Why the UC protests are justified

Posted December 4th, 2009. Categorized under California. 16 Comments

Things have been a bit slow lately regarding the UC protests, which worries me.

However I did come across this interesting article from Global.org, which puts some nice graphs to the situation to show why students are so upset over the 32% increase.

To summarize, the cut from state funding accounts for only about 3% of the UC’s total budget, which is less than the salaries for the highest paid UC employees.

The article goes on to elaborate on many of the problems of the UC system currently, and why the regents are taking the actions that they have. If you have the time, give it a read — you’ll learn a lot.

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16 Replies to “Why the UC protests are justified”

Comments:

1. John from Curious Cat Investing Blog

December 5th, 2009 10:29 am

I think there is a systemic problem with managing universities. The universities are spending huge amounts of money on what seem like trophies that add little to learning. You need good professors. But other than that much of the spending seems to be more about the ego of those who spend the money than improving education. And then because schools keep spending huge amounts of money they need to raise tuition. I don’t see good reasons for college tuition to have risen as it has over the last few decades. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/education/21college.html

2. Paul

December 6th, 2009 3:38 pm

@John: Exactly. It’s like universities are forgetting why they exist in the first place. I understand the research that comes out of a university can be very important, but surely there’s a better way to compromise than simply price gouging the students.

3. daniel from mini laptops

December 7th, 2009 8:42 am

@Paul: You are right about the universities first priorities. Today every thing is becoming business. Not to leave the education industry. This worries me a lot. Education must be backbone of a nation that drives the country. But they have been too looked as business :(

4. Ron from Scholarships

December 9th, 2009 9:05 am

So, from his perspective, instruction is a losing proposition, and the university should just try to get out of the business of basically teaching students and hiring faculty.

This line from the Global.org article pretty much sums it up. The University is the regents “business” and education comes a distant second or maybe third? When investment overcomes education then it is time for some FED interference and start holding the universities accountable to edu standards.

5. mark from the coffee bump

December 10th, 2009 1:52 pm

It would only make sense that students are so upset about a 32% increase! I checked out the link to the article you posted, and it makes me wonder if more universities all over the US are doing the same thing to their students.

6. Minda

December 13th, 2009 8:20 am

If they would have spend more wisely I thing that this problem it wouldn’t existed.

7. Paul

December 14th, 2009 1:50 pm

@Mark: I’m actually not too sure if other universities are having similar problems. I know that a lot of other states besides California are in fiscal troubles now, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see more public universities in the same boat. The UC system gets a lot of attention because, system-wide, it’s always been regarded as a great example of quality cheap higher education. I’d imagine private universities aren’t having nearly the same troubles that public ones are :/

8. Paul

December 14th, 2009 1:52 pm

@Ron: I completely agree. The public needs to take the university back.

9. Suzanne Klamentz from Oil Painting, Australia

December 14th, 2009 9:12 pm

It’s like universities are forgetting why they exist in the first place. I understand the research that comes out of a university can be very important, but surely there’s a better way to compromise than simply price gouging the students.

10. Charles from Las Vegas Homes

December 15th, 2009 9:36 pm

Funny how they don’t think about cutting back on the highest paid administrators salaries first…..which would have made up the budget loss. I wonder what they spend on athletic programs….

11. mimar

December 16th, 2009 4:16 am

I checked out the link to the article you posted, and it makes me wonder if more universities all over the US are doing the same thing to their students.

12. Paul

December 16th, 2009 11:45 am

@Charles: I agree, and in fact one of the biggest chants of the protests has been, “Chop from the top!”. Athletic programs can be a lot as well, but those have taken cuts as well. At UCSC we lost several sports completely. I don’t like cutting anything, and I think athletics can bring a lot to a university, but I understand there’s a time when something needs to go. But it should be much more of a last resort than it is.

13. Chris Mladenovski from Christmas Wine Gifts

December 19th, 2009 5:44 am

Here is where you should define the words: civil disobedience and justified, and set up a strict standard for the what is civil disobedience and what isn’t and what is justifiable and what isn’t justifiable. Make it clear where to draw the line between civil disobedience and civil obedience and between justifiable and non-justifiable. These lines should be clearly distinguishable. For example if I was to bring up another protest, I should be able to easily fit them into a category of either justifiable or non-justifiable and civil disobedience or civil obedience based upon your guideline.

14. Reza

December 21st, 2009 2:32 pm

Are all universities over the US doing the same thing to their students?

15. Mark Daniel from Abs Workout

December 30th, 2009 6:03 am

About 30 to 50 protesters staged a takeover of Campbell Hall at UCLA on Thursday, as regents met across campus to approve the fee hike. More than 50 students were arrested during protests at UC Davis.

16. John Jeracevich

December 30th, 2009 6:03 am

yeah The occupiers were demanding the university rehire laid-off custodial workers and give amnesty to anyone arrested in the protest