To California Student Protesters: Why Target the Regents?

At the end of the day, the regents have hardly done anything criminal. The situation is, in fact, exactly the opposite. The regents need to raise the money to make up for the lost state funding (almost $1.5 billion), lest the state eliminate even more classes that students may need to graduate, fire more staff, lower more wages, reduce more assistance hours, etc. Many are concerned that further cuts in services and wages will only lead to an exodus of talented professors and staff, who will be attracted to other private universities that can afford higher wages.

From a recent New York Times piece highlighting the decline of the University of California:

No wonder, then, that people like Bruce Fuller, a Berkeley professor of education and public policy, are asking themselves whether it is time to move on.

As co-director of the Institute for Human Development, an interdisciplinary research group that suffered big cuts, Mr. Fuller worries that the unit is losing its intellectual excitement and its ability to support his grant proposals. Then, too, he lost his two best graduate students last year to Stanford.

"To stay on top, you need to be bringing in new people," Mr. Fuller said. "And I'm not sure how many of my most stimulating colleagues will still be here in three years."

So although he was not swayed last year when the University of North Carolina came calling, Mr. Fuller said, he may be more receptive this year.

UC President Mark Yudof even said as much: "My biggest concern is an exodus of faculty."

There can be no debate that an inability to pay professors and maintain the ambitious research programs and grants will only diminish the quality of a UC education, and thus decrease the value of students' tuition. It doesn't seem like a viable option.

The second option is to close that fund gap by increasing student tuition fees -- and this is the path regents took, although only a portion of their decision has been brought to attention. By increasing student tuition fees 32 percent in time for next fall (and a portion of it comes into effect next semester), UC can close that shortfall, and continue to attract high-profile academia until the economy rebounds and the budget gets back on track. At the same time, UC is demanding an infusion of $913 million from Sacramento. From the U.C.:

Yudof said it was important to view the increases in the context of the overall budget plan and the ongoing financial downturn that has all but paralyzed the state budget process.

"We can no longer tolerate fiscal uncertainty and continual cutting as we wait for Sacramento to navigate through this crisis," he said. "We will keep working hard with state political leaders to restore the university's funding to an appropriate level. In the meantime, however, we must act now to shore up our own finances if we are to preserve the quality and ensure the access that California expects from the world's premier public research university system."

So, in a fiscal sense, all of those being hurt by the UC budget cuts simply cannot have their cake and eat it, too -- the reality of the situation dictates that UC cannot hold the line on tuition while simultaneously keeping up all of the services.

That's what the students should be protesting -- not the decision by the regents to deal with the reality of the situation, but the reality of the situation itself.

How has California gotten to the point where it can no longer adequately fund a system of education that, set up in the 1960s, has been an envy of the world since? How has California gotten to the point where it must send out flimsy IOUs to pay for all of its financial obligations? How has California gotten to the point where the state is spending $26 billion more than it brings in?

Well, of course, it depends on whom you ask. This writer would suggest that the state has given too much in retirement pensions -- what are referred to as "Cadillac plans" -- to government employees, which are rigorously protected and defended by state unions (see this state press release on the subject, which estimates a $40-billion unfunded liability for public pensions). There may be a new initiative on the ballot in 2010, the Public Employee Benefits Reform Initiative, which would save an estimated $500 billion over 30 years by limiting benefits.

Does anyone doubt that those same unions that are joining forces with the protesters would turn on the students in an instant if the students began to question those public pension costs?

Or maybe it's California's massive welfare obligations, which are triple the rates of the rest of the nation and 30 percent of the nation's total, spiked up by the poverty and unskilled labor that California is bringing in through its unaddressed immigration crisis.

If you ask someone of a more liberal persuasion, they'd say raise taxes and generate more revenue, although one could point out that, according to the Tax Foundation, California ranks sixth in the nation in heaviest tax burden on its residents.

Regardless of the answer, one thing is certain -- the budget cuts to the UC system are simply out of the regents' control, and protesting them will accomplish little. Presidents can resign and new presidents can take office, but that still will not change the fact that the UC needs more than $1 billion from the state to operate efficiently.

Instead of driving buses of students down to Los Angeles to protest outside the regents' office at UCLA (where the vote took place), why not direct those students to the General Assembly in Sacramento? Why not shout down our legislators and governor, or question and criticize the actions of our political leaders? Why not actually fight for a solution, instead of complaining about an abstract problem?

UC-Berkeley's Student Worker Action Team (SWAT) may be right when it says, "Our bosses seek to destroy and stifle this potential through their cynical cuts, claiming a budget crisis when it is really a crisis of priorities and leadership." It is a crisis of priorities -- but there is no reason to think the regents' priorities and intentions are any different from theirs.

So, fellow students, instead, take your message to Sacramento. Show them that this election cycle, hell will hath no fury like a student scorned.