9/24 Actions Build Momentum Toward November Regents Meeting

On Thursday, September 24 a wave of protests washed over University of California campuses to draw attention to what protest organizers are calling a “priority crisis.” UC administrators’ and regents’ arbitrary decisions to impose layoffs, furloughs, and skyrocketing student fees have sparked resistance throughout the institution. 

The University Professionals and Technical Employees, CWA, walked off the job at each UC campus and were joined on their picket lines by members of other unions, senate and non-senate faculty, and students. UC Santa Cruz's strong picket lines and central labor council strike sanction turned away Teamster drivers in delivery vehicles and public transit.

The largest gatherings of the day were the noon rallies. Five hundred showed up to the Santa Cruz event, and a like number in Riverside (click here for UCR story) and Irvine.  San Diego had over a thousand attendees (San Diego story), UCLA 700 (UCLA story), and at least five thousand filled historic Sproul Plaza at UC Berkeley (Berkeley story) and then marched through downtown Berkeley, prompting many speakers to compare the day's events with those of the Free Speech Movement in the 1960s (see photo below).

Throughout the day, faculty and students organized teach-ins about UC finances, the state budget and how it works, protecting the "public" in public education, and many more topics related to education, politics, economics and society.

Many activists disputed the Regents' side of the story.  UC administrators are claiming that the state budget crisis is forcing their hand.  Not so, says UCSC lecturer and vice president of the UC-AFT, Mike Rotkin:  “Only 17% of the UC budget comes from the state.  UC has more overall revenue this year than ever. The administration just wants to spend it on things other than a quality undergraduate education.”  Rotkin estimates that around one quarter of the system’s 4,000 lecturers—who teach the majority of classes in many disciplines—are being laid off.

According to UC-AFT president and UCLA lecturer Bob Samuels, “UC doesn’t need to raise student fees again. The administration is using the fiscal crisis to reduce compensation at the lower end while increasing compensation at the top, and to shift resources from undergraduate education to the “profit centers” of the university.”

CFT president Marty Hittelman, who spoke at the noon rally at UCLA, noted that “UC administrators and the governor share an inability to prioritize students.  A quality education for all should come before tax loopholes for the rich and corporations, and student access to education should come before enormous salaries for administrators.”

The spirit of the crowds, the strong picket lines, and especially the energy of the students show that the day's loudes chant, heard on each campus over and over again—"Whose university?  Our university!"—may well prove to be more than just an idle boast.  The UC Regents are expected to vote on a phased 30% fee increase at their next meeting on November 17th at UCLA.