Today students attempted to attend the “open” forum for the Committee for the Future in the alumni center. We were met again with a police presence and a whole lot of administrative bullshit. I have lost my patience with “meetings” that serve no purpose other than as lip service and I will no longer attend them.
How insulting is it that the student presenters, who articulated a visionary idea for the future of this university, gave their presentation to a sparse panel which did not even include Katehi? What could possibly have been a more important engagement for our Chancellor than attending to the future of this university and supporting our student voices?
Students were locked out of the building and spent about an hour banging against the closed blinds of the glass doors, demanding that they be let inside. Their voices were not even acknowledged by the members of the panel, though the panel was clearly uncomfortable with the noise coming into the building.
To the members of the Committee for the Future and to this schools administration:
I would like to first address this panel by saying shame on you.
I know that none of you stood at the doors to turn students away, but you all have agency and free will. For each voice that you’ve heard from inside this room, for each bang on these closed doors, you have made the conscious choice not to stand up, not to open these doors, not to bring this “public” meeting outside.
Shame on you for locking students out of this room and shame on you for the way in which you’ve allowed this university to perpetually lock out student voices.
How dare you claim this is a public meeting. This is not a public meeting, just as this is becoming less and less of a public university.
The power of our momentum comes directly out of our ability and choice to reject the tactics and categories that others use to divide us. This room, these walls, the power of your positions, only exist because you’ve been really good at convincing us that they have meaning.
We give you your power, and we have every ability to take it back.
We are fighting against the greed, the elitism, and the institutionalized discrimination put forth by President Yudof, the UC Regents, the administration, and our state’s government.
I hope it is clear to you that we are cemented to our commitment to keep on fighting.
I will not be attending another forum like this.
This meeting brings no real voice to students, especially because the administration, the president, and the regents who need to hear our voices are not here.
But, I would like to send out an invitation to all of you to come stand with us. We are so ready to welcome you.
But, if you choose not to join us, I’d like to caution you, get out of the way, because we WILL win this fight.
whose.university.OURuniversity. 
It appears this movement is flailing. It has attracted no new supporters since Mrak Occupation #2. The meeting in the quad today was an utter failure. The “movement” is now under control by a small group of people, which has turned what was a relatively spontaneous student anger into a small radical group of students who are primarily interested in protesting for the sake of protesting. Local news crews showed up, but they’re unlikely to keep showing up if it continues to be a waste of their time. You marched to and interrupted a meeting in which STUDENTS WERE ADVOCATING FOR YOU. You chose not to arrive at that meeting on time, and then protested when the doors were already shut. Protesting for the sake of protesting.
By straying further and further into a more and more radical mindset (such as the one you have proposed in this blog entry) you serve to undermine what could be a huge opportunity for the greater student body to rise up and demand more public support for education.
Though I am just one voice, and with these words clearly not one that you may want to pay any attention to, I speak in the hopes that for better or worse, the group is able to put down the torches for a second, and assess its short and long term goals that will bring in more people and ultimately be more effective.
Since you moderate comments (free speech?) who knows if this will be seen by anybody but you. If you do publish this, then I thank you for being open to this student’s dissenting opinion.
thanks for this feedback. as has been said before, this IS meant as an open forum, and all kinds of opinions are welcome. keep on reading, keep on commenting.
I will like to comment that the protests have attracted new people since the Mrak occupation #2, today we had a lot of new faces at the rally, besides the fact that the occupation was before the break for which we got back from today… As for what you think this movement is… I would really like to emphasize that the movement is what you make from it… Yes we did not have a successful rally today, but I did not see many people step up and talk… I’m not sure if you stood out and talk or you were waiting for someone to tell you what to do and how to react… please remember that this is not an movement put on by leaders but as a student body as a whole… If the media decided to not come it is their choice after all it does not seem as if they are advocating for us anyways…
As to why we protested… yes there was people advocating for us… BUT we were not able to enter.. the lateness to the meeting has nothing to do with this… we had as much right as anyone to enter and we were not allowed…. Please do I ask for you not to criticize a movement and immediately judge by our actions… we have motives for all actions….
You say radical mindset…. I agree with the blog protesting these so called dialogues… First… I attended both of these in which one was complete BULLSHIT and the second (the one with the Chancellor) seem as if the only reason she gave the room for us to give testimonials was simply as a way to be considerate as to what the media might say… SHE HAD TO!
It is beyond a radical mindset… Its about unifying people and not let this system keep oppressing us… See they have the power and by them dialoguing it seems as if they are only faking the listening we need to make this our terms because it wasnt until we decided to get together and protest at Mrack hall that they even considered cropping charges, or re-opening the talk about the co-ops….
