The UC Budget Protests

Daily Bruin:

[UCLA] Students, faculty and union workers spoke at a noon rally in Bruin Plaza for the March 4 National Day of Action to Defend Education.

Earlier in the morning, about 120 students assembled in Royce Quad, and about 30 were in Bruin Plaza.

Wow. 150 students out of a total enrollment of almost 40,000. I bet the suits in Murphy Hall were really shaking in their Birkenstocks.

Third-year law student Alejandra Cruz, who organized today’s protests through UC Fights Back, read a written statement on solidarity. “(The UCLA administration) wants to do what they please and get away with it. We can’t let them get away with it. If you’ve ever stood up to power and felt like you made a difference, now is the time for you,” she said.

Yeah, right.

I think Megan McArdle got it basically right:

As someone who was known to attend a protest or two herself during college, I have been struggling mightily to find some sensible arguments in the movement of students protesting budget cuts at their campuses. But while I'm sympathetic to students finding it harder to attend college, I'm not sure what they think is supposed to happen. There's no money. This is not some question of reallocating resources from bad uses to good--everything is being cut because their institutions are under serious financial duress. When administrators point this out, the students reiterate how hard it all is, as if doing so will spur the administration to shake the money tree harder until extra cash falls from the skies.

I mean, they might protest the core business model, in which so many employees are effectively unfireable, meaning that everyone else has to take a disproportionate share of the cuts. But other than that, what is all this protesting going to accomplish? Telling the administration they're unhappy? Trust me, the administration is pretty unhappy too.

And then there's this from the Bruin report:

Hugo Sarmiento, a graduate student in urban planning, addressed the need for increased diversity within the UC system. “For years, the (UC Regents) have enacted policies that deny black and latino students access to the university,” he said.

This is just absurd. The UC system was one of the first in the country to adopt affirmative action programs. Granted, Proposition 209 resulted in a decline in black and hispanic enrollment at the UC schools. Yet, the regents and virtually all administrators have consistently opposed 209. Indeed, many suspect that policies like comprehensive admission review were intended to end-run (some would say cheat) Prop 209.

Look. I'm as frustrated as an UC stakeholder with the state of affairs. It would be nice, however, if our students could put their energy to something more useful than unconstructive whining.

Comments

[Paul J]

I don't see anything unreasonable in these students protesting budget cuts. They have been taught by institutions like UC Berkely to believe that money grows on trees, and that all that is needed to get more money is whine, cry, and protest. Seems to me this is all a natural progression.

[Georg Felis]

Megan is right on. *Every* time a government institution has budget problems, they trot out the old Blazing Saddles joke of "Nobody move or the (fill in the blank) gets it!" Cities wail about the loss of firefighters and police, schools wave the budgetary knife over popular sports teams, and so on.

When the pay raises are passed around, they go from the top down, when the pink slips are passed around, they go from the bottom up. Methinks the University doth protest too much. Let me have the budget and a red pen, and I'll bet we can get 10% cut before the first cup of coffee gets cold.

[Claude Hopper]

Hugo Sarmiento, a graduate student in urban planning, ---- Hugo wants me to pay more in taxes so he can get some govt job and tell me how to arrange my living space. Sorry that doesn't compute.

[adam]

The Parasite's Plea: Host, please die more slowly!

[Rich]

How could the faculty find the time to pull themselves away from their tough 'I only teach one (or two) classes a semester' schedule to attend a protest? This is real scandal in higher education--how little the faculty at most universities actually teach.

[Steve White]

I am a university professor at a major private university. I am not an administrator (thank goodness these days).

To the protesters at private schools: tuition at your school averages about $36K a year. If you can't afford your school and don't like the way your school does business, go to a public school where tuition averages about $13K a year.

To the protesters at public schools: tuition at your school averages about $13K a year. If you can't afford your school and don't like the way your school does business, remember that you could be at a private school where tuition averages about $36K a year.

