GSOC Curriculum—Winter 2010

Teach-In Notes
(A lot of detail is included here in order to give teachers the flexibility to read their audiences
and emphasize the points they think are most relevant. Key points are in bold.)

Intro: We’re here to:

- provide some information on how the budget cuts and privatization are affecting
your experience at UCSC
- explain how the university is being restructured and describe the different
perspectives on privatizing the university.
- talk a little about the protests that happened last quarter and what students are
already doing to protect their education

Section I: How Budget Cuts are Affecting Students Now

- Tuition Increases
o You probably already know that the Regents voted to increase your tuition
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by 32% on November 19 .
o But you might not know that this was in addition to a 9% increase passed
last May.
o You may be fortunate enough to have the resources to cover these increases.
However, even if you can afford to pay over $10,000 per year for school, you
should know that you’’ll be getting less for your money.

· More Limited Admissions

o In the 2009-2010 school year, the UC admitted 1,477 fewer freshmen
than it did the year before.[1]
o UC’s Office of the President is proposing a plan to cut UC enrollments by
8-10,000 over the next few years.[2]
o The UC is also reserving more spots for out-of-state students who can
afford to pay about $30,000 per year in tuition.
§ Next fall UC Berkeley will increase the percentage of non-
resident freshmen from 14% to as much as 23 % of the incoming class
of 2010-11.[3]
§ This also means that 600 Californians eligible for admission to UC
Berkeley next year will not get in.[4]

- Declining Accessibility.
o According to a study released in early January 2010, UC Berkeley ranks
among the lowest in the nation in terms of enrollment rates of
underrepresented minorities.[5]
 o Rising Student Debt. Average student loan debt rose nearly 20% in the first
st
5 years of the 21 century; for students of color, the increase has been between 80
and 100%.[6]
o As fees go up, students of color and low-income students are increasingly
unable to pay for a UC education, thus creating an elite educated class of white
upper middle-class students.[7] Optional: Short film trailer about student loan
default (http://vimeo.com/2618035).

· Declines in Quality
o Increased class sizes mean less individual attention from professors and
TAs.[8]
o Fewer classes are being offered each quarter. This winter UCSC cut course
offerings by 11%, the highest drop of all the UC campuses,[9] making it
increasingly difficult to for students to get the classes they need to graduate on
time.[10]
o Fewer resources for students.
§ Departments and programs across campus that emphasize
community and accessibility have seen their budgets slashed.[11] Such
as:
· the Community Studies department,
· the Chicano and Latino Resources Center,
· The Equal Opportunity Programs Office, among other
programs.
§ Library hours have been drastically cut by more than 20 hours
per week. (In 2007-08, the library was open 7 days a week, and weekday
hours were 8am to midnight. This year, the library is open from 10-10 on
weekdays and closed on Saturdays.)
o Fewer Choices. Many majors are in threat of disappearing.
§ The Humanities Division is considering major cuts to the language
program that would get rid of Portuguese, Russian, Hebrew and Hindi,
as well as replace instructors with decades of experience teaching
language with inexperienced graduate students.
o Faculty Flight. The UC will continue to lose its best faculty as it is unable
to offer competitive salaries or a supportive working environment. Others are laid
off.
o Effects at UCSC: The cuts are being distributed unevenly. The brunt of the
burden is being born by Humanities and Social Sciences Divisions. While so far
only 3 faculty positions were lost in Science and Engineering, 40 faculty
positions have been cut from Humanities and Social Sciences.
Q: But isn’’t this just the result of bad economy? Isn’’t this just a temporary situation?
A: The changes we are seeing now are the result of decisions made in 2004 to dramatically
restructure the university through a process known as privatization.
Privatization involves the transfer of a government service or responsibility to the private
sector. In the case of the UC, this has meant a plant to force private individuals to shoulder more
of the cost of higher education and to solicit more corporate sponsorship.

