The San Francisco Chronicle today is carrying a story indicating that students are suing UC-Davis over the pepper spray incident. Oddly, I could find nothing in the student newspaper at Davis on the lawsuit or in the Sacramento Bee.
In any event, from the Chronicle:
UC Davis students who were pepper-sprayed by campus police during a sit-down Occupy protest sued the officers and university administrators in federal court Wednesday, claiming excessive force and suppression of free speech... The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento by 17 students and two graduates who took part in the demonstration, which was organized by Occupy UC Davis. Twelve said they were pepper-sprayed, and eight claimed illegal arrests... UC Davis spokesman Barry Schiller said, "Attorneys for the university and the plaintiffs have been talking. We hope those conversations continue." He said university officials haven't seen the lawsuit and wouldn't comment on it.
A motion asking for avote of no confidence in UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi failed to gain amajority of votes needed to pass, school officials said tonight. The motion received 312 yes votes and 697 novotes, out of 2,693 eligible voters - current and retired faculty. Katehi's leadership came under widespreadscrutiny following last year's pepper-spraying of Occupy UC Davis protesters…
Somehow, the pepper spray story at UC-Davis seems unending. From the Sacramento Bee:
By the time votingcloses today, more than 2,600 faculty members at UC Davis will have had anopportunity to weigh in on whether they have confidence in Chancellor LindaP.B. Katehi or whether that confidence is gone after November's pepper-sprayingof Occupy UC Davis protesters. Thoughnonbinding, the vote on competing motions before the Academic Senate is a rarejudgment by faculty on a chancellor's ability to lead and could influencedecisions on Katehi's future by University of California leaders…
There are fourcompeting motions, each signed by dozens of faculty members and published onthe Senate's website along with statements of support and opposition…
Afterthe pepper spray incident at UC-Davis, the administration is apparently takinga hands-off attitude toward Occupy demonstrators. From the student paper at Davis:
Blockades by Occupy UC Davis protesters haveled to speculation that U.S. Bank may leave the Memorial Union (MU) if protestspersist. In the past week, protestershave blockaded the door to the bank eight times, according to a protester.These blockades have resulted in the early closure of the bank and involvementof campus police. The closure of thebank could also mean the departure of funds for student activities.
“The occupiers claim theyare working for students, but they are actually disrupting funding for the sameservices they want to be improved,” said ASUCD Senator Justin Goss. Occupy protesters assert that the presence ofU.S. Bank on campus is uniquely harmful because students may opt for theconvenience of obtaining a high-interest loan there, rather than shopelsewhere. Ultimately, the protesters say that they want the bank closed. Critics like Goss have called that notion“ridiculous” and believe it is the student’s responsibility to find the bestloan…
The Yolo County District Attorney's office announced today that it will not file charges against any of the 10 protesters arrested during a Nov. 18 pepper-spraying incident on the University of California, Davis, campus. The standoff between campus police and occupy protesters on the campus quad resulted in 10 arrests and a number of demonstrators being pepper-sprayed. Those arrested were cited by campus police with unlawful assembly, illegal camping or both, said Michael Cabral, assistant chief deputy district attorney... (T)he Yolo DA office's investigation into the use of pepper spray is ongoing...
Audio of the December 14 legislative hearing on the UC-Davis pepper spray incident may be heard at the link below. The excerpt edits out the testimony of a witness from CSU-Fresno. Earlier, the testimony of UC systemwide officials at the hearing was posted on this blog at http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2011/12/uc-excerpt-from-dec-14-legislative.html
UC, CSU Officials To Join Experts and Students In Testifying At State Capitol Hearing On Campus Protests
Sacramento, CA--University of California system President Mark Yudof and UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi will join other UC and California State University officials, police oversight experts and student representatives in testifying before a Dec. 14 joint legislative hearing looking into UC and CSU system-wide policies and procedures regarding non-violent protests and campus police use-of-force rules.
Assemblymember Marty Block (AD-78), chair of the Assembly Higher Education Committee and Senator Alan Lowenthal (SD-27), chair of the Senate Education Committee, have called the hearing in response to a number of incidents at UC Davis and UC Berkeley where peaceful student protesters were doused with pepper spray and battered with batons by UC campus police officers.
