Public Comments to the Regents – 11/28/11
My name is Cheryl Deutsch. I’m a graduate student at UCLA and statewide President of UAW Local 2865, the union that represents student employees throughout the UC system.
Students have gathered on these and other campuses across the state today to demand that you make a choice. Will you continue to speak empty words while serving the interests of your class? Or will you act as the education leaders that the title of Regent would have us believe you are? Let’s be clear: you, as bankers and financiers, real estate developers and members of the corporate elite, are not representative of the people of California. You are not representative of the students of the UC. You are the 1%.
Now you’ve said today that you are going to ask the state for more funding. But you have no concrete proposals for where that money will come from or how it will get to the UC. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.
The ReFund California Pledge offers these concrete alternatives. We are asking you today to make a choice: students have already paid more than our fair share for the economic crisis that your class created. It’s time that you – as the 1% - pay your share.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Saturday, November 26, 2011
UC San Diego Statement on Police Responses to Protests
University of California
San Diego
CAMPUS NOTICE
OFFICE OF THE CHANCELLOR
OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE VICE CHANCELLOR
ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
ACADEMIC SENATE: SAN DIEGO DIVISION
November 23, 2011
ALL ACADEMICS AND STAFF
ALL STUDENTS
SUBJECT: Commitment to Free Speech and Peaceful Assembly
Dear Members of our UC San Diego Community:
We share the widely expressed outrage at the violent responses to peaceful
demonstrations on our sister University of California campuses. The alarming
images are a stark reminder of our need for vigilance in protecting the rights
of free speech and the freedom to conduct peaceful protests. Our University
must guard those rights.
We fully endorse the UC Academic Council’s statements relayed to President
Mark Yudof and we strongly support the President’s actions to thoroughly
review policing policies and protocols. UC Academic Council's statements
may be accessed at the following website address:
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/senate/reports/
A healthy intellectual climate at UC San Diego relies on civil discourse
and respectful behavior by all community members. Our campus is steadfast
in our resolve to protect the fundamental rights of free speech and peaceful
assembly.
Marye Anne Fox
Chancellor
Suresh Subramani
Executive Vice Chancellor
Joel Sobel
Academic Senate: San Diego Division
Chair
San Diego
CAMPUS NOTICE
OFFICE OF THE CHANCELLOR
OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE VICE CHANCELLOR
ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
ACADEMIC SENATE: SAN DIEGO DIVISION
November 23, 2011
ALL ACADEMICS AND STAFF
ALL STUDENTS
SUBJECT: Commitment to Free Speech and Peaceful Assembly
Dear Members of our UC San Diego Community:
We share the widely expressed outrage at the violent responses to peaceful
demonstrations on our sister University of California campuses. The alarming
images are a stark reminder of our need for vigilance in protecting the rights
of free speech and the freedom to conduct peaceful protests. Our University
must guard those rights.
We fully endorse the UC Academic Council’s statements relayed to President
Mark Yudof and we strongly support the President’s actions to thoroughly
review policing policies and protocols. UC Academic Council's statements
may be accessed at the following website address:
A healthy intellectual climate at UC San Diego relies on civil discourse
and respectful behavior by all community members. Our campus is steadfast
in our resolve to protect the fundamental rights of free speech and peaceful
assembly.
Marye Anne Fox
Chancellor
Suresh Subramani
Executive Vice Chancellor
Joel Sobel
Academic Senate: San Diego Division
Chair
Friday, November 25, 2011
UCLA Chancellor and EVC Response to UC Davis Pepper Spray
Office of the Chancellor
Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost
To the Campus Community:
The images from events at UCB and UCD have shocked and troubled all of us on campus and across the system. Our hearts go out to the students, parents, faculty and staff at Berkeley and Davis during this trying time.
At UCLA, a small number of protesters identifying themselves as the Occupy UCLA movement established a camp last Thursday and were asked to disperse early Friday morning. They refused to disperse and preferred to be arrested. All the protesters that morning were peaceful and cooperative. The police worked with Student Affairs and the students to ensure that the process went forward smoothly and the encampment was removed without confrontation or injury. On Monday, after the actions at Davis, the protesters held a series of teach-ins, and decided to set up tents on the lawn in front of the Morgan Center. Under the circumstances and at the urging of faculty and the Senate leadership, we decided not to intervene. Today they have dismantled their tents on their own accord.
The peace and safety of the campus is a high concern for us, as is the freedom of expression. Our aim is to achieve both in a time when feelings are running extremely high. We have worked closely with Student Affairs, Legal Affairs, and UCLA PD to ensure that the campus adheres to ourprinciples of community and that everyone acts with restraint, respect, and tolerance in all circumstances. The meeting of the Regents at UCLA this coming Monday may bring demonstrations, and we will work strenuously with all parties to ensure as far as we are able that they remain safe and peaceful. We have been in constant discussion with our students and campus leadership, and have stressed firmly that we all must act in a responsible manner that preserves the core values of the campus.
We are pleased that so far the UCLA community has managed to avoid the kinds of wrenching events that have torn our sister campuses. That we have done so is testimony to the civility and restraint shown by our students, faculty, police, and staff in difficult circumstances.
