Here is what I wrote:

—
Dear Chancellor Birgeneau,

My name is Cecilia Tran. I am an academic caseworker from the Student Advocate Office as well as a former editor of the campus Asian Pacific American newsmagazine.

While in many ways I think the occupation of Wheeler was a flawed form of protest, it truly indicates the extreme isolation students have felt as our futures have been decided for us without a shadow of transparency or democratic process. Did I think this method of protest would make a single UC regent reconsider the fee hikes? Not for a moment. At the same time, I have come to the realization that all of our student actions, whether they are perceived to be acceptable forms of protest or not, have fallen on deaf ears. Although I came to UC Berkeley to be empowered by a world-class education, I have never felt so powerless.

I feel disempowered when I read emails in which you claim to be in solidarity with us, yet do not provide an actual space or means for students to collaborate on solutions. How many times have you been at the picket lines, used your position to pressure the Regents, or seriously met with students for input (as opposed to public relations purposes)?

I feel disempowered when you try to pass off responsibility by framing the crisis solely as an illness within the state system. If UC Berkeley is to be a model for other universities, why are we not addressing dysfunctions such as the disproportionate increase in administrative positions to faculty positions on our campus? With some of the brightest minds within our school walls, why is the administration not seeking student-faculty generated alternatives?

I feel disempowered when I see and hear about my peers being brutalized by the policemen you sent to diffuse the Friday protest. I urge you to critically assess how sending armed riot police to monitor unarmed students played a role in escalating the events on Friday. I am greatly disturbed when I see the gaping disparity between what you called a “peaceful end” to the protest and the countless testimonies concerning police aggression. The images and video footage circulating around the nation confirms these reports.

I urge you to redeem the reputation of this school and restore my hope in the UC system.

Sincerely,
Cecilia Tran

Calendar of Upcoming Events, Talks, and Meetings

• Wednesday, September 16
  • “Sowing vs. Eating Our Seed Corn: The Expansion of Public Education During the Great Depression Compared to the Schwarzenegger/Yudof Trajectory Today”: Wednesday, September 16, 4:00 PM, 575 McCone Hall. Gray Brechin, Visiting Scholar in Department of Geography; Project Scholar of Living New Deal Project
  • “General Assembly of all UCB Students, Faculty, Staff and Community Members”: Wednesday, September 16, 4-6 PM, Multicultural Center in MLK Student Union.  The purpose of this event is to have an open discussion about the budget crisis, fee increases, cutbacks, etc. in more detail before September 24th. It is designed to give everyone a democratic space to discuss the situation, to discuss what to do (not only for the 24th but also beyond). There will be another General Assembly called the evening of the 24th to debrief about the day’s events and to plan next steps.
  • “Faculty Perspectives on the Current UC Budget Crisis”: Wednesday, September 16, 7:30-8:45 PM + discussion, ASUC Chambers, 1st floor of Eshleman Hall. Featuring Catherine M. Cole, George Lakoff, Chris Kutz, Alan Karras, Brian Barsky, Fiona Doyle, Ananya Roy.
  • Student Worker Action Team (SWAT) Meetings: every Wednesday, 7-9 PM, 170 Barrows.
    

The Student Worker Action Team is a group comprised of students (grad, undergrad, visiting students), faculty (lecturers, ladder rank faculty, visiting professors), staff, and community members who have come together to fight the budget cuts and to fight for public education. They have organized townhalls about the budget cuts and are in the process of organizing and mobilizing for September 24th and beyond. Everyone and anyone is welcome to come.

• Wednesday, September 23
  • “Ladder Rank Faculty Teach-In Panel About Budget Cuts”: Wednesday, September 23, 7-9 PM, location TBA (but likely in Pauley Ballroom).