I suggest that simple explanations like this go a long way to making clear the options that students have, and most students, other than the semi-professional agitators, figure it out.

Ms. McArdle is correct: right now there is no money. We have no money for programs, no money to retain qualified people, no money for recruitment, no money to raise salaries, no money to build, and just barely enough money to maintain the status quo. If the economy in general and the education economy in particular worsen, we'll not have enough money to do the basic maintenance, physical and intellectual, that our university needs.

That's when the protesters will get a real education.

I saw in the news that one of the UC protesters was a fifth year student in women's studies. I have a simple question: a man who graduates with a useless degree can always drive a cab. What does a woman with a useless degree do these days?

[PJ]

The CSUs had rallies too, "fire me first" rallies I called them, and I'm sure very few people showed up.

And who'd have thunk it, the anti-US ANSWER helped organize this Day of Action!

ANSWER March 4 Rally

[JorgXMcKie]

"It would be nice, however, if our students could put their energy to something more useful than unconstructive whining."

Well, they are playing to their strengths. Seriously, though, they simply don't understand what good fortune they have, even with the increases. My 2/3 tier state U charges about 15K for full-time undergrads. I would guess that some of them, at least, get as good or better educations that do the average of your students, but their sense of entitlement seems a bit lower.

My average undergrad student seems to be working 10-20 per week off campus to pay for college. Assuming there is a job available. In fact, those most heavily subsidized appear to work the least, both on and off campus. Go figure.

[LynnPeck1]

The real answer is to stop using undergraduate degrees as the primary sorting mechanism in the job market. Yes, there will always be professions like medicine and the hard sciences that necessitate college-level training. But the degree mill has become swollen out of all proportion and is distorting the economy. The college degree=living wage job model is broken and it's time to rethink it.

[MR. BISWAS]

The students are directing their "appeals" at the wrong people. According to the SF Chronicle, 17,000 (or 10%) of the 170,000 faculty and staff in the UC system earn more than $100K a year. If those highly paid individuals were each to forego, say, 10% of their salary, there would surely be enough money to avoid retrenchment and large tuition hikes. In their efforts to "save" higher education, UC students might therefore find it more productive to start a dialog with their highly paid faculty than to protest against California's taxpayers.

[BizProf]

Actually, no, 10% doesn't even begin to make up for what the "geniuses" in Sacramento have cut back this year. Moreover, in the sister CSU system, all administrators, faculty, and staff are already foregoing 10% of their salaries through furlough days. (State of California public employees, don't you know.) Almost certainly the UC system is undergoing something similar.

[Wyatt]

Well, to be fair to the parasitic students whining about the rising cost of their (somewhat) publicly-funded education, I'm sure they would be placated if cuts came in the form of slashing the salaries of the more egregiously parasitic professors and administrators that serve them.

The cost of a UC education has risen about 400% in the past 10 years. Much more so, adjusted for inflation, over the past 20-30 years. Of course, one reason these fees have risen is the progressive lowering of the State's contribution to the schools. Another is the drastic increase admnistrative costs and professors' salaries.

The UC system is a the posterchild of institutional bloat and inefficiency.

Many of the professors at these intitutions also recieved a public college education in their day, essentially on the public dole. Now, those professors can teach 1-2 classes per semester and earn $100-250k a year.

Not to point fingers or go ad hominem, but look at Prof. B: 2 of his 3 degrees come from public universities and were issued in the 1980's, when a public degree was vastly less expensive. He is currently teaching 1 course that meets for a total of 3 and half hours a week. His gross salary is well north of $220k. And he can spend all summer on academic scholarship, some of which turns into textbooks that generate royalties. This seems to be the definition of suckling off the public teat. It's a little gauche to decry the students' "whining."

[David Walser]

Is this typical of the writing of a 3rd-year law student?

"(The UCLA administration) wants to do what they please and get away with it. We can’t let them get away with it. If you’ve ever stood up to power and felt like you made a difference, now is the time for you."