We will consult with the City Attorney next week concerning the charges against our students.
We wish you all a happy and safe Thanksgiving.
Gene D. Block
Chancellor
Scott L. Waugh
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost
Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost
To the Campus Community:
The images from events at UCB and UCD have shocked and troubled all of us on campus and across the system. Our hearts go out to the students, parents, faculty and staff at Berkeley and Davis during this trying time.
At UCLA, a small number of protesters identifying themselves as the Occupy UCLA movement established a camp last Thursday and were asked to disperse early Friday morning. They refused to disperse and preferred to be arrested. All the protesters that morning were peaceful and cooperative. The police worked with Student Affairs and the students to ensure that the process went forward smoothly and the encampment was removed without confrontation or injury. On Monday, after the actions at Davis, the protesters held a series of teach-ins, and decided to set up tents on the lawn in front of the Morgan Center. Under the circumstances and at the urging of faculty and the Senate leadership, we decided not to intervene. Today they have dismantled their tents on their own accord.
The peace and safety of the campus is a high concern for us, as is the freedom of expression. Our aim is to achieve both in a time when feelings are running extremely high. We have worked closely with Student Affairs, Legal Affairs, and UCLA PD to ensure that the campus adheres to our
We are pleased that so far the UCLA community has managed to avoid the kinds of wrenching events that have torn our sister campuses. That we have done so is testimony to the civility and restraint shown by our students, faculty, police, and staff in difficult circumstances.
We will consult with the City Attorney next week concerning the charges against our students.
We wish you all a happy and safe Thanksgiving.
Gene D. Block
Chancellor
Scott L. Waugh
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Chancellor Yang "Responds" to Police Violence (11/21/11)
November 21, 2011
Dear Members of our Campus Community,
Over the weekend I have received many expressions of concern from faculty, staff, and students about the importance of preserving academic freedom. I have very much appreciated these sentiments. I also have met with our colleagues in Student Affairs, the Police Department, and the Academic Senate.
I am writing now to reaffirm, on behalf of UC Santa Barbara, our campus commitment to civil discourse, freedom of expression, and non-violence. These are core values of our academic community, and we share a common responsibility to protect and safeguard them. Our students, faculty, and staff must continue to work together to discuss important issues and concerns in an environment of mutual respect, safety, and tolerance, even in difficult times.
Thank you for helping to ensure the values of our community.
I send my best wishes for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Sincerely,
Henry T. Yang
Chancellor
Dear Members of our Campus Community,
Over the weekend I have received many expressions of concern from faculty, staff, and students about the importance of preserving academic freedom. I have very much appreciated these sentiments. I also have met with our colleagues in Student Affairs, the Police Department, and the Academic Senate.
I am writing now to reaffirm, on behalf of UC Santa Barbara, our campus commitment to civil discourse, freedom of expression, and non-violence. These are core values of our academic community, and we share a common responsibility to protect and safeguard them. Our students, faculty, and staff must continue to work together to discuss important issues and concerns in an environment of mutual respect, safety, and tolerance, even in difficult times.
Thank you for helping to ensure the values of our community.
I send my best wishes for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Sincerely,
Henry T. Yang
Chancellor
UCSC Senate Chair Speaks to Faculty on Budgetary Reform, aka, "Rebenching."
SANTA CRUZ: OFFICE OF THE ACADEMIC SENATE
From Senate Chair Susan Gillman’s Announcements, November 9, 2011 Senate Meeting:
FINALLY: REBENCHING
You’ll hear next from Chancellor Blumenthal, channeling EVC Galloway, who has wisely chosen to miss the Senate meeting so that she could be physically present at today’s campus rally at the Quarry in support of the statewide Day of Action. The Chancellor will fill us in on our own local multi-year approach to coping with the cuts. He will also comment on the parallel track at Office of the President (OP), where there is an effort at systemic reform of the UC budget, in the form of what are known as Funding Streams and Rebenching.
“Funding Streams” and “Rebenching” are inelegant terms for major systemwide reform of the budget. What problem does this reform address?
THE PROBLEM
OP uses an incremental budget process to determine annual budget amounts for each campus. This process consists of a permanent base amount, which varies by campus, and incremental adjustments made annually to the base amount. The budget process results in varying amounts per student distributed among campuses—in Fiscal Year 09-10, the range is of $12,309 (UCSB) to $55,186 (UCSF), with UCSC at $12,846. [Source: State Auditor Report, July 2011 http://www.bsa.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2010-105.pdf ]
OP could not identify reasons for these differences or quantify them, other than to cite the cumulative outcome of a long history of incentives and disincentives, marginal increments and decrements, with the base budget permanent and all changes occurring only on the margins. Cross-subsidies thus reflect historic priorities and rationales that may have changed (e.g. weighting of graduate students by 3.5 FTE ended in 1996) but the subsidies themselves were built into the base budgets of each campus and have therefore become permanent.
THE SOLUTION: A TWO-PHASE APPROACH
Phase #1
Budget reform was launched with the first phase, called Funding Streams. This reform makes more transparent various revenue sources, or “funding streams,” in non-state portions of the budget, allocating them on the basic principle that revenues generated by a campus should be returned to the campus (whether from student tuition, including non-resident tuition, contracts and grants, other fundraising, etc.).
