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OCCUPIED CALJournal

The fght back in the US is on!

Join the Occupation!

Join the Movement!

Tousands shut down the port in Oakland on November 2, 2011

Reclaimuc.blogspot.com / Berkeleycuts.orgOccupiedCalJournal@gmail.com

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Why Occupy Cal?

Because the campus is our Wall Street,

and the Regents are the 1%

What is a UC Regent? The question itself seems

alienating, let alone the phrase UC Regent. How manyof you know the names of the 26 Regents? How many

know what they even look like? In feudal times, regents

were those that ruled over a kingdom in the place of

a monarch. However, last time I checked, we were no

longer living in an era of knights, serfs, and lords. Is this

not supposed to be the modern world of democracy?

Why, then, do a group of 26 individuals, who are so

disconnected from campus life, who are so alienated

from the masses, have essentially total control over the

thousands of students, faculty, staff, and workers that

keep the universities we admire running? Their decisions

to cut budgets and to raise fees affect all of us, and

believe me, they are not in our best interest, but in theirs.

Tounderstandwhythisisso,wemustrstclarify

who the UC Regents are. The Board of the Regents was

created in 1879 during the California constitutional

convention. At that constitutional convention, a group

made upmostly ofnanciers and industrialists from

San Francisco managed to push for the establishment

of the UC Board of Regents. This was done against

the wishes of the less privileged, who demanded theuniversity system serve the needs of the people, not

private interests. The Board of Regents, as a governing

body, was the brainchild of elitists with obvious

nancialinterestsatstake-bothinsideandoutsidethe

university-fromtheverybeginning.Thisboardwas

essentially given total ownership and total control over

the university system. All matters, property, and money

pertaining to the UC system continues to go through

and is decided by the UC Regents. This is why when

you or your parents write a check for tuition, they do

it to the UC Regents. Tis is why the UC campuses

as a orm o property, are under the legal dominion othe UC Regents, who are supposed to administer theproperty in the publics interest. When so much poweris concentrated into the hands o the ew, does that notsound like a dictatorship?

And that is how the university system is gov-erned: through the dictatorship o the Regents. Tereis little, perhaps zero, democracy involved in the ad-ministration o our universities. Te Regents have thepower to set policies throughout all the UC campusesand they also determine the UC budgets. Basically, asstated beore, they have total authoritative control othe UCs. Most interestingly, though, I dont remembervoting these people into positions o power, and neithershould you, because they are not elected public ocialsInstead, the 18 voting members are handpicked by theGovernor o Caliornia and approved by the State Sen-ate. Since the Regents control all the money and prop-erty under the UCs, which is valued at roughly around$53 billion, the position o Regent is one o the mostprestigious appointments the Governor can give. As a

result, those that tend to give the Governor hey cam-paign donations tend to also become Regents. StrangeIsnt it? Furthermore, each appointed regent is given a12-year term! And each Regent can be reappointed oranother term upon expiration o a previous term. SinceRegents are not elected, and since they serve such longterms, those appointed to be Regents are not held di-rectly accountable to the people o Caliornia. Interest-ingly enough, Article 9, Section 9 o the Caliornia StateConstitution states that, Te university shall be entirely independent o all political or sectarian inuence

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and kept ree thererom in the appointment o its re- gents and in the administration o its aairs." Tismight remind you o a certain ederal institution, theUnited States Supreme Court, whose members are notelected, not answerable to the public, serve lie terms,and who are supposed to be politically neutral, butin reality oen serve obvious political interests.

Additionally, there are 7 non-voting members o

the board, 3 o whom are the Governor o Caliornia,the Lieutenant Governor, and the Speaker o the StateAssembly. Te last position is a student-regent, who ispicked by the rest o the Regents; however, due to thestudent-regent's one-year term, lack o strong votingpower, and the act that this position is appointed by theRegents themselves, student-regents exist primarily astokens to provide the illusion o student representation.Moreover, due to the act that the 18 voting Regents arepersonally picked by the Governor and that the Gover-

nor, Lieutenant Governor, and Speaker o the State As-sembly are also Regents, it is oolish to separate the Boardo the Regents and the State o Caliornia as dierent en-tities. Te Board o the Regents is merely an extensiono the state, and this body pushes policies that the stateand private interests want, which seem to go hand-in-hand these days. When the Board o the Regents claimsthat ees must be raised due to decreased state unding,it is not the State o Caliornia that is solely responsible -rather, these groups work together to push the same pol-icy. Tis means that the State o Caliornia gets to play

the bad guy while the Board o Regents get to blame thestate and they can say they valiantly ought or our und-ing only to lose. And then they push the load onto us,the students, the aculty, the sta, and the workers.

