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The signal fires from the third precinct in Minneapolis are clear: the end of this world is coming . The University of California will have no place in it. The modern university is woven into a system of settler colonialism, racial capitalism, anti-Blackness, and state violence. As the current Black-led anticolonial wave gestures toward the implosion of colonial-capitalist civilization, the University must come to terms with its own negation.

California is the fifth largest economy in the world, and the University of California is the third-largest employer in the state. The UC system was not only sedimented on the stolen lands of the Ohlone, Nisenan, Patwin, Tongva, Chumash, Kumeyaay, Acjachemen, Miwok, Cahuilla, Luiseño, and Serrano; it generated its early operating capital via the land-grab process afforded by the Morrill Act. In their investigative piece, " Land-grab universities: Expropriated Indigenous land is the foundation of the land-grant university system ," Robert Lee and Tristan Ahtone reveal that:

The University of California located all of its grant among these stolen lands. To capitalize on its 150,000 acres, the university ran a real estate operation that sold plots on installment plans, generating a lucrative combination of principal and interest payments. In the late 19th century, income from the fund - traceable to the lands of the Miwok, Yokuts, Gabrieleño, Maidu, Pomo and many more - covered as much as a third of the University of California's annual operating expenses. (2020)

The endowment funds generated by the University of California's wholesale theft and speculation of Indigenous lands amounted to over $19 million, as represented in 2020 USD. As Dene scholar Glen Coulthard argues, "settler-colonialism is territorially acquisitive in perpetuity" (Coulthard 2014, 152). For the UC system, this "primitive accumulation" the outright dispossession of Indigenous peoples from their lands is constitutive of both its real estate investments (the UC is also the largest landlord in California) and the initial operating capital that seeded its historical and ongoing accumulation and dispossession.

In "Abolitionist University Studies: An Invitation" , Abigail Boggs, Eli Meyerhoff, Nick Mitchell, and Zach Schwartz-Weinstein critique the university as an institution that makes itself legible through shifting regimes of accumulation. Inspired by the work and analysis of abolitionist Ruth Wilson Gilmore (e.g. Golden Gulag ), they argue that historical cycles of global capital accumulation have continuously reconstituted the university as a malleable site to secure and mobilize surpluses of finance capital, land, labor, and state capacity. Thus, what we see critiqued today as the "neoliberal university" is merely the most recent materialization of austerity and privatization, underwritten by Indigenous dispossession, settler coloniality, anti-Blackness, border imperialism, and racial capitalism. The University is mutually constituted through these social relations of colonial and imperial violence. It is a stabilizing force within the system of global accumulation. The full scale violence of white settler capital in the United States, and California specifically, would be unintelligible without it.

The UC cannot be saved, nor should it be reformed. As Audre Lorde tells us, "the masters' tools will never dismantle the masters' house." Abolition is the only option.

Abolish the UC is a formation of BIPOC, queer, and first-generation graduate student workers and our accomplices, drawn together by shared visions and antagonisms. The University wasn't made for us, nor is it the locus of our desires. Some of us have been fired and cast aside by the administration, while others wrestle with the discomfort of our own complicity and the understanding that we'll soon face a future of debt with little hope of employment anyway. We've used this space as an opportunity to talk with one another and to tell each other how we got here: how we arrived at abolition; what we mean when we say it; and importantly, why it matters, especially for our communities. We have come together with stories to tell and with lessons learned. We know more are forthcoming, but we want to mark this moment with our words, because we are now consciously reimagining a world beyond the University.

We are here for many reasons, arriving from just as many different paths. We've come here from places of frustration, despair, hope, love, and inspiration. Exhausted by the patronizing language of so-called allies and the tokenization of our identities and struggles, we've found refuge among comraderie and community.