Next, in July 2011, the State Auditor Report came out in media res, when Phase 1, Funding Streams, had been completed, and Phase 2, Rebenching, was launched but shakily. President Yudof established the Budget Rebenching Task Force as an administrative group whose roster includes six chancellors, one EVC, vice-chancellors for planning and budget, OP budget managers, and five Senate representatives.
Phase #2: Not Yet
We are now operating under partially-completed budget reform. Phase 1, Funding Streams, depends for its intended outcomes on Phase 2, Rebenching, the second phase of UC’s own internal budgetary reform — the allocation of state funding to the campuses in a more transparent and equitable way. This situation promotes the status quo, which the President has publicly recognized as the leaderless outcome of a long history of ad hoc budgetary decisions. By permitting campuses to retain all the revenues they generate, Funding Streams locks in the competitive advantage of campuses that were historically advantaged by differential funding; by failing to move to Rebenching, the UC system locks in that competitive advantage. In addition, still uncompleted is the third pillar of budgetary reform, the funding for UCOP itself and how we address systemwide expenses.
The momentum in Rebenching is clearly in the direction of a formula linking systemwide allocation of core funds to current student numbers, with funding tiers for different classifications of students (undergraduate and graduate students including Masters, PhDs, professional degrees). Closing the per-student funding gap will bring the UC budgetary model in line with the long-held goal of a single public university with ten distinctive locations across California. This goal has been reaffirmed at multiple times and in multiple venues by the Senate, and it is now in jeopardy.
The Academic Council’s Rebenching proposal proposes a methodology for ensuring that each campus has the support it needs to meet the mission and Master Plan obligation of educating all qualified, state-funded students. The Council proposal is guided by the principle that all UC students of a particular classification, regardless of campus, should receive the same level of funding necessary to support a UC-quality education. It also includes a mechanism for funding PhD students that recognizes the centrality of doctoral education to the UC mission and the interdependence of graduate and undergraduate education at UC.
The principle has been nominally accepted in Rebenching discussions thus far, but it is unclear how, when, or even whether it will be implemented. Among the stumbling blocks to consensus, some are significant while others appear to be delaying tactics. A significant question remaining is how funding for health sciences, agriculture and other systemwide priorities should be treated. Less substantive questions include whether Rebenching should apply only to new state funds, or whether it should be implemented over a long transition period. A clear delaying tactic is a repeated objection that Rebenching will be divisive, pitting haves against have-nots, the flagships versus foundering ships, larger and older campuses versus the younger and smaller. These terms are simply synonyms for the fragmentation of the UC system by campus self-interest.
WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
Now is the time to proceed deliberately with budget reform. Both the Senate and the Administration, (the latter in the November, 2010 Commission on the Future Report, commissioned by President Yudof) have endorsed the value of UC as one university, and if we mean that we are one university, we need to stand by that value in defining principles for budgeting.
The whole Rebenching effort should be viewed as the UC systemwide version of “Let no budget crisis go to waste.” This is a moment when campuses will demonstrate that they set policy by principle, not by adherence to local needs and desires alone. How Rebenching will end, whether with greater transparency and equity in budgetary allocations across the system, and whether from any principled basis at all, is still an open question.
With student protests across campuses, UC may finally have the necessary conjunction of external and internal budget efforts: the ReFund California/student protests are looking to Sacramento, where the pattern of disinvestment in higher education originates and can be solved, while OP is looking inward through Rebenching to the single greatest choice in the university’s financial control, the allocation of our state funds. Together, these forces may finally be in sufficient alignment that real change can occur.
Susan Gillman Chair, Santa Cruz Division, Academic Senate
From Senate Chair Susan Gillman’s Announcements, November 9, 2011 Senate Meeting:
FINALLY: REBENCHING
You’ll hear next from Chancellor Blumenthal, channeling EVC Galloway, who has wisely chosen to miss the Senate meeting so that she could be physically present at today’s campus rally at the Quarry in support of the statewide Day of Action. The Chancellor will fill us in on our own local multi-year approach to coping with the cuts. He will also comment on the parallel track at Office of the President (OP), where there is an effort at systemic reform of the UC budget, in the form of what are known as Funding Streams and Rebenching.
“Funding Streams” and “Rebenching” are inelegant terms for major systemwide reform of the budget. What problem does this reform address?
THE PROBLEM
OP uses an incremental budget process to determine annual budget amounts for each campus. This process consists of a permanent base amount, which varies by campus, and incremental adjustments made annually to the base amount. The budget process results in varying amounts per student distributed among campuses—in Fiscal Year 09-10, the range is of $12,309 (UCSB) to $55,186 (UCSF), with UCSC at $12,846. [Source: State Auditor Report, July 2011 http://www.bsa.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2010-105.pdf ]
OP could not identify reasons for these differences or quantify them, other than to cite the cumulative outcome of a long history of incentives and disincentives, marginal increments and decrements, with the base budget permanent and all changes occurring only on the margins. Cross-subsidies thus reflect historic priorities and rationales that may have changed (e.g. weighting of graduate students by 3.5 FTE ended in 1996) but the subsidies themselves were built into the base budgets of each campus and have therefore become permanent.
