UC’s Efforts to Deal with Decreasing Public Funding

Page with links to news & commentary to foster discussion of this issue
(Jan. 2011 to Feb. 2012)

Feb. 22, 2012, U to the Rescue blog: “Police Violence and the First Amendment .” Michael Meranze’s update on the status of the investigation and lawsuits arising from the November pepper-spraying at UC Davis.

Feb 17, 2012, Remaking the University blog: “Davis Agonistes.” UC Davis Faculty Senate voted 697-312 not to censure UCD President Katehi for ordering police to use force to disperse peaceful student protestors last November, then voted 586-408 against the use of such force in the future. Michael Meranze comments.

Feb. 15, 2012, by UC Vice President for Budget Patrick Lenz: “FAQ on the UC Budget.”

Jan. 17, 2012, Remaking the University blog: “Racial Patterns of Campus Budget Inequality: the State Audit .” Chris Newfield’s analysis reveals that the worst-funded UC campuses are those with the highest proportions of underrepresented students.

Jan. 11, 2012, UC-AFT: “Teach the UC Budget.”. The lecturers’ and graduate student TA unions have developed an 8 page curriculum and 6 minute video clip that can be used to inform students how the UC budget works.
Thursday January 19 has been declared a “day of action” at UC Riverside because of the Regents’ meeting there. There is also a petition calling for specific reforms to the selection and terms of the regents.

Jan. 7, 2012, Remaking the University blog UPDATE: “Gov Gives UC Just About Nothing, Continuing the Gradual Termination of “UC”,” with revised and updated graph showing state budget for UC.

Dec. 22, 2011, Remaking the University blog: “Notes from the Underground: Legislative Hearing on UC Protests.” Detailed notes taken at the Dec. 14, 2011 state Senate hearings.

Dec. 16, 2011, Remaking the University blog: “Debt, Democracy, and the Public University ,” by UC Santa Cruz professor Bob Meister.

December 15, 2011, Changing Universities blog: “Report from Sacramento: Refund California and Support Peaceful Protests.” Bob Samuels’ update after the State hearing on the excessive force used by police against protestors.

Recent incidents of police use of brutal force against nonviolent students protesting on UC campuses leave many UC faculty members outraged. See the following reports and commentaries:

Nov. 30, 2011, UCSB Open Forum “In Solidarity” program.
Nov. 29, 2011, SB Daily Sound: “Students protest at UCSB.”
Nov. 28, 2011, USA Today: “Protesters shut down UC regents’ teleconferenced meeting.”

Nov. 28, 2011, UCSB Solidarity Protest: “Monday, 11:30am, Arbor

Nov. 26, 2011, Remaking the University Blog: “Breaking the Cycle of Violence,” by Catherine M. Cole, Professor of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies, UC Berkeley. Prof. Cole begins by summarizing and analyzing the Police Review Board’s report about ‘what went wrong’ and led to violence at UC Berkeley.

Nov. 21, 2011, UCSB Daily Nexus: “Protests Result in Police Violence.”

Major mainstream media outlets are reporting on and discussing the incident:
Nov, 21, 2011: ABC’s The View with Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah, etc: “Joy Behar On UC Davis Pepper Spray: ‘What Are We In, A Fascist State?’ (3:21 clip via HuffPost).
Nov. 21, 2011, UK Daily Mail: “Two officers suspended following UC Davis police pepper spray attack.” With excellent collection of photos and video.
Nov. 20, 2011, Washington Post: “UC Davis pepper-spraying raises questions about role of police.” The article includes this statement: “University police generally operate under a more benignly paternalistic understanding of the law than other police. They are there to ensure the safety of the students, to help with the messier details of the in loco parentis function of the university.”
The Post also has an article about the creative use of Lt. Pike and his spray canister in art montages: Pepper-spray cop works his way through art history.”

Nov. 20, 2011, UC Office of the President: a little behind the curve, but UC “President Yudof responds to campus protest issues.”