“It is the responsibility of the university to provide a safe environment for our students to learn and participate in activities on campus,” Block said. “It is also the responsibility of the university to foster a climate that promotes free expression of ideas on campus. We as the legislature must ensure that the proper procedures are in place to protect both campus safety and student free speech.”
“Something is wrong with a system where our children and students, struggling peacefully to have their voices heard, are answered by the spray of chemical weapons and the sting of a truncheon. It is imperative that we have a unified policy on the appropriate response to peaceful campus protests and on the use of force by campus police,” Lowenthal said.
Set to testify before the committee on use-of-force policies, procedures and response are Barbara Attard, a recognized expert on civilian oversight of police agencies and representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union.
Offering testimony on UC and CSU system-wide policies and procedures regarding campus demonstrations are CSU Executive Vice Chancellor Ben Quillian and CSU chief law enforcement officer Nate Johnson.
UC Davis Chancellor Katehi and CSU Fresno President John Welty will testify on specific campus policies and procedures regarding use of force against demonstrators.
In addition, the respective presidents of the UC Student Association and CSU Associated Students will speak on the policies and procedures that are followed by student groups when organizing demonstrations.
The hearing will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Dec. 14, 2011 in Room 4203 of the State Capitol.
OAKLAND — University of California President Mark G. Yudof today (Monday, Dec. 5) appointed 12 students, faculty, alumni and staff members to serve on a task force formed to investigate the Nov. 18 pepper-spraying incident at the University of California, Davis.
As previously announced, the task force will be headed by former California Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso, a professor emeritus at the UC Davis School of Law.
Most task force members are affiliated with UC Davis and were nominated by relevant campus organizations.
Yudof commissioned the task force as part of a response to a request from UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi that the UC Office of the President investigate the incident, in which campus demonstrators were pepper-sprayed by campus police.
Two officers and the campus chief of police have been placed on administrative leave in the wake of the incident.
"My intent in forming this task force is to allow the UC Davis community to take a fair and uncompromising look at what happened on Nov. 18," Yudof said, "and also to make any recommendations it deems appropriate in light of its independent review of the facts."
The work of the task force will begin upon delivery of a fact-finding report of the incident that is being developed by outside investigators from Kroll Consulting, a firm internationally renowned for its expertise in police procedures.
The Kroll report is expected to be delivered to Yudof, Katehi and the task force in early January at the latest.
The task force will review the findings and, based on available information, assign responsibility for the events of Nov. 18.
Yudof said the task force also is expected to make "recommendations to me and to Chancellor Katehi regarding improvements to police procedures, command protocols and campus policies and oversight structures that will help ensure that the rights and safety of nonviolent protestors and the entire campus community are protected."
In addition to Justice Reynoso, Yudof identified members of the task force as follows:
·Patrick Blacklock, Yolo County administrator and immediate past-chair, Cal Aggie Alumni Association.
·Peter Blando, business services manager, Office of the Vice Provost-Information and Educational Technology, UC Davis, and past chair, UC Davis Staff Assembly (nominated by the UC Davis Staff Assembly).
·Alan Brownstein, professor, School of Law, UC Davis (nominated by the Academic Senate).
·Tatiana Bush, undergraduate student and former Associated Students senator (nominated by the Associated Students of UC Davis).
·Daniel M. Dooley, senior vice president, external relations, UC Office of the President and designated systemwide administrator for whistleblower complaints; alumnus, UC Davis.
·Penny Herbert, manager, Department of Clinical Operations, UC Davis, and staff advisor to the UC Board of Regents.
·Kathryn Kolesar, chair, UC Davis Graduate Student Association (nominated by the Graduate Student Association).
·William McKenna, law student, UC Davis (nominated by the Law Students Association).
·Carolyn Penny, director in International Law Programs and principal and mediator, Common Ground Center for Cooperative Solutions, UC Davis Extension (nominated by the UC Davis Academic Federation).
·Eric Rauchway, professor, Department of History, UC Davis (nominated by the Academic Senate).
·Judy Sakaki, vice president, student affairs, UC Office of the President and former vice chancellor for student affairs, UC Davis.
·Rebecca Sterling, undergraduate student and former Associated Students senator (nominated by the Associated Students of UC Davis).
