Stand Up For Our Right to Free Speech – Sign the Petition to Defend UCI/UCR 11
“Please consider signing this petition that has been collectively put together to support the UC-11 student protesters. Three of these students are our own. These UCR and UCI students are now facing criminal prosecution even after disciplinary sanctions from each institution. The petition asks for members of the community–staff, faculty, students and union organizers to come on board– regardless of your specific positions on the actions of the Israeli State and the Israel/Palestine conflict- to support the right to (and of) dissent in a democracy, and in spaces of public education.
Please do not use ucr email addresses to circulate.”
Press-Enterprise’s article about UCR Community: “Hanging by a Thread”
UCR Chancellor assails budget cuts
10:00 PM PST on Thursday, January 27, 2011
By DAVID OLSON
The Press-Enterprise
UC Riverside Chancellor Timothy White on Thursday night told students, faculty and staff at the university to brace themselves for big budget cuts and criticized the state for two decades of scaling back support to the University of California.
White was one of six people on a panel in a UCR lecture hall to discuss Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to slash $12.5 billion from the state budget, including $500 million from UC. The governor is also asking for $500 million in cuts from the Cal State system and $400 million from community colleges.
“The magnitude of the cuts is enormous,” White said to about 100 people.
The chancellor said UCR faces “the pain and difficulties in finding what I call the least lousy decisions that have to be made here.”
He brought with him handouts with charts illustrating how the state has cut UC support by more than half in the past 20 years, using inflation-adjusted dollars, while other state spending has risen. Student tuition and fees have more than tripled in the same time.
“What’s really happening is who’s paying the bill has changed,” he said.
Yet student Gina Gonzalez, 20, said the state and the university have misplaced priorities. She criticized UC for what she sees as overly generous salaries for some administrators and too much prioritization on research over instruction.
“They could reallocate funds so students don’t have to pay so much in fees, and the state could take money from the prisons and send it to universities,” she said.
Brown is attempting to close a $25.4 billion budget gap with the cuts and with a proposal to raise $12 billion in tax and fee increases and extensions through a planned June voter initiative.
Speakers said the brunt of the budget cuts shouldn’t fall on the most vulnerable.
Mail-services employee Curtis Washington said some of his fellow workers took jobs with UC because, even though wages weren’t high, benefits were good. Now they face cuts in benefits and some have to work multiple jobs to make ends meet, he said.
Ellen Reese, an associate professor of sociology, said previous budget cuts have already hurt students. Fewer teaching assistants for large lecture classes mean they are overwhelmed trying to serve more students, she said.
Reese said the problem isn’t just how money is distributed within UC, but that not enough money goes to public education as the whole. She said the wealthy and large corporations should pay more in taxes.
“We need to raise revenues,” she said. “The answer isn’t to raise students’ fees.”
Artquake: Aftershock
Free Event! Come by and share good vibes with good people and help our movement grow. We can all be voices of CHANGE and SOCIAL JUSTICE together and continue our conversations about what puts us on the edge.
The “Other” Friday Letter
The “Other” Friday Letter
January 14, 2011
Jerry Brown’s Budget Proposal
The clock on the Bell Tower is broken. Is this new symbol of UCR?
Jerry Brown’s proposed 2011-12 budget would take $500 million out of UC, a 20% cut in funding. As Mark Yudof pointed out in his response, this budget will mark the first time that tuition will contribute more to the UC budget than state funding. That means that Democratic governor Jerry Brown is accelerating the privatization process by putting a higher financial burden on students in the form of tuition. He proposes to cut $500 million without raising tuition, but where will it come from? Probably from instruction. This cut would put us back where we started before last year’s protests.
Why are students being so passive now? Students in Puerto Rico are on strike a $800 tuition increase. But we’re not. Students should take this seriously. If the $500 million were made up by tuition increases, every undergraduate would have to pay $4300 more, bringing tuition to $16,900 for 2011-12. If tuition isn’t raised, class sizes will continue to balloon, there will be fewer classes, fewer professors, and the quality of a UC education will decline further. You’ll pay much more for much less. This could happen.
In this scenario, students are being played off the poor. What are our priorities? We need to tax the rich and reform Proposition 13.
Sincerely,
Free UCR Alliance
FreeUCR@gmail.com
The “Other” Weekly Letter
January 7, 2011
The Free UCR Alliance is a coalition of students, staff and faculty that has met weekly since the Day of Action on September 24, 2009. This weekly letter offers alternative ideas, information and opinions not always found in official publications.
We’ll start with the all-too-familiar topic of “diversity.” What does diversity mean anyway? We saw what diversity really means at UCR with Tom Campbell’s brief candidacy for EVC/Provost. Just to recap, Tom Campbell is a Republican politician and academic who supports Arizona AB 1070 (the infamous anti-immigrant legislation) and has taken some anti-immigration positions.
The administration throws around the word “diversity” carelessly, but it turns out the campus really cares about the issue. Campbell’s candidacy for the second most powerful administrative position at UCR represented a clear slap against what UCR is supposed to stand for. We hear so much about how UCR is a Hispanic Serving Institution (the first in the UC system) and about the pride we’re supposed take in this status. Yet it doesn’t seem to have occurred to anyone in the administration that Campbell’s support for AB1070 might be a problem for a Hispanic Serving Institution.
This contradiction was obvious to the several hundred faculty, students and staff members who signed petitions against Campbell’s candidacy, not to mention the numerous emails sent to the Chancellor protesting both Campbell and the shady search process. In fact, the way the search was handled raises fundamental questions about our ability to trust the administration.
It turns out that diversity isn’t just window dressing for many members of UCR’s community. It’s what makes UCR different from other UCs, what gives us an identity, what makes us extraordinary. People are willing to speak up and defend diversity at UCR. If the administration really understood how much diversity is part of this campus, they would practice what they preach.
Yours Sincerely,
Free UCR Alliance
FreeUCR@gmail.com