For first-gen and poor students of color in particular, the university conjures up feelings of cognitive dissonance. Commonly viewed as a site of refuge for those on the underside of capitalist society, the university banks (literally) on its myth of erudition and progress. Yet once they arrive, students are forced to conform to the folly of professionalism and the performance of class-belonging that are as discomfiting as they are false. Our feelings of uneasiness and anxiety are dismissed as maladjustment, to be remedied by acclamations and more conformity. This is our sentipensar , our holistic way of thinking with feelings bestowed on us by our ancestors. It is our way of recognizing that something is wrong, that we are conflicted caught between the hopes and dreams of our community and the violent nature of the university we encounter once we arrive.

As we build towards strong and viable alternatives, we will count on those on the inside, the saboteurs and subversives. Until we have our alternatives, we will rely on accomplices and guides in the undercommons, while we conspire and protect one another. The University cannot be recovered because, as revolutionary Assata Shakur reminds us, "no one is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them. No one is going to teach you your true history, teach you your true heroes, if they know that knowledge will help set you free."

Abolition is a political tradition rooted in the tactics, ideas, and efforts to end slavery, colonialism, patriarchy and the nation-state. Abolition is a framework that asks us to radically reimagine institutions such as the UC, in light of the entity's complicity with genocide, slavery and the military and prison industrial complexes. Resisting neoliberalism, dismantling capitalism, and class struggle at large transform within this abolitionist framework. Thinking and moving deeper and beyond, abolition asks us to make these intersectional, complex connections and to operate from a politic that renders oppressive systems obsolete by building radical and community-grounded alternatives. One example of this is the abolitionist work to close prisons and detention centers while building restorative systems of community care and transformative justice in their place. For the UC, this would mean dismantling the increasingly privatized, corporatized and militarized university an institution that is itself already built on the foundational violence of settler colonialism, genocide, and slavery while also creating new ways of knowing and educating each other. We follow the path of our abolitionist ancestors such as Harriet Tubman, WEB DuBois, and Frantz Fanon, as well as (r)evolutionary elders and teachers such as Angela Davis, Ruthie Gilmore, and Dean Spade. Historical movements such as the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) also guide this work, especially at the UC, as they envisioned and won a Third World College in 1969. As an ongoing struggle, we continue to be guided by the TWLF's principles of self-determination, solidarity, and the creation of an education directly relevant to the needs of Black, Indigenous and POC communities.

However, more than a political vision of a world without prisons or policing, abolition is a project (or series of projects) of generative negation of the world as it exists, and of its racialized and gendered violences. Drawn from the Black Radical Tradition, abolition's genealogy comes from hundreds of years of anticolonial struggles against conquest, white supremacy, and racial capitalism. It exceeds the utility of the "political," and forces us to grapple with the implication that abolition really might mean abolishing everything . In the face of this, what is a vision?

We propose to start with a feeling, a visceral one. A feeling of yearning to be . Of practicing freedom . Of finding freedom in each other. Of failing ourselves and each other often, and living in our imperfection. Of acknowledging what is incommensurable within and between our visions of freedom. Of lighting (metaphorical) fires and letting them spread without knowing if the world(s) we desire will be found in the ashes. Of anarchic practices of freedom that render unintelligible the "well-meaning" non-profit types who gatekeep our struggles and our dreams. Of these anti-political antagonisms against racialized policing and the State that escape the narrow language and politics of "organizing," and the lofty "radical" academic theorizations of freedom.

To "Abolish the UC" goes beyond the reform-minded proposals to transform the UC into a worker-student coop, and beyond the now-ubiquitous calls from within student movements to "democratize" the University. Democratize what? And for whom? We realize that there is nothing to be gained from appealing to an ideal. As a social relation, the University is a site for the reproduction of the structural violences of settler colonialism and racial capitalism. The same institution exploits our labor, and forces students and workers into ever greater levels of precarity. Much like the institution of policing, it cannot be reformed, democratized, or "saved." It is absolutely inseparable from state violence and capital accumulation, and serves to reproduce The World the one dependent on the labor of the people whom it will not hesitate to teargas, fire upon, surveil, charge, and expel should they protest their conditions or refuse to work. We are not here to render the incommensurable commensurate. We are not interested in securing the futurity of the "public" and "democratic" university whether as an institution, as a formation, as a structure, or a constellation of social and more-than-human relations. We will not resign "abolition" to the metaphorical. Abolition is not a metaphor.

