Davis v. The Students

Sam Soleta
Blog 3
ASA 02 03
October 4th, 2015

When it comes to the Occupy Movement, the University of California has definitely shown its part with their activism across many campuses. Markow’s “A Tale of Two Campuses” describes the stark contrast between UC Davis and Berkeley’s relationships with the students. The Occupy movement was a response to the social and especially economic inequality between the general public and the “1%.” One of the most notable events of the Occupy Movement occurred at UC Davis with the pepper spraying of students peacefully protesting in the main quad. Likewise, students at both Davis and Berkeley occupied campus spaces.

The stark contrast comes in the way both universities had handled the situation. The answer was changing tuition so that middle class families would only have to pay 15% of their annual income. This plan called the MCap, was announced for all UC schools but definitely showed its origin in Berkeley - showing their response to student upset. For Davis, however, the university focused on the rather negative sides of the movement; in a sense criminalizing the protestors. Overall, the contrast between Davis and Berkeley shows the individual intentions of each administration.

Question: What kind of problems have been revealed about the UC Davis administration through their response against Occupy protestors?