CLICS Destruction

CLICS is officially closed and shut down.

There is a giant chain-link fence bolted in to the front door, and the side doors are securely locked.

Much of the ceiling has been torn apart, some of the wiring has been pulled down, the study carrolls are gone, and they have even scratched away some (but not all – just the ‘politically charged stuff’) of the art.

 

 

 

Preliminary photos can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3285577610918.2144278.1011987331&type=3

 

 

 

If you want to get involved in fighting back against these oppressive measures, please fill out the whenisgood link here:

http://whenisgood.net/abztwng

 Get ready for a campus-changing quarter, everyone.

On the November 9 Stay-Away Orders: The University and its “Lawful Business”

“On issuing these stay away orders, the judge granted a narrow exception to all of us who are students, as well as a few other exceptions to particular individuals (i.e. for living in university housing, or for performing official union responsibilities). Those of us with classes and teaching duties (which includes 12 of the 13 being charged) are allowed to visit campus for “lawful business.” We can attend our courses and meet with our students as usual. While a reasonable exception to an unreasonable order, this further reveals how the stay-away orders have been constructed expressly to eliminate our political engagement on campus. The stay-away-order-plus-exception effectively distills our lives as students and workers from all other trivial or superficial aspects. We are reduced to mere academics, without political or social lives, whose sole purpose is to work and study and return home. We cannot attend a lecture on campus. Or meet with a friend for coffee. Or stop to talk with a former student. And we most certainly can’t attend any protest. The court is permitting us to contribute to business as usual at the university so long as we do not do anything outside of the strict delimitation of such business, as long we do not attempt to challenge it in any way. We are made into model students and workers, perfectly obedient, without the encumbrance of feelings and thoughts beyond our academic work on campus”.

For the full story, visit the link below.

 

On the November 9 Stay-Away Orders: The University and its “Lawful Business”.

Seventh Demand: Islamic Studies Minor

This is the text of the seventh demand that has been added to the list of demands put forward by the Public Education Coalition and referred to in our response to Chancellor Fox’s email.

ADDENDUM: ACTION FOR EDUCATIONAL JUSTICE

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO

MARCH 8, 2012

To Whom It May Concern:

A seventh demand has been added to the list of institutional demands submitted on March 1, 2012 by a coalition of students, faculty, and workers specified in the March 1 document. As always please respond to our liaison (in the original document) before the end of the quarter.

Sincerely,

A coalition of students, workers, and faculty at UCSD

II. UCSD INSTITUTIONAL DEMANDS:

DEMAND 7: AUTHORIZE TO ADD AN ISLAMIC STUDIES MINOR

After the events of September 11, 2001, Muslims in the nation, especially students on academic campuses, have encountered a litany of Islamophobic activities demonstrated by a wide array of hate crimes ranging from verbal attacks to physical sabotage. Islamophobic actions that Muslim students have encountered on UC San Diego campus include, but are not limited to, professors’ bias towards Muslims, written and spoken anti-Muslim rhetoric by campus personnel, UC San Diego students, as well as campus visitors, sabotaged advertising materials for Islam Awareness Week in addition to several other incidents. In 2010, intoxicated students at UC San Diego Sun God Festival assaulted a female Muslim student; pulling off her headscarf while shouting anti-Muslim pejoratives and racial slurs. Moreover, on Thursday April 4, 2011 twenty-eight UC San Diego faculty endorsed “An Open Letter to Our University Community About Troubling Hypocrisy On Our Campus” in an advertisement paid by off-campus Israel advocate organization Scholars for Peace in the Middle East in The Guardian campus newspaper. The letter falsely accused the Muslim Student Association, Arab Student Union, and Students for Justice in Palestine of anti-Jewish activities. In addition, UC San Diego Administration denied security escort to a Muslim student to University Public Relations Office despite unsafe conditions on campus due to Sun God Festival and prevalent anti-Muslim bias.

Our Response to Chancellor Fox’s “Response”

On Wednesday, March 14, after two weeks of successfully reclaiming the Chancellor’s Complex Conference Room, students vacated the complex and moved to CLICS Library which had begun its 24 hour service for finals week. Though administration still plans to move forward with renovation of CLICS, we will continue pressing for a halt on construction until more student input can be submitted and heard. The following response letter was submitted to Chancellor Fox and several Vice Chancellors after the move to CLICS.

March 14, 2012

To the Chancellor and Vice Chancellors of the University of California, San Diego:

Chancellor Fox’s response to the demands made by a coalition of students, faculty, and workers drawn from organizations including the Public Education Coalition, the Student Affirmative Action Committee, and the student-run Co-operatives, makes no substantive commitments to accountability, transparency, or shared-governance. Our intention behind the demonstration on March 1 was to start a radical democratic process among students, workers, and educators, reassess our collective priorities as an educational institution, and come up with a comprehensive plan of action that will increase the quality of our education given the current crisis.

