Attention students, faculty, staff and workers! As you very well know, the state of our university system is undergoing unprecedented changes. With fee and tuition increases continuing and more to come, with diversity ever more rapidly being diminished and with low-income and middle class families suffering more because they can’t afford a public education, we as a concerned population must stand in solidarity and organize collectively for public education.
This is a cry for your help against the austerity measures passed by the State of California. We are living in a time where simply calling your local elected official isn’t enough. We can no longer — if we ever could — trust our own UC regents and school officials to speak for us. We, as the people who make up the university, must start speaking for ourselves and acting for ourselves with all our might and with all our numbers.
Many of you upperclassmen who are reading this remember past protests like those held on Sept. 24 and Nov. 20 of 2009. On Sept. 24, 2009, students from UCs, CSUs and community colleges across the state organized together using a diversity of tactics and approaches and were heard across the country. This was especially true for our campus, where we had a powerful walk-out of over 5,000 people. On Nov. 20, 2009, thousands of students — students just like you and me — showed up in support of those who took over Wheeler Hall, the iconic pillared building we’re so used to filing in and out of hundreds of days a year.
We had the State of California’s ears. The politicians, the regents and other officials were listening to us not just as a group of students but as a mass of students, workers, faculty and community members organizing together through direct action. We have the potential to do this once again and so much more.
Every single one of you that attends this university got here because you were exceptional, because you believed in yourself and because you knew that you could be of some importance to this institution and the world. We must once again believe in ourselves, believe in the power of community and believe in your fellow students and colleagues. We must remember the strongest voice that Berkeley had seen in years, that voice of 2009. Most importantly, we must believe that we cannot only replicate that voice but make it even bigger.
I want to make this very clear: we cannot afford to be apathetic, and we cannot afford to give up — our losses far surmount our wins —but this is a struggle, and struggles are not won overnight.
Mario Savio once stood on Sproul Plaza and said: “There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious — makes you so sick at heart — that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively take part.” We are collectively going through a passive process right now, but we must, collectively, come out of this passive phase, because I and thousands more like me are truly sick at this point.
I am sick of hearing sad statistics of kids who would’ve come to Cal for had it not been for the rise in tuition and fees. I am sick of seeing a less diverse university when our state has become more diverse. I am sick of the countless other negative statistics affecting the population of California. I am tired of “business as usual.” We can do better than this. You personally may have not been affected by the recent tuition increase, or maybe you have been — either way it doesn’t matter. What we do all have, though, is compassion and common sense. Let’s use it. I promise you that change is possible, but only when we come together.
Please, I urge you to join me and hundreds of other students who are fed up with the way our institution is run, because EDUCATION IS NOT A PRIVILEGE — IT’S A RIGHT!
A large group of undergraduate and graduate students, campus staff and faculty have already begun working together against campus and state austerity and budget cuts. If you are tired of business as usual, come to this week’s organizing meeting on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at 2070 Allston Way (UAW Local 2685 Office) where we will decide our organizing priorities and how we will accomplish our goals toward the near future.
Marco Amaral is a student activist and junior at UC Berkeley.