Opinion & Editorial

Misinformed Enthusiasm

By Lollie Brande

City on a Hill Press Columnist

I’m sitting in lecture on Wednesday, trying to get the education that I’m paying over $8,000 per quarter to receive, and in barge five students, faces painted, wielding signs that warn of 32 percent fee hikes and shouting at the students before them. Through a megaphone, they declare that our student fees are going to construction projects instead of to our education, and that UC President Mark Yudof enjoys a $900,000 annual salary while we struggle to make ends meet.

Not quite.

One-third of the fees paid by UC Santa Cruz students go toward financial aid, and the other two-thirds go to paying for campus instructional services. And Yudof’s salary is actually closer to $600,000 per year.

Not only was the class interruption offensive, it was deceptive. On Wednesday our education was interrupted so that an invitation to a campus-wide protest could be extended. This interruption not only misinformed students in some ways, but also seemed simply to be an abrupt effort to gain supporter bulk.

After class, a friend and I passed through Quarry Plaza to get to a bus stop, where yet again we were subjected to amplified, falsified shouts about fee hikes and student power and battle-like calls of, “Whose university? Our university!”

I can’t help but find it ironic that protesters claim UCSC as “ours” when their actions Wednesday actually prevented their tuition-paying peers from entering campus and taking advantage of the education that they work so hard to afford. A classmate of mine was unable to make it to section due to campus closures — both at the base and West entrances to UCSC. He may actually fail his class because of this absence.

The misguided enthusiasm of many protesters prevented hundreds of students from attending class, numerous professors from teaching class and countless campus affiliates at every level from knowing the full and honest truth about the fee hikes. Protesters stood at both entrances, deciding seemingly arbitrarily who had a good enough reason to be permitted onto campus and who did not.

If we as students are going to make a dent in this budgetary mess, we need to stand together in unity. Interrupting classes and keeping fellow students from fulfilling their academic desires and responsibilities does not foster such solidarity. The plight of affordability is felt by all students, and compassion is key in these trying times. Determining who is important enough to enter and exit campus alienates peers and fellow sufferers. And road closures only breed anger and frustration, rather than rallying a passion and understanding for the issues at the core of the protest.

Undoubtedly, the near and distant future of UCSC will be marked by more protests. It is our right and our duty as students to let our concerns be heard and to fight for the educational rights we deserve. But it is important that as we protest, we make every effort to be inclusive and progressive, rather than alienating and destructive.

Preventing financially struggling students from attending classes is not progress. Vandalizing cars that are stuck in traffic because the campus is blocked by a wall of people is not progress. Keeping students from getting to the jobs that help them attend college is not progress.

I agree with the protesters that fee hikes are completely terrible, especially in light of already high tuition costs. I agree that the state’s dedication to higher education is questionable, to say the least. I do not, however, agree with the methods implemented by protestors on Wednesday in order to communicate their anger and financial pain.

Biking up Empire Grade, all I saw were downtrodden, frustrated faces captive in their vehicles with traffic stopped going both up and down the hill. The student body was not marching through campus in unity, it was dispersed amid frustration in the hundreds if not thousands of cars that day. The student body was both literally and figuratively divided.

True educational dedication was more apparent in the students who trudged to campus from downtown Santa Cruz just to make it to lecture on time than it was in the protesters themselves. It was in the bikers who arrived at their classes, flushed and sweaty, because they had to book it through a mob and up Hagar Drive just to get to class. That is student power.

Without the fee increases the UC will fall short $792 million dollars in its budget. We need the money. But demanding that regents eliminate the fee hikes is like asking to live in a house without paying bills: it’s an impossibility.

If we are actually going to be successful in our fight against fee hikes and for student rights, we need to convene, organize and consolidate and to come up with comprehensive, realistic solutions.

This Wednesday was not a success, but next Wednesday, two Wednesdays from now, or even 20 Wednesdays from now can be. We need to organize, discuss, and fight together to save our education, but this cannot happen in one day. Patience is power, and the student voice can be heard if we take productive action.

This is our university. Let’s work to save it.

