Day 81

I wrote most of this early in the morning yesterday, but the day was cut short for my department, and undoubtedly, many on campus. At about 10:30 or so, with the occupation and protests at Wheeler Hall fully underway, the fire alarm in my building sounded, and we all evacuated the building. A colleague and I joked that "Smith Hall" was officially going on strike and kicking us all out. The fire department came, they checked the building, shut off the alarm and let us back in. About ten minutes later, the same thing happened. Then again. And again. And again. Each time we left the building, we learned more about what was taking place elsewhere on campus, and that protesters were pulling fire alarms in most of the other major buildings on campus and the whole of Berkeley's daily operations were completely disrupted. We could see the alarm lights flashing through the windows of the building next to ours. I answered exactly three emails at work yesterday, and that was pretty much all I accomplished between each evacuation before my boss decided she'd had enough, and told us all to go home sometime around noon. I think the chaos on campus Friday answered my question about what the groups meant by "escalate" on their strike posters. Now, onto my thoughts from yesterday...

On my way into work this morning, I heard on the news that students at UC Berkeley had successfully occupied Wheeler Hall, one of our classroom and office buildings. I started clapping right there in my car (then quickly reminded myself that my hands belonged on the wheel). From what I understand, building occupations are also taking place at the Santa Cruz, Davis, and LA campuses, and maybe others as well. The Berkeley student interviewed on the radio said that students at other colleges and universities around the country and the world are also holding protests in solidarity. The news is on the homepages of the New York Times and CNN (top headline news on all sites seems to be that Oprah has canceled her show. Priorities, America), but strangely enough, not on the LA Times where the Regents meeting is actually taking place. The New York Times headline blurb says, "A Crown Jewel of Education Struggles With Cuts: Students and faculty worry that deep budget cuts are pushing the University of California into decline."

I wandered over to Wheeler with my camera and found police tape and officers surrounding the building, with a group of students and workers in a picket line along one side of the building. A student with a bullhorn and a kerchief hiding his face addressed the crowd from a window on the second floor of the building and called this protest just the beginning. A student handed me a flier of information with subheadings like, "Regents Declare War on Students, Faculty, &Workers," "Police Intimidation & Repression Shuts Down Free Speech," and "The Struggle Continues!" According to the flier, students are planning to rally at noon outside California Hall, home of the Chancellor's Office. A co-worker reported mild irritation this morning when she was walking across campus to our building, but had to backtrack and take a different route because the picketers wouldn't let her through. My boss, a Cal alum and Bay Area native, greeted me this morning wearing a yellow sweater and a blue and gold striped scarf around her neck.

While thinking about the cuts and Yudoff's response to them, I felt dismayed by the fact that in everything he says about the situation, he blames the state. Of course, out of the other side of his mouth, he says he fully supports the Governor and understands that the legislature has no money to give us even if they wanted to (despite the fact that he has just asked them for a $900 million or so increase in state funding next year). The state is an "unreliable partner" I keep hearing. Our hands are tied, we have no choice, blame the state, BLAME THE STATE! Now don't get me wrong. I blame the state, too. But isn't it a little whiny and childish to never take any of the blame or responsibility ourselves? Yes, I understand that our endowment income has dropped, state funds have dropped, and we will likely lose the crutch we have for this year with federal stimulus money. I don't have the answer, but shouldn't our leader?  If he's trying to step in solidarity with the student body and their tuition-paying parents by pointing the finger at Sacramento and taking the heat off himself, it's not working.

My other new favorite financial crisis on campus is the issue of post-retirement benefits. As I've mentioned before, nobody was paying into the UC pension fund for 20 years because it was 100% funded. Now, everyone is panicking because the fund is expected to drop by 60% or so next year, and we suddenly won't be able to afford retirement benefits for anyone. Employees and the university are going to have to start dumping money like mad to keep the program afloat, and the university is scrambling to revamp the program so it won't go under. Way to plan for a rainy day, guys.