UC Strike

UC Strike

UCB Graduate Students have called for a system-wide strike beginning November 18, 2009 if the UC Regents approve the tuition hike. As of today, it has over 300 signatories. I am ambivalent about this idea, as I think it is supposed to be on-going and open-ended and I worry about stamina. I do believe at this point, that massive direct action is one critical way to get the Regent's,...

UCSC Protest: Dia de los Profesores Muertos Nov 2

UCSC Protest: Dia de los Profesores Muertos Nov 2

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BEYOND FURLOUGHS

BEYOND FURLOUGHS

THE UNIVERSITY’S END AND THE SHIBBOLETH OF “CONSULTATION”By Michael Meranze“These common woes I feel. One loss is mineWhich thou too feel’st, yet I alone deplore.…..Deserting these, thou leavest me to grieve,Thus having been, that though shouldst cease to be.”--Shelley As the Gould Commission begins its rounds of the system’s campuses it is too early to say exactly what its recommendations...

Where Were the Regents?

Where Were the Regents?

The Regents' UC Com- mission for the Future came to UCSB on October 22nd. No Regents other than student Regent Jesse Bernal (from UCSB) actually showed...

UCOF at UCSB, UCSB Speaks and Protests

UCOF at UCSB, UCSB Speaks and Protests

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Harvard Prof Patrice Higonnet Writes His Dean about Sad and Unworthy Management

Harvard Prof Patrice Higonnet Writes His Dean about Sad and Unworthy Management

To Michael D. Smith, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences October 20 2009 Dear Professor Smith: I read with great interest as I am sure we all did your letter regarding Harvard's finances. It's a long document, many parts of which only a professional accountant could truly understand. It reveals what could not be concealed. It could therefore have been at once much longer...

UC Pays for Itself

UC Pays for Itself

The University of California Pays for Itself Harry Nelson Professor of Physics University of California, Santa Barbara hnn@hep.ucsb.edu to the Gould Commission The State of California has historically contributed about $40,000 to the 4-year education of each new UC graduate.  The precise figure has gone up and down over the past 20 years, but $40,000 is a good average,...

UCSB Senate Votes Censure of President Yudof

UCSB Senate Votes Censure of President Yudof

Press Release - Saving UCSB - Senate Resolution ...

The Iron State in Crisis

The Iron State in Crisis

By Michael MeranzeCalifornia’s budget crisis continues to worsen in the fall. In its wake a rough “common sense” emerged among the State’s political class and pundits. California, we are instructed, has reached the end of its ability to sustain its commitments—derived from the era of Pat Brown—to social support institutions and widespread, high-quality, low cost higher education,...

UCSB Teach-In Video, October 14, 2009

UCSB Teach-In Video, October 14, 2009

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Does UC Raise Fees to Help Sell Construction Bonds?

Does UC Raise Fees to Help Sell Construction Bonds?

Meister, UC on Wall Street                                                                           ...

Report on Study-In at UC Berkeley

Report on Study-In at UC Berkeley

by Anonymous: Just to let you all know that I went by the anthro library in Kroeber at 5:20 pm this evening, and it was an inspiring scene.  There are painted paper banners hanging by the wide windows that say 'THIS IS THE CEMETERY SPEAKING"," "PUBLIC EDUCATION NOT A CORPORATION" and "YOUR UNIVERSITY" Coming up the stairs, I ran into Tom Leonard, the Dean of the Library,...

Exiting Neo-Hoover

Exiting Neo-Hoover

I'm really starting to like Robert Cruickshank at Calitics. Michael sent me a link to a piece that uses my beloved term "death spiral" to describe California budgeting, and then tops my claim that Arnold S is Hoover reincarnated with this: "But we must also work hard to stop the 121 Herbert Hoovers in Sacramento from doing further harm to an already stressed state."  121!...

The Uneducated Californian

The Uneducated Californian

Paul Krugman offers a very good summary of shocking educational declines that are familiar to readers of this blog, but it's always worth once again summarizing the sheer craziness: in the 19th century, the US stopped being poor and backward by leading in universal basic education.  Now that progress requires universal higher education, it is disinvesting in that. US educational...

Your Basic Public U Language Illiteracy

Your Basic Public U Language Illiteracy

Signs are growing that public universities are lowering standards in order to cut costs. Today's news brings word that the Austin campus of the University of Texas is reducing the language requirement from four semesters to three or two.  The piece cites the Executive Director of the Modern Languages Association:  Studying a language for only one year, she says, is "like...

Budgets as Politics

Budgets as Politics

"Budgetary transparency" hasn't been one of the great political slogans in world history, but better late than never.  We have a whole section on this blog about stories of UC decline, which continued this week in the New York Times and elsewhere, but UC is on the rise around general awareness of budget politics. Budgets don't normally make good politics.  I've learned...

Study-In for the Libraries

Study-In for the Libraries

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November 2009 Protests

November 2009 Protests

2009 Taser Use Restricted by US Court of Appeals (McClatchy DC 12/29/09) UCPD Abuses Must Be Recognized (Daily Bruin 12/7/09) UCLA Faculty Express Concern About Police (Daily Bruin 12/7/09) UCLA Police Tactics to be Reviewed (LAT 12/5/09) UC Student Says Fee Battle Should be Taken to the State (Calitics 12/4/09) Student on links between UC and California's Broken Political System...