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.

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

Publication: Privatization Pamphlet

The problems facing the California government and the UC are neither permanent nor inevitable. Learn more about the problems, and see the potential solutions. Read the Pamphlet:

Budget Cuts, Fee Hikes, Privatization

More information and commentary is available in the full Report on Privatization, which is the source for most of the research contained in this pamphlet.