Dear fellow students,
Amidst growing outrage over police violence against the Occupy and Refund California movement at UC Davis, UC Berkeley, and the CSU Trustees meeting – including the pepper spraying and baton beatings of non-violent protesters – the University of California Board of Regents just announced that they will close their doors to the public when they vote on new cuts to education on November 28th. The public can only “participate” through a sham teleconference.
This echoes the announcement from the California State University Board of Trustees that they will not engage in a public discussion or re-vote regarding the illegitimate tuition increase they passed behind closed doors last Wednesday. The leadership of both the UC and CSU systems refuse to face thousands of outraged students, faculty, and staff who demand they stop treating the 99% like an ATM.
Click here to demand the UC Regents and CSU Trustees open their doors to the public:
<http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/demand-uc-regents-open-budget-meeting-to-public>
You can view video footage of the violent repression of the protests at Davis on the petition page. And when you sign the petition, we’ll give you links to campus-by-campus details of mass actions on Nov. 28 to open the Regents and Trustees meetings to all and devote the discussion to how banks and millionaires — not students and workers
— can pay to refund education. The petition page also has a links to a full report on our movement over the last two months.
On November 16th, the CSU Trustees expelled hundreds of students and workers from their meeting before voting behind closed doors to increase tuition by 9%, a move that may be illegal. California’s public education system, a promise of the past to the future and a critical way to assure our state’s economic growth, has been decimated by $17 billion in budget cuts and tuition increases since 2009. Next month, $2.5 billion in additional cuts are coming, and the 1% on the boards of CSU and UC are again trying to pass them on to students, teachers, and working families. Now is a time when they should be seeking to break from the status quo and support concrete solutions like requiring millionaires to pay their fair share to fund education.
Instead, they are doing the opposite.
Sign the ReFund California petition demanding both the UC and CSU Boards open their doors and allow FULL PUBLIC PARTICIPATION in their upcoming meetings, and that the CSU Board revote on its illegitimate 9% fee increase:
<http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/demand-uc-regents-open-budget-meeting-to-public>
The Regents and the Trustees are made up of corporate elites such as Bank of America Director Monica Lozano and former Wachovia Bank senior executive Russell Gould. It’s time for them to stand with the 99% and support making the 1% pay to fund education.
The momentum is ours. Don’t let them hide from the public so they can continue the same policies that have bankrupted the 99% and crippled higher education in California. Demand they listen to us now:
<http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/demand-uc-regents-open-budget-meeting-to-public>
In solidarity,
Cheryl Deutsch, Anthropology – UC Irvine – UAW 2865 President Elliot Kim, History – UC Riverside – UAW 2865 Southern Vice President Sara Smith, Labor History – UC Santa Cruz – UAW 2865 Northern Vice President Charlie Eaton, Sociology – UC Berkeley – UAW 2865 Finance Secretary Mandy Cohen, Comparative Literature – UC Berkeley – UAW 2865 Recording Secretary Kyle Arnone, Sociology – UCLA – UAW 2865 Trustee Nick Kardahji, History – UC Berkeley – UAW 2865 Trustee Brenda Medina-Hernandez, History – UC Davis – UAW 2865 Trustee Jordan Brocious, Physices – UC Irvine – UAW 2865 Sergeant at Arms Blanca Misse, French – UC Berkeley – UAW 2865 Guide
ucgradstrike 
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