Well, i the Governor handpicks the Regents,it is done under the premise o good intentions, right?Te Governor will surely only pick those that truly havethe best interest o our education and the universitysystem in mind, right? Nope. Nope. And a thousandtimes no. Te individuals that make up the UC Regentsthemselves are a contradictory bunch. Tey are the ad-ministrators o a so-called public university system,but they are also so entangled with the private sector.Now, how do these conicting interests play out in re-ality? Tis is an irreconcilable contradiction that ulti-mately leads to the university system being run morelike a business or corporation on Wall Street, than apublic educational institution meant serve ordinaryCaliornians. Many Regents are involved with banksthat proft o o student debt. Other Regents are in-volved in using public money to und UC construction

projects that are contracted out to corporationsthat they are major stakeholders in. Here's a quickrundown list o some o the UC Regents and oth-er UC administrators, their inated fnancesand their conicts o public and private interests

1. UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert

Birgeneau: $436,800 base salary(24% increase rom predecessor)Why do these administrators needpay raises? Teir reasoning is thatthey need to pay people top dol-lar so they can compete with otherschools to get the best adminis-trators, which is pretty much thesame excuse Wall Street execu-tives use or handing out bonuses

2. UC President Mark Yudo$591,084 base salary (46% in-crease rom predecessor). RichardBlum once said o Yudo, I dontimagine we could have ound oneperson in the United States orabroad who is better suited or the job o president o the Universityo Caliornia than Mark Yudo,which is worrisome when you seethe type o person Richard Blum is

3. Regent Russell Gould: Appoint-ed Regent in 2005 and term expiresin 2017. Former Senior Vice Presi-dent o Wachovia Bank, which wasacquired by Wells Fargo in 2008

4. Regent Sherry Lansing: Ap-pointed in 1999 by Gov. Da- vis and reappionted in 2010 bGov. Schwarzenegger. Her sec-ond term will expire in 2022Former CEO and chairman oParamount Motion Pictures

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5. Regent Richard Blum: Appoint-ed in 2002, term ends in 2014.President o investment frm BlumCapital, husband o US senatorrom Caliornia Dianne Feinstein,a primary owner o Career Edu-cation Corporation (the worldssecond largest or proft education

frm), chairman o CBRE (theworlds largest commercial real es-tate frm), served 30 years on theboard o the URS Corporation(the primary contractor or theUCs construction projects). Bythe way, as a side note, these UCconstruction projects are fnancedby loans that banks give to the Re-gents because theyguarantee stu-

dent ees will be raised as collateral.

6. Regent Paul Wachter: Appoint-ed in 2004, term ends in 2016.An investment banker and on theBoard o Directors or ime War-ner. Wachter and Schwarzeneggerwere long time business partnerssince the 1990s. Coincidentally,it was Schwarzenegger that ap-pionted Wachter as a Regent.

7. Regent Norman Pattiz: Ap-pointed in 2001, term endsin 2014. Founder and Chair-man o Westwood One (thelargest radio network com-pany in the United States).

8. Monica Lozano: Appointed in2001, term ends in 2013. Direc-tor at Bank o America (one o thelargest holders o student debt,not to mention one o the biggestbanks in the world), on the Boardo Directors or Walt Disney.

