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The text below in italics is from UC President Yudof’s Facebook page. As noted in a prior post on this blog, there are hints of a multiyear-tuition-increase/steady-budget-support-from-the-state being discussed behind closed doors with Brown administration officials. See the bold print below.
We are extremely disappointed that UC is faced with yet another significant State budget reduction: the $100 million “trigger cut” just announced. This additional cut will exacerbate the fiscal challenges the University faces in the current year and place additional stress on the quality of education provided to UC students. While the $650 million cut to UC enacted by the State last June resulted in additional tuition hikes for our students, let me assure you there are no 2011-12 mid-year tuition increases planned.
Over the past several years, cuts to higher education by the Governor and the Legislature have had a severe impact on students, their families, faculty and staff. The University has consistently objected to additional mid-year cuts, and while we certainly understand the ongoing fiscal challenges the State faces, we are requesting that this latest reduction be considered a one-time cut to UC’s budget and not made a permanent reduction. We will ask to have this funding restored to UC at the beginning of the next fiscal year (July 1, 2012).
In the current economic environment, marked by a huge State deficit and a limited revenue stream, we recognize that the Governor is in the eye of a “perfect storm.”
As we draw closer to the 2012-13 State budget release in January, however, we are asking the Governor to refrain from any additional cuts to higher education. Faculty and staff have sacrificed, and our students in particular have given more than their fair share.
Moreover, as we move forward, we will continue to work closely with State officials to develop a long-term revenue plan that will give the University much-needed financial stability.
This has been a challenging year for the University of California. I understand the concerns that many in the UC community have voiced over the recent incidents surrounding student protests on some of our campuses. I assure you that a thorough review of these incidents is in progress. I am making every effort possible to protect our long-held traditions of free speech and peaceful protests. During these difficult times, I ask you not to lose sight of our common goals—to make public higher education a priority and to keep a UC education accessible and affordable for Californians.
Thank you for your continued support for the University of California and best wishes for a happy holiday season.
Sincerely yours,
Mark G. Yudof
President
University of California
From http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150425120888379
One problem with this strategy is that a handshake deal between the UC president and the governor on a "compact" reached behind closed doors did not work out well under Schwarzenegger. The governor cannot appropriate funds; only the legislature can. To make such a deal work, there needs to be wider participation including the legislature, the Legislative Analyst, major interest groups, etc.
It would be nice to know what is going on behind the door:
Our earlier post on this subject is at http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2011/12/buried-lede-uc-reviving-multiyear.html
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.
Maybe we should put some limits on this thing:
Update: Brouhaha reported about UC-Riverside rules concerning demonstrations which may (or may not) be timed for the Regents meeting on that campus in January. See Inside Higher Ed article at http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/12/14/uc-riverside-protest-guidelines-trouble-students-faculty
Update: UC-Riverside suspends new rules http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2011/12/15/uc-riverside-pulls-guidelines-protests
President names members of task force
Date: 2011-12-05
Contact: UC Office of the President
Phone: (510) 987-9200
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).
From: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/26764
Who knows what the task force might find?
The letter below appears on the blog https://uclafacultyunited.wordpress.com/ in an entry dated Nov. 20. Open Letter to Chancellor Block
November 20, 2011
Dear Chancellor Block:
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.
Bruin article on letter at:
===
Other developments:
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…
Full story at http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/22/4074483/university-offers-to-pay-medical.html
Interview with UC-Davis chancellor by student TV:
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."
Source: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/26712
Earlier posts on this topic:
http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2011/11/another-pepper-apology-lets-focus.html
http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2011/11/uc-davis-pepper-spray-controversy.html
http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2011/11/yudof-issues-statement-on-events-at-uc.html
http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2011/11/campus-demonstrations-recent-back-in.html
http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2011/11/ucla-recent-history-nov-9-demonstration.html
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 Scott L. Waugh ------- And there are complaints about the Bratton investigation: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-uc-davis-20111124,0,1010444.story |
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.
TV report on the Davis aftermath:
mark_yudof Mark G. Yudof
I intend to do everything in my power as President to protect the rights of our students, faculty & staff to engage in non-violent protest.
mark_yudof Mark G. Yudof
I am appalled by images of University of California students being doused with pepper spray and jabbed with police batons on our campuses.
Update 11/21/11: The UC-Davis police chief has been placed on leave:
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/21/4070465/uc-davis-police-chief-placed-on.html
and there is this about one of the police officers put on leave:
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/21/4070831/uc-davis-cop-believed-to-have.html
Further update:
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.
