What version of the UC Berkeley protests would you like? AP, SFGate, or The Daily Cal?
For those with an aversion to text, here’s raw footage:
and more raw footage…
The catalyst to the havoc? The UC board approved a 32% increase in undergraduate fees yesterday. (Details here.)
(Cal students also want the reinstatement of 38 custodians, but why don’t we just fight for all 300 laid off ex-employees?)
I’m not even going to try to understand how the budget works considering that Cal can’t even manage without the help of Bain consultants—and why are we hiring Bain?! (who costs what, quarter to half million per month?) Because our own management can’t manage the budget crisis? Yudof seems mighty unpopular these days, but he’s got quite a few Twitter followers (myself included) and even a sympathizer…and a $326,791 paycheck.
But say we don’t point fingers at President Yudof or $445,716 Chancellor Birgeneau or anyone on the Board of Regents or even the Governator (why is my signed diploma even framed on the wall…), PLEASE EXPLAIN WHY deans and business and law professors are all worth 300k+ each while 300 “less important” people get fired, other classes get cut, starving students face a tuition hike, and Tarloff feels the need to write Berkeley an eulogy. (According to my friend, Arthi, last year 21% of the UC budget paid for management salaries while only 8% went towards instruction. I don’t have to be an intellectual Haashole to raise one eyebrow.)
Random facts I learned today from talking to a friend who now runs the architecture club I used to lead:
- One gardener mows all the lawns on campus.
- We’re no longer building Toyo Ito’s design for the new BAM.
- There might not be an AIAS West Quad Conference in the Spring because we can’t get any funding from CED or the ASUC (and I thought this was our moment to shine).
Then I took the BART home to Fremont and said goodbye to Berkeley…while the protests went on. For 140-character coverage, follow @dailycal, @thedailyclog, and @ucbprotest. (Spoiler: occupiers have all been escorted out.)
With that off my chest, CAN WE PLEASE WIN THE BIG GAME TOMORROW?!?!?!?!?!?! The East Bay needs some sunshine, FORREAL.

Posted on November 20th, 2009 at 9:59pm by Serena Wu
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