Section II: The Story of Privatization

- In 2004, years before the current economic crisis, Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger met with then UC President Bob Dynes, and his counterpart at CSU,
Charles Reed, and pressured them to sign the 2004 “Higher Education Compact.””[12]
- With this compact, 3 key individuals— —without any public debate— —decided to
fundamentally change the model for supporting higher education in California.
- The compact abandoned the view of higher education as a public good and
redefined it as a private good. The plan said that the UC would begin to shift the
financial burden onto students through higher tuition, and to begin to look for
private sources of funding, such as corporate donations and grants.
- The changes that we are seeing today in the quality of education and the priorities
of the state and the UC administration are a result of this shift in thinking and
commitments that were made six years ago.
- Since you, the students, are most directly affected by this change, it’s important
you understand the perspectives and the debate.

Privatization vs. Public Good: Two Perspectives.

The Argument for Privatization:

- The argument for privatization comes out of neoliberal ideology, which argues
that markets are best at creating efficiencies.
- Supporters of privatization say that government bureaucracy is inefficient and
expensive, and that when government services are privatized, they are forced to
compete and thus become more efficient.
- Second, since individuals with a college degree on average are able to attain
higher incomes than high school graduates, students and their parents should
assume more of that financial burden.
- Finally, since corporations benefit from research innovations and from having
well-trained employees, they should pay directly for these services and should have
a larger influence on the university.

Public Good: The Critique of Privatization

Privatization does not equal Efficiency
- Critics of privatization argue that it is the UC’’s undemocratic structure that
produces inefficiencies.
 - Though the UC is said to be a public university, the Board of Regents, which
oversees the UC’’s $18 billion-dollar budget, consists of mostly unelected and
unaccountable political appointees.
- Each appointment is supposed to be vetted by a Senate Advisory Committee
representing the interests of voters. The Governor has appointed 9 Regents since
2004 and the advisory committee has not met once in that time.[13]
- According to Professor Stanton Glantz, the UC is wasting $600 million a year on
a growing management bureaucracy that is not directly involved in teaching or
research, the core functions of a university.[14]
- Between 1994 and 2009, the ratio of senior management to faculty jumped
from 2/5 to 1/1.[15]
- Finally, as in the corporate world, executive compensation seems to be a
priority for the Regents: On the same day that UC regents cut $813 million from UC
budgets (July 2009), which led to pay cuts for those earning under $40,000, they
gave pay and stipend raises to over two dozen executives. Many of these executives
earn from $250,000 to more than $500,000 a year.[16]
- Even as the UC Regents have increased tuition by a total of 40% over the last three
quarters, they have continued at every meeting to approve millions of dollars in merit
bonuses for top-earning executives.[17]

Public Benefit
- Critics of privatization argue that higher education benefits the community as a
whole.
o University educational attainment is highly correlated with the income of
everyone in a state. More educated workers means faster economic growth and
more high-paying, knowledge-based job.
o When fewer people have access to higher education, the whole
community suffers.
- They point to California’’s history of affordable higher education and economic
growth:
o In 1960, the Master Plan for Higher Education in California set public
education as a public priority, a central role of the government.
o It promised every California student an affordable (initially free) seat at
an appropriate institution of higher education.[18]
o Under this plan, California built one of the finest institutions of higher
learning in the world.
o In the years since then, the UC system has contributed to making
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California the 8 largest economy in the world and the largest in America; to
helping establish Silicon Valley and the entertainment industry; and to making
California the leading agriculture state.[19]
 o Higher education in California created one of the most skilled and highly
productive populations in history, the inventors of new technologies, popular
arts, and entire industries that make California one of the most prosperous and
equitable economies in the world. (NOTE: Choose from the following facts
according to your audience.):
§ UC faculty and alumni have founded 1 out of every 4 biotech
companies in California.
§ Nearly 60% of the state’’s IT and communications firms have UC
alumni as executives.
§ For the past 12 years, UC has developed more patents than any
other university in the nation—and its researchers produce on average
three new inventions a day.
§ UC is working with K-12 schools across the state to improve student
achievement and is spearheading “Cal Teach,” which will train 1,000 new
math and science teachers annually for public schools statewide.
- They note that privatization reduces the quality and scope of research.
o Under privatization, research and teaching would be shaped by special
interests looking for a direct return on their investments.
o This would mean devaluation of basic research in favor of applied research,
increasing inequality in resources between different departments,
o This may also mean different tuition cost for different majors and cutting or
closing of departments deemed to not have sufficient “market value,”” such as
ethnic studies, history of consciousness, and even large cuts in departments we
think of as central to the university, such as literature, history, and
languages.
o Privatization means that business and corporations that sponsor departments
influence what is researched and studied in the university. For example, Harvard
Medical school is supported by big pharmaceutical companies and now has 3
professors researching sleep disorders. At the same time, no Harvard Medical
rd
school professor is researching the effects of Malaria and HIV in the 3 world.
o
POINT: Even those who do not go to college benefit from having a large college-
educated population, which generates innovation, propels economic growth, and
creates jobs.