We are completely aware of the budgetary issues facing the state of California and its consistent slashing of necessary social programs such as education. Instead of responding to our campus-specific demands, however, you have chosen to remind us of problems in the state-budget of which we are already aware and against which we have been mobilizing for years. You have chosen to scapegoat “the magnitude of the cutbacks” and “the state’s contribution to educating each UC student” in order to explain your own non-transparent management of the university’s slashed budget. Further, in solely blaming the state, you have chosen to omit the Regents’ conflicts of interest as millionaire hedge-fund managers and real-estate executives, not to mention their potential conflicts of interest from personal investments in for-profit schools and companies closely associated with the university.

Vigil Tomorrow Night for Civilian Afghan Murder Victims

16 innocent Afghan civilians were brutally murdered in their own home late at night by a U.S. soldier. The vigil will be held from 7-9pm at UCSD in front at the silent tree (right in front of Geisel library). We understand that folks are busy preparing for finals but we hope you can take 30 mins of your time to join us at the Silent Tree and show respect for the innocent lives lost.

Please also share with your networks and publicize on your and your organization’s Facebook pages.

Event page
Article about the massacre

UC President’s Apparent Bias On Free Speech and Dissent

A group of 150 scholars at twenty California institutions of higher learning have written a brief response to a letter by Yudof intended to address UC climate and promote tolerance.

California Scholars for Academic Freedom Protest UC President’s Apparent Bias Regarding the Right of Free Speech and Dissent on UC Campuses

 

Also, UC Davis professor Bob Ostertag wrote an op-ed piece on how Mark Yudof and the Regents have continued to mishandle dissent and free speech on campuses across the University of California. Click the link below to read the piece.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-ostertag/university-of-california-_b_1340647.html?ref=tw

Still Waiting for ‘Real Action’: UC’s Repeated Failure to Address Campus Racism

Ally blog contextualizes recent racist incidents at UCLA within a set of events throughout the UC system, and comments on UCLAs administrative response.

Still Waiting for ‘Real Action’: UC’s Repeated Failure to Address Campus Racism | We Are Still the Crisis.

Link To Official CLICS survey

Now that D1 has failed, and the election is over, the official CLICS question has come out.

Please take a moment to respond to the question.

We encourage you to choose the *Other* option, and then write, in as much detail as possible, exactly what you would like to see done with the space known as CLICS.

24 Hour Studying will begin at CLICS this Wednesday; we encourage as many people as possible to come study at reclaimed student space!

Here’s the link to the question:

http://studentvoice.com/p/Project.aspx?q=11aa1331a0ed606c50f08d3f46eb085a6231571fa93dc3e18ff9fe23bb6d428d137f8fde2d22fd15b89ea1d1cb44724859c17525c9ac11a3186153998d2f623faeac69da6f31c847&r=39101245-f1a7-45d5-b9c0-733f726ee42e

UCSD Admin Call-In!

The UCSD administration response was patronizing and they obviously are trying their best to ignore us. Therefore, we ask that if you have some spare time you call them and let them hear your voice. Read them our demands over and over, let them know how shameful they have acted. Call these numbers and flood the phone lines:

Marye Anne Fox (858)534-3135
Maizie E. Woodall (858)534-5335
Suresh Subramani (858)534-3130
Sandra A. Brown (858)534-3526
Lucy B. Fitzpatrick (858)534-3527
Tony D. Haymet (858)534-2827
Penny Rue (858)534-4370
Gary R. Ratcliff (858)534-4378
Gary C. Matthews (858)534-6820
Steven W. Relyea (858)534-3390 / (858)534-3391
David A. Brenner (858)534-1501

Chancellor Fox’s “Response” to the March 1st Demands

Dear Public Education Coalition:

We appreciate your initiative to organize activities on March 1 in support of public education in California. We support events that draw attention to the increasing challenges our University community faces because of the erosion of state funding, and we fully agree with the call for California to once again support the California Master Plan of Education as an integral facet of economic stability for our state’s families. We will continue to press the case for investment in the UC with out elected representatives in Sacramento.

You also have articulated a series of campus-specific, budget-related demands that range from support for selected academic support programs to access to campus spaces. We have and will continue to work across the campus to fairly accommodate the budget reductions that have touched every aspect of campus life. We take very seriously our responsibility to oversee the campus resources to benefit all. As we make these difficult decisions, we will continue to give strong consideration to input from all segments of the campus community.

Since 1990, the state’s contribution to educating each UC student has dropped more than 50%. The magnitude of the cutbacks cannot continue without seriously affecting the quality of education at the University of California. We share your disappointment and frustration with the deep and lasting budget cuts. Therefore, we encourage you to join the UC Regents and colleagues from all campuses on May 17, 2012 for a march on Sacramento. Our unified support can make a difference for current and future students.

Sincerely,

Marye Anne Fox

Chancellor

c: Executive Vice Chancellor

Vice Chancellors