THE SOLUTION: A TWO-PHASE APPROACH
Phase #1
Budget reform was launched with the first phase, called Funding Streams. This reform makes more transparent various revenue sources, or “funding streams,” in non-state portions of the budget, allocating them on the basic principle that revenues generated by a campus should be returned to the campus (whether from student tuition, including non-resident tuition, contracts and grants, other fundraising, etc.).
Next, in July 2011, the State Auditor Report came out in media res, when Phase 1, Funding Streams, had been completed, and Phase 2, Rebenching, was launched but shakily. President Yudof established the Budget Rebenching Task Force as an administrative group whose roster includes six chancellors, one EVC, vice-chancellors for planning and budget, OP budget managers, and five Senate representatives.
Phase #2: Not Yet
We are now operating under partially-completed budget reform. Phase 1, Funding Streams, depends for its intended outcomes on Phase 2, Rebenching, the second phase of UC’s own internal budgetary reform — the allocation of state funding to the campuses in a more transparent and equitable way. This situation promotes the status quo, which the President has publicly recognized as the leaderless outcome of a long history of ad hoc budgetary decisions. By permitting campuses to retain all the revenues they generate, Funding Streams locks in the competitive advantage of campuses that were historically advantaged by differential funding; by failing to move to Rebenching, the UC system locks in that competitive advantage. In addition, still uncompleted is the third pillar of budgetary reform, the funding for UCOP itself and how we address systemwide expenses.
The momentum in Rebenching is clearly in the direction of a formula linking systemwide allocation of core funds to current student numbers, with funding tiers for different classifications of students (undergraduate and graduate students including Masters, PhDs, professional degrees). Closing the per-student funding gap will bring the UC budgetary model in line with the long-held goal of a single public university with ten distinctive locations across California. This goal has been reaffirmed at multiple times and in multiple venues by the Senate, and it is now in jeopardy.
The Academic Council’s Rebenching proposal proposes a methodology for ensuring that each campus has the support it needs to meet the mission and Master Plan obligation of educating all qualified, state-funded students. The Council proposal is guided by the principle that all UC students of a particular classification, regardless of campus, should receive the same level of funding necessary to support a UC-quality education. It also includes a mechanism for funding PhD students that recognizes the centrality of doctoral education to the UC mission and the interdependence of graduate and undergraduate education at UC.
The principle has been nominally accepted in Rebenching discussions thus far, but it is unclear how, when, or even whether it will be implemented. Among the stumbling blocks to consensus, some are significant while others appear to be delaying tactics. A significant question remaining is how funding for health sciences, agriculture and other systemwide priorities should be treated. Less substantive questions include whether Rebenching should apply only to new state funds, or whether it should be implemented over a long transition period. A clear delaying tactic is a repeated objection that Rebenching will be divisive, pitting haves against have-nots, the flagships versus foundering ships, larger and older campuses versus the younger and smaller. These terms are simply synonyms for the fragmentation of the UC system by campus self-interest.
WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
Now is the time to proceed deliberately with budget reform. Both the Senate and the Administration, (the latter in the November, 2010 Commission on the Future Report, commissioned by President Yudof) have endorsed the value of UC as one university, and if we mean that we are one university, we need to stand by that value in defining principles for budgeting.
The whole Rebenching effort should be viewed as the UC systemwide version of “Let no budget crisis go to waste.” This is a moment when campuses will demonstrate that they set policy by principle, not by adherence to local needs and desires alone. How Rebenching will end, whether with greater transparency and equity in budgetary allocations across the system, and whether from any principled basis at all, is still an open question.
With student protests across campuses, UC may finally have the necessary conjunction of external and internal budget efforts: the ReFund California/student protests are looking to Sacramento, where the pattern of disinvestment in higher education originates and can be solved, while OP is looking inward through Rebenching to the single greatest choice in the university’s financial control, the allocation of our state funds. Together, these forces may finally be in sufficient alignment that real change can occur.
Susan Gillman Chair, Santa Cruz Division, Academic Senate
UCSC Senate Chair on Campus Protests and University Budget
Dear Colleagues,
The UC community has been horrified by the police violence we have seen exercised against student protestors at UC Davis as well as earlier against students and faculty at Berkeley. The system-wide Academic Senate has issued a statement (appended below).
For our campus, which has thus far seen only peaceful protest, I am concerned first and foremost to maintain the communication among the administration, students and faculty that will help us to avoid any escalation of violence at UCSC. Second, our campus should not lose sight of the focus of the student protest on state disinvestment in higher education.
To that end, please see the attached document from my Senate speech on November 9, which coincided with the statewide Day of Action. Our campus held a peaceful rally, followed by a march downtown to Occupy Santa Cruz,thanks to the collective efforts of the organizers and participants of our local ReFund California coalition (undergraduates, graduate students, unions) as well as those of Chancellor Blumenthal and CP/EVC Galloway.