Free speech is in the DNA of the University of California, and public protest is an important part of our history. Free speech is often contentious, as is democracy. I want all of our students to know that I fully and unequivocally support their right to protest peacefully.
At UC Berkeley, a process is in place to review the violence of last week. Like Chancellor Birgeneau, I was distressed by what I saw, both as a parent and as president of the University of California. Whether there or elsewhere, I have absolute confidence that our chancellors will do what is right and necessary to ensure that the campuses where our students live and learn provide an environment for robust but peaceful discourse. The safety of our students must be protected, always.
In difficult times like these, it sometimes can be too easy to lose sight of the larger picture. UC students, faculty, staff and our regents all share a passion for the University and its role in shaping a better society. We also suffer together the strains caused by what has been a long pattern of state disinvestment in the University of California. And, as a result, we should stand together in common cause to do everything in our power to convince the state’s political leadership that higher education represents not a cost, but the most enlightened investment any state can make.
I also want to offer the heartfelt sympathy of the entire UC community to the family of Christopher Travis, the student who died of wounds suffered yesterday at the Haas Business School in a shooting incident unrelated to the Sproul Plaza activities. It is an absolutely tragic situation for all involved, for Mr. Travis, the students who were placed in jeopardy and the staff and police who quickly responded and took action.
Source: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150370976853379
See also our earlier post at http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2011/11/campus-demonstrations-recent-back-in.html
President Yudof gave assurance in advance of the event that if the legislative “trigger” is pulled – and cuts are therefore made in the UC budget – there won’t be a midyear tuition increase. Some might see this assurance as an invitation to be shot.
President Yudof is apparently going to offer the Regents a budget plan for next year with the assurance that if the state grants it as proposed, there will be no tuition increase next year. He does not say what will happen to tuition if the budget plan (and the increase contained in it relative to this year) is not approved.
CSU seems to be taking a different approach. It is following an “if-then” strategy, according to the LA Times this morning:
California State University students could see tuition rise 9% next fall unless the state boosts funding to cover enrollment growth, urgent maintenance, student services and other costs, officials said Wednesday…
Full article at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/education/la-me-calstate-tuition-20111110,0,200187.story
As it happens, we do have a lesson from Negotiating 101:
President Yudof's UC budget proposal for 2012-13, scheduled for discussion at the Regents on Nov. 17, is now posted. The key links are
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/nov11/f12.pdf
and
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/nov11/f11attach.pdf
The proposal includes a request for increased “core” funding by 8%. Notably included is a contribution to the UC pension – which the state has not been doing since contributions resumed. There appears to be an arbitrary request for one fourth of the employer contribution ($87.6 million). See the last page of the second link. Why just one fourth is requested is not clear. Since this seems to be public pension year, given the governor’s pension proposals, getting a contribution from the legislature to the pension may be a long shot. There may well be a response that the entire state and local pension issue needs to be studied before something “new” is done for UC. Of course, paying in to the pension is not new; it was routinely done before the contribution holiday.
A press release on the budget proposal is at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/26629
See also this piece in which Yudof promises no midyear tuition increase if the state budget trigger is pulled:
That's nice - but not exactly optimum bargaining strategy. (See prior posts if you don't know what the trigger is and how it affects UC.)
MERCED — Chancellor Dorothy Leland of the University of California, Merced, said today (Oct. 3) the 6-year-old campus has made significant contributions to the state through its innovative research and that more investment is needed for it to meet its promise to bring greater economic prosperity to the San Joaquin Valley, the fastest-growing region in the state…
UC President Mark G. Yudof, along with some 300 community members, formally welcomed Leland to the university during a ceremony today in the Carol Tomlinson-Keasey Quad…
With countries such as Saudi Arabia, China and India aggressively funding higher education infrastructure for research, Leland called on public and private partners to continue their investment in UC Merced so the campus can build more research facilities and teaching labs, hire additional faculty members and expand research related to public health and medicine, among other fields. "In short, what UC Merced needs now is for the state and federal government, business and industry leaders, philanthropic foundations and individuals to step up and invest in this young university's extraordinary promise to improve lives and bring economic prosperity to the valley," Leland said…
Full release at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/26414
In short, what she would like in resources is:
Gov. Pat Brown signs the Donahoe Act in 1960 implementing the Master Plan for Higher Education.