Jerry Brown says he's 'seriously concerned' about protest response (excerpt)
Capital Alert blog of Sacramento Bee 11-28-11
..."I am seriously concerned that the rules governing the use of force, in particular the use of pepper spray, are not well understood in the context of civil disobedience and various forms of public protest," Brown wrote to Paul Cappitelli, director of the state Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. "The recent 'occupation' protests in cities throughout California and on campuses of the University of California underscore the urgency of articulating guidelines that are crystal clear and comport with constitutional requirements."
Brown, who returned to California over the weekend after a vacation out of state, had been silent about the pepper spraying of protesters by police at UC Davis and a clash between protesters and police at UC Berkeley…
Student protesters with the Occupy movement will converge on four UC campuses Monday morning to vent their fury at a meeting of the regents, with demonstrators in Davis attempting a campuswide shutdown. The meeting, rescheduled after cancellation earlier this month because of threats of violence and vandalism, now includes a one-hour slot for student voices and other public comment, increased from the usual 20 minutes. The regents will be spread out in four locations -- San Francisco, Davis, Los Angeles, and Merced -- and conduct the meeting by teleconference…
In the predawn darkness this past Friday, a large contingent of police arrived on campus to remove a group of students who were peacefully protesting tuition increases, student loan debt, and the collapse of public funding for the University of California. In an act of civil disobedience, 14 students chose to ignore an order to disperse and were arrested.
Their crime, formally, was to violate a campus policy against camping. But in reality they were arrested for engaging in political speech at a time and in a manner that did not please the campus administration. For this political action, they may face disciplinary proceedings.
As UCLA faculty we call on you, to drop any charges that may be pending against these students. The freedom to debate controversial topics is at the core of university life. The students occupying Wilson Plaza on Thursday night were not posing a health or safety risk. They were not disrupting the educational mission of the university. They were holding ongoing discussions—what they call a “general assembly”—to share information and experiences, and decide together how to face the future.
So far UCLA has avoided the bitter conflicts between campus police and students that we have seen at Berkeley and Davis. However, you will recall that in 2009 UCLA Police engaged in questionable use of force that injured students and triggered an internal review. While different people may have different perceptions of the Review’s conclusions about the use of force in 2009, no one would disagree with their reaffirmation that “[w]hen members of the university community peaceably assemble to challenge some aspect of University governance, their rights to advocacy must be respected.” (44)
We have a chance to find another path at UCLA. As UCLA’s own “Principles of Community” declare, “We are committed to ensuring freedom of expression and dialogue, in a respectful and civil manner, on the spectrum of views held by our varied and diverse campus communities.” As anyone visiting the protest site can attest, the protesters were upholding their end of this charge—far better than we see in most of the political debate in this country. To stifle their voice would shortchange the future. At both Davis and Berkeley, campus police have deployed deplorable violence and injured students and faculty. On both campuses, police introduced violence while students, staff, and faculty were engaged in peaceable protest. We call on you to ensure that UCLA does not follow in their footsteps and fail to uphold the principles for which the University stands.
We urge you to drop all charges and disciplinary proceedings against the students arrested in Wilson Plaza, and also to respect students’ rights to protest the pressing issues of our political, social, and educational life.