Published on: November 19, 2009
Tags: Columns, Misinformation, President Yudof, Protests, UC Budget, Volume 44 Issue 9

5 Comments

1. 
   BBrown42

   November 19, 2009

   Emailed this to the editors, but I feel I can post it here too.

   A Rebuttal in Defense of the Nov. 18th Protests

   First off I feel some facts need to be straightened out from Ms. Brande’s editorial “Misinformed Enthusiasm.” Yes, Mark Yudof’s salary is closer to $600,000 than $900,000. However, that is before factoring in his roughly $230,000 annual pension funding. Altogether, Yudof’s compensation plan is much closer to the $900,000 students are protesting, and to try and downplay that is misleading and a disservice to the students who are trying to improve our situation. In addition to that, he receives a handful of other bonuses, including university supplied lodging. All of this info can be found on the UC’s own website, a fairly reliable source.

   As for the allocation of funds, one third is pledged for financial aid, but the other two thirds are simply to “close a widening budget gap.” No specifics are given, although a very broad outline for fee hikes in general is. Again, this info can be easily found on the UC’s website.

   Claims that the money is going towards construction stem from this lack of transparency, something that the protests demanded of the regents. The UC is selling roughly $1.5 billion in bonds to gather revenue for construction, and proudly touts the great favorable rates the bonds have (again, see the UC’s site). They give no information on what is being used as collateral to get such favorable rates, and research has shown that our student fees can and are being used as that collateral. There is plenty on this explained far better than I ever could at the Council of UC Faculty Association’s website (cucfa.org).

   Therefore, while some protesters may not have all the right info, there are definite, factual, backings to the assertions the protesters are making.

   As for why we protest the way we do about the things we do. As previously proved, the UC is misleading about what it does with our funds and the “sacrifices” the higher ups are making. We want transparency and honesty if they are going to keep taking more money from us.

   People will blame the economic crisis our state is in or the national recession we just faced. While these exacerbated our situation, they are not the roots of the problem. In 2004 our UC regents unanimously agreed with Gov. Schwarzenegger on a compact. This compact agreed that the UC would shift to being primarily funded by “private sources,” that is to say, student fees and tuition. They are responsible for setting us on this path towards privatization, that has since been escalated and accelerated by the state’s continuing budget woes. We want a return to the old terms, in which the UC was a predominantly state-funded school.

   They say the fee hike is essential to keep or improve our quality of education, yet we’ve had constant fee hikes these past few years, yet our class sizes are still increasing, classes and faculty our still being cut, and the library now has ridiculous, borderline useless hours of operation. We have every right to be skeptical that these fee increases will be the one’s that change things. Why wait until we’re paying the same price as kids at Harvard or NYU before we start making a fuss? Especially if we’ve seen no increase in quality of education these last few years as a result of them.

   The UC regents should be our allies in this fight, not accomplices of the Governor and legislature that have worked against us. Money is tight and state funding needs to be reallocated and new revenue raised, things that ballot initiatives in 2010 will hopefully start to fix, but there is no reason the regents, Governor, and legislature can’t start fixing things now.

   We blocked the streets and disrupted campus because that is what gets attention. In September, I was one of the students who was frustrated by the protests and saw it as just alienating potential allies. I was especially dismayed by the occupations (and I am still opposed to the vandalism, and will never see that as a useful tactic, but neither do the majority of us protestors.) However, these actions forced me to get involved. I went to general assemblies. I went to teach-ins. I shared my ideas and heard theirs. I was educated on the details of the situation by faculty and staff who are our allies. And so on the 18th I proudly joined their ranks, because the protests do exactly what they aim to do. They get attention and they start a dialogue. If we all could just happily join together and do a peaceful, non-intrusive act that would solve the problem, we would, but that’s not going to happen. There have been multiple general assemblies and dialogues to share ideas, and the masses don’t turn out. There is too much apathy. By blocking entrances to campus and disrupting campus life as a whole, we accomplish a campus wide shakeup with the numbers we have. We provoke those that haven’t gotten involved to get involved. It’s what did it for me, and hopefully it’s what will do it for others. Already, our numbers this protest dwarfed those in September.