• Thursday, September 24
  • UPTE (University Professional and Technical Employees) Strike: Thursday, September 24, 7:15 AM – 5:00 PM, UCB and UC-wide. UPTE is asking that all members of the campus community support our Sept 24th strike by not crossing our picket line of the UCB campus. We welcome everyone to join us on the line in solidarity. The picket will last 7:15 to 5pm. From 12pm to 2pm we will move our picket to Sather Gate in support of a student, faculty, staff and community rally on Sproul Plaza which we encourage all to attend.
  • UCB Faculty/Staff/Student Rally: Thursday, September 24, 12-2 PM, Sproul Plaza. Featured speakers and presentations.
  • General Assembly for Students, Staff, Faculty and Community Members at UCB: Time and Location TBA. An opportunity to debrief about the day’s events and plan for the next steps.
• Saturday, September 26
  • Defend Our Education: Saturday, September 26, 10-3 PM, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave, Jack Adams Hall, Upper Level of the Cesar Chavez Student Center (Pablo Rodriguez, pabrodriguez@yahoo.com
  EDIT: I feel badly for not including this, which would be quite obvious to include, but APAC (Asian Pacific American Coalition) is hosting an open workshop about how budget cuts will specifically affect the API community on campus on Sunday, 9/20 in 247 Dwinelle at 8:00. Please come if interested!

If you are free, come to our first decal meeting in 20 Wheeler! A decal is a class you can take at Cal that’s run by students. There will be baked goods, discussion, and fun :) We will be giving an overview of hardboiled, both the publication and the decal, and providing a little taste of our purpose in the larger community.

So come on by and check us out! :)

Here are some follow-up links to this article. It’s reassuring to know that Asian Americans aren’t going to take this sitting down. Hell yes!

“New UC admissions policy gives white students a better chance, angers Asian-American community” By Lisa M. Krieger, Mercury News

“Asian-American education group seeks delay in UC admissions reform” By Matt Krupnick, Contra Costa Times

Some good quotes:

“How can we not be concerned?” said Patrick Hayashi, a retired UC Berkeley and systemwide leader. “The projections show our community will be decimated. We have to keep in mind that these numbers represent real people.”

“The changes over the last two years took place inside the ivory tower and closed the door, without the public’s knowledge,” he said.

Added Hayashi: “A public university should be more responsive. Private schools can do anything they want. But public schools have a different set of objectives. “It will have a devastating impact on our community. It is a fatal mistake to think it will blow over.”

“It’s affirmative action for whites,” said UC-Berkeley professor Ling-chi Wang. “I’m really outraged “… and profoundly disappointed with the institution.”

Now let me know. How pissed are YOU?

The need for us, as students, to defend our education against the administration has come yet again with the plan to restructure the International Area Studies (IAS) department at UC Berkeley. The IAS houses 6 undergrad majors such as Peace and Conflict Studies, Development Studies, and even the Global Poverty minor. The Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost (EVCP) George Breslauer recently announced that the position of dean in IAS would be replaced by a director and the IAS Teaching Program would be demoted to the Institute of IAS.

What’s the big deal about this name game? The title of dean represents a certain degree of importance and power and as such, they would have a larger role in the administrative happenings. This demotion not only takes away this power but makes the statement that Berkeley does not value international knowledge despite the fact that we live in a globalized community. In response to the student and professors’ badgering, Breslauer said that this move would save $250,000 annually. You know what, Breslauer? We’re calling your bluff because, as Prof. Ananya Roy has stated, you’re going to be hiring three individuals to replace the dean– how much money will that save? If you want to restructure a program on campus, can’t you please give us real and foolproof reasons as to why and how it will be beneficial? Breslauer has outright refused to talk to students in an open and public dialogue. This is a serious issue of transparency.

