CSU
Trustees vote for 9 % fee hike amid protests. Student fees will increase by $500. The 9-to-6 vote was taken behind closed
doors and out of public view after police removed chanting, whistle-blowing
protesters from the meeting room. Several protesters were taken into custody
after a group tried to storm the meeting room.
Remarks by Lilian Taiz, CFA President. November 17th the
faculty of this great university system will take the historic step of striking
on two campuses—Cal State East Bay and Dominguez Hills.
The vote comes as students, faculty and labor
groups have intensified pressure on University of California and Cal State
leaders to oppose further fee hikes and education cuts.
Students and members of the group ReFund
California tried to storm the front door and police released tear gas to push
them back. Several protesters were handcuffed and arrested.
Faculty and
staff have been more than patient as we have watched
this administration focus obsessively on the wellbeing of Presidents
and top managers and pay millions to consultants who duplicate the work
of existing departments.
We have waited for years
for this Chancellor and this Board to prioritize the people of California
and the people out on the campuses—the
students, staff and faculty —who built this system.
Instead, like so
many other leaders in this nation, you have talked openly about how a
crisis is a terrible thing to waste. You have administered “shock therapy”
by bombarding our students, faculty and staff with one ill conceived initiative
after another. These initiatives all try to do higher education on the
cheap.
There is a reason that
those in the trenches see most of you as the 1%-- isolated, remote, cut
off from the consequences of your decisions. Meeting after meeting, we watch
you make decisions that will have disastrous long term
consequences for a whole generation of Californians.
Meeting after meeting, we
watch you turn a deaf ear to the students who suffer from your decisions and
faculty and staff who are horrified by the
Instead of
listening, you act as if you ARE the CSU and the rest of us should, in the
words of your chair, just “shut up and get with the program.”
There is a reason that you
continually look to us to bail out the university by relentlessly raising fees
and refusing to compromise on
contracts. Like Wall Street and the Bank of America—you
are using us as ATMs while asking us to accept that THIS is the
new normal.
Well, it is NOT normal—and
we will not accept it. Enough really IS enough.
We
know our 3-minute speeches at your highly choreographed
meetings in front of this little microphone will never change
you.
But there’s a sea
change gaining momentum outside your tightly closed circle in
the world—and in the CSU.
We think it can change
even YOU.
The shift in understanding
on the part of the 99% puts your leadership—and your legacy--under
a bright spotlight. That shift can, we believe, open a
real conversation about the need for a board that is truly representative of
the people of this state and of the people they are supposed to lead.
We think that’s a conversation that is long
overdue.
Prepared Remarks by
California Faculty Association president Lillian Taiz to Cal State U. Trustees
at their meeting today.
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