Sincerely,
Tobias Higbie Associate Professor of History; Michael Meranze, Professor of History; Jenny Sharpe, Professor of English and Women’s Studies; Michelle Clayton, Assoc Prof Comp Lit & Spanish & Portuguese; Chris Looby, Professor English; Nouri Gana, Assoc Prof Comparative Literature; Jan de Leeuw; Distinguished Professor and Chair, UCLA Department of Statistics; Joseph Bristow, Professor English; Saree Makdisi, Professor English; Steven Nelson, Associate Professor of African and African American Art History; Carole H. Browner, Professor Anthropology; Jeffrey Prager, Professor of Sociology; Jessica R. Cattelino, Associate Professor of Anthropology; Jack Chen, Associate Professor Asian Languages & Cultures; David Delgado Shorter, Associate Professor World Arts & Cultures; Noah Zatz, Professor of Law; Katherine King, Professor Comparative Literature; Matthew Fischer, Assistant Professor English; Gerry A. Hale, Emeritus professor, Geography Department; Peter McLaren, Professor, Graduate school of Education and Information Studies; Michael Cooperson, Associate Professor NELC; Andrea Goldman, Assistant Professor History; George Baker, Associate Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art; Allen F. Roberts, World Arts & Cultures/Dance; Susan Curtiss, Professor Emeritus, Linguistics; Henry A. Hespenheide, Professor Emeritus of Ecology; Kathleen A. McHugh, Professor, Department of English, Cinema and Media Studies Program; Valerie Matsumoto, Professor, History and Asian American Studies; Sondra Hale, Professor, Anthropology and Women’s Studies; Elizabeth DeLoughrey, Associate Professor, English; Stephen Yenser, Distinguished Professor, Department of English; Robert Brenner, Professor of History; Vinay Lal, Associate Professor of History; Sharon Traweek, Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and History; Susan Slyomovics, Professor of Anthropology and Near Eastern Languages & Cultures; Susan L. Foster, Distinguished Professor, Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance; Teofilo Ruiz, Professor of History, Spanish & Portuguese; Rafael Perez-Torres, Professor of English; Jason Throop, Associate Professor, Anthropology; Kenneth L. Karst, Price Professor of Law Emeritus; Susan Plann, Professor of Applied Linguistics and Spanish & Portuguese; Alex Purves, Associate Professor of Classics; Helen Deutsch, Professor of English; Yogita Goyal, Associate Professor of English; Michael Salman, Associate Professor of History; Jan Reiff, Associate Professor of History; Chris Tilly, Professor of Urban Planning; Grace Hong, Associate Professor Women’s Studies and Asian American Studies; Lowell Gallagher, Associate Professor English; Arthur Little, Associate Professor English; Carollee Howes, Professor Education; A. J. Julius, Assistant Professor of Philosophy; Robin Lauren Derby, Associate Professor of History; Jonathan H. Grossman, Associate Professor of English; Robert N. Watson, Distinguished Professor of English; Andrew Apter, Professor of History & Anthropology; Calvin Normore, Professor of Philosophy; Victor Bascara, Associate Professor of Asian American Studies; Ching Kwan Lee, Professor of Sociology; Francoise Lionnet, Professor of French and Francophone Studies; John McCumber, Professor of Germanic Languages; Juliet Williams, Associate Professor of Women’s Studies; Jorge Marturano, Assistant Professor of Spanish and Portuguese; Peter Lunenfeld, Professor of Design Media Arts; Ruben Hernandez-Leon, Associate Professor of Sociology; Douglas Kellner, George F. Kneller Chair in the Philosophy of Education; Héctor Calderón, Professor, Spanish and Portuguese; Sandra Harding, Professor of Education; Barbara Fuchs, Professor of English and Spanish and Portuguese; Michael Chwe, Associate Professor, Political Science; Michelle Erai, Assistant Prof. Women’s Studies; Felicity Nussbaum, Professor of English; Mishuana Goeman, Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies; Sherry Ortner, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology; Anurima Banerji, Assistant Professor, Department of World Arts and Cultures; Laure Murat, Associate Professor of French & Francophone Studies; Shane Butler, Professor of Classics; Elizabeth Upton, Assistant Professor of Musicology; Sorin Popa, Professor of Mathematics; Elizabeth Marchant, Associate Professor of Women’s Studies; King-Kok Cheung, Professor of English and Asian Am Studies; Zrinka Stahuljak, Associate Professor of French & Francophone Studies; James Gelvin, Professor of History; David N. Myers, Professor of History; John Dagenais, Professor of Spanish and Portuguese; Timothy Taylor, Professor of Ethnomusicology/Musicology; Gary Blasi, Professor of Law; Barbara Herman, Professor of Philosophy; Joanna Schwartz, Acting Professor of Law; Thu-huong Nguyen-vo, Associate Professor, Asian Languages and Cultures and Asian American Studies; Namhee Lee, Associate Professor of Asian Languages & Cultures; John Carriero, Professor of Philosophy; Brian Kim Stefans, Assistant Professor of English; George Dutton, Associate Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures; Samuel