It was under this Board of Regents that the funds marked to secure the future of higher education were placed under the management of Wall Street brokers who gambled it away on sub-prime loans and other criminal schemes.

The State and Federal governments, which wasted no time to ball out the bankers, are now mandating cuts to education. Regents voted to raise students fees 32% today. The yearly cost for a UC student is now over $10,000 a year, three times what it was ten years ago. Without financial aid or student loans many students now in the UC System will simply not be able to afford to finish their degree.

UC staff have already been hit with pay cuts, work furlough days and layoffs. More cuts and layoffs could come next year. Students in coordination with campus workers are now mobilizing for a second round of mass actions early next year in March.

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There are reports of tasers used on students during the week by UCPD

Students were prepared to stand down if only the regents came out to speak to them. This stand off lasted about 30 mins. Police order to disperse was given twice and it looked as if police were about start making arrests when the regents were suddenly escorted out of the van by police and into a nearby building. Many students were pushed and clubbed by police less than two mins after this photo was taken. Video of incident to follow soon.

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Someone was telling me that a lot of the fee increase would go toward funding financial aid (so they say). The increases would hit families earning over 100k per year. Is this corrent?

One thing I noticed is that they want to have a program of full funding for families earning less than 70k per year.

That is what's happening at private universities -- the financial aid need is so huge that families earning less than 60k get a full ride. The issue, of course, is qualifying to get into the college, which is difficult.

The economic situation for the working class and lower-middle class has gone to shit over the last 20 years. 20 years ago, UC fees were around $3k per year, up from around $200 (!!!) several years earlier. Anyway, at the time, the minimum wage was around $4.50.

Today, the minimum wage is $8. The new cost of UC is around $11,000.

So, the MW has gone up by around 90%, but UC fees have gone up over 300%, if you ignore that fees were under $200 in the early 80s.

The problem is largely a lack of funding for UC, but the larger problem is that the number of poor people has increased, while the middle class is vanishing, and/or the rich aren't being taxed enough.

The long term plan of the State and the Regents is clear - they want to privatize the UC system, if not in fact, then in form.

This plan has been underway since the 1980s, but was probably hatched earlier. I would not be surprised if it was Governor Ronald Reagan who decided to smash the UC system after teargassing students in the early 1960s.

The message is clear: the State of California doesn't give a shit about education. Not in K-12, not in college. The state only cares about business interests, and bankers who like to hand out government backed student loans. It's a dirty scheme between business and finance to get rich on the backs of the intelligent and well-read.

http://daviswiki.org/UC_Council_on_Student_Fees

Drawing from Jeffrey Bergamini’s excellent salary data (http://ucpay.globl.org/), we find the following:

In 2006, there were 2,464 employees earning over $200,000 with a total gross pay of $680 million and a total base pay of $331 million. By 2008, we find 3,643 employees earning over $200,000 with a total gross pay of 1 billion and base pay of $640 million. This means that in 2 years, the UC added 1,200 employees to the over $200,000 club, and these increases cost over $300 million. Also, if you look at the difference between gross pay and base pay, you will see that a lot of these people will only have part of their salaries reduced by the furlough plan.

Looking up the salary scale, the story of the UC transferring wealth from the poorest employees to the wealthiest becomes clearer. In 2006, there were 609 employees making over $300,000 with a total gross pay of $240 million and a base pay of $87 million. Then, two years later, in 2008, there were 977 employees making over $300,000 with a total gross pay of $390 million and base pay of $195 million. Once again, this group of high earners increases by 30%, and if these increases were not made, we would have roughly all of the money that the furlough plan will save.

Now let’s look at some of the highest earners. In 2006, there were 190 individuals making over $400,00 with a total gross pay of 98 million and a total base pay of 28 million. Then, in 2008, there were 293 high earners making over $400,000 with a total gross pay of $160 million and total base pay of $67 million. Once again, the top group increases by about 30% and the increase in gross pay is almost doubled. We should remember that during this period, many of the lowest paid workers received no salary increases, and so the main story here is that the poorest workers subsidize the wealth of the richest employees.

Bob Samuels, UC-AFT

The UC needs to get back to its principles -- to educate the top 12% of highschool grads, without regard for financial ability to pay. The administrators need to take a pay cut -- the top feeders act like they're CEOs at Goldman Sachs.

When times are tough and the economy is shrunk, the best thing for the people to do is go to school. The best thing for the state is to fund education even more than in the good times.

A fascinating bit of propaganda! A great bit of situ-inspired rant and strategy about occupying buildings.