The LA Times ran an editorial yesterday, lamenting rising tuition at UC and the lack of state support. It also threw out some suggestions. Among them:
…The university also should consider a temporary policy that favors admission to students in the immediate geographical area for a certain percentage of new undergraduates. That way, more students could live at home and avoid the hefty cost of a dorm. UC campuses are not usually commuter schools, but troubled times call for a willingness to make sensible changes…
Actually, many undergrads enter UC and UCLA as transfer students from local community colleges which are a) inexpensive and b) allow living at home. CSU campuses are also an option. Indeed, that was what the Master Plan was all about, i.e., differentiating the three higher ed segments. The LA Times’ suggestion above is essentially a kind of Cal State-Westwood, Cal State-Berkeley, etc., idea.
The real story here is that President Yudof came to the Regents in September with a proposal for a multi-year schedule of tuition increases in the light of failing state support and that the Regents did not go for it – or for any other solution. (The audio of that session was posted yesterday on this blogsite.) It appears that the old adage about not calling the question before counting the votes was ignored in that episode.
Is the Regents non-action on the Yudof proposal the result of a lack of confidence in the President of UC? Until now, the Regents pretty much endorsed presidential proposals for tuition hikes. In any event, what needs to happen is not implementation of some ad hoc suggestion such as that made by the LA Times. Rather there needs to be a process involving UC (not just UCOP but the faculty and Academic Senate), the Regents, the governor, key people in the legislature, various interest groups in the state, and others that is aimed at looking at the budget outlook and negotiating an accord. The Regents are evidently tired of being in a reactive mode in which the state cuts the budget and tuition is hiked in response – with the Regents then getting the blame.
The full LA Times editorial is at http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-uc-20111009,0,5898256.story
You may have noticed in yesterday’s LA Times or other papers that CSU Chancellor Reed said he will NOT ask for a multi-year plan involving scheduled tuition increases:
California State University will not seek a second tuition increase this academic year even if it suffers a further $100-million cut in state funding, the system's chief executive said Wednesday. Chancellor Charles B. Reed, addressing trustees who were meeting in Long Beach, also rejected adopting a multi-year budget that would incorporate annual tuition increases. Some higher education leaders argue that such a move, though controversial, would provide stability and help campus leaders, students and parents better manage education costs…
Reed downplayed the prudence of the multi-year approach, arguing that the current budget volatility made it "too difficult to plan in this environment."
Full story at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-calstate-trustees-20110922,0,4287564.story
The article also contrasted the Reed approach with the Yudof approach. As readers of this blog will know, UC President Yudof presented a multi-year tuition increase plan at the September Regents meetings – apparently assuming that the Regents would adopt it. They didn’t. (Preliminary audio of some of the September Regents meeting is on this blog; we will post the entire meeting when we get the recordings from the Regents.)
There is an old political adage about not calling the question unless you have counted the votes. Up to now, President Yudof’s recommendations on budgets, tuition, etc., have been pretty much rubber stamped by the Regents, although some dissents have been heard from a minority. CSU’s Reed seems to have learned something from the UC-Yudof-Regents episode. There may be consequences down the road if there is now a gap between the UC President and the Regents.
Sometimes, going out too far and too fast leads to unforeseen results:
Maybe next time, UCOP might try to put the Regents meeting at the above location rather than at UC-SF. See below:Nanette Asimov, San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 16, 2011
San Francisco -- The University of California regents dodged a controversy Thursday by ignoring a proposal from UC President Mark Yudof that would have mandated annual tuition increases of 8 to 16 percent for the next four years. Instead, the regents turned their meeting at UCSF's Mission Bay campus into a therapy session of sorts, gnashing their teeth about the steep drop in state funding - nearly $1 billion in the last two years - and debating whether they could get California corporations to kick in millions of dollars to UC. The regents also approved raises and incentive plans for 18 executives, with funding for all but one coming from private sources, such as hospital revenue.
…Negotiating with Sacramento is "a waste of our time," said Regent Dick Blum. Instead, the regents should approach people "who actually can write a check," he said. "Chevron, Apple, Cisco and Google - all these companies sitting on money they don't know what to do with." Regent David Crane picked up on the theme, urging colleagues to "start acting like you're a private university. Get real - and don't fool yourselves and think the Legislature will turn around, or you'll be waiting for Godot," he said, referring to the Samuel Beckett play in which the protagonists wait in vain.
…Chairwoman Sherry Lansing suggested they form subcommittees to tackle each approach. The bottom line, she said, is, "I don't want to bring this (proposal) forward in November." Later, UC Executive Vice President Nathan Brostrom, who helped craft the plan, said the idea (of tuition increases) was not quite dead…
Full article at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2011/09/16/MNGI1L4J52.DTL
We will eventually have an audio of this meeting posted. We do have a recording of the script that was supposed to have been followed:
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