As Senate Chair, I used the chance to speak to the faculty about the issue of "Rebenching," an effort at budgetary reform for the UC system as a whole that is currently underway at the Office of the President (OP). Both little-known and poorly publicized, Rebenching is the university's most significant response to the ongoing budget crisis--and the single largest element the university has in its direct control. Rebenching is the most important action the university will, or will not, take in the next few years.
For those who did not attend the November 9 Senate meeting, as well as for the general campus community, please see the attached excerpt from my speech on Rebenching. Students, faculty and administrators at UCSC must redouble efforts to complete the budgetary reform contingent on Rebenching.
Sincerely,
Susan Gillman, Chair
Academic Senate
Professor of Literature
The UC community has been horrified by the police violence we have seen exercised against student protestors at UC Davis as well as earlier against students and faculty at Berkeley. The system-wide Academic Senate has issued a statement (appended below).
For our campus, which has thus far seen only peaceful protest, I am concerned first and foremost to maintain the communication among the administration, students and faculty that will help us to avoid any escalation of violence at UCSC. Second, our campus should not lose sight of the focus of the student protest on state disinvestment in higher education.
To that end, please see the attached document from my Senate speech on November 9, which coincided with the statewide Day of Action. Our campus held a peaceful rally, followed by a march downtown to Occupy Santa Cruz,thanks to the collective efforts of the organizers and participants of our local ReFund California coalition (undergraduates, graduate students, unions) as well as those of Chancellor Blumenthal and CP/EVC Galloway.
As Senate Chair, I used the chance to speak to the faculty about the issue of "Rebenching," an effort at budgetary reform for the UC system as a whole that is currently underway at the Office of the President (OP). Both little-known and poorly publicized, Rebenching is the university's most significant response to the ongoing budget crisis--and the single largest element the university has in its direct control. Rebenching is the most important action the university will, or will not, take in the next few years.
For those who did not attend the November 9 Senate meeting, as well as for the general campus community, please see the attached excerpt from my speech on Rebenching. Students, faculty and administrators at UCSC must redouble efforts to complete the budgetary reform contingent on Rebenching.
Sincerely,
Susan Gillman, Chair
Academic Senate
Professor of Literature
Monday, November 21, 2011
UCSB Faculty Letter to Chancellor Yang on UC Davis Police Violence
Recent acts of police violence at UC Berkeley and UC Davis have left us disheartened and angry. In video footage of the November 9 police attacks at Berkeley, we see non-violent students and faculty beaten by truncheons. These students and faculty were hoping to improve access to education at their university; in return for this noble work, they were assaulted – on their own campus – by police officers in riot gear. The non-violent student protest at Davis was suppressed with comparable brutality on November 18. In video from Davis, we can see police in riot gear using pepper spray against non-violent student protestors who had the courage to stand in solidarity with the men and women who had been beaten at Berkeley the week before. Accounts from police attacks at Davis are harrowing where they detail the chemical burns and respiratory bleeding that are the hallmark of pepper spray.
We, the undersigned faculty, refuse to accept these acts of brutality against non-violent protestors at our sister campuses in the University of California system. Consequently, we call upon Chancellor Yang to make a public statement on our behalf.
First, we call upon Chancellor Yang to denounce unequivocally the recent acts of police violence at Berkeley and Davis. Chancellor Yang is our representative to the UC system, and we hope that he uses this position to make our anger heard.
Second, we call upon Chancellor Yang to declare that the violence we’ve seen on other UC campuses will not happen here. We call upon Chancellor Yang to declare that UCSB will never condone the use of police violence – including the use of pepper spray – against non-violent protests by members of our community. We call upon Chancellor Yang to make this statement into policy.
Chancellor Yang has a long record of protecting students and faculty at UCSB; we hope that he continues to be our strong advocate.
Sincerely,
Porter Abbot (English)
Linda Adler-Kassner (Writing Program)
Kevin Anderson (Sociology)
Stephanie Batiste (English)
Eileen Boris (Feminst Studies)
Maurizia Bocagli (English)
Julie Carlson (English)
Brian Donnelly (English)
Enda Duffy (English)
Richard Flacks (Sociology)
Claudio Fogu (French and Italian Studies)
John Foran (Sociology)
Aranye Fradenburg (English)
Patricia Fumerton (English)
Nancy Gallagher (History)
Catherine Gautier (Geography)
Bishnupriya Ghosh (English)
Andrew Griffin (English)
Peter Lackner (Theater and Dance)
Stephanie Lemenager (English)
Shirley Lim (English)
Alan Liu (English)
Christina McMahon (Theater and Dance)
Laurie Monahan (History of Art and Architecture)
Chris Newfield (English)
Michael O’Connell (English)
Carole Paul (Art History)
Russell Samolsky (English)
Bhaskar Sarkar (Film and Media Studies)
Scott Selisker (English)
Teresa Shewry (English)
Sven Spieker (Germanic, Slavic, and Semitic Studies)
Vera Tobin (English)
Candace Waid (English)
Elisabeth Weber (German and Comparative Literature)
Howard Winant (Sociology)
Richard Wittman (History of Art and Architecture)
Kay Young (English)
We, the undersigned faculty, refuse to accept these acts of brutality against non-violent protestors at our sister campuses in the University of California system. Consequently, we call upon Chancellor Yang to make a public statement on our behalf.