9. Regent George Marcus: Ap-pointed in 2000, term ends in2012. Founder and Chairmano Marcus & Millchap Com-pany (one o the largest real es-tate investment companies inthe US), Chairman at EssexProperty rust (a company that

handles many oreclosure sales)

10. Regent Leslie ang SchillingFounder and Director o UnionSquare Investments Company(another commercial real estate in-vestment and management frm)

O those listed, 8 o them make up the 18 vot-ing-Regents. Te other 10 o those Regents arent muchdierent rom those listed. Keeping that current list inmind, read what Article 9, Section 9, Paragraph D o theCaliornia Constitution states: Regents shall be able

persons broadly reective o the economic, cultural, andsocial diversity o the State, including ethnic minoritiesand women. However, it is not intended that ormulasor specifc ratios be applied in the selection o regents.

Tis doesnt seem like a group o individu-als that are representative o Caliornians. In act, themake-up o this board doesnt come close to reectingcontemporary society. No, this sounds like a politicalbody or the 1%, made up by the 1%, and utilized tomanipulate the 99% into paying or the 1%s troubles,only enriching them urther. Despite the rhetoric o theeconomic crisis. which calls on everyone to share theburden o sacrifce, and despite the justifcation o in-creasing student ees as necessary in such a crisis, theRegents and the UC administrators are not the ones su-

ering. In act, theyve been getting pay raises, theyvebeen getting nice bonuses, and they all sit in comyfnancial positions by being on the boards o some othe largest corporations and fnancial institutions inthe world. In short, the burden is not being shared byall - it has allen disproportionately on students in theorm o raised ee hikes and increased debt. It has all-en upon workers, sta, and aculty in the orms o lessjobs, slashed wages and salaries, and reduced pensions

Weve tried to get our voices heard

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by protesting in Sacramento. We've tried voting. We'veheld our rallies. And nothing has changed. Te Regentseither reuse to listen to us or are unable to do so. Well,i they have hearing issues, how about we make things

easier or them. Let us, the 99%, the workers, the stu-dents, the aculty, and the sta - in other words, the onesthat truly keep our universities unctioning, let us putdown our tools, our books, our fles and olders, ourpens and pencils, and let us bring this university to ahalt. Let us make it so that the only thing the Regents willbe able to hear is our collective voice, and perhaps theirown ear. But, lets not stop just at our campuses, letsalso conront the Regents themselves when they holdtheir meeting on November 16. Lets shut down theirmeeting to show them that there are no longer any sae

enclaves or them to hide behind. Lets shut down theirmeeting so that business as usual is abruptly ended.Lets shut down the meeting to show that we arent theones that run on the Regents clock, but rather it is theythat run on ours. Let us halt the gears o this machinerom moving so that all the Regents can pay attentionto is our collective call or change to a broken system.

Starting November 9, we will demonstrate ourcollective orce. We will demonstrate who truly runsand who truly should be in charge o our universities.Te Regents don't run this campus, we do. Te Regents

shouldn't rule our campus, we should. Tis is our uni-versity and let us show that by turning on and o theeveryday operations o the university at our will. Ulti-mately, it is us that teach classes, that keep the campusbeautiul, that provide the services we need, and it isus that keep education continuously owing through-out the university. Te Regents do none o this. In-stead, they sit in their positions o power decidingwhat to do with the proft, wealth, and knowledge wecreate. So how about we remind the Regents that the

These kids would put many seasoned Berkeley protesters to shame with their energy.

monarch has long been dead? Lets tell them thereisnt another one coming back. And you know whatelse? Lets tell them we dont need Regents in place torule over us anymore. We can do that fne just by our-

selves, because i it werent or us there would be nouniversity. Te same cannot be said o the Regents.

In addition, we should stand in solidarity withour brothers and sisters at Occupy Oakland and allthe other Occupations in the world, whose struggleagainst socioeconomic injustice is linked with ours.Te fght against bailing out private corporations onthe backs o the people. Te fght against the looting othe public sector by the private sector. Te fght againstgreed. Te desire to put people beore proft. It is clearthat their struggle, is also our struggle. And in light o

recent events at Occupy Oakland, which included vio-lent actions rom police against demonstrators and ageneral strike on November 2nd that involved tens othousands o individuals, I oer this small statementto anyone reading this: History is unraveling beoreyour eyes, and those that do not act are destined to be

silenced.

Tahrir Square? Nope, its Oakland

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