Cumming, Assistant Professor of Philosophy & Law; Sheldon Smith, Associate Professor of Philosophy; Gil Hochberg, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature; Mark Sawyer Professor of Political Science; Karen Brodkin, Professor Emerita of Anthropology and Women’s Studies; Andrea Fraser, Professor of Art; Chon Noriega, Professor of Film, Television, and Digital Media; Peter Peterson, Professor of Mathematics; Chris Chism, Associate Professor of English; Victoria Marks, Professor, World Arts and Cultures|Dance; Kathleen L. Komar, Professor of Comparative Literature & German; Richard Elman, Professor of Mathematics; John Papadopoulos, Professor of Classics; Dana Cuff, Professor, Department of Architecture and Urban Design; Natasha Heller, Assistant Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures; Carlos Alberto Torres, Professor of Social Sciences and Comparative Education; César J. Ayala Professor of Sociology; Ghislaine Lydon, Associate Professor in History; Cameron Campbell, Professor of Sociology; William Roy, Professor of Sociology; Jerome Rabow, Prof. Emeritus, Sociology; Nicky Hart, Professor of Sociology; Darnell M. Hunt, Professor of Sociology; Phillip Bonacich, Department of Sociology; Stefan Timmermans, Professor of Sociology; Miguel M. Unzueta, Assistant Professor, Anderson-HROB; Alan Garfinkel, Professor of Medicine; Patricia Gandara, Professor of Education; Joel F. Handler, Professor, UCLA School of Law; Michael Heim, Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures/Comparative Literature; David Lopez, Professor Emeritus of Sociology; Gail Kligman, Professor of Sociology; Maylei Blackwell, Assistant Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies; David Gieseker, Professor of Mathematics; Lyle F. Bachman, Professor, Department of Applied Linguistics; Pamela Munro, Distinguished Professor of Linguistics; Aisha Finch, Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies and Afro-American Studies; Tova Brown, Assistant Adjunct Professor of Mathematics; James Ralston, Professor of Mathematics; Walter Ponce, Professor of Music; Joshua Foa Dienstag, Professor of Political Science; Olga T. Yokoyama, Professor Department of Applied Linguistics; Abel Valenzuela Jr., Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies; Catherine Opie, Professor of Art; Richard J Jackson, Professor of Environmental Health Science; Steven P. Wallace, Professor, Department of Community Health Sciences; Inwon C. Kim, Associate Professor of Mathematics; Otto Santa Ana, Associate Professor Department of Chicana/o Studies; Dwight W. Read, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology; Kelly Lytle Hernandez, Associate Professor of History; Christopher Erickson, Professor of Management; Maia Young, Assoc Prof of Human Resources and Organizational Behavior, Anderson School of Management; Jody Kreiman, Professor of Surgery; Michael J. B. Allen, Distinguished Professor of English; Stephen Cederbaum, M.D. Professor Emeritus, Psychiatry, Pediatrics and Human Genetics; Ali Behdad, Professor of English and Comparative Literature
The blog post contains directions for those faculty members wishing to sign the letter above:
Email uclafacultyunited@gmail.com. Subject line: add my name. Put your name, rank and department in the body of the email message.
UC-Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi announced tonight that she is calling for all charges against 10 individuals in last Friday's pepper spray incident - nine of them students - to be dropped, and that the university will pay the medical expenses of students injured by campus police using pepper spray… UC President Mark Yudoff announced that he had appointed Will Bratton, the former head of police departments in Los Angeles, Boston and New York, to conduct an independent review of Friday's (UC-Davis) incident…
Note: The postponed Regents meeting will take place Nov. 28 through a teleconference at various campuses. At UCLA, the location is the James West Alumni Center. The meeting begins at 8:30 AM.
Official statement from President Yudof:
President Yudof launches initiatives to address policing and protests
Date: 2011-11-22 Contact: University of California Office of the President Phone: (510) 987-9200
University of California President Mark G. Yudof moved on two fronts today (Tuesday, Nov. 22) to address policing issues in the wake of the pepper spraying of UC Davis students and other incidents involving law enforcement officers and protesters.
Acting in response to a written request from UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi, Yudof agreed to conduct a thorough review of the events of Nov. 18 on the Davis campus.
As a first step, Yudof reached out to former Los Angeles police chief William J. Bratton to undertake an independent fact-finding of the pepper spray incident and report back the results to him within 30 days.
Bratton, who also led the New York City police department, now heads the New York-based Kroll consulting company as chairman. He also is a renowned expert in progressive community policing.