Nov. 20, 2011, U to the Rescue Blog: collection of links by Prof. Michael Meranze.
Nov. 20, 2011, CNN: “California campus police on leave after pepper-spraying.” This article contains some of the most graphic footage of the incident at UC Davis, including both pepper spraying and rough arrests of passive individuals, which is played in a loop over an audio response by the Davis chancellor.
Nov. 20, 2011, Huffington Post: “UC Davis Police Pepper-Spray Seated Students In Occupy Dispute .” This article contains embedded video of the events leading up to and following the pepper spraying–15 and 42 minute clips. By Sunday evening there were over 51,000 comments about the article.
Nov. 20, 2011, Christian Science Monitor: “UC Davis pepper spray incident goes viral.”
Nov. 20, 2011, AP (on NPR): “Outcry After Police Pepper Spray Students at UC Davis.”
Nov. 20, 2011, LA Times: “UC Davis chief launches probe into pepper-spraying of Occupy protesters.”
Nov. 19, 2011, New York Times: “Opinion: Poet-Bashing Police,” by UCB faculty member Robert Hass.
Nov. 18, 2011, Washington Monthly: thoughts on poor police training and tactics, by law professor (and former cop) Peter Moskos.

UC Davis Faculty Petition calling for resignation of UCD chancellor as responsible for police action, at change.org: petition text.

Nov. 17, 2011: By the way, Nov. 17 happens to be the anniversary of the day in 1973 when Greek police killed a number of civilians and sent a tank into the Athens Polytechnic College. It is still celebrated as a day to commemorate academic freedom today: GreeceIndex.com article.”

Nov. 18, 2011, UCSB Daily Nexus: “Nov. 16 UCSB Budget Protests” (with 7:27 youtube clip).

Nov. 16, 2011, salon.com: “The students are coming! California collegians rebel against a failing system.” Good analysis of background of student protests (see also all the items below!).

Nov. 9, 2011, Contra Costa Times:” Thousands protest higher education cuts at UC Berkeley protest.”
See also the UCB Daily Californian‘s: live blog about the Nov. 9 Day of Action at UC Berkeley, and this article about what’s happening at UCLA: “200 protesters throng intersection near UCLA.”

Oct. 5, 2011, Remaking the University blog: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Wrongness: A commented version of the recently released letter by former UC Chancellors calling for a doubling of UC in-state tuition from $12,000 to $24,000/year.

Sept. 29, 2011, NY Review of Boooks: School ‘Reform’: A Failing Grade, by Diane Ravitch. This in-depth review of two books on school reform has bearing on the discussion about equity in public education and the realization of California’s “master plan” for higher education.

July 19, 2011, SB Independent: UC Regents Approve 9.6 Percent Tuition Hike: Second Increase in Eight Months; Professors and Lecturers Weigh In. Includes and interview with UCSB history professor Mary Furner.

July 14, 2011, KEYT: UC Regents Finance Committee approves plan to raise tuition by 9.6% for 2011-12. If approved, tuition for in-state graduate and undergraduate students would increase $1,068 to $12,192 a year, which doesn’t include room, board and roughly $1,000 in campus fees.

June 29, 2011, LA Times: UC fears talent loss to deeper pockets. The departure of three star scientists from UC San Diego has UC officials worried about a brain drain tied to budget cuts. With lots of statistical information about such losses.

April 8, 2011: Chronicle of Higher Education: Reversing Course, U. of California to Borrow Millions for Online Classes. Vice Provost Daniel Greenstein outlines a plan to create a for-profit online wing of UC in order to pay off loans it can’t afford and said it doesn’t need. Part of the UC leadership’s plan to turn education into a commodity to sell to the highest bidders in order to raise more revenue. Now the last pretenses of adhering to California’s acclaimed Master Plan for higher education have been abandoned.
Commentary by Bob Samuels, Apr. 14, 2011.
UC-AFT Confronts UC�s Push to Online Education,” AFT Insider, May 3, 2011.