Coalescing through the wave of labor and student organizing that kicked off within and beyond the UC system in 2019, we share common frustrations with the approaches, visions, and whiteness of the mainstream student movement. To "Abolish the UC" means resisting interpellation by white radicals who can't hope to grasp the content (or even the form) of our desires. It means pushing back against the reformism of those "middle managers" of the struggle liberals, social-democrats, and "socialists" who retain an idealist investment in the University and their positions within it. And it means a steadfast antagonism to all forms of hierarchy, coercion, and control: to prisons, borders, property, and policing. Stopping short of imagining a world beyond the University beyond the institutionalization of knowledge formation and praxis is to resign ourselves to the logics of racial capitalism, accumulation, dispossession, settler colonialism, and anti-Blackness. We reject the limits of the University; we reject the University itself. Instead, we ask, what exists beyond its horizons?

We are interested in models of organizing, strategies, and tactics that refuse recuperation into the University's mechanisms of self-valorization. What strategies can we imagine that subvert and destabilize the structural relations on which this institution depends, rather than concretize them via the rhetoric of the "public university" or "democratizing the university"? What are strategies that instead center expropriation of resources that both systemically challenge accumulation while also ensuring the ability to support and center the communities most targeted by its violence?

There is no salvation for an institution invested in dispossession, deportation, and immiseration. The UC has destroyed communities that came before us and continues to enact violence on the people and communities to whom we are accountable. We've been left with no other option. This is why we say: "Abolish the UC!"

While we inhabit various levels of engagement and complicity with the University and its violences, we view our various positionalities as a means to expropriate resources and institutional access to serve the larger project of abolition. Academia is dangerously recuperative, so we aspire to remain forever (if imperfectly and incompletely) unintelligible and antagonistic to those who would have us compromise our desires for something else . We're here to cause a fuckin ruckus.

What follows is a collection of articles, creative works, personal reflections, and skill shares from comrades, accomplices, and homies across the UC (and beyond) who dare to reckon with the world-ending implications of abolition, and who share a dissatisfaction with the 'radical' visions currently on offer in campus-based organizing. These contributions mean to disorient and subvert the narrative that the UC tells us about itself. They expose the violence that is constitutional to this miserable configuration of debt, dispossession, and exploitation, which the UC likes to refer to as "teaching, research and public service."

We hope this Guide serves to elaborate an emergent (anti)political tendency rooted in uncompromising anticolonialism, anticapitalism, and abolition. This is by nature an incomplete project, and we invite you all to continue, expand, and challenge these conversations wherever you are. While we engage deeply with various ideas and theories, we do not aspire to form another banal academic journal for armchair radicals. We do not want to be legible to the University. We want to destroy its gaze. Our goal is to spark something different across the physical (and virtual) spaces of the colonial-capitalist University, widening and expanding the cracks in its foundation, and using its ruins as kindling for insurrectionary fires. Don't get it twisted: this is a declaration of war.
Out of the seminars and into the streets!
Love, rage, and solidarity always,

'Abolish the UC!'

Walk with us: disorientation.guide; ; abolishtheUC@protonmail.com @a_place4us_ (Twitter); @AbolishtheUC ( IG/ Twitter); @abolishUCD (IG)

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Disorientation Guide - Abolish the University of California

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The signal fires from the third precinct in Minneapolis are clear: the end of this world is coming . The University of California will have no place in it. The modern university is woven into a system of settler colonialism, racial capitalism, anti-Blackness, and state violence.