Wow! Perhaps the students have a point; they have been over-charged.

[MR. BISWAS]

@BizProf.: According to the UC Web page, the projected budget shortfall for the UC system is $417M. Using the SF Chronicle salary database, I estimate that a 10% cut in faculty and staff salaries would yield around $250M, or 60% of the projected shortfall. You are right that salary cuts would not cover all of the planned cutbacks, but from my perspective $250M is not exactly chopped liver.

[FUBAR]

This seems to be the definition of suckling off the public teat. It's a little gauche to decry the students' "whining."

Not to point fingers or go ad hominem or anything.

[dennymack]

Post the state budget, line by line, on the web.Let the students play a game called "find the 417 million" with a prize for the best package of cuts. This would get them doing real work with real numbers, examining primary documents, all sorts of good stuff.

Winner gets to announce the cuts- and here's the kicker- those whose budgets they decide to cut get to protest at the announcement.
Speak Truth To Power!

[Steve White]

For Wyatt and others:

Let me explain a basic fact about university professors (as I note above, I am one). Faculty are required (mostly) to be productive. Deans and provosts have the usual ways of enforcing that. While there are certainly tenured featherbedders out there (yes, at my university as well), most faculty are productive. They have to be, or they'll lose their positions.

The definition of productive is what is at issue.

Teaching undergraduates is ONE way to be productive. A 'full load' for most teaching faculty at most universities is 3 to 4 undergraduate courses per term. That's a substantial investment in time, of which time in the classroom is but part of the commitment. The rest is coursework preparation, office hours, grading and so forth.

Teaching graduate students is another way to be productive. That might mean coursework, or seminars, or sponsorship of graduate students in one's laboratory or field program. That can be a substantial commitment.

Research is another way to be productive. I'm a professor of medicine and in addition to teaching and patient care, I do basic research. I'm required by my university to obtain grants (NIH, NSF, private) to have the free ('protected') time to do that, and those grants pay a commensurate portion of my salary. While the ratios aren't exact, if you want 75% of your time free to do research, you should be bringing in about 75% of your salary in grants. Lose your grants and you lose your protected time. Particularly in the sciences, research is a major reason for most faculty to be at the university; their teaching loads are generally modest precisely so that they can spend more time in the lab / field.

Service is another way to be productive. Law professors provide service in the legal clinics sponsored by the university law school faculty. University doctors provide service to patients. Some of service is paid, some isn't.

There are other ways to be productive. Perhaps Professor Bainbridge would care to add to this brief list.

The point is simple: you should not assume that because a senior faculty person with a >$100K salary teaches one undergraduate class per term, that said faculty person is not pulling his/her weight.

Particularly these days, the average dean / provost is looking for ways to have their faculty work harder for the same (or less) money. Those pressures will intensify in the coming years.

[David Welker]

I want to address the fact-free assertion that student protests are ineffective and useless.

In a NY Times article that reported on Governor Schwarzenegger's decision to seek to shift funding from prisons to education, protests are described as being a critical influence in that decision:

“Those protests on the U.C. campuses were the tipping point,” the governor’s chief of staff, Susan Kennedy, said in an interview after the speech. “Our university system is going to get the support it deserves.”

The NYTimes article is here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/us/07calif.html

These students should be praised for these public-spirited protests. They do not deserve to be called "whiners" for being concerned that their futures are being undermined based on short-sighted politics. Just because we are in a recession, that does not mean we can afford to not invest in the future.

I should further note that I don't recall either Ms. McArdle or Professor Bainbridge referring to Tea Party protesters as being "whiners." Maybe I just wasn't paying attention.

Well, I for one am quite proud of these students for standing up for what is right.

[Ken in Camarillo]

I'm quite impressed with Steve White's discussion. It seems consistent with what I expected to be the case for a professor.

