Check out UC Democracy for an in-depth report on the need to Democratize the UC Regents!
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UC Democracy, please! It’s been 141 years of um, no accountability of the very people you (or your parents) write that check to!!
In this time of severe budget cuts and CalGrant suspensions, the effects of having Regents who are unaccountable have never been clearer… we deserve to ELECT leaders we know will make smart choices, and the old boy’s club hasn’t the cleanest track record.
PAST
Ever since the UC was established in 1868, people have struggled and slowly democratized the University system. The original forms of governing the university were shaped by UC President and Skull & Bonesman, Daniel C. Gilman, who touted the elitist models of Michigan and Yale (where trustees appoint their personal friends as successors). And indeed Republican businessmen were appointed as the first UC Regents. In 1874, a coalition upset with corrupt state politics and a university astray decided to challenge the university’s power structures. They lamented that Regents consisted of “merchants, lawyers, physicians and devines [sic]” and lacked any “practical and experienced educator” or any working class representative. The coalition proposed legislation to choose Regents through elections in each of California’s districts. This legislation, along with a similar bill in 1876, was defeated by a corrupt, priviliged state legislature. When California’s Constitution was revised a few years later in 1879, negotiators snuck an even stronger anti-democratic provision in at the last minute with little debate, which established the current structure of the UC Regents. To this day, UC Regents are personally appointed by the California state Governor.
The Regents continued to be challenged throughout the 1970s. Concerned citizens successfully pushed legislation to make the Regents’ meetings public (1970), the Senate ratify the Governor’s nominees (1972), and Regents’ terms be reduced from 16 to 12 years (1974). Also in 1974, an advisory board was set up to review the governor’s appointees and Regents were required to reflect the economic, social and cultural aspects of the California population (ha!).
In the early 1990s, after years of budget cuts, graduate students began organizing for working rights. This overall discontent contributed to the 1993 founding of a SF-based group called the Committee for a Responsible University, a group that ultimately formulated a 'Plan to Democratize the Regents.' Over the past few years, new coalitionslike UC Democracy have reemphasized the need to democratize the regents, partly out of concern about numerous recent issues like pay scandals, rising fees, affirmative action, and renewed emphasis on nuclear weapons.
PRESENT
Last month, Governor Schwarzenegger nominated multi-millionaire real estate tycoon Hadi Makarechian after Makarechian contributed $289,000 for Schwarzenegger’s political campaigns. Makarechian’s firm failed to pay $718,000 in fees to local governments, raising serious questions about civic responsibility just as the UC battles with campus communities across the state about land use and cost sharing.
The Gov’s other nominee this year, John Hotchkis, and his firms gave more than $470,000 since 2000 to Republican politicians, including groups campaigning for Schwarzenegger. While Hotchkis was serving on the UC Regent's investment advisory board, the Regents gave a $430 million contract to a firm in which Hotchkis had a financial stake. Democratic Governor Davis did much the same, appointing as Regents allies who’d funded Democratic political campaigns: Hotchkinson ($145,000), Marcus ($215,000), Pattiz ($300,000), etc.
New UC President Mark Yudoff – hired at an outrageous salary of over $900,000 per year – acknowledges problems of accountability, but only proposes narrow changes in his recent ‘Accountability Framework.’
FUTURE
Real accountability requires democratization. Possible options include electing most or all regents on a state-wide or district basis (with public financing, or required media slots, to eliminate expensive media campaigns), and/or local elections with students, workers, faculty, and community members making the choice. While elections will help, reform must be joined with ongoing self-reflection and watch-dogging.
Check out all of the awesome coalitions that are forming and decals being offered as this movement takes flight! A congress of UC Berkeley groups agreed democratizing the Regents would open doors to progress on all of our issues… together we can do more!
A democratic UC is a fundamental human right, an historic challenge, and an opportunity for all of us that can rejuvenate our collective sense of purpose. The UC can again be an inspiration to California and the World. Fiat Lux.
Here is a rough outline of ten basic future steps to consider:
Author a convincing argument about why the Regents’ selection process needs to be democratized & publicize this
Figure out a process to formulate new criteria & process for selecting regents (or other structures)
- Author a ballot measure to change the California constitution’s provisions on the Regent selection process
- Contact people and organizations that would support such changes
- Gain popular support and fend off resistance by corporations, the CA assembly, and the Governor
- Collect signatures for the ballot measure
- Figure out a process to formulate new criteria and a more democratic processes for selecting the UC president
- Author a resolution
- Gain support of the UC academic senate
- Keep watch on the changes – democracy is an ongoing process!
RESOURCES AND MORE INFO
An "Education for Democratization” Decal was held Spring 2009, focusing on the need to democratize the Regents and the UC System
Check out Prof. Charlie Schwartz's University Probe blog
And visit democratizetheregents.org to monitor UC nefariousness