As a Development Studies major, this move impacts me in a very real way. I took on this major because I knew it was interdisciplinary and would not confine me to viewing the world’s issues from one field, one perspective. This major allows me to not only better understand the Third World but pick a geographic area of concentration. I have chosen to focus on Southeast Asia and, in doing so, I have had the opportunity to learn so much about Viet Nam, my heritage as a Vietnamese American woman, and better understand the present day conflicts of the region. This program represents the passion for cultural understanding on the Berkeley campus and we are all stakeholders in it. We cannot afford to let the administration tell us that our concerns are not valid. In true TWLF fashion, let’s tell them that this is our education and OUR university.

For more information, please go to: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=75491306920&ref=ts
To sign the petition to stop restructuring: http://www.calpetitions.com/petition/support-ias/

Guest Starring… Activists Yuri Kochiyama and Helen Zia and Members of the original twLF / AAPA (Asian American Political Association).

W-W-Whaaaat??

That’s right. You did not hear wrong.

This will be a kick-ass, cuh-ray-zee, mind-blowing event. If you aren’t registered, and if you hadn’t prepared yourself for this weekend yet, what the heck are you doing?? CLICK HERE.

hardboiled will be making a strong showing there: you better too!

The API Education and Languages NOW! (APIEL!) org is putting on open forum to talk about how to strengthen language education at Berkeley, recession or not. I know that it’s not necessarily easy for the administration because they do have the tough job of finding ways to make ends meet but we need to let them know that what we really can’t afford is losing language education. Come to the event to voice your opinions and learn something!

They’re going to have amazing speakers like Prof. Ling-Chi Wang (activist since the Third World Liberation Front), Prof. Elaine Kim, Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, and Vice Chancellor of Equity and Inclusion Gibor Basri.

When: Thursday, February 19th, 2009 from 4:00-7:00 pm
Where: Heller Lounge, MLK Jr. Student Union

Got questions? Contact apielnow@gmail.com. Check out the fb event here.

I know this is slightly out of date but I just wanted to comment on an email that Chancellor Birgeneau sent out last Tuesday. If you didn’t already know (meaning you live in a shoebox), California’s broke as heck and it just keeps getting worse. According to Birgeneau, the budget is going to be reduced by $30-40 million. While the email wasn’t particularly unusual (we will do our best to keep the quality of your education blah blah..) one tidbit caught my eye:

“We intend to avoid the practice of making cuts by simply allocating an across-the-board budget reduction of “x” percent to all vice chancellors, deans, and directors.”

Déjà vu, much? With the events of the EALC budget cuts last year in mind (read up on that here), I can’t help but hear the ominous organ music playing in the background. Reading between the lines, I predict that this means doing whatever necessary to protect the math and science departments while devastating the Ethnic Studies/Social Science departments that have been notoriously under-funded to begin with. Yes, we are in a massive recession and I wholeheartedly agree that cuts need to be made but it just seems that with cut allocations the administration begins deeming which types of knowledge are more valuable than others. Undoubtedly, the Berkeley’s sciences are renowned but Cal also boasts the best English and East Asian Language and Cultures departments on the West Coast.

So yes, nothing has been written in stone yet and I really hope my predictions are wrong but keep an eye out for future decisions. Also, the email said that our PG&E bill was 8 million last year??? I’m pretty sure we could bring that down a lot by being a bit more mindful of our energy usage.

peace|love|& christmas cheer.

Excuse the lack of posts. Currently, all of core is down and MIA. I can’t even get one of them to hang out with me. It’s project this or homework that. Sheesh. Needless to say, all of UC Berkeley is currently in…

FINALS WEEK(S). Or something close to it.

Yes. That means camping out in the library 24/7, drinking even the coffee grinds that remain sitting in the bottom of your coffee maker, and gluing your hands to your laptop: desperate attempts to get that satisfactory grade in your course that may mean nothing to you years from now.

BUT. I am not exempt from this either. I just wanted to update all our lovely readers about our whereabouts and promise a plethora of posts afterwards when we’re all relaxing at home during winter break, going crazy from hardboiled withdrawals and aching for something to do.

So be sure to come back in a few days! We promise new posts. Really. Don’t leave us. We promise we’ll be good again.