"My intent," Yudof said, "is to provide the Chancellor and the entire University of California community with an independent, unvarnished report about what happened at Davis."
Assembly Speaker John A. Perez also had made a request to President Yudof and UC Regents Chair Sherry Lansing for an independent investigation.
Under the plan, Bratton's report also will be presented to an advisory panel that Yudof is forming, again at Katehi's request. The panel will consist of a cross-section of students, faculty, staff and other UC community members.
The advisory panel, whose members will be announced at a later date, will review the report and make recommendations to Chancellor Katehi on steps that should be taken to ensure the safety of peaceful protesters on campus. She will present her implementation plan to President Yudof.
On a second track, Yudof appointed UC General Counsel Charles Robinson and UC Berkeley School of Law Dean Christopher Edley Jr. to lead a system-wide examination of police protocols and policies as they apply to protests at all 10 UC campuses.
This effort will include visits to campuses for discussions with students, faculty and staff, and consultation with an array of experts.
The review is expected to result in recommended best practices for policing protests across the 10 UC campuses.
"With these actions," Yudof said, "we are moving forward to identify what needs to be done to ensure the safety of students and others who engage in non-violent protests on UC campuses. The right to peaceful protest on all of our campuses must be protected."
Further update: Email from chancellor and EVC of 11-23-11 below. Note that it says that UCLA will consult with the LA city attorney about the arrests of demonstrators. It does not say what it will be asking the city attorney to do.
Office of the Chancellor Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost
To the Campus Community:
The images from events at UCB and UCD have shocked and troubled all of us on campus and across the system. Our hearts go out to the students, parents, faculty and staff at Berkeley and Davis during this trying time.
At UCLA, a small number of protesters identifying themselves as the Occupy UCLA movement established a camp last Thursday and were asked to disperse early Friday morning. They refused to disperse and preferred to be arrested. All the protesters that morning were peaceful and cooperative. The police worked with Student Affairs and the students to ensure that the process went forward smoothly and the encampment was removed without confrontation or injury. On Monday, after the actions at Davis, the protesters held a series of teach-ins, and decided to set up tents on the lawn in front of the Morgan Center. Under the circumstances and at the urging of faculty and the Senate leadership, we decided not to intervene. Today they have dismantled their tents on their own accord.
The peace and safety of the campus is a high concern for us, as is the freedom of expression. Our aim is to achieve both in a time when feelings are running extremely high. We have worked closely with Student Affairs, Legal Affairs, and UCLA PD to ensure that the campus adheres to our principles of community and that everyone acts with restraint, respect, and tolerance in all circumstances. The meeting of the Regents at UCLA this coming Monday may bring demonstrations, and we will work strenuously with all parties to ensure as far as we are able that they remain safe and peaceful. We have been in constant discussion with our students and campus leadership, and have stressed firmly that we all must act in a responsible manner that preserves the core values of the campus.
We are pleased that so far the UCLA community has managed to avoid the kinds of wrenching events that have torn our sister campuses. That we have done so is testimony to the civility and restraint shown by our students, faculty, police, and staff in difficult circumstances.
We will consult with the City Attorney next week concerning the charges against our students.
We wish you all a happy and safe Thanksgiving.
Gene D. Block Chancellor
Scott L. Waugh Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost
-------
And there are complaints about the Bratton investigation:
As noted in last night's blog post, instead of trying to regain "control" via crisis management techniques, it would be nice if the Regents and the powers-that-be at UC focused instead on the ongoing UC budget emergency. Please see last night's blog posting for a link to the UCLA Faculty Association's position - as expressed to the Regents - back in 2009 on the budget emergency:
For example, UC needs the legislature and governor to step up and take some responsibility for funding the UC pension system. No immediate state cash is needed; an IOU from the state - as was done back in the days when the state did take its responsibility seriously - would be helpful to UC. Under the current arrangement - in which the state has decided it never heard of the UC pension system - from every dollar that the state gives to UC for its core academic operations, there must be a subtraction to fund the pension. That situation does not exist at CSU (which is under CalPERS). Whether anyone intends it or not, the result of current state policy (or non-policy) will be a slow-moving and unspoken privatization of UC. The Regents can't collect taxes. They control only tuition as a revenue source. Every dollar that should go into the pension plan on behalf of the state, but does not, costs the plan $2 in contributions from non-state sources.
