Shortly after the UC student regents presented on the financial crisis facing the university, a bill supporting rallies protesting potential tuition hikes was proposed to the ASUC .
SB 118 — also called the “Bill in Support of the November Days of Action” — supports a walkout and noontime rally on the UC Berkeley campus to occur Nov. 9 and 10. The demonstrations are meant to protest the consequences of a $2.4 billion budget gap the UC faces over the next four years, which could result in drastically higher tuition.
The bill would also provide financial support for transporting students to the UC Board of Regents’ November meeting, where the board could potentially discuss a long-term plan to increase revenue for the university.
“I’m hoping that the day of action (will) raise awareness about the divestment of public education and that it will give students a sense of what is really at stake,” said co-author of the bill CalSERVE Senator Andrew Albright.
The bill is co-authored by Albright and Cooperative Movement Senator Elliot Goldstein.
Every student should know the financial data the UC Office of the President and the regents are using to make long-term decisions, said UC Student Regent-designate Jonathan Stein.
“It’s important that students are constantly in front of influential decision makers, but you don’t have to protest in order to be an active part of the student movement,” he said. “You don’t have to put on a suit and lobby in Sacramento.”
Students can spread the word about the fiscal situation by talking to peers, he said.
“I think student demonstrations can be enormously effective, as long as they are followed up with other things such as lobbying,” Albright said. “It is necessary to talk to legislators to tell them that their continual divestment of funds from the UC system leaves regents no choice but to bury us in fee hikes.”
Tuition hikes have a larger impact on UC students than on students at other universities because UC students have greater financial need, as shown by the high number of federal Pell Grant recipients enrolled in the UC as compared to most private and public schools, according to the UC Student Regent Alfredo Mireles Jr. and Stein.
“I think a significant percentage of the regents were shocked by the possibility of $22,000+ tuition in four years and are therefore sincerely working to find different ways to fund the university,” said Mireles in an email. “However, we as a Board continue to remain vexed on how we will close our … budget gap.”
The board will likely be presented with a four-year expenditure plan and a year-to-year revenue plan at the March regents’ meeting, Mireles said.
The senate bill also proposes that two additional student representatives be appointed to the board along with their respective designates. The bill will be discussed at next week’s senate meeting.
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Protesting Berkeley students. Now there’s something you don’t ever see. /eyeroll
UC education is too cheap anyway for such a quality product. Let the rest of us hard working students study in peace and quiet and get rid of the socially-promoted hooligans who didn’t have the grades to be there in the first place.
Cut the cost of providing quality higher education at UC Berkeley: paying more is not a better education.
Current pay increases
for generously paid University
of California Faculty is
arrogance. Instate tuition consumes 14% of Ca. Median Family Income!
UC Berkeley (ranked #
70 Forbes) tuition increases exceed the national average rate of increases. Chancellor
Birgeneau has molded Cal.
into the most expensive public university.
University of California President
Yudof and Chancellor
Birgeneau($450,000 salary) have dismissed many much needed cost-cutting
options. They did not consider freezing vacant faculty positions, increasing
class size, requiring faculty to teach more classes, doubling the time between
sabbaticals, cutting and freezing pay and benefits for all chancellors and reforming
the pension system.
They said such faculty
reforms “would not be healthy for University
of California”. Exodus of
faculty and administrators? Who can afford them and where would they go?
We agree it is far
from the ideal situation, but it is in the best interests of the university
system and the state to hold the line on cost increases. UC cannot expect to do
business as usual: raising tuition; granting pay raises and huge bonuses during
a weak economy that has sapped state revenues and individual Californians’
income.
There is no
question the necessary realignments with economic reality are painful. Regent Chairwoman Lansing can bridge the public trust
gap with reassurances that salaries and costs reflect California’s economic reality. The sky above UC will not fall
Opinions? Email the UC Board
of Regents [email protected]
PLEASE, you have spammed this same message 100+ times. In addition, the extra white space from your cut and paste efforts makes it a pain to read…
march on UCOP. they have wall street bankers making tuition decisions.
LOL, what a douche.
Protesting without offering a better solution is just shooting your mouth off.
Nobody’s perfect, but some
higher education chancellors are much less perfect as stewards of public funds than
others. University
of California Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau
($500,000 salary) has forgotten he is a steward of public money, not overseer
of his own fiefdom.
UC Chancellor Birgeneau does
not have a grip on financial realities. Trust the evidence.
Tuition increases
exceed national average rate of increase.
University accrues $150 million of
inefficiencies over his 8 year reign
Recruits (using
California
tax $) foreign students who pay $50,600 and displace qualified Californians.
Spends
$7,000,000 + for consultants to do the work of senior Cal. management.
(Prominent East Coast
University accomplishes same 0 cost).
Pays ex Michigan governor
$300,000 for lectures.
In procuring $3,000,000 consultants failed
to receive proposals from other firms.
Latino
enrollment drops out of state jump 2010(Krupnick Contra Costa Times).
Best in nation rank: # 70 Forbes.
Academic rank: QS academic falls below top ten.
Tuition to Return on Investment drops below
top10.
Cal now is most expensive public university.
NCAA: absence
senior management oversight, basketball program on probation.
It’s
all shameful. There is no justification for such irregularities by a steward of
the public trust. If UC chancellors don’t understand financial stewardship they
have no business in a public office.
Chancellor Birgeneau’s self-indulgent
practices continue. University of California Board of Regents Chair Sherry Lansing
must vigorously enforce financial oversight of Birgeneau. Only then will
confidence of Alumni, donors, legislators, Californians return.
(My
agenda is transparency. I have 35 years’ consulting experience; have taught at
UC Berkeley, where I observed the culture & the way senior management works.
No, I was not fired or downsized & have not solicited contracts from UC/Cal).
Yours is the opinion that
can make the difference, email UC Board of Regents [email protected]
Hey spammer, if your “agenda is transparency” (direct quote), then post your real name so we can check your dubious employment claims of teaching at Berkeley, 35+ years as a mysterious consultant, and fly on the wall observing senior UC management.
No? Didn’t think so Mr. Transparency.
Eliminate all race, gender, ethnic studies programs.
And what exactly is it that protesting is supposed to accomplish, other than to make the usual suspects feel good about “doing something” or “raising awareness”? Maybe if more people were doing something productive, such as examining the bloated UC budget and seeing where wasteful spending could be reduced, there might be a solution. However, merely demanding that the taxpayers pay out even more money in a time of severe economic hardship for most working people in this country isn’t going to get a warm reception. How about some of you children learning how the real world works instead of pissing and moaning about how life sucks all the time?