[CW-Grad] Judith Butler, Save California's Universities

Mon Oct 5 14:10:27 PDT 2009

I thought this might be of interest...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/sep/30/california-university-berkeley-budget-protest

 Save California's universities

The promise of affordable higher education is dying. The University of
California's students and faculty demand answers

by Judith Butler <http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/judith-butler>

 It may seem that the thousands of people who converged on the University of
California Berkeley<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/24/california-university-berkeley-budget-protest>'s
famous Sproul Plaza, home of the free speech movement, on 24 September were
simply upset about money. Where has all the money gone? Who has taken it
away?And perhaps there is no one to blame.

The University of California <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/california> finds
itself with a shortfall of $1.15bn for the next two years, the result of an
$813m cut in state funding and another $225m increase in costs for student
enrolment. Everyone knows that the state government is
dysfunctional<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/may/27/california-budget-us-economy>,
that public funding decreased by 40% between 1990 and 2005 and that this
year alone brought another 20% reduction, accelerating the abandonment of
the premiere public university by a California legislature fully paralysed
by minority rule (a two-thirds majority is required for sealing any
budgetary deal) andProposition
13<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_13_%281978%29>
(the
1978 ban on increasing property taxes that strangleholds any attempt to
increase revenues for public services).

It would seem like UC faces the same situation as other public services and
institutions: layoffs, cutbacks, decreased services and the prospect of a
seriously compromised education for undergraduates and graduates alike. So
what's the problem?

Mid-summer, when no one was around, UC president Mark Yudof invoked
"emergency powers"<http://chronicle.com/article/Californias-Public-Univers/47867>
to
implement furloughs on staff and faculty, and sent word to campuses that
drastic cuts had to be made in operating expenses. Claiming that the UC
system has no funds from which to draw in such dire moments, Yudof devised a
plan <http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/jul09/j2.pdf>,
which includes a graduated salary reduction programme for all staff and
faculty who make more than $40,000 a year.

One might have expected faculty and staff to understand the dire
circumstances that led to these lamentable cuts. But it became clear that
certain cuts actually devastated some programmes, while others absorbed the
setback with ready reserves. The administration did not wait to reach a
settlement with the unions. The faculty briefly canvassed were certainly not
party to the decision.

As a result, the bad news that deans handed down at the beginning of the
semester eliminated 2,000 positions, gutted programmes that train high
school teachers in science education, closed courses in East Asian languages
and advanced Arabic, overburdened classrooms, shut students out of their
majors, let scores of lecturers go and closed the university library on
Saturday. In addition, the administration demanded of students tuition and
fee increases of nearly 40%, imperilling the very notion of an affordable
public university and forcing many students to leave the university or
scramble for full-time jobs.

Yudof's attempts to explain himself have only helped solidify a sense of
outrage on the part of faculty, staff, students and the wider public. The
result is a profound and growing scepticism about Yudof's ability to
advocate for the future of the public university.

Those of us who were trying to develop a balanced critique of both the
paralysis of the state economy and the questionable governance by UC
administrators were incredulous when Yudof gave an interview to the New York
Times Magazine <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/magazine/27fob-q4-t.html> in
which he bragged about his own $800,000 salary, shamelessly displayed his
anti-intellectualism, described his entry into the field of education as "an
accident" and complained that he tries to speak to faculty and staff about
the budget, but it is "speaking to the dead".

Suddenly, the problem was not only fiscal – "we don't have the money" – but
a more profound loss of confidence in the mode of governance and the figure
of authority entrusted with making the case for public education to the
state and federal government during these hard times.

Faculty, staff and students are collectively outraged that the university
has failed to make public and transparent what the cuts have been and will
be, and by what criteria and set of priorities such cuts are made. Rage also
centres on the devastation of "shared governance" – the policy that faculty
must be part of any decision-making that affects the academic programmes and
direction of the university. In its place, a "commission" was appointed by
the administration with paltry representation by faculty. Emphatically
missing are those in the arts and humanities.

No answers are forthcoming to a set of burning questions: Why in this age of
slash and burn has the UC administration bloated by 283%, as their own
public financial reports make plain? And why does the university spend $10m
a year on inter-collegiate athletics and over $123m on a new athletic
centre?

During a time of corrosive neo-liberalism and rising doubts about education
and the arts as public goods worthy of state support, the administration
ducks and hides – when it is not boasting about its own stupidity, failing
to take up the task of making its decision-making process transparent,
refusing to honour the mandate to bring in the faculty to share in
establishing priorities and weakening the safeguards against a rampant
privatisation of this public good that will undercut the university's core
commitment to offer an education both excellent and affordable.

Many sceptics murmured that the call for a walk out and teach in on 24
September would come to nothing. So when over 5,000 students, staff and
faculty crowded the open common of
Berkeley<http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_13411067> alone
(and several thousand more on the other 10
campuses<http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1926163,00.html>),
every major national and international media outlet took
stock<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/education/25calif.html>
.

The vocal and theatrical demands of the demonstrators were not, as
governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/arnold-schwarzenegger> quipped,
just noise coming fromanother "screaming" interest
group<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/24/MNVU19SBEV.DTL>.
On the contrary, a rare solidarity among unions, students and faculty sought
to "save the university", and their cry clearly struck a chord across a
broad political spectrum. Robert Reich, former US secretary of labour,
joined other faculty for a pointed speak-out the night before. Faculty and
students clustered into an array of groups, pursuing strategies from
mainstream lobbying to anarchist display. The administration was clearly
shaken, and subtle hints of division among administrators could be detected.
Some congratulated the demonstrators, and others hissed.

My wager is that the walls of the university will shake again – and again –
until the message is received: This fiscal crisis is also a crisis in
governance. The administration needs to make their books transparent,
re-engage shared governance and set their priorities right so that the US
can continue to claim a public institution of higher learning where a
student does not require loads of money to receive a superlative education.

This is the promise that we see dying at this moment, and the very thought
sends us into the streets en masse.

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