions have been anything but transparent, leading to mandatory furloughs, hundreds of dismissals, and increased student fees.
While students have already experienced a 9.3 percent increase on their annual fees, the UC Regents are proposing a further 32 percent increase within the next academic year.
“If they raise fees by that much then I can not afford to go here anymore,” said Lajuanda Asemota, a fifth year American and African American Studies undergraduate. “It seems that the quality of education is going down and if people don’t stop and fight it, then everything could crumble.”
UC Berkeley Professor of Ethnic and American Studies Percy Hintzen asked the students to call on the spirit of the 1960s to stop the university becoming a preserve of the rich and powerful white man.
Blaming Proposition 13 and the end of affirmative action for contributing to an inequitable education system, he said that the very concept of public education in California is at risk.
“Soon, students will be paying more into the university than the state is and that makes this no longer a public institution,” he said. “Berkeley has been called upon to change the world over and over again through many battles and we are going to win this one.”
Leaders of UPTE, a union that has experienced a number of lay-offs in the last 18 months, spoke at the rally as well.
"They pushed, and they have pushed too far," said Tanya Smith, president of the local chapter of the union who was laid off from her campus job just last week. "They came after the workers, they came after the faculty and they came after the students. And the students, the staff and the faculty and Berkeley won't take it. We've had enough of this."
UPTE’s system-wide president, Jelger Kalmijn, confirmed that workers felt they had been let down by the way in which the UC Regents have dealt with the budget difficulties.
“We will not accept these unilateral decisions,” he said, in a reference to the lack of consultation that has occurred between the Regents and the workers. “There is no budget crisis -- this is a leadership crisis.”
During cheers of support, he added: “We are going to fight for our union and this university. We hope this is the catalyst for a new movement out there – for a university that serves the people and not profit.”
While the UC Regents claim to have made their pay cuts with a system of “shared pain” in mind, using a graded system in which staff earning less than $40,000 dollars receive a 4 percent cut and those earning more than $240,000 experience a 10 percent cut, activists said those with lower incomes have felt the worst of the pain.
In fact, while UC Berkeley might pride itself on its diverse student population, protesters said that underrepresentation is likely to worsen as a direct result of the budget cuts and increased student fees.
“I feel that next year the campus will not reflect the state of California,” said UC Berkeley student Mary June Flores, senator of CalSERVE, Cal Students for Equal Rights and a Valid Education. “We have to fight and work together across racial lines, community lines and class lines. We can not let the university close its doors on us.”
UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau held a conference call with reporters yesterday afternoon in which he said he supports the repeal of Proposition 13, which many protestors claim is a major factor in the decline in state revenues.
"I think that students should be upset and they should be expressing their opinion on the fee increases," he said. "I tell them: go down to Sacramento, go down to your local legislator and tell them that it's the obligation of the state of California to support this great educational system."
Steve Montiel, a spokesman for the office of the UC President, said that while he understood people’s frustration with the situation, it was the fault of the state and not the UC Regents.
“UC Berkeley is the creator of the Free Speech Movement, and we recognize the importance of robust and vigorous exchange of ideas,” he said. “We understand people are frustrated, and that no one is happy about the serious fiscal crisis that the university is facing because of a cutback in state funding.”
He added that while fee increases for students were not a solution that anyone was comfortable with, they were needed to uphold the reputation of the University of California.
“Fee increases are needed to bring stability and preserve excellence,” he said. “There are two prime sources of money for core funding of instructional programs – state money and student fees. When one goes down, the other has to go up.”
While he said he thought the UC Regents had been transparent in all their decision- making in an attempt to keep it fair, he added: “no one feels there can be a perfect approach.”
As the rally ended and the crowd began its march around the campus, Bianca Missé, a GSI in the French department, summed up the feeling of the day.
She said: “Usually we are kept divided, students from other students, students against teachers and teachers against workers. Today, however, we are all walking out together.”
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