Section A01
Response #4: "A Tale of Two Campuses"
The Occupy Movement to me didn't happen so long ago. I remember when this movement happened, I was still in high school learning about it in my AP Government class, and debating whether we really are the 1%. It was a blur to me, because at that time, I didn't really understand too much about it. I did understand though that our nation has become very polarized, and that our distribution of wealth has deviated away from the traditional lower, middle, and upper class, to something that somewhat resembles Brazil, where it is either one or the other: rich or poor. Hence, the Occupy Movement was a relatively recent movement that protested against these financial inequalities, particularly against the rising tuition that students have to pay for our secondary public school systems, primarily within the UC system.
Reading this article surprised me greatly. It actually made me a bit mad and disappointed at UC Davis, because I used to think that Davis is a very relaxed, welcoming, and liberal college campus. But the way that UC Davis reacted to the Occupy Movement in comparison to UC Berkeley was just a shame. It's disappointing, because I know from personal experience that it's not the students that are bad, but it's the Chancellor and her reaction to the movement. The media also plays a huge part in this too, making UC Davis as a whole look bad, when in reality, that isn't entirely the case. It also doesn't help the fact that the Chancellor reacted poorly to the previous "Pepper Spray Incident" at UC Davis. When will the students get their representation and their rights? It is the students that make up the University. Why are we so reluctant to change? Why is the faculty reluctant to these Progressive changes, compared to UC Berkeley? I'm glad that the MCap program was instilled, but we still face economic strife, and more importantly, under representation for the students.
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