My perspective is as a parent of two students in the Cal State University system: Cal State Northridge and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Yes, it is inconvenient for me to pay the increased tuition, but the CSU's are an amazing bargain for the high quality education provided. It seems extremely selfish (and ignorant of reality) for a parent or student to not want to contribute anything to make up for the shortage we now face.

I am grateful that the professors and administration are also contributing with the furlough days. However, I do not want them to contribute too much, as I want them to be willing to continue next year to maintain the quality of the education.

The real solution is to get rid of the political hacks we have in the state legislature who didn't pay attention to basic economics and showed no foresight when agreeing to ridiculous public pension plans that are going to sink us.

I also have plenty of contempt for our pandering governor who has been only marginally (if that) better than the hack Gray Davis. Recent legislation such as that related to global warming can only be called insane for the effects it will have on our state economy. Arnold should have vetoed it, but he wanted to look good for his Hollywood buddies.

[Alejandra Cruz]

Hello Professor Bainbridge,

Thanks for quoting me in your article. There were around 600 students in Bruin Plaza and 300 in Royce Quad at noon. Those are police estimates. Just so you get your facts straight before you start belittling our work. This is a small number by UC Berkeley's standards, but UCLA is a far more conservative campus. If you ever tried to organize on campus you would understand that.

I would ask you to join us in our "whining" but obviously you feel blogging from your office is a much more useful way to communicate.

Your former student,
Alejandra Cruz, Class of 2010

[Alejandra Cruz]

Just a second note: What exactly do you have against students speaking out against the racism on campus? Do you like to have only a handful of Black, Latina/o, and Native American students in your classes?

[William, UCLA Engineering Student]

Its not a question that budget cuts from the state are a very serious issue. In fact the administrators at the university want us to think its the only issue. That is not true at all. UC got $850 million less this year from state. But they also got $550 million from Federal government relief program. Furloughs and direct cuts (of teaching faculty who are not officially professors) plus tuition increases brought in additional 500 million meaning university ended up with about 180-200 million surplus this year - the most profitable year for UC ever! Some of us studying here are asking if its really necessary to make any of these increases or cuts given all this?

Now above is just a surface of what is going on... The real issue is administration of the UCs who are not being controlled by anyone (senate previously sometimes did some oversight, but they have no time for it now and given they cut the money to university they will be even less interested in the future - the more money you give to somebody the more you want to know how they spend it). Only 15 years ago there was one administrator per 20 students, now there are 7. If UC admnistration cut its staff by 1/2 it would have brought in exactly the money UC was missing this year with no need for tuition hikes or furloughs.

What we really need is a reform in how university is governed. Students, professors, workers and government should all play a role when choosing regents and not like it is right now. Additionally UC administration must be cut substantially to appropriate level. Current buruacracy given how technology actually makes things more efficient (and less paperwork) is unexcusable and should not be tolerated.

For similar views I recommend you listen to Eric's interview on KPFK:

http://wdc01.web.burst-dev.com/music/player.php?upload=38de63695c7671cebc4b6d3b2c7009e5&from_share=1&challenge=527191194&autostart=true

Now yours truly will have to work additional 10 hours/week next year to be able to afford the increase in tuition, so it does hurt personally and I know it was not as necessary as some in administration want us to believe. Despite that I'm not as much worried about it myself (I'll be out in a year) as I'm where this truly great public university is going and how this will effect all future students. But please don't say that students and workers at the university who organized the protests are misguided and that university system itself is not part of the issue!

[Prof. So-and-So]

It's sad how constrained the vision of what equality is or should be...

Student protests are something that should be celebrated. It is a good thing that young people care enough to speak out. Furthermore, they are not only speaking out for themselves but future generations. The goal is to keep public education precisely that, PUBLIC, meaning public education should remain affordable.

As law professors, we are extremely privileged. We are well-paid and sit in our ivory towers. I think we should all think twice before we criticize young people for actually being proactive about what they see is wrong with the world.

[Matthew]

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. -Margaret Mead

I'm proud of all the Students that continue to make their voices heard!