Section III: What Privatization Means for the Future of the UC

[Optional: Play Wendy Brown’s description of privatization at http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=aR4xYBGdQgw (fast forward to 15:24)]
More of the Same: Privatization means a continuation and acceleration of the changes we
are seeing:
 - increases in tuition and class sizes. The Academic Senate estimated that a
“public funding freeze” would require tuition to increase to $15-17,000 a year.
- reductions in class offerings and diversity,
- declining accessibility,
- and overall declines in the quality of education.
Increasing inequality
- As tuitions increase, fewer Californians will be able to afford to attend college,
meaning less opportunity for social mobility and less diversity within the
university and the middle class.
A Case Study: The University of Michigan
- The University of Michigan has chosen a semi-privatized model. The results
may be instructive on what California can expect:
- Admission standards were relaxed to increase out-of-state enrolment.
- By 2003, over half of Michigan’’s freshman class came from families with
six-figure incomes in a state where only 13% of families earn that much.
- The University of Michigan has also fallen in national rankings, according to
U.S. News and World Report.[20]

Q: So what can we do about it?

A: The protests of last quarter made some important impacts, but the state is still moving
towards privatizing the university.

Section IV: Effects of Last Quarter’’s Protests

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- On November 19 , students on every UC campus across the state protested the
Regents’’ vote to increase tuition by 32%. The protests got the attention of both the
Governor and UC President Mark Yudof.
Schwarzenegger:
o Noted that the state spends 10% of its general fund on prisons and only
7% on higher education. He proposed to reverse that ratio, guaranteeing that
10% of the state’’s general fund would go to funding higher education. [21]
o One of Schwarzenegger’s spokespeople stated, “Those protests on the U.C.
campuses were the tipping point””[22].
Yudof:
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o At the last Regents meeting on January 20 , President Mark Yudof and
some of the Regents said they would support a student march on
Sacramento.[23]
o Up until the protests of last quarter, Yudof and the UC Regents had done
nothing to advocate for the university’’s core mission of education or to
influence the state’s budget plans.[24]

A Reason for Hope, but still much to be done:

 - While these reactions show that student protest has had some effect, the actions
proposed by Schwarzenegger and Yudof do not address the underlying problems that
have led to the current situation of the UCs and higher education in California.
No Guarantee
o First, Schwarzenegger’s plan does not guarantee that funding for higher
education will not continue to shrink. California’s general fund has been
steadily shrinking for the last decade or more. Even if California higher education
gets 10% of the state budget, this might turn out to be a tiny piece of a shrinking
pie.
§ California’s prisons have been under federal receivership since
2004 because prisoner healthcare was so bad there that it killed
several inmates and was deemed unconstitutional.[25]
§ The proposal to save money by pulling yet more money out of
this already broken system is not an acceptable way forward.

Bigger Problems:
o The problems facing the UC are not just about state funding, but about the
UC administration’’s shifting priorities and lack of transparency and
accountability.
o Finally, the governor and the UC administration continue to frame this as a
temporary budget crisis, when it is in fact part of a larger plan to privatize
the University of California.

Section V: Action
- The process of privatization is happening in all sectors of public education
across California. Students, faculty, and workers across the UCs, the CSUs, the
community colleges, and K-12 schools are organizing against the privatization of public
education in California.