March 31 , 2011: San Francisco Chronicle: Community colleges could turn away 400,000. In a nutshell: Without new revenue (raising taxes), Californians will get what they pay for.

March 31, 2011 Remaking the University blog: Fight or Flight?, by Chris Newfield (UCSB faculty). Chris relates a conversation with “a vocal senior UC official” about whether the State can afford to give UC more money, including his arguments about why it can and must.

Feb. 12, 2011: Remaking the University blog: Budget Matters, by Michael Meranze (UCLA faculty).

Feb. 8, 2011: California Progress Report: Don’t Blame Public Employees, by Martin Bennett.

Feb. 7, 2011: UC President Yudof: statement to the State Assembly Budget subcommittee.

Feb. 7, 2011: FireDogLake blog: State Budget Cuts: Starting at the Top by Dean Baker.

  • Jan. 24, 2011: New York Times op-ed: Does College Make You Smarter? Students make little progress in intellectual growth in the first two years of college. Why is that?
    A UCSB History Dept. colleague comments: “The Academically Adrift book and study has gotten a lot of attention, and the headline writers and journalists like to report the news that a good many college students are not learning much. In many respects, though, the report provides a strong rationale for what we do as historians. A key finding is that majors in the traditional liberal arts (including the humanities and many sciences) greatly improve their critical reading/analytical writing skills. (The major problem seems to be in pre-professional programs such as business, social work, communications, and education, where students don’t learn much at all, at least according to the study). A related finding is that students learn the most in courses that assign a lot of reading and a lot of writing … like history courses.

    Jan. 10, 2011: UC President Mark Yudof: An Open Letter to California about Governor Brown’s proposed permanent cut of $500 million to the UC budget.

    Jan. 8, 2011: A Counter-Conference: Strategies for Defending Higher Education
    This counter-conference will take place during the annual Modern Language Convention in Los Angeles, January 8th, 2011 from 1-5 at Loyola Law School (919 Albany St, 4 block from the Mariott, in Merrifield Hall). While thousands of people will be meeting at the traditional convention, UC-AFT will hold a one-day event centered on discussing actual strategies for making higher education more just. Speakers will present short papers on topics like the death of tenure, the corporatization of the university, the possibilities of unionization, direct social action, the use and abuse of graduate students, organizing contingent faculty, and taking back shared governance.
    Schedule:

    • Remaking the University of California: 1:00-1:45: Catharine Liu, Chris Newfield, Joshua Clover
    • Defending the Humanities and Shared Governance: 1:45-2:30: Cary Nelson, Jeffrey Williams, Michelle Masse
    • Organizing Labor and the Academic Class War: 2:30-3:15: Marc Bousquet, Maria Maisto, Joe Berry
    • Graduate Students and Precarious Labor: 3:15-4:00: Annie McClanahan (Harvard, former UAW bargaining unit), Jasper Bernes (GSOC, UCB), Stephanie Seawell (GEO, UI Champaign Urbana), Kerry Pimblott (UI Champaign Urbana)
    • Quality, Access, and Affordability: 4:00-4:30: Murray Sperber, Elizabeth Hoffman, and Bob Samuels
    • Open Discussion on Strategies for Changing Higher Education: 4:30-4:55.

    December 8, 2010: Your UC (UC Newsletter): “UC student fees, financial aid to rise,” about the Regents 15-5 vote on Nov. 18 to raise tuition and fees by $822 for all UC students in the 2011-12 academic year. This brings undergraduate costs to $11,124 (a systemwide average of $12,150 when individual campus fees are included).

    Template for entries:
    date, 2011, source: “article title.”
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    Entries for 2009 and 2010 are archived in this News item.
    hm 10/5/11, 10/30, 11/9, 11/20, 11/21, 11/26, 11/30,12/13, 12/31, 1/7/11, 1/13, 1/17, 2/16/12, 2/19/12
    hm 1/30/12