UC Health & Service Strike News
21 hours ago
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Dump Richard Blum
Berkeley Daily delivers a story about Richard Blum that is a MUST read. Please take the time to do so. I know it's summer and we are all distracted, but we MUST organize to dump Richard Blum as UC Regent. He has made many fortunes investing in diploma mills, private, for profit universities that hard sell their degrees to desperate, working class and veteran students. These private institutions suck up federal grants and treat their students like atm's to the federal student loan serve. Please read this article and let's organize and act. I also heard UC Regent and CA Secretary of Education Bonnie Reiss speak at an event in Providence during which she demonstrated less than zero understanding of education or its function in a democratic society. The Regents serve twelve year terms. Let's subject them to thorough scrutiny and oust the ones, like Blum who are out and out corrupt and the ones like Reiss who are destructively ignorant.
2 comments:
Catherine, I agree with you that, on the basis of a conflict of interest, Blum should step down as regent immediately. If not, we should call for his resignation. It is also worthwhile examining how the Board of Regents, under the leadership of Blum, extended its power to the degree that WASC expressed grave concern about an undermining of UC’s system of governance. Full report to be found here: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/03/03/uc. Also reported: “Several academic leaders inside and outside UC said they believed the board’s intrusion into academic governance could deter top university leaders from seeking the university’s presidency.” So, while other university leaders might be reluctant to apply, Yudof is handpicked by Blum. And Yudof is now is championing online learning. It is not too difficult to connect the dots, which is why full financial disclosure and budget transparency are absolutely necessary even beyond Blum's financial dealings, as is our refusal to allow further erosion to our system of shared governance.
Richard Blum must go. It's not just that UC's are being pushed in the on line direction. As Cal States and UC's shrink admissions and charge higher tuition, for profit universities stand to benefit as they will target the rejected CA students with false promises. I didn't know about the Inside Higher Ed article, but we must all share information and be prepared for a full on push for Blum's ouster.
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