After filing a grievance against a layoff notice two years ago, former mayor and longtime Community Studies lecturer/supervisor Michael Rotkin leaves the department at the beginning of term. Though outraged by the program’s suspension, Rotkin hopes students and faculty will organize to bring the major back.
Despite the 2009 suspension, the last of community studies students, who will complete the program winter quarter 2013, remain close and proud of their major.
An American studies major who switched to that major after community studies was eliminated now finds herself experiencing a case of deja vu.
Free education and a call for awareness on March 1 and March 2 advocate for a space of open discussion for future strategic planning on UC education. The Open University Together has been organizing since the start of the quarter to make the March protests a peaceful, fun and informative demonstration.
A year after Dean of Social Sciences Kamieniecki recommended controversial cuts to the Community Studies Department, the UC Santa Cruz Academic Senate’s Committee on Educational Policy (CEP) announced that the major has been suspended.
Community Studies is still here. Despite the fact that since last spring, the noise around the fact that cuts to the major has died down, Community Studies department and supporters are still trying to figure out what the future will look like.
Mike Rotkin is a busy man. He is a lecturer, a union leader, the coordinator of the UC Santa Cruz community studies field study, an activist, a father, a husband, the faculty adviser for Fish Rap Live! magazine, a former Santa Cruz mayor, chairman of the local ACLU chapter, and a City Councilmember. He also kayaks, enjoys sports, and spends time outdoors.
Over the sounds of passing cars and occasional honks of encouragement, Students of Color Collective (SOCC) member and emcee Chelsea Johnson-Long spoke out to the crowd of hunger strikers and supporters who gathered at the base of campus Tuesday. During this rare quiet moment at the sunny afternoon rally, Johnson-Long referenced the increases in tuition for working-class families and the university’s perceived lack of support for undocumented AB540 students, two of many issues that SOCC students believe are especially detrimental to UC Santa Cruz’s students of color. The event was designed to shine light on such issues as well as kick off SOCC’s hunger strike.
Several UC Santa Cruz programs and departments, including but not limited to community studies, may be at risk of disestablishment. According to Student Union Assembly (SUA) and Academic Senate officers, deans and division administrators are consulting with committees of the Academic Senate to determine whether the most recent budget cuts will fundamentally change the curricular stability of any of the programs affected.
Breaking news on the search for the next student regent and Community Studies.