March 4th
- Over 800 representatives of these groups came together on October 24, 2009 at
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a conference in Berkeley and chose March 4 as a state-day of action.
- At UCSC, students are planning a campus-wide student strike. The UAW, the
TA union, is supporting this effort and all campus unions have expressed solidarity
with these actions.
- We invite all students, workers, and faculty to observe this important show of
opposition to the current direction of public education in California.

Support the Strike

- SIGN THE STRIKE PLEDGE
 o Observe this important show of student opposition to the current
direction of public education in California.
- SPREAD THE WORD: Let your student reps, professors, and TAs know you
support the strike!
o Tell your reps in student government to support the strike!
o Let your professors and TAs know that you will not be in class that day and
ask them not to hold class!
o Ask your professors and TAs to teach this important lesson to their other
classes and sections.
- JOIN the Movement!
o If you are interested in helping organize this important day, please attend
the General Assembly, a large meeting of all student groups organizing to
fight the budget cuts. Location: Kresge Town Hall. Time: 6pm. Dates: 2/10,
2/24

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March 1 March on Sacramento
- After the display of strength of the student movement in November, the UC
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Administration has decided to call for a march on Sacramento on March 1 to ask the
legislature for more money for the UC Administration.
- The UC Student Association has called for a Lobby Conference from Feb. 26 to
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March 1 . Talk to the Student Government to get involved.

[1] “UC Releases Fall 2009 Admissions Data,” http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/20902

[2] “Approval of the 2010-2011 UC Budget,” University of California Office of the President, available at
www.ucop.edu
[3] Philip Matier and Andrew Ross, “UC Berkeley to admit more out-of-state students”, San Francisco
Chronicle, October 21, 2009
[4] Ibid.
[5] Nanette Asimov, “UC minority enrollment among lowest in the nation,” San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 14,
2010,
[6] http://www.gradstudentstoppage.com/a-note-to-students-of-color-completing-the-work-of-prop-209/.
[7] http://www.gradstudentstoppage.com/a-note-to-students-of-color-completing-the-work-of-prop-209/
[8] “Approval of the 2010-2011 UC Budget,” University of California Office of the President, available at
www.ucop.edu
[9] http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-classes20-2010jan20,0,4770272.story
[10] Chris Newfield, “UC Budget Questions and Answers,” available at www.teachthebudgetucsc.org
[11] Tamar Lewin, “University of California Makes Cuts After Reduction in State Financing,” New York Times,
July 10, 2009
[12] This section is based on a lecture by UC Professor Stanton Glantz. A recording of that lecture can be found
at http://www.youtube.com/user/caltvinfo#p/u/48/vgDmft3DtMQ
[13] Thomas Jue and Jerold Theis, “Money isn’t the only problem facing the UC system,” San Jose Mercury
News, Jan. 21, 2001
[14] Ibid
[15] Thomas Jue and Jerold Theis, “Money isn’t the only problem facing the UC system,” San Jose Mercury
News, Jan. 21, 2001
[16] Asimov, Nanette. "Execs Still Get Raises as UC cuts Staffing, Pay." 7 August, 2009. San
Fransisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/06/BASG194N2P.DTL
[17] See reports of the Regents’ Committee on Compensation at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents
[18] “A Master Plan for Higher Education in California, 1960-1975,” available at http://www.ucop.edu/acadinit/
mastplan/mp.htm
[19] www.keepcaliforniaspromise.org
[20] Chris Newfield, “Understanding the Crisis at UC”, Available at www.keepcaliforniaspromise.org
[21] “Schwarzenegger’s Higher Ed Constitutional Amendment: All PR.” http://keepcaliforniaspromise.org/628/
governor-schwarzeneggers-constitutional-amendment-on-higher-ed-lots-less-than-meets-the-eye
[22] Steinhauer, Jennifer. “Schwarzenegger Seeks Shift from Prisons to Schools.” The New York Times.
6 January 2010: Web.
[23] Nanette Asimov, “Regents to back student protests at capitol,” San Francisco Chronicle, 1/21/2001
[24] Glantz, Stan. “Moving Forward From the 2009 Budget” http://keepcaliforniaspromise.org/1
[25] Solomon Moore, “Paring Plans for Healthcare in California Prisons,” NYT, May 31, 2009