As has been pointed out ad nauseum, the lack of state funding for the UC pension is not an old folks or retiree issue. It is a young folks issue, since it taxes the limited budget appropriation the state does provide for core academic programs.
Update: Legislature schedules hearing on UC's use of police
Capitol Alert 11-22-11
The Legislature will hold a hearing next month to investigate the recent use of police force in response to protests on University of California campuses. The joint hearing of the Assembly Higher Education Committee and Senate Education Committee will be held Wednesday, December 14, Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez announced today…
Regent chair Lansing with a message to UC community
2011-11-21
UC Board of Regents chair Sherry Lansing says in a video statement that she is "shocked and appalled" by the images of police actions during recent student protests at UC Berkeley and UC Davis.
Lansing supports UC President Mark Yudof's effort to review systemwide procedures so that students can engage in peaceful protests.
"We regents share your passion and your conviction for the University of California," Lansing says. "We want all of you to know that we fully and unequivocally support your right to protest peacefully."
Lansing also invites the people to express their views at the Board of Regents meeting on Nov. 28. The rescheduled meeting will be open to the public and connected by a teleconference with regents participating from UC San Francisco-Mission Bay, UCLA, UC Davis and UC Merced. As usual, the meeting will also be streamed online. The public comment period has been expanded from 20 minutes to at least one hour.
Appreciate the sentiment but maybe a bit more creative choice of words would have helped:
More seriously, one has the sense that the usual crisis management advice - get out ahead of the story - is being followed here, perhaps with overkill, to get "control" of the situation. There are national issues that are the subject of the Occupy demonstrations over which the Regents have no control. But they do control UC. The UCLA Faculty Association noted some time back in a 2009 open letter to the Regents that there is a budget emergency facing UC and that the business-as-usual regental meetings every two months don't appear to be an emergency response. See http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2010/07/after-faculty-assn-letter-to-regents-of.html
For earlier blog posts on these continuing developments, go to:
Note: See prior blog entries on the "Occupy" incidents at Davis and Berkeley. Links at bottom of this posting.
President Yudof responds to campus protest issues
Contact: UC Office of the President Phone: (510) 987-9157
University of California President Mark G. Yudof today (Nov. 20) announced the actions he is taking in response to recent campus protest issues:
I am appalled by images of University of California students being doused with pepper spray and jabbed with police batons on our campuses.
I intend to do everything in my power as president of this university to protect the rights of our students, faculty and staff to engage in non-violent protest.
Chancellors at the UC Davis and UC Berkeley campuses already have initiated reviews of incidents that occurred on their campuses. I applaud this rapid response and eagerly await the results.
The University of California, however, is a single university with 10 campuses, and the incidents in recent days cry out for a systemwide response.
Therefore I will be taking immediate steps to set that response in motion.
I intend to convene all 10 chancellors, either in person or by telephone, to engage in a full and unfettered discussion about how to ensure proportional law enforcement response to non-violent protest.
To that end, I will be asking the chancellors to forward to me at once all relevant protocols and policies already in place on their individual campuses, as well as those that apply to the engagement of non-campus police agencies through mutual aid agreements.
Further, I already have taken steps to assemble experts and stakeholders to conduct a thorough, far-reaching and urgent assessment of campus police procedures involving use of force, including post-incident review processes.
My intention is not to micromanage our campus police forces. The sworn officers who serve on our campuses are professionals dedicated to the protection of the UC community.
Nor do I wish to micromanage the chancellors. They are the leaders of our campuses and they have my full trust and confidence.
Nonetheless, the recent incidents make clear the time has come to take strong action to recommit to the ideal of peaceful protest.
As I have said before, free speech is part of the DNA of this university, and non-violent protest has long been central to our history. It is a value we must protect with vigilance. I implore students who wish to demonstrate to do so in a peaceful and lawful fashion. I expect campus authorities to honor that right.
Even as student protests spread across the state this fall - with national attention focused today on the pepper spraying of nonviolent protesters at UC Davis - Gov. Jerry Brown has kept silent...
Note: Those who know California political history will know that Jerry Brown - determined not to be like his father who got blamed for demonstrations at Berkeley - got his start as a public figure being tough on student demonstrations as a member of a community college board.
