At approximately 11:30 A.M. today, UC Davis broke out in protest. Marchers gathered on the school's Quad, fire alarms in Wellman (one of the school's largest classroom buildings) were pulled, and news cameras affixed themselves indefinitely to the scene. Protesters rallied against student fee increases as well as the homophobic and racially charged vandalism at the other UC campuses. As a UC student, I am frustrated by the budget cuts and 32% student fee increase -- an increase that amounts to about $2,500 for full time students, and thankful to be graduating as soon as possible. At a time when many students and families can hardly maintain their jobs, the 32% student fee increase was a crushing blow to already suffering students.
There is no excuse for making public education less attainable for the students of California. Once upon a time, the University of California truly was a public institution and offered free education. Now, education is a luxury, available only to the upper middle class. Sure, there are student loans, but what good is it to loan already low-income students mass quantities of money? Trapping college graduate in debt for the rest of their adult lives is no solution for providing affordable education.
All that being said, I can't help but wonder whether or not the protests are constructive. What are the protesters accomplishing by pulling fire alarms in lecture halls? Pulling fire alarms or pounding on the walls of classrooms is not a constructive approach to solving the problem. Everyone has the right to protest, but at some point protesters disrupt other students' right to learn. It is unfair to both the teachers and the students of those classrooms who are trying to teach and learn. Education is pricey enough already, and by interrupting fellow students' classes, protesters are only helping those students lose money. In a condensed system like UC, students and teachers already only have ten weeks for classes. To steal already precious classroom time is more of a hindrance than a help to our State's already suffering education system.
Protesting is and has been a powerful means of fighting for what you believe in. Who knows where we would be without the brave efforts of the suffragettes or the civil rights movement. What UC needs is a protesting effort that is constructive, and that law makers will take seriously. A friend of mine told me that her mother took a furlough day at her job at UC Santa Cruz because cars are so frequently overturned during protests on campus.
Overturning the cars of innocent UC employees and disrupting classes surely will get state and probably nationwide attention. Incidences like these inaccurately portray the majority of UC student frustration. The majority of students are angered by the fee increases, and are probably scared by the vandalism. As a university system, we need to represent ourselves as a well thought out movement. We must protest without interrupting those who are still trying to learn. We must protest without overturning cars. Lawmakers will not take us seriously if this is the approach we take. Write to your congressional representatives. Write to Boxer and Feinstein. Write to Schwarzenegger. Don't underestimate the power of social media outlets. Protests against the Iranian election in summer 2009 were organized through Twitter. If thousands of students blogged and tweeted their frustrations on these outlets, and outlets like the Huffington Post, the response could be enormous. We should use our right to protest, but we should not lose sight of the bigger picture: our education.
Follow Gabrielle Grow on Twitter: www.twitter.com/giftofgabstur
Huff TV: Roy Sekoff on Education Protests: What Are Our Priorities?
HuffPost Editor Roy Sekoff appeared on "The Ed Show" Thursday evening to weigh in on today's college protests against funding cuts. Sekoff argued that the...
These students out there rallying for a just cause (lower student loan
costs and overall lower educational costs) are so ridiculous, they don't even
realize that the very socialist government that they so proudly trump
around defending and yearning for is the very government that is causing
the rates to go up for them. I mean, this is some great irony as WELL AS
A SHOWING OF A GREAT DEAL OF IGNORANCE on the part of today's educated
(is that an oxymoron, cause they're certainly not educated!) kids.
They're their own worst enemy. Stubborn, a refusal to look at the facts,
and the inability to say "I was incorrect but now I understand and I'm
going to go ahead and do what is necessary to change my views." Absolutely TERRIBLE!
Would you people like to know what the reason behind
higher educational costs are? Read this paper done by Hayek and
Friedman, two of the best economists to ever live. And wisen up kids,
cause it's YOUR future you're giving away! I'm sure this posting will be removed, since anything that doesn't follow suite with the present communist agenda of this country is deemed "not allowed." I just can't wait till they come to my house and try that stuff with me...
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3344
The full PDF report can be read here:
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa531.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAoyrMjH0bU
Someone always questions whether "aggressiveness" is necessary.
Unfortunately, they also cast education in general in a pretty dim light, especially the math dept., because schools that can't balance their budgets or keep track of the money, and keep it out of the hands of unscrupulous administrators and so forth, well, that's the road to educational hell, right there.
I hope there's more budget cuts, more protests, and more budget cuts on top of that, and all these techno-savvy students finally realize you can study at home, online, for about 5% the price. Education? Good riddance.
As others have said, cuts are simply the latest tactic in years of strategic planning for privatization. In case Ms. Grow doesn't get it, privatization is when a public good (read: for everyone) are turned into private commodity (read: for managerial control). This is otherwise known as sneaky theft.
This theft is best illustrated by studies by award-winning U.C. economist Emmanuel Saez which show middle class income has been transferred to the top 1-5% (the super rich) during the past 10-20 years. This follows Friedman market fundamentalism design, it is not an accident.
Bail-out Education! is the reference. Refuse to die, reclaim life! is the response.
