The ASUC has faced many significant issues and challenges over the past few decades, some of the most important of which pertain to the student government’s autonomy. While different groups have each had their fair share of fault, rarely have we seen such a baffling and outrageous change carried out in such a brazen and disrespectful manner as the campus administration’s transfer of oversight of the ASUC Auxiliary from the Office of Administration and Finance to the Division of Student Affairs.
The lack of consultation and transparency goes against any precedent of good-faith communication between the administration and student leaders. We would have expected that if the administration were to carry out such a monumental change to the student government in a way that jeopardizes its autonomy, it would have thoroughly consulted student leaders and informed the student body of its reasoning. This could not have been further from what occurred. Not only did the administration not include student leaders in the decision-making process, but it has stonewalled the student leaders by not answering fundamental questions regarding the change.
Though we strive to understand multiple perspectives prior to endorsing a position, the reasoning behind the change is not even available for us to consider. For a change of this magnitude to be acceptable, the benefits would have to be substantial — but we do not even know the benefits because the administration has failed to articulate them.
The realignment is not the only substantial change about which the administration has been silent. Significant questions regarding the circumstances of ASUC Auxiliary Director Nadesan Permaul’s retirement two days before the realignment remain unanswered. For this to be the end to a long history of service to the ASUC by an official who has garnered significant respect among student leaders is disappointing and unfulfilling. For key administrators to remain quiet regarding his abrupt retirement is unacceptable.
Administrators have repeatedly dodged questions from our reporters as well as ASUC officials. Harry Le Grande, the vice chancellor for student affairs, is out of his office until Aug. 1, and Jonathan Poullard, the assistant vice chancellor for student affairs, had said he would be unavailable until this week. Their absence suggests a lack of care for the student body, which is absurd coming from the division of student affairs. We demand that they publicly respond in detail to the ASUC’s concerns. That is their job.
But the student government itself also has a role in bringing issues to the attention of the student body. After The Daily Californian first reported on a possible auxiliary change in September, our elected officials stood largely silent. Then-ASUC President Noah Stern should have brought more attention to the possibility of such a significant change. Current ASUC President Vishalli Loomba must be more vocal in spearheading the opposition to the realignment. She must succeed where her predecessor fell short, and she must start now.
We were also surprised by the resolution unanimously passed by the ASUC Senate and the letter signed by members of both the current and incoming senate classes. While we are impressed that senators crossed party-lines for the good of the student body, we feel that this was an explosion of anger that should have been let out earlier in the process, not the day before the realignment. Students have a right to know how their elected officials feel about major campus issues.
This clash comes at a time when a united campus message is needed more than ever due to dwindling state support for higher education. The relationship between the administration and the ASUC is obviously tarnished and the onus is on the administration to make amends; no one benefits if these two groups are at odds.
We endorse, line-by-line, both the letter and the resolution and demand that the administration adhere to their provisions. The auxiliary must be moved back to the Office of Administration and Finance, and the realignment must be thoroughly and properly debated and justified — as it should have been in the first place. We demand that administrators answer all questions regarding the oversight change and that they seek student input while ensuring full transparency. And, given the magnitude of this conflict, we call on Chancellor Robert Birgeneau to directly involve himself in negotiations going forward.
We stand side-by-side with the ASUC on this issue and hope our elected officials take all actions necessary to reverse the realignment. Moving forward, they should mobilize students and explain to them the complicated issues at hand and the importance of standing up for the autonomy of their student government. We cannot allow complacency to take hold. Let this be their call: Take back the ASUC.
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the editorial board took two weeks longer just to write an article than the student government did to actually do anything.
well written
Editorial board is deflected by UC Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau’s violations of the spirit of Legislature funding.
Until action is applied by the University of California (UC)
Board of Regents to chancellors, like Birgeneau, UC shouldn’t come to the
Governor or public for support for any tax increase.
(The author has 35 years’ consulting experience, has taught
at UC Berkeley (Cal)
where he observed the culture & way senior management work)
Cal. Chancellor Birgeneau ($500,000 salary)
has forgotten that he is a public servant, steward of the public money, not
overseer of his own fiefdom (these are not isolated examples): recruits (uses
California tax $) out of state $50,000 tuition students that displace qualified
Californians from public university education; spends $7,000,000 + for
consultants to do his & many vice chancellors jobs (prominent East Coast university accomplishing same 0 cost); pays
ex Michigan governor $300,000 for lectures; in procuring a $3,000,000 consulting firm he failed to receive
proposals from other firms; Latino enrollment drops while out of state
jumps 2010; tuition to Return on
Investment drops below top 10; Birgeneau all employees meeting – only 50
attend; visits to Cal down 20%; NCAA places basketball program on probation,
absence institutional control.
It’s all shameful. There is no justification for such violations
by a steward of the public trust. Absolutely none.
Birgeneau’s violations will continue indefinitely. Governor
Brown, UC Board of Regents Chair Lansing, President Yudof must do a better job
of vigorously enforcing stringent oversight than has been done in the past over
Chancellors like Birgeneau who use the campus as their fiefdom.
To be fair though, the realignment issue was done behind closed doors, so the ASUC elected officials really did not have sufficient information until it was very late in the game.
To the whole student body (apathetic or not): please take note and edcuate yourselves on this issue. I know many students believe that the ASUC is powerless and full of resume padders, but this realignment is just yet another instance of the blatant disrespect the admin has for the students.
We cannot allow the admin to continually get away with taking our money and then refusing to discuss matters of allocation and usage.
Yeah, the administration has no respect for the students.
To read the reports on this evolving story is to understand that UC is a microcosm of what is wrong with our society. Those running the show do as they please, lie and thieve, and then thumb their noses at the rest of us with no accountability.
Le Grande probably fancies himself to be a “responsible” and “reasonable” adult… but the record shows he and Poullard – and practically everyone else at Student Affairs – are delusional psychopaths.
Great power trip. Elected officials act as fast as possible given the circumstances, and the sit back do nothing editorial board still can’t get enough of itself.
Le Grande and Poullard are not elected officials… so what exactly was your point?
Excuse me, meant to say ASUC officials. Not school administration.