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UCI: Repression of Palestine Solidarity Activism & Collaboration with Israel Lobby

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UCI: Repression of Palestine Solidarity Activism & Collaboration with Israel Lobby

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https://ucisjp.wordpress.com/our-history/

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/israel-lobbys-kenneth-marcus-resigns-trumps-civil-rights-enforcer

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UCI CHARGES FEES 4 LATE RENTAL PAYMENTS AMID COVID

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UCI CHARGES FEES 4 LATE RENTAL PAYMENTS AMID COVID

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In April, UCI sent out an email stating they would not be charging students fees for late rental payments amid COVID yet students are still receiving late fees in June.

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June 2020

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UC Davis paid consultants at least $175,000 to clean up its online image after students and alumni were pepper sprayed by campus police during an otherwise peaceful protest in 2011.

Newly released documents obtained by the Sacramento Bee show the university worked to clean up both its own image and that of Chancellor Linda Katehi.

In one case, UC Davis worked with Maryland company Nevins & Associates on a six-month contract that paid $15,000 a month, according to a copy of the contract. That contract was signed in January 2013, just a few months after the UC regents agreed to pay a settlement to 21 UC Davis students and alumni who sued the university.

The widely criticized November 2011 incident, captured in videos that quickly went viral on the Internet, triggered nationwide controversy about the forceful response by university police to student protesters.

The videos showed an officer spraying seated students directly in their faces at close range during an Occupy rally. At the time, the Occupy Wall Street movement had spilled onto college campuses, combining with student anger over rising tuition and cuts to higher education to spur protests and sit-ins.

In addition to public outrage, the episode also spawned a raft of Internet memes that featured the "casually pepper spray everything cop."

As part of its contract, Nevins & Associates said it would work to remedy the "venomous rhetoric about UC Davis and the chancellor" through "strategic placement of online content."

(Paul Sakuma / Associated Press)

The company agreed to launch an aggressive and comprehensive online campaign to eliminate negative search results through modifications to "existing and future content" and by creating more original content as needed.

One means of doing this, the company said, is by diluting negative viral content with a surge of positive stories on different topics. Nevins & Associates also suggested UC Davis adopt Google platforms to "expedite the eradication of references to the pepper spray incident in search results."

In June 2014, the university awarded the PR firm IDMLOCO a contract for $82,500 to design a "comprehensive search engine results management strategy." The documents outlining the contracts were released to the Sacramento Bee in response to requests filed under the California Public Records Act.

IDMLOCO said it would be able to achieve a "reasonable balance of positive natural search results" and identify "key messages and themes" the company could use to counter negative results.

The company was awarded two more contracts last year - one for $8,000 a month up to a limit of $96,000 and another for $22,500 a month, or a maximum of $67,500.

Under those contracts, IDMLOCO said it would create an "integrated social media program for executive communications" and provide "an assessment of the University's Strategic Communications redesign."

In a statement Thursday, UC Davis officials said that reporting on the "value" of the campus was an important part of overall communications strategy.

"It is important that the excellent work underway at UC Davis with respect to educating the next generation of students, pursuing groundbreaking research, and providing important services to the state is not lost during a campus crisis, including the crisis that ensued following the extremely regrettable incident when police pepper-sprayed student protesters in 2011," the statement said.

Police at first contended that the spray was the most appropriate tool on hand to deal with what they described as an unruly mob encircling the officers.

However, a UC report in April 2012 declared that the pepper spraying violated policy and that school leaders badly bungled the handling of that campus protest. The investigating task force strongly rebutted campus police claims that the Occupy demonstrators who had pitched tents on a UC Davis quad posed a violent threat.

In 2013, the former UC Davis police officer who pepper sprayed the campus protesters received $38,055 in workers' compensation after claiming he suffered depression and anxiety as result of the public outcry.

John Pike, who had filed for the compensation from the University of California system, also cited the stress he endured from death threats he received after the incident. Pike was fired in July 2012, after being on paid administrative leave for eight months.

On Thursday, Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Glendale) said it was time for Katehi to resign.

"The chancellor serving on the board of a textbook company was sufficient enough grounds to suspect that the best interests of the students weren't being served," Gatto said in an emailed statement. "But the recent disclosure that the university made substantial, questionable PR expenditure cemented it in my mind."