One may think they've paid and want to sit in the classroom and enjoy it while they can. This admits defeat from the outset. This view fails to recognize the fight between a movement to protect our right to education and those that see education as a commodity, schools as factories. The motivation to stay in the classroom on days of action is the motivation that drives people to cross picket lines to take the jobs of workers who are on strike - a motivation that is easy enough to understand. Still, this fails to realize where student interests lie and how those interests will served long term. By staying in our seats we surrender our classrooms and capitulate to an abusive system that asks not for our input or even gratitude, but for our obedience. We cannot empower those who see us as resources rather than human beings.
Moreover, students who stay inside during protests demean their own potential; what they come to college to develop. By limiting involvement to blogs, students rely on others to exercise voice on their behalf, becoming victims of their own inaction.
We have what we have because of the sacrifice of those who did not cling to crumbs. It will require sacrifice, even of classroom time, to protect the classrooms we'd rather be sitting in. Without sacrifice we will not be able to pass on what has been given to us to our
Ok so normally I do not comment on opinion blogs but I am so sick and tired of people being misinformed about these events. I am a student at UCSC and I was at the rally from the beginning to end. These reports of "violent protests" and people carrying knives are absolutely FALSE! The event was a PEACEFUL demonstration and if anyone went to the event they would know that. It is time that people learn to think for themselves. The way in which all the media outlets have written about the day of action is misguided and follows the false reports by UC officials who benefit from the negative portrayal of student struggles. If you understand anything about the way social change and transformation works or if the educational system bothered to properly teach you about the history of social struggles then you would know that no civil right has EVER been given to people.
Every right you have as a woman, as a man, as an american, as a citizen, and as a human being has been fought for. Unfortunately, the media and the UC officials have you thinking that in fighting for our rights people are always enacting acts of violence. This is completely false. Many of these reports of violent acts were fabricated and even the police did not confirm it, in fact at UCSC the police on duty stated that these protests were peaceful. By focusing on the stereotype of violent student protesters you are undermining the hard work of many student organizers and supporters and you are missing the BIGGER MESSAGE.
Schools exists for the students and should serve the students. Currently the country is moving towards privatization of public education. The UC system does not support retention/outreach programs, UCSC STILL DOES NOT have an Ethnic studies department, our fees are being used to take out bank loans and meanwhile we pay more money, we receive less classes and resources. This is a structural problem, how do you expect us to fix it if the people we are suppose to write these "letters" to are the part of the problem? Hate to break your bubble but change rarely occurs through letter campaigns and representative outlets, especially through unqualified ex actors. In order to let our voices be heard be must have our presence be seen.
One thing I will agree with you is that you are completely right in saying that we must protest without overturning cars...BUT had you been there you would have seen that no cars were turned over, no picket line crossers were attacked, no acts of violence occurred and no weapons were brought on the premises. So I have to wonder...where are you getting the information that you base your rant on? Be informed about both arguments before you preach.
When masses of people are pushed far enough they eventually respond, and not with well thought out letters to the editor. They take to the streets and demand political change in a way that is often very inconvenient indeed. Welcome to the human race.
I think the response of the students is entirely appropriate considering the outrage they and working people have suffered at the hand of draconian policies of our 'corporate sponsored' government.
If your very livelihood and your very life is threatened, you must respond with an appropriate level of outrage and this is exactly what the students are doing.
You properly describe the problem but you fall short of taking the necessary action to correct the problem. That is the problem with too many americans. They are unwilling to do what it takes to correct the grave injustices that we are presented with in our society ever day.
There is a fine line between non violence and protest, and I do not see the students crossing the line. They are doing disrupting actions, which needs to happen. Agitation by setting off a fire alarm is an appropriate response to the emergency that we are in as a result of the abusive policies of the lobbyist owned politicians.
A fire alarm is good because it sounds the alarm and wakes you up out of your lethargy.
Wake up Gabrielle!
im starting to hear whispers of rebellion(better late then never), not by the right or left but from doctors, teachers, soldiers, IT workers in the north,south, east and west. as much as i love MLK and MG...when people are multimillionaires/billionaires (not all of course) they don't care ..i repeat THEY DON'T CARE IF YOU PROTEST!! and are not accountable for anything...they must be stopped... "checked" or at least shown that there's consequences for toying with people(students) lives.
Housing prices keep going UP
but education budgets kept going down?
Audit the FED
Less money in tax revenue = less money to subsidize students.
But yes, I also wonder at where all that money went in the "good" times, Republicans were all about "giving it back to the people" in tax cuts, rather than setting up a rainy day fund.
Cali is 20 billion in the red and getting worse. It (per gov budget office 2008) spends 42.2% of its budget on education. Health and human services only ranks at 27% and that is the second most expensive budgetary consideration. Even prisons (which the governor tried to go after and failed) only hits 7% of the budget. The point is, eventually education has to get hit as they slash government spending. I know a lot of Californians scream anytime someone touches the education cash cow, but there is a lot of waste in the edu system that needs to be cut out. If you personally have billions of dollars to hand out to schools each year then stop holding out so that we can lower tuition costs.
If you dont, then either the state must cut costs by slashing the entire govt budget (including edu). Or, you cut bureaucratic waste in the education system. In the 1960's Cali spent liberally on its students and had an amazing education system that was envied. Now 4 times that money (income/inflation adjusted) is spent and in most parts of the state it is now worse. Bureaucratic waste. If higher ed wants more of the 60 billion pie they need to fix other parts of the state like K-12 education, powerful union lobbies, corrupt legislative practices, ect.
That includes K-12 education. The budget for higher education is under 7%, less than the prison expenditures.