Response 4

Peggy Li

Week 4: Response to “Fighting Privatization, Occupy Activists at CUNY and UC Kick Into High Gear”

So apparently some members of the governing board of the UC system in private companies like banks and investment firms, and the UC system is basically treated as a business, with no mind to the public it's supposed to serve. Need to cut costs? Just hire more entry level professors, don't pay the TA's well, and maybe raise tuition a bit. And then there's regents owning companies that the UC invests millions of public funds into? That is super suspicious.

And some responses to student protests are just ridiculous. The public hearing with administrators about problems at CUNY was just a farce to appease the media, making it look like administrators were trying to cooperate. And the police brutality used at that public hearing, and at UC Davis is disgusting. Non-violent protesting is peaceful protesting, so what on earth justified the police's actions? How does holding a meeting in a lobby, or forming a human chain justify violence? There are better ways to deal with situations like those: Maybe actually listening to the students, or simply just pulling people away (although that still violates our right to peacefully assemble).

How do we balance cost and quality of education, on the apparently stingy budget we're on? And where can we check the UC's balance books?