First, we call upon Chancellor Yang to denounce unequivocally the recent acts of police violence at Berkeley and Davis. Chancellor Yang is our representative to the UC system, and we hope that he uses this position to make our anger heard.
Second, we call upon Chancellor Yang to declare that the violence we’ve seen on other UC campuses will not happen here. We call upon Chancellor Yang to declare that UCSB will never condone the use of police violence – including the use of pepper spray – against non-violent protests by members of our community. We call upon Chancellor Yang to make this statement into policy.
Chancellor Yang has a long record of protecting students and faculty at UCSB; we hope that he continues to be our strong advocate.
Sincerely,
Porter Abbot (English)
Linda Adler-Kassner (Writing Program)
Kevin Anderson (Sociology)
Stephanie Batiste (English)
Eileen Boris (Feminst Studies)
Maurizia Bocagli (English)
Julie Carlson (English)
Brian Donnelly (English)
Enda Duffy (English)
Richard Flacks (Sociology)
Claudio Fogu (French and Italian Studies)
John Foran (Sociology)
Aranye Fradenburg (English)
Patricia Fumerton (English)
Nancy Gallagher (History)
Catherine Gautier (Geography)
Bishnupriya Ghosh (English)
Andrew Griffin (English)
Peter Lackner (Theater and Dance)
Stephanie Lemenager (English)
Shirley Lim (English)
Alan Liu (English)
Christina McMahon (Theater and Dance)
Laurie Monahan (History of Art and Architecture)
Chris Newfield (English)
Michael O’Connell (English)
Carole Paul (Art History)
Russell Samolsky (English)
Bhaskar Sarkar (Film and Media Studies)
Scott Selisker (English)
Teresa Shewry (English)
Sven Spieker (Germanic, Slavic, and Semitic Studies)
Vera Tobin (English)
Candace Waid (English)
Elisabeth Weber (German and Comparative Literature)
Howard Winant (Sociology)
Richard Wittman (History of Art and Architecture)
Kay Young (English)
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Music with its Sleeves Rolled UP (Thanks to Michael O'Hare)
Any crowd can learn this song after one chorus and one verse
Come all you Californians,
Here's news to give you cheer,
The ninety-nine percent who work
Are standing up right here.
Here's news to give you cheer,
The ninety-nine percent who work
Are standing up right here.
cho after each verse:
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
My grandpa paid his taxes,
He built the U of C,
I owe it to my children,
That knowledge should be free.
He built the U of C,
I owe it to my children,
That knowledge should be free.
It used to be that people
Could work and save some pay
To give their kids a better life
And see a brighter day.
There's work to do for all of us
Prop thirteen shut us down
We're taking back our government
For field and town and gown.
They say all down the valley,
There are no neutrals there.
You’ll either be a one of us,
Or die from poisoned air.
There are no neutrals there.
You’ll either be a one of us,
Or die from poisoned air.
Oh, people can you stand it?
Ten years and more of pain.
Get with the 99%
And board the people's train!
Ten years and more of pain.
Get with the 99%
And board the people's train!
The 1% are on Fox News ,
Don’t listen to their lies.
There's none of us that's got a chance,
Unless we organize.
Don’t listen to their lies.
There's none of us that's got a chance,
Unless we organize.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Nicole Lindhal Eyewitness Account of Police Attack on Occupy Cal November 9th
Dear friends, family, and colleagues,
For many of you it has been a long time since we were last in contact;
I wish that I was writing now in order to set up a long overdue
conversation, or to fill you in on happy developments in my life.
Instead, I am writing because I feel compelled to give you a first
hand account of some disturbing events which occurred on the UC
Berkeley campus this week.
This Wednesday, November 9, UC Berkeley students staged a rally and
march with the goals of protesting a proposed 81% fee hike and drawing
attention to the increasing fiscal crisis facing public education in
California. After the march, students held a General Assembly meeting
in which they formed a consensus to build an encampment (a la Occupy
Wall Street) on Sproul Plaza. Students made this decision with full
awareness that, earlier in the week, the UC Berkeley Chancellor had
issued a letter stating that camping constituted a violation of the
campus code.
Shortly after the tents were pitched, while students were playing
music on guitars, painting signs, and chit-chatting in true UC
Berkeley fashion, police forces began gathering. What ensued was
nothing less than two separate police attacks on non-violent student
protesters. Two police forces (UCPD and the Alameda County Sheriff's
Department) and hundreds of police officers in full riot gear advanced
on students who had linked arms to form a human barricade around the
tents. The riot police formed a line with batons drawn, held in both
hands across their bodies, and they moved forward as a block, jabbing
the batons towards the line of students in unison. Behind them were
several officers holding automatic weapons that looked like something
out of Grand Theft Auto--tear gas launchers? rubber bullet
guns?--which they sometimes pointed directly at students' heads and
bodies.
I witnessed a young woman on the ground being repeatedly attacked with
the end of a baton by a police lieutenant from the Alameda County
Sheriff's department. I saw two young men get tackled and arrested,
one as a tactic to break the line of locked-armed students, and the
other for trying to pick up a tent pole. I also saw two young women
get their hands stamped on by a policeman's boot when they tried to
pick up a bike light in between our line and the officers'. And this
was just in my small corner of the first and less intense standoff.
