Vanguard at UC Davis

High-ranking University of California, Davis administrators including Chancellor Linda Katehi, several vice chancellors, more than 30 staff members, and campus police were involved, according to internal documents uncovered by students involved in the demonstrations.

So much for any reasonable notion of shared sacrifice.  The University of California is experiencing what officials have called their worst fiscal crisis in history, they have lost nearly a billion in state funding over the last years, forcing layoffs and huge fee increases, but they have absolutely no problem giving out raises to top executives and now money for merit increases.

In a response from UC President Mark Yudof, he writes, “We are proud of the fact that we have come through this review with validation of so many of our procedures and policies…But, at what cost?”

The UC Board of Regents reluctantly voted to raise tuition by another 9.6 percent on top of the eight percent they raised it last year, both to take place in the fall.  That means that tuition will have increased this fall by 1890 dollars.

The Regents were quick to blame the latest blow to students on the state’s budget cuts and the budget that Governor Jerry Brown signed last month, which was basically an all-cuts budget due to the fact that the Democrats had to pass the budget with only the support of Democrats, and thus could not raise taxes.

Last week Governor Brown joined a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of California’s ban on racial affirmative action in public university admissions. 

In his brief, Governor Brown argued that minorities face too high a barrier in efforts to overturn Proposition 209, due to it being part of the state’s constitution.

Earlier this year the UC Regents seemed to acknowledge that they would not be seeking further fee increases as they would be counter productive.

Now, the UC Board of Regents is discussing raising the UC tuition by another 32 percent beginning in the Winter 2012 if the state passes an all-cuts budget that would increase to $500 million, cuts that were already signed into law.

These crimes all occurred near the “techno pit” where the DJ stage has been set up, located behind Wellman Hall, and these crimes all occurred over the span of just 2 days; Friday May 6^th and Saturday May 7^th.

Senator Leland Yee has tried but failed twice before to pass legislation that would bring greater transparency and accountability to California’s public higher education institutions – University of California, California State University and the state’s community college system.

Previous efforts were opposed by the leaders at UC and CSU and subsequently vetoed by former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The University of California Student Association (UCSA) has joined the effort to oppose the confirmation of David Crane to the UC Board of Regents.

UC students say Crane has failed to reach out to them in any formal capacity to hear about their concerns and experiences.

In a statement to the Vanguard, a spokesperson for the university acknowledged that a police matter was probably not handled properly and they vowed to do better in the future.

Students and civil rights groups have been concerned since the discovery of documents showing hundreds of documents regarding the UC administration’s response to student activism.

UC Davis Students, along with staff and the ACLU, held a press conference on Tuesday to address growing concerns that they have about student privacy amid discovery of  information that they say is being used to track student activism.

According to them, a request for information filed with the University of California, Davis, under the California Public Records Act, has resulted in the release of hundreds of documents regarding the UC administration’s response to student activism.

Tolerance, according to Chancellor Katehi, is what this campus needs; and after last year’s displays of hate crimes across campuses statewide how can anyone argue the contrary. Now, the question is how do we go about “promoting tolerance” on an issue as old as time?

Chancellor Katehi believes the answer to that question takes the form of subcommittees and guest speakers. As admirable as her efforts to reach a utopia of peaceful cultural and racial integration are, many students just don’t think she’s hitting the nail on the head with this one.

Last year, the UC Davis campus was shaken by a series of apparent hate incidents.  This year those have not occurred, for whatever reason.

This week, the UC Davis Chancellor has come out with an op-ed talking about all of the efforts they have taken to promote diversity and tolerance.  Unfortunately, most of this is some form of PC symbolistic rhetoric, rather than real action.

Two weeks ago, the Davis Enterprise reported that an “outside” investigator had cleared UC Davis administrators of any wrongdoing stemming from their decision last year to cut four sports teams.

Last year at this time, UC Davis announced it would discontinue 4 of 27 intercollegiate sports, and its athletics department would absorb another $400,000 in annual operational cuts as the campus continues to struggle through an unprecedented financial crisis.