This afternoon, over 100 members of a coalition in defense of Ethnic Studies gathered at Sather Gate against the impending consolidation of their departments as part of Operational Excellence. OE, it should be noted, has now been exported to UCSB, UCSF, UC Davis, and UCLA. We now have “Organizational Excellence,” “Operational Efficiency,” and God knows how many other variants. If Berkeley shelled out a cool $7 million to Bain, UCLA is using Huron, Davis ScottMadden Management, and Santa Barbara an “individual consultant.” Against this affront to Ethnic Studies under the guise of austerity, the 100-200 students and their faculty allies marched to California Hall after announcing the inauguration of a hunger strike. Eight students are now on hunger strike and stationed in front of California Hall. They have declared their intention of staying the night, so please come out and show your support!
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Con Uds. siempre. Suerte, fuerza, y victoria.
A little difficult to understand the whole context for people not familiar with the situation at the University of California.
But of course also at UC you are struggling against symptoms of the currently dominating economic system, just like we do around the world.
That’s why it is so important to also connect globally to counter these developments.
Check out the International Student Movement (http://ism-global.net) to exchange information, network and make coordinations with groups/activists worldwide.
Currently the Spring of Resistance (SoR) is being coordinated: http://ism-global.net/SoR_2011
Maybe activists struggling to save social sciences want to consider to have their activities communicated in the context of the SoR.
Contact united.for.education@gmail.com
in solidarity from marburg (germany) ~
OE, Operational Excellence, sponsored by UC Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau just another example of bleeding the public. Cal. Chancellor’s gross over spending, waste, abuse & inept decisions: recruits (using California tax $) out of state $50,000 tuition students that displace qualified Californians; spends $3,000,000 for consultants to do his & many vice chancellors jobs (prominent East Coast university accomplishing same at 0 cost); pays ex Michigan governor $300,000 for lectures; Latino enrollment drops while out of state jumps 2010; tuition to Return on Investment (ROI) drops below top 10; NCAA places basketball program on probation.
Cal. and Californians have been badly damaged by Chancellor Birgeneau. Good people are loosing their jobs. Cal’s leadership is either incompetent or culpable. Merely cutting out inefficiencies does not have the effect desired. But you never want a crisis to go to waste.
Increasing Cal’s budget is not enough; honorably retire Cal Chancellor Birgeneau ($500,000 salary)
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