Yes we do need to bring more people into the movement and thats why I encourage you to suggest better ideas, maybe other meetings, you used use constructive criticism and suggest and I do not mean to be disrespectful
We are ONE movement and as part of it we ALL have say in it… JOIN and help organize better ways to recruit more people into our movement…
Though the numbers may not have been as large as we’ve seen at the Mrak occupations or the last rally on the quad, I’d dispute that the rally was an “utter failure.” I saw a group, albeit small, of passionate, dedicated individuals who wanted their voices heard and were turned away.
As for the movement being controlled by any one person or one group of people, I’ve heard it stressed again and again that, at these rallies and these occupations, we are all autonomous individuals, capable of making our own decisions and voicing our own opinions. In fact, we’ve made it a point to always be aware of the number and diversity of voices within the group before making any definite demands or decisions. I’ve been impressed with those who remind the group that we are not all the students, just those present at whatever meeting is being held.
Students with opinions were turned away from a public meeting. This is fact, and though I may disagree that we should shun all these meetings, I agree that what happened today was contradictory to the purpose of the panel.
A Committee on the Future, without the students, who, I’ve heard, are the future.
I agree, maybe we shouldn’t shun all these meetings but I mean why don’t we make them come to us? It seems as if the students can only meet with her whenever she decides to have a meeting and may I add that the meeting last night was already schedule and she just kind of used it to address the issue but not necessarily because she wanted to dialogue, she was going to be meeting already so might as well just use it to dialogue with student about the issue. Now, that’s just one opinion on the meeting last night. I think that we need to make our voices heard and we need solidarity, and more solidarity. Yes, the rally was a failure but I think that shouldn’t discourage us from meeting like that, we should use these meetings to educate one another, and I think that as a student movement it also takes practice to make these meeting a complete success.
I personally feel we shouldn’t give up or feel disappointment after one incident, I think we should help one another and try to make these meetings successful.
Hi concerned student
This is not just about a radical mindset, which you seem to think has a negative connotation. This is about radical action. Attending meetings in which things are done as they have always been done (and have therefore have done nothing but keep us in our current situation) is wasting energy that can be used in direct action. You think the administration listens to the “student advocates”? Your logic is the logic of the administration- oh yeah join those student groups so that we can ignore you more wholeheartedly.
Its not that the movement has failed to attract more people, its that many of us already involved chose to rest up for our next big action. Radical action begets other more moderate actions/reactions. This is not protesting for the sake of protesting as you call it, this is protesting something much larger than the ideas you propose. This neoliberal agenda of the administration is only part of the larger agenda of capital and that is what is at stake here. That is what we attack and seek to bring down.
Revoking the fee hike only brings us to where we already were, and they will still have the power to impose other fee hikes, the system still holds, no one is held accountable, nothing is undone. No, this is a beast we are dealing with and there is nothing but to bring the fucker down.
Concerned students have radical solutions. Nothing else truly conveys our “concern”
We are tired of begging for their scraps.
If there is one thing the administration has made clear, it is that they themselves are radical: how else could we describe a 300% fee increase in a few short years, 32% this quarter after another increase over the summer? So it is unclear, to say the least, why a moderate response would seem called for, or why one would believe that a moderate response would affect the administration’s radical restructuring of the university.
Indeed, if there is an occsasion for moderation, it would be in the quite moderate virtue of examining the evidence. The fora offered yesterday are scarcely new — there is in fact no shortage of opportunities for dialogue and conversation, public platforms, brown bag lunches and fireside chats. Where exactly is the evidence that participating in these is halting or even slowing the privatization and annihiliation of the public university? We must concede that the insistence on performing at these staged shows, and supposing despite all evidence that this is a real political intervention, is a fringe idea at best.
while i was somewhat disappointed by the small numbers and lack of coordination at the rally/march yesterday, i continue to be inspired by the persistence of the students and workers at ucd.
i do firmly believe in the efficacy and strength of the spontaneity and organic nature of the early actions (mrak 1 & 2, dutton, various marches…) and particularly the ways that this has allowed for the emergence of a disperse, “leaderless” movement.
however, if this movement is to endure the inherent challenges of organizing as students in a space that cannot help but be hindered by the academic calendar, then i want to insist that we take seriously the question of coordination, organization, and strategy… let’s keep talking to each other in open forums that allow for us to share our radical creative energy to continually develop the most effective approaches for our ongoing struggle.