Cuts Are Real: J2 Passed after 10 Minutes of Fiery Speeches

Garamendi called for support for his bill for more higher ed money. The Regents declined on procedural grounds. Chair Gould agreed they needed to write a letter to the legislature. They joined Garamendi's rhetorical mode for 10 minutes - especially Regent Marcus. The rhetoric was good (see below). Finance chair Lavano, I believe, complimented "the passion around the table to take action, and to be bold."

Then they passed J2 (4%-10% pay cuts via furloughs) in a 30 second roll-call of the Committee on Finance. Garamendi was the only No vote that I could hear.

Chair Gould said, "excellent work. I think we all get to have lunch. 45 minutes."

My first thought: as usual, all talk, no walk.

They have known about the cuts and the damage since 2002. I personally spent years in mid-decade telling them about it in gruesome arithmetic detail. They did nothing except agree that the state wasn't supporting higher ed and that they needed to do something. Now they are saying it again.

The Regents may move a bit when the Chancellors' testimony sinks in. And we should all definitely bombard them with yet another wave of gruesome detail - since that did so much good on J1 and J2. It now appears that Garamendi's appeal turned into a drug to make them feel like voting for J2 was the strong thing to do.

The most obvious thing from this morning is that the campuses have enormous pain, and that UCOP and the Regents have no plan.

Regent Lozano, I think it was, said they should hold a press conference to stand in solidarity with the students, staff, and faculty of UC. But that is exactly what they did not do today.