In the second, the police forces were more aggressive, and many
officers (as opposed to only a few in the earlier event), were--for
lack of a better word--rabid. They repeatedly attacked students with
batons with ZERO provocation. In total, 39 people were arrested in
both confrontations, and many more were beaten, including two students
in a class I am currently teaching and a fellow graduate student from
my department.
I was fortunate enough to escape these events with only minor scrapes
and bruises. I am shaken, however, and more angry than perhaps I've
even been in my life. On Thursday morning, I had visions of booting
police officers in the face while I was in the shower. For the rest
of the day, I intermittently cried and swelled with outrage. When I
saw police officers on Sproul plaza standing around in small groups, I
literally could not raise my eyes to look at them. Predictably
enough, I have been completely mobilized into action by Wednesday's
events, as have thousands of students and community members who have
been shocked and outraged by the videos they've seen (see below this
message for links to a few videos I hope you take the time time to
check out).
I am incredibly proud of Cal students who courageously held the line
and remained completely peaceful throughout the day and night. We
continuously shouted "peaceful! protest!" particularly when the police
were acting most aggressively. There was not a rock or bottle thrown,
and the chants consistently demonstrated empathy with or at least
respect for the humanity of the police ("We're doing this for your
children!" or "Stop beating students!" or "You are the 99%!").
The larger point here is that we live in a society in which this type
of police use of force is entirely normalized. It is expected, and in
fact justified, that the roll-out of police in riot gear is the first
response to non-violent student protesters. I mean, the students were
violating the law, right? They should have known that this is what
they would get. What did they expect?
I ask instead, in what world are militarized riot police an
appropriate response to students with tents????? And I challenge you
(and all of us) to think through what Wednesday afternoon might have
looked like if the use of force was OFF THE TABLE.
In the aftermath of these events, I had the urge to ask the Chancellor
to articulate the threat that the encampment posed that justified the
kind of response we saw on Wednesday. And in fact, he issued a letter
to the campus community doing just that on Thursday. It turns out,
while he supports marches and rallies as forms of protest, encampments
pose a threat to sanitation and hygiene, and he is worried about the
campus administration's ability to manage conflicts arising within
(Needless to say, I, too, am worried about the administration's
ability to manage conflict after Wednesday's events, but I digress).
I would argue that this standoff is not about hygiene, sanitation, or
conflict management; nor is it simply about a few students with tents,
as those of us who are sympathetic to the protests have argued. This
is about establishing a space within which dialogue across divisions
of race, class, gender, religion, and ideology is encouraged,
facilitated, and prioritized; within which any and all participants
are provided the consistent opportunity to give voice to their ideas
and concerns about the nature of the society they live in; a space in
which the creativity and imagination necessary to visualize inclusive
and egalitarian political, economic, and social systems are nurtured;
a space in which I, for one, feel like I can participate without
making ethical compromises. THIS is the threat that these encampments
represent. And this is also the reason that so many students,
including me, are willing to defend their construction with our
bodies.
With much love and, for the first time in my life, real hope for a
better future,
Nicole
Videos:
This site contains a video from the afternoon attack which has gone
viral, and a photo of the plaza an hour or so after the second attack,
when even more students gathered and held the second general assembly
meeting of the day (in which they formed a consensus to call for a
UC-wide strike on Tuesday, November 15):
This is a video from the first attack which I uploaded from the camera
on my phone. This advance occurred after the police had already torn
down the encampment, and resulted in them reclaiming a few feet of
dirt. It doesn't capture police beatings in as clear detail as the
previous video, but it gives you an up close and personal sense of the
atmosphere among the student protesters as well as what it was like to
be standing peacefully in a line, only to be advanced upon by a row of
riot police:
This video was taken by a stranger who was in a very similar position
to me during the clash in the evening. Since it's not clear, let me
remind you that students were gathered on the lawn distributing food
and hanging out before the police officers moved into formation and
formed the line you see here (in other words, the students did not
approach a line of riot cops, but rather were approached while
peacefully assembling). Whoever took this video got a much better
angle on the events that I was witnessing than I did with my camera
phone:
For more, search for "Occupy Cal" on YouTube.
For many of you it has been a long time since we were last in contact;
I wish that I was writing now in order to set up a long overdue
conversation, or to fill you in on happy developments in my life.
Instead, I am writing because I feel compelled to give you a first
hand account of some disturbing events which occurred on the UC
Berkeley campus this week.
This Wednesday, November 9, UC Berkeley students staged a rally and
march with the goals of protesting a proposed 81% fee hike and drawing
attention to the increasing fiscal crisis facing public education in
California. After the march, students held a General Assembly meeting
in which they formed a consensus to build an encampment (a la Occupy
Wall Street) on Sproul Plaza. Students made this decision with full
awareness that, earlier in the week, the UC Berkeley Chancellor had
issued a letter stating that camping constituted a violation of the
campus code.