The contracts demonstrate an extensive effort to quell the storm of negative publicity that followed.

Online reputations in particular are important to manage because of the sheer volume of people who surf the web, said Ira Kalb, an expert in branding, image creation and marketing at USC. Managing these reputations and protecting them from being "hijacked" is a growing field, he said.

"Online is really an interesting thing because there are people who say all sorts of things," he said.

Certain software enables firms to pick up feeds from social media, Kalb said. The software detects when a company's name is mentioned and analyzes if it's a positive or negative comment.

Gatorade, for example, has a "mission control" room to monitor online feeds from Twitter and Facebook, Kalb said. The company uses any positive reviews they find for their marketing campaigns and works to fix any negative reviews they see to "get ahead of the story."

"It's very important to manage a reputation, and people often don't realize that," Kalb said. "So many companies have been seriously damaged for not having a strategy for handling this."
For more local and breaking news, follow me on Twitter: @sarahparvini ALSO California doesn't have enough housing, and lawmakers aren't doing much about it U.S. extends limited reduction of mortgage principals for stressed homeowners City records show that Uber and Lyft have devastated L.A.'s taxi industry

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UC Davis spends $175,000 to sanitize its online image after ugly pepper spray episode

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UC Davis paid consultants at least $175,000 to clean up its online image after students and alumni were pepper sprayed by campus police during an otherwise peaceful protest in 2011. Newly released documents obtained by the Sacramento Bee show the university worked to clean up both its own image and that of Chancellor Linda Katehi.

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UCB: Inadequate emergency response to COVID-19 on campus

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UCB: Inadequate emergency response to COVID-19 on campus

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Op-Eds
UC Berkeley's COVID-19 relief program was inadequate in protecting endangered students

By the time UC Berkeley launched its COVID-19 Relief Funds platform, six weeks after Alameda County announced a shelter-in-place ordinance, it was already apparent that the pandemic's economic impact on students and staff was severe.

Now that this program has closed, it is also clear, as UC Berkeley's Director of Strategic Equity Initiatives Ruben Canedo recently suggested, that there is much more work to be done.

The gravity of this issue cannot be overstated. As the organizer of two community mutual aid programs, including one run under the aegis of the COLA4ALL movement, I've been working with hundreds of students who continue to suffer from the economic fallout of the coronavirus. They report food insecurity, months of unpaid rents and loans, the inability to return home for the summer and other serious burdens caused by the crisis.

Further, dozens of these students indicated that they were ineligible for UC Berkeley's relief funds program, exposing holes in the school's safety net.

Students with access to loans were deprioritized. Those who withdrew due to the pandemic were also locked out. And everyone unable to file a FAFSA - including about a third of all undergraduates, all unenrolled students, all international students, all staff members, many graduate students and all undocumented, non-DREAM Act immigrants - were ineligible for the largest pool of the program's resources: the $15 million earmarked for student aid by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act.

The financial limitations of UC Berkeley's COVID-19 response were known to its organizers from the outset, which is why the platform was not initially advertised via an all-campus email. Instead, delegates from the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office, or FASO, and its campus partners - including me in my capacity as a mutual aid organizer - targeted specific student communities known to be experiencing economic precarity.

Further, in mid-April, FASO had begun discussing ways to slow the pace of awards to ensure funds would be available to future applicants who are homeless, victims of violence or faced with emergency medical procedures.

The grim necessity of triaging applications to meet only the most plaintive requests underscores a stark reality. As our administrative leaders would contend, there is simply not enough money, amid state budget cuts and unprecedented economic pressures in higher education, to expand the program with further institutional funding.

A closer look at the campus's financial situation, however, does not support this contention. In fact, it seems to imply gross negligence is unfolding on campus, endangering the lives of many in the process.

UC Berkeley's endowment is $4.79 billion, and it has nearly doubled in the past decade. The campus raised $1.2 billion over the last two years and, even amid COVID-19, its projected 2021 deficit of $130 million to $160 million is equivalent to the shortfall experienced in 2016 before the school made a swift recovery.

Administrative leadership depicts the institution as constrained by the same economic challenges facing schools without such resources. Yet the truth is that UC Berkeley possesses the financial means to protect students in need. That the campus has not expanded the COVID-19 Relief Funds - even though FASO recognized the limitations of the program several months ago - is symptomatic of a larger problem: UC Berkeley appears to protect its endowment to the point of self-destructive idolatry.

UC Berkeley's Endowment Payout Policy is 4% per year. Raising this percentage by one point would conceivably generate $50 million - 20 times the amount the school raised for COVID-19 assistance and more than triple the CARES Act grant. Likewise, as my colleagues in the COLA4ALL movement recently noted, a May financial review indicated that the UC system possesses $5 billion to $6 billion in excess liquidity, revealing that spending cuts are not necessary to meet the deficit or to supplement COVID-19 relief.

This kind of reallocation of funds would seem only logical given the unique challenges we face. Yet, no UC statement about the crisis even mentions the endowment or reserve liquidity. It's as if our leaders share a collective delusion that such resources are unavailable for actual use.

When my colleagues and I started our mutual aid program, we were inundated with hundreds of still-ongoing requests from students seeking help with their basic costs of survival. Since then, we've raised and redistributed $40,000, and our cohort of 150 volunteers has provided countless forms of nonmonetary assistance.

We've run errands for people who are self-quarantining, tutored those facing newfound academic challenges, cooked and delivered meals for those who lack access to food pantries and linked students with counselors, therapists and peer groups. For all these efforts, it's been clear that the stopgap work of volunteers is no substitute for an institutional intervention.

One day after the UC Berkeley COVID-19 Relief Funds launched, a different initiative was advertised via an all-campus blast: the mutual aid program's GoFundMe. Stephen Sutton, vice chancellor of the student affairs division, sent out an email with the subject line, "More ways to give back, get engaged during COVID-19." He invited the community to contribute to a grassroots fundraiser meant "to help students purchase food, medication and other essential supplies." Noting the total amount raised so far, he concluded with a rallying cry: "Way to go Bears!"
Rumur Dowling is a graduate student in the English department and the organizer of two UC Berkeley community mutual aid programs.
The implication that students at UC Berkeley would be guaranteed "food, medication and other essential supplies" by crowdsourcing within that same population is disquieting. The ad hoc safety nets of mutual aid programs are neither sustainable nor ultimately just. Believing them to be so would take for granted that UC Berkeley simply cannot provide financial support sufficient to address the crisis in a more expansive, sustained and meaningful way.

We must reject this premise, as UC Berkeley's financial assets belie its integrity. If COVID-19 is an unprecedented challenge, then there is all the more reason to make building a robust, long-term infrastructure of emergency aid a mission-critical priority. And, to meet this call, we should begin sensibly - not with further austerity measures, but by drawing on the massive reserves of liquid and nonliquid assets our school seemingly covets at the expense of its community's collective well-being.

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UC Berkeley's COVID-19 relief program was inadequate in protecting endangered students

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Op-Eds By the time UC Berkeley launched its COVID-19 Relief Funds platform, six weeks after Alameda County announced a shelter-in-place ordinance, it was already apparent that the pandemic's economic impact on students and staff was severe.

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UCPD Shows Force at Oakland BLM Protests

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UCPD Shows Force at Oakland BLM Protests

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These are UCPD cops. My disgust with my institution is immeasurable.

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These are UCPD cops. My disgust with my institution is immeasurable. https://t.co/g60KtkTKIc

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At a pre-curfew enforcement press conference Oakland police chief Manheimer had a squad of police appear at attention behind her in a show of force. https://t.co/WY9fclvvPP

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These are UCPD cops. My disgust with my institution is immeasurable. https://t.co/g60KtkTKIc
— Alex Wenzel (@alextwenzel) June 2, 2020

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These are UCPD cops. My disgust with my institution is immeasurable. https://t.co/g60KtkTKