(no subject)
i just sent this as an email to my family, but i thought i'd post it here too. it's probably really jumbled and my thoughts are kind of all over the place (it's late.. i have a ton of lab stuff due tomorrow haha) but here it is anyways:
I just came back from a two hour teach-in given in Wheeler Hall by five professors here at Berkeley about the purpose of the UC wide walk-out tomorrow on the 24th, the problems behind the budget crisis in California and the UC, and what we as students, faculty, staff, citizens, etc. can do about these problems. It was very informative to hear well though-out, fact based, intellectual speeches about these issues. I wanted to write to you to tell you about the walk out because I'm not sure who knows about it/how much coverage it has gotten outside of the university. I know there are a lot of misconceptions about it, like that the professors are only participating because they have been given furloughs, and while this may be true for some, I now know from experience that there are many passionate faculty members here who want to support the university and it's students. Integrative Biology Professor Kevin Padian, city and regional planning Professor Ananya Roy, political science Professor Wendy Brown, public policy Professor Robert Reich, and dance, theater, and performing arts Professor Catherine Cole were on the panel, and each spoke passionately about the problems they saw in the situation. I wanted to let you all know what was going on because as they all said, one of the goals of tomorrow is to raise awareness in the public. If the public remains uninformed and nothing is done in the upcoming statewide elections, the university will continue to become privatized and lose its standing as the number one public university in the nation.
Just some quick facts that I find startling:
Currently, it is proposed to increase student fees by 32% by fall of 2010, starting with 15% next semester. If I heard correctly tonight, this would mean that our fees will have doubled in the past five years. This is on top of the $800 increase that took place this semester. When will tuition fees stop increasing?
In 1990, the state provided the university with 75% of its budget. Now, it provides 25%. This number continues to decrease.
Here are some helpful links where you can read more from more informed people about the crisis:
http://berkeleycuts.org/
http://keepcaliforniaspromise.org/
http://universityprobe.org/
http://ucfacultywalkout.com/
And I really recommend that you watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvZs6J8QD1c
This is Professor Ananya Roy speaking about the budget crisis. She is one of the professors I heard tonight, and I constantly hear from friends who have taken her classes that she is one of the best professors they have ever had. Tonight, she really emphasized how much the middle class will suffer from these budget cuts and fee increases, and how much the student body's diversity will suffer by attracting more wealthy students and fewer low income students.
All of the problems I've mentioned and many that I haven't are my reasons for participating in the walk-out with my professors tomorrow. Until tonight I wasn't sure about how I felt about the walk-out, how necessary it was, or how influential it could be, but hearing from all of the passionate speakers tonight convinced me that being involved is important, and getting the public of California is important as well. Changing the budget crisis in the UC involves many factors, but one of the most important is mobilizing voters in 2010 to change the ridiculous 2/3 majority rule set up by Prop 13 in 1978. Requiring a 2/3 majority to pass budget changes means a minority rule in which a person's vote in the minority is worth twice that of a person's vote in the majority, and that is unacceptable.
I just came back from a two hour teach-in given in Wheeler Hall by five professors here at Berkeley about the purpose of the UC wide walk-out tomorrow on the 24th, the problems behind the budget crisis in California and the UC, and what we as students, faculty, staff, citizens, etc. can do about these problems. It was very informative to hear well though-out, fact based, intellectual speeches about these issues. I wanted to write to you to tell you about the walk out because I'm not sure who knows about it/how much coverage it has gotten outside of the university. I know there are a lot of misconceptions about it, like that the professors are only participating because they have been given furloughs, and while this may be true for some, I now know from experience that there are many passionate faculty members here who want to support the university and it's students. Integrative Biology Professor Kevin Padian, city and regional planning Professor Ananya Roy, political science Professor Wendy Brown, public policy Professor Robert Reich, and dance, theater, and performing arts Professor Catherine Cole were on the panel, and each spoke passionately about the problems they saw in the situation. I wanted to let you all know what was going on because as they all said, one of the goals of tomorrow is to raise awareness in the public. If the public remains uninformed and nothing is done in the upcoming statewide elections, the university will continue to become privatized and lose its standing as the number one public university in the nation.
Just some quick facts that I find startling:
Currently, it is proposed to increase student fees by 32% by fall of 2010, starting with 15% next semester. If I heard correctly tonight, this would mean that our fees will have doubled in the past five years. This is on top of the $800 increase that took place this semester. When will tuition fees stop increasing?
In 1990, the state provided the university with 75% of its budget. Now, it provides 25%. This number continues to decrease.
Here are some helpful links where you can read more from more informed people about the crisis:
http://berkeleycuts.org/
http://keepcaliforniaspromise.org/
http://universityprobe.org/
http://ucfacultywalkout.com/
And I really recommend that you watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvZs6J8QD1c
This is Professor Ananya Roy speaking about the budget crisis. She is one of the professors I heard tonight, and I constantly hear from friends who have taken her classes that she is one of the best professors they have ever had. Tonight, she really emphasized how much the middle class will suffer from these budget cuts and fee increases, and how much the student body's diversity will suffer by attracting more wealthy students and fewer low income students.
All of the problems I've mentioned and many that I haven't are my reasons for participating in the walk-out with my professors tomorrow. Until tonight I wasn't sure about how I felt about the walk-out, how necessary it was, or how influential it could be, but hearing from all of the passionate speakers tonight convinced me that being involved is important, and getting the public of California is important as well. Changing the budget crisis in the UC involves many factors, but one of the most important is mobilizing voters in 2010 to change the ridiculous 2/3 majority rule set up by Prop 13 in 1978. Requiring a 2/3 majority to pass budget changes means a minority rule in which a person's vote in the minority is worth twice that of a person's vote in the majority, and that is unacceptable.