Shortly after the tents were pitched, while students were playing
music on guitars, painting signs, and chit-chatting in true UC
Berkeley fashion, police forces began gathering. What ensued was
nothing less than two separate police attacks on non-violent student
protesters. Two police forces (UCPD and the Alameda County Sheriff's
Department) and hundreds of police officers in full riot gear advanced
on students who had linked arms to form a human barricade around the
tents. The riot police formed a line with batons drawn, held in both
hands across their bodies, and they moved forward as a block, jabbing
the batons towards the line of students in unison. Behind them were
several officers holding automatic weapons that looked like something
out of Grand Theft Auto--tear gas launchers? rubber bullet
guns?--which they sometimes pointed directly at students' heads and
bodies.
I witnessed a young woman on the ground being repeatedly attacked with
the end of a baton by a police lieutenant from the Alameda County
Sheriff's department. I saw two young men get tackled and arrested,
one as a tactic to break the line of locked-armed students, and the
other for trying to pick up a tent pole. I also saw two young women
get their hands stamped on by a policeman's boot when they tried to
pick up a bike light in between our line and the officers'. And this
was just in my small corner of the first and less intense standoff.
In the second, the police forces were more aggressive, and many
officers (as opposed to only a few in the earlier event), were--for
lack of a better word--rabid. They repeatedly attacked students with
batons with ZERO provocation. In total, 39 people were arrested in
both confrontations, and many more were beaten, including two students
in a class I am currently teaching and a fellow graduate student from
my department.
I was fortunate enough to escape these events with only minor scrapes
and bruises. I am shaken, however, and more angry than perhaps I've
even been in my life. On Thursday morning, I had visions of booting
police officers in the face while I was in the shower. For the rest
of the day, I intermittently cried and swelled with outrage. When I
saw police officers on Sproul plaza standing around in small groups, I
literally could not raise my eyes to look at them. Predictably
enough, I have been completely mobilized into action by Wednesday's
events, as have thousands of students and community members who have
been shocked and outraged by the videos they've seen (see below this
message for links to a few videos I hope you take the time time to
check out).
I am incredibly proud of Cal students who courageously held the line
and remained completely peaceful throughout the day and night. We
continuously shouted "peaceful! protest!" particularly when the police
were acting most aggressively. There was not a rock or bottle thrown,
and the chants consistently demonstrated empathy with or at least
respect for the humanity of the police ("We're doing this for your
children!" or "Stop beating students!" or "You are the 99%!").
The larger point here is that we live in a society in which this type
of police use of force is entirely normalized. It is expected, and in
fact justified, that the roll-out of police in riot gear is the first
response to non-violent student protesters. I mean, the students were
violating the law, right? They should have known that this is what
they would get. What did they expect?
I ask instead, in what world are militarized riot police an
appropriate response to students with tents????? And I challenge you
(and all of us) to think through what Wednesday afternoon might have
looked like if the use of force was OFF THE TABLE.
In the aftermath of these events, I had the urge to ask the Chancellor
to articulate the threat that the encampment posed that justified the
kind of response we saw on Wednesday. And in fact, he issued a letter
to the campus community doing just that on Thursday. It turns out,
while he supports marches and rallies as forms of protest, encampments
pose a threat to sanitation and hygiene, and he is worried about the
campus administration's ability to manage conflicts arising within
(Needless to say, I, too, am worried about the administration's
ability to manage conflict after Wednesday's events, but I digress).
I would argue that this standoff is not about hygiene, sanitation, or
conflict management; nor is it simply about a few students with tents,
as those of us who are sympathetic to the protests have argued. This
is about establishing a space within which dialogue across divisions
of race, class, gender, religion, and ideology is encouraged,
facilitated, and prioritized; within which any and all participants
are provided the consistent opportunity to give voice to their ideas
and concerns about the nature of the society they live in; a space in
which the creativity and imagination necessary to visualize inclusive
and egalitarian political, economic, and social systems are nurtured;
a space in which I, for one, feel like I can participate without
making ethical compromises. THIS is the threat that these encampments
represent. And this is also the reason that so many students,
including me, are willing to defend their construction with our
bodies.
With much love and, for the first time in my life, real hope for a
better future,
Nicole
Videos:
This site contains a video from the afternoon attack which has gone
viral, and a photo of the plaza an hour or so after the second attack,
when even more students gathered and held the second general assembly
meeting of the day (in which they formed a consensus to call for a
UC-wide strike on Tuesday, November 15):
This is a video from the first attack which I uploaded from the camera
on my phone. This advance occurred after the police had already torn
down the encampment, and resulted in them reclaiming a few feet of
dirt. It doesn't capture police beatings in as clear detail as the
previous video, but it gives you an up close and personal sense of the
atmosphere among the student protesters as well as what it was like to
be standing peacefully in a line, only to be advanced upon by a row of
riot police:
This video was taken by a stranger who was in a very similar position
to me during the clash in the evening. Since it's not clear, let me
remind you that students were gathered on the lawn distributing food
and hanging out before the police officers moved into formation and
formed the line you see here (in other words, the students did not
approach a line of riot cops, but rather were approached while
peacefully assembling). Whoever took this video got a much better
angle on the events that I was witnessing than I did with my camera
phone:
For more, search for "Occupy Cal" on YouTube.
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