   The attention our protests get and the dialogues they start are necessary for keeping the ball rolling on fixing this mess. If we simply gathered in the Quarry Plaza, waved our signs, and went home, how many people would be talking about the problem compared to the numbers that talk when we block off a major intersection and briefly disrupt the whole campus? People are working to get initiatives on the ballot and promote those that already are on it. Others are emailing and speaking with those that have more pull in the matter. Even more ideas are brewing. The occasional visible, disruptive gesture is necessary to help spur this all and keep it alive and in the public eye. We protesters are just a part of the process, one that may draw the ire of our peers, but an essential one nonetheless. Standing aside and deriding us will accomplish nothing. Engage us, share your ideas, contact faculty, regents, and legislators, come to general assemblies, and join the overall cause.

   This Wednesday was a success. Next Wednesday and all subsequent ones can be too. We have been patient, we have organized, we have discussed, and we will continue to do so. We just need you to join us.
2. 
   aryoung

   November 21, 2009

   I completely support the movement, but any violence or vandalism that happens ruins the momentum of the peaceful movement. What can be done to ensure that vandalism doesn’t happen at places like Kerr hall in the future? Broken doors and security cameras make the whole movement look bad.
3. 
   Michelle Fitzsimmons

   November 23, 2009

   it’s a hard balance to strike between making a statement and taking everyone’s needs into consideration so as not to alienate people. it’s hard to change things now a days without seeming like a crazy radical.
4. 
   Matthew3957

   November 23, 2009

   I agree that part of the problem is that if your to considerate no one with “power” will listen to you and if you are to radical people will disregard you. It is hard to support parts of the protests, still I think they are an important movement and something everyone should work together in. I also think people need to restrain themselves from vandalism and other damaging actions because that is what the higher ups can use most to hurt our cause.
5. 
   Moravecglobal

   December 20, 2009

   Focus on the $3,000,000 excessive spending by UCB Chancellor Birgeneau not violence$3 Million Extravagant, Arrogant Spending by UC President Yudof for UCBerkeley Chancellor Birgeneau to Hire Consultants – When Work Can Be Done Internally
   These days, every dollar counts. Contact Senate (Ms. Romero 916.651.4105) & Assembly (Ms. Brownley 916.319.2044) Chairperson’s Education Committees or your representatives.
   Do the work internally at no additional costs with UCB Academic Senate Leadership (C. Kutz/F. Doyle), the world – class UCB faculty/ staff, & the UCB Chancellor’s bloated staff (G. Breslauer, N. Brostrom, F. Yeary, P. Hoffman, C. Holmes etc) & President Yudof.
   President Yudof’s UCB Chancellor should do the high paid work he is paid for instead of hiring expensive East Coast consults to do the work of his job. ‘World class’ smart executives like Chancellor Birgeneau need to do the hard work analysis, and make the tough-minded difficult, decisions to identify inefficiencies.
   Where do the $3,000,000 consultants get their recommendations?
   From interviewing the UCB senior management that hired them and approves their monthly consultant fees and expense reports. Remember the nationally known auditing firm who said the right things and submitted recommendations that senior management wanted to hear and fooled the public, state, federal agencies?
   $3 million impartial consultants never bite the hands (Birgeneau/Yeary) that feed them!
   Mr. Birgeneau’s accountabilities include “inspiring innovation, leading change.” This involves “defining outcomes, energizing others at all levels and ensuring continuing commitment.” Instead of deploying his leadership and setting a good example by doing the work of his Chancellor’s job, Mr. Birgeneau outsourced his work to the $3,000,000 consultants. Doesn’t he engage UC and UC Berkeley people at all levels to examine inefficiencies and recommend $150 million of trims? Hasn’t he talked to Cornell and the University of North Carolina – which also hired the consultants — about best practices and recommendations that will eliminate inefficiencies?
   No wonder the faculty, staff, students, Senate & Assembly are angry and suspicious.
   In today’s economy three million dollars is a irresponsible price to pay when a knowledgeable ‘world-class’ UCB Chancellor and his bloated staff do not do the work of their jobs.
   Together, we will make a difference.