tagged w/ Regents
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Bob Samuels, president UCAFT, describes the investment banking aspect of how the UC schools are run on a profit motive and not for education or recruitment of teachers, which they consider a monetary liability. Thus they hike tuition, layoff teachers and even entire departments, while, at the same time, increase huge bonuses and salaries to administrators who come from the corporate and banking sectors. They even lend money to the state because it returns them interest. What are our colleges, banks or institutions of higher learning?
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/20/students
BOB SAMUELS: Well, President Yudof, the president of the University of California system, says that because of state cut to the UC budget from 20 percent of the state contribution, which is—the state only contributes about—contributes only about 15 percent of the total budget, but because of that cut, they say they have to raise student fees. And our argument has been that this is actually a record year of revenue for the UC system, and the problem is they just don’t want to spend the money on instruction. So what they’re doing instead—
AMY GOODMAN: How could it be a record year?
BOB SAMUELS: They brought in a lot of money from the federal stimulus money. They had a record year in their research grants. They had a record year in medical profits. Most of their money is brought in by selling parking, housing and medical services throughout California. So they had a record year in that revenue. They had a record year in grants. And so, actually, last year they ended up getting more money than before from the state, because they got the federal stimulus money.
AMY GOODMAN: And so, what is the justification then? Explain further where that money goes.
BOB SAMUELS: Well, you know, the university says that it’s poor, that it can’t spend money from its other areas on students, on instructions, and so it has to basically—what it’s doing now is laying off hundreds of faculty members, especially the non-tenured lecturers, and it’s increasing class size.
And money is being funneled into the compensation of the star faculty and the star administrators, because in the UC system there’s over 3,000 people who make over $200,000. And many of them make $400,000, $500,000. A lot of them are mostly administrators and staff, and so the university has—basically has fewer and fewer faculty, more and more students and more and more administrators.
And so, what’s going to happen is it takes students longer to graduate. They can’t get the classes they need. And I teach required writing classes at UCLA, and they just laid off our entire department. And we have required classes, so we don’t know what they’re going to do. And the dean of our division told us the university simply does not have money for undergraduate education.....
AMY GOODMAN: And the issue of the non-teaching staffs, the administration?
BOB SAMUELS: That the administration keeps on expanding and growing. They keep on hiring more and more administrators. We’re not exactly sure what they do. And our joke at University of California is, when two administrators walk into a room, three always walk out. So we never know exactly what they do, but there’s just more and more of them.
AMY GOODMAN: So what kind of cuts are they suffering, the administrators?
BOB SAMUELS: The administrators are cutting—are virtually no cuts. In fact, the same meeting, when they decided to raise student fees, they voted on millions of dollars of increased salaries and special bonuses to administrators and to the highest-paid people. And so, there has been several compensation scandals in the UC system. And what they discovered is the UC has secret packages that it gives a lot of its administrators and athletic coaches and some of its star faculty, a small percentage, and that it makes these secret deals, it breaks its own rules, and that money continually floats to the top of the university. So while we think the universities are often these progressive institutions, they often are run like large corporations. And that’s one of our concerns.
Sign the petition to Stop Tuition Hikes: http://current.com/http://www.change.org/actions/view/stop_tuition_hikesBob Samuels, president UCAFT, describes the investment banking aspect of how the UC... more
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http://www.dailybruin.com/articles/2009/11/18/committee-finance-approves-32-percent-fee-increase/
"The Committee on Finance of the UC Board of Regents approved two undergraduate student fee increases that would raise current fees by a total of 32 percent for fall 2010.
If passed by the full board tomorrow, a mid-year increase will go into effect for winter quarter, and the remaining hike will be instituted fall 2010.
Fourteen protesters have been arrested so far.
Twice this morning, groups of protesters were taken away in handcuffs after singing "we shall overcome" and linking arms during the public comment and Committee on Finance periods of the meeting.
Just before noon, the general public section of the meeting room was closed after nearly every person in it stood up to protest.
One woman interrupted the meeting to make a personal appeal to the regents, but she was denied the chance to comment.
The woman, in tears, began screaming, and nearly everyone in the public section raised their fists into the air and joined in."
http://ucstrike.com/
"Once again the UC Regents will meet to vote on another proposed student fee increase: now a particularly unbearable 32% over two semesters, last summer 9%. If this increase is approved, the cost of a UC education will have tripled since 2000.
This, finally, we refuse. As students, as teachers, as workers — we will not support it.
We have been told that such increases are inevitable. We have been told that like the furloughs, layoffs and cuts to services and departments, this new source of suffering has its cause in the fiscal crisis of the State of California. But one month after declaring an "extreme financial emergency," and "saving" $170 million by furloughing employees, UC chose to take on $1.35 billion in new debt for 70 construction projects. Our fees have been pledged as collateral for these construction bonds. A recent report suggests that some UC administrators are willing to sacrifice affordability to avoid accountability, that they would rather raise fees than receive additional state funding with its requirements of budgetary transparency. The UC administration has made its priorities clear: construction over instruction, buildings over people.
This, finally, we refuse. As students, as teachers, as workers — we will not support it.
All the while we have been paying more for less. We are paying more for fewer classes, and for classes with larger enrollments. We are paying more for fewer instructors, for closed libraries, for closed department offices, for cancelled programs. We are paying more for fewer staff and for staff working longer hours for less pay. We are paying more for a degree it will take us an extra semester to complete. We are paying more for an institution barricaded against the next generation of high school students, more for an institution which crowds out students of color, which makes those already struggling to get by shoulder the burden of the crisis. What have we received in exchange for these additional fees, if not more faculty or more resources? The answer: more management. In ten years, administrative positions have increased five times faster than the number of faculty. The estimated cost of this excessive bureaucracy is approximately $800 million, enough to pay the fees of over 100,000 students.
This, finally, we refuse. As students, as teachers, as workers — we will not support it."http://www.dailybruin.com/articles/2009/11/18/committee-finance-approves-32-percent-fee... more
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