Public comments were heard in rotation from each site — but heard only. There was an audio connection but no video. Students couldn’t see most of the people they were addressing — indeed, had no way of knowing if anyone outside the immediate room was seriously listening to them and not rolling their eyes, checking email or whispering among themselves. It was a recipe for frustration, and predictably, it all boiled over. Angry students shut down the meeting. In the attempt to calm things, the regents had managed to increase the tensions. After a break, it got worse. At three of the venues, the session was moved to smaller rooms. At UCSF, there was little room for the public beyond the press. We cannot recall another state agency holding a public meeting by teleconference… Perhaps we’re old-fashioned, but we still believe that in adversarial situations, it’s important to be able to look people in the eye when talking with or listening to them. It shows respect and fosters better communication. And at a public meeting, all members of the public should be able to not only listen to board members but also see them. All of them.
Read full article [here].
by Mercury News Editorial, The San Jose Mercury News.
Posted: November 28th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Depressingly, few of us working at the University of California were surprised by the fact that demonstrating students would be treated with violence. As Officer Pike calmly went about his task, a squad of his colleagues stood passive, affirming that it was business as usual. UC Davis’s Chancellor and its Police Chief both reacted as if this were an unpleasant routine, until it became a news item. The University of California’s leaders have been a waging war on students for years. This scene is repeated with increasing force directed at protesters who have sought ever more dramatic ways of demonstrating that they are angry – but not violent. Shouting? Too violent. Standing? Violent. Sitting down and chanting? Still violent. Finally, our students are on the floor with their mouths shut. We have also witnessed Orwellian twists in the system’s efforts to quash dissent. When demonstrating students aren’t bludgeoned and sprayed, they are marked with antiquated labels like “disrespectful,” “intolerant” and “uncivil” in a prelude to “discipline” and disenfranchisement.
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by Jennifer Doyle, The Nation.
Posted: November 28th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Occupy UC Davis protesters are vowing to stay at the camp through the long holiday weekend, with the help of tents donated to the cause in response to an appeal on Facebook… Last week, UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi had ordered tents at the site to come down, leading to Friday’s confrontation. But university Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter said Wednesday that police were acting against orders when they used pepper spray on students. Hexter said he had been in high-level discussions about the Davis encampment before police moved in, and “the chancellor and I and others in those discussions made it very clear that we wanted this to go forward peaceably. “We definitely did not want a repeat of Berkeley, where batons were used,” Hexter said. “We also discussed quite openly that, if the numbers were too large and the police chief felt that her force could not handle it peacefully, they were to disengage.”
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by Shelby Grad, The Los Angeles Times.
Posted: November 24th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
The agency best suited to lead the discussion on California higher education is now closed, its knowledgeable staff scattered, the fate of its databases and remaining responsibilities unresolved. Funding for the California Postsecondary Education Commission, formerly charged with coordinating the state’s higher education system, was vetoed earlier this year for what the administration described as its ineffectiveness. It closed it’s door Nov. 18, saving the state an estimated $1.9 million. But in fact, the agency had played an important role as the only independent body looking at statewide needs across the tiers of higher education. And, perhaps even more crucially, CPEC collected, linked, and refined years of student data from each system, a critical tool for assessing the state’s educational needs. All gone, with the stroke of a blue pencil.
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by Alisen Boada, Capitol Weekly.
Posted: November 23rd, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
More than a decade before last week’s videotaped incident at UC Davis, a federal appeals court ruled in the case of North Coast logging protesters that officers can legally use the caustic chemical only to prevent harm to themselves or someone else. The California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, which advises police agencies and officers statewide, says pepper spray “can have very serious and debilitating consequences,” and “should only be generally used as a defensive weapon” and never to intimidate or retaliate… Pepper spray violates constitutional standards when it’s “used as a chemical cattle prod on nonviolent protesters,” said Margaret Crosby, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who took part in the Humboldt case. But Walnut Creek attorney Harry Stern, who has represented police officers, said pepper spray represents “a very, very low use of force” that may be justified when officers face resistance.
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by Bob Egelko, The San Francisco Chronicle.
Posted: November 23rd, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Saying he’s appalled by the images he’s seen of campus police force used on student protesters at Davis and Berkeley, the head of the University of California system announced Sunday he’s begun an “urgent assessment” of officers’ actions. President Mark G. Yudof’s statement came in response to videos posted on the Internet Friday showing a Davis officer pepper-spraying Occupy UC Davis protesters in the face as they sat passively on the ground with arms linked, and earlier images of Berkeley officers jabbing protesters with nightsticks. UC Davis officials announced Sunday that two officers involved in the Friday pepper spray incident have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation. Yudof said he will convene all 10 system chancellors to discuss the issue, and will engage experts to conduct a review of campus procedures.
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by Tony Bizjak, The Sacramento Bee.
Posted: November 20th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Video surfaced online Saturday showing an officer at a California university calmly pepper-spraying a line of several sitting protesters, who flinch and cover their faces but remain passive with their arms interlocked as onlookers shriek and scream out for the officer to stop…. The UC Davis video images, which were circulated on YouTube and widely online, prompted immediate outrage among faculty and students, with the Davis Faculty Association saying in a letter Saturday that Katehi should resign. “The Chancellor’s role is to enable open and free inquiry, not to suppress it,” the faculty association said in its letter. It called Katehi’s authorization of police force a “gross failure of leadership.”
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by Staff, USA Today.
Posted: November 19th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . 1 Comment.
In his book The Price of Civilization, Jeffrey Sachs argues that the cost of making all public higher education free in America would be between fifteen and thirty billion dollars. While this may sound like a large sum, it could actually save money. First of all, the government is currently spending billions of dollars on for-profit schools and other colleges and universities that have very low graduation rates… Currently, only 30% of Americans who start college or university end up graduating, and this represents a huge waste of time and money. If students did not have to work while in school, the graduation rate would improve drastically, and students at universities could graduate in four years instead of six or more years. In fact, the biggest reason why students drop out of higher education is that they cannot afford the high cost of tuition. Not only is higher education seen as a key to economic advancement, but if all 18-24 year olds were in college, we would reduce the unemployment rate by 2 million people, and fewer people would be in need of governmental assistance… While the US has a free K-12 public education, its failure to fund higher education means that America’s economy is unable to compete with other developed nations that have free universities. Furthermore, by removing the need for students to go into debt, the government would allow graduates to be more productive, and they would have more money to spend, which in turn would act as a stimulus for the economy.
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by Bob Samuels, The Huffington Post.
Posted: November 18th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that California State University should vote again on a tuition increase or risk questions about its legitimacy, after school trustees endorsed the 9 percent jump behind closed doors… The tuition increase, bitterly opposed by students, was endorsed after a chaotic meeting Wednesday in Long Beach in which demonstrators battled with police, shattering a glass door and sending an officer to the hospital with cuts. Trustees retreated from an auditorium to a smaller, closed room, where the university’s attorney assured members the session complied with state open-meeting laws. Those rules say the media “shall be allowed to attend,” but reporters and television crews in a hallway weren’t told the meeting resumed and didn’t learn until afterward that a vote was taken.
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by Michael R. Blood, The San Jose Mercury News.
Posted: November 17th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
The new survey from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California finds a whopping 74% of respondents, across all political persuasions, believe that not enough is now being spent on higher education… But what’s especially puzzling about this survey is how many of those polled say the community college, CSU, and UC systems are a “high” or “very high” priority — 70% — but how few would pay additional dollars to maintain even current funding. So how should state lawmakers maintain current funding or even increase it to the levels of a few years ago? Increase student fees? 69% say no. Admit more out-of-state students who pay higher tuition? 52% say yes… unless it means fewer slots for in-state kids, in which case only 20% say yes. Only finding money for higher ed construction projects through selling bonds (borrowing) finds majority support, with 58% of those polled approving. Critics of additional taxes will no doubt say that there are other places in the state budget to save money and redirect it to higher education; even Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger pretty much solidified that notion in his 2010 trial balloon idea to link higher ed and prison spending.
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by John Myers, KQED News.
Posted: November 16th, 2011, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.
