UC walkout could ignite a larger movementBy Sarah Morrison
UPTE's logo for tomorrow's UC walkout.
While UC Berkeley might have a long history of noisy protests and student activism, tomorrow’s UC-wide faculty and student walkout and worker strike seems unprecedented even within its own tumultuous history.
As a coalition of faculty, staff, students and workers across all of the UC campuses arrange to walk out of scheduled classes first thing tomorrow and protest against state cuts in funding, fee hikes, and changes to the traditional UC system of shared governance, the Berkeley community is expecting thousands to congregate in Sproul Plaza, the university’s traditional hub of student activity.
“The walkout tomorrow is just one milestone on what is likely to be a pretty long road to recovery,” said UC Berkeley professor of theatre, dance and performance studies, Catherine Cole. “It’s a moment to make visible the cuts and changes that are happening in our University – changes that are of profound importance and not yet necessarily made visible to all.”
After a 3 percent cut in the systemwide UC budget due to decreased state funds, more than 100,000 full-time UC employees are experiencing a reduction of 4-10 percent in their pay, with students having to pay a 9.3 percent increase on their annual fees. In an open letter Cole wrote to her students and colleagues, she outlines her anger at the way in which the UC Regents have managed the fiscal crisis.
She wrote: “I cannot tolerate a fundamental alteration of the core values of the University of California…I believe that the changes that President Mark Yudof and the Regents have been enacting over the past few months will cause such a fundamental alteration.”
Such changes include Yudof’s decision to call a state of fiscal emergency, to create the Gould Commission on the Future of the UC - which did not include one professor from the Colleges of Letters and Sciences on the ten UC Campuses - and the mandatory furloughs imposed on the faculty.
UC Berkeley professor in the department of City & Regional Planning Ananya Roy said: “This is about a range of solidarity actions and it is only the start. The big question is what comes after this, how do we continue to make the case for funding education, for better administration, and for a better democratic government.”
She added: “It is not going to happen in a day, this is not the solution – just the start.”
For Scott Saul, associate professor of English and individual faculty member of SAVE, the faculty group that is fighting to preserve the educational mission of UC Berkeley, the walkout highlights a level of solidarity among the wider UC community.
“This is collective action taken together with a common program in mind,” he said. “That doesn’t happen often in America but this movement is bringing together so many different people.”
He added that the UC Regents proposal to further increase student fees by 32 percent this year has particularly attracted the attention of the undergraduate and graduate community. “Their livelihood is at stake here, and the livelihood of the generations of students that will be impacted behind them.”
Fourth year Ethnic studies and interdisciplinary major Isaac Miller is a member of Berkeley Students Against the Cuts and said the walk out will be a “wake-up call,” mobilizing public support for higher education.
He said: “I have been astounded by the amount of support seen by both students at faculty at UC Berkeley. One of the most exciting parts of this movement is that there are really new linkages created between students, faculty and workers. We will not stand for mismanagement of the UC system.”
The University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE) are striking tomorrow as well as the Coalition of University Employees (CUE). A spokesman for UC Berkeley said that while he understood the anger and frustration, he hoped future actions would not be detrimental to the students themselves.
“People need now to challenge that energy into patient but persistent events to make the case with the state about why cuts to universities are so detrimental to California’s economic vibrancy,” said Dan Mogulof, spokesman for UC Berkeley.
Steve Montiel, a spokesman for the office of the UC President said: “We understand people are frustrated, no one is happy about the serious fiscal crisis that has occurred because of a cutback in state funding. But, we now need to think how best to preserve the excellence of the UC system in this difficult time.”
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Comments (1)
It would be great if democrat's that set the budget in this state would have the right priorities and fund education instead of taking orders from special interests.
I know I know prop 13 blah blah blah
Posted by glen matlock | September 24, 2009 03:09 PM