UC campuses and Occupy Movements

In response to, “ A Tale of Two Campuses: Berkeley and Davis respond to Occupy Movements.”

This article compares how the University of California Davis and Berkeley responded to Occupy Movements in 2011. Occupy Movements are those seeking to promote equality. In this particular instance, the Occupy Movements were protesting a tuition hike that would affect all students. When responding to the movements, the Davis and Berkeley administrations were on opposite ends of the spectrum. Davis responded by blaming the students for money damages and the overtime necessary in order to clean the mess created while Berkeley announced the Middle Class Access plan. This plan was specifically designed to aid those of the middle class background.

When reading this article, I was shocked to find how differently both schools handled the situation. When thinking about how each school handled the situation, I was not too surprised with Berkeley because of their rich history with protests and activism. It makes sense to me that they were more apt to announce the Middle Class Access plan in order to satiate their protesting community. However, I am still quite confused with how Davis reacted because they could have alluded to the access plan instead of blatantly blaming students for damages.

Questions: Why do you think Davis responded to the Occupy Movements the way they did? Are Occupy Movements truly effective since the Mcap was already in progress? Why didn’t UC Davis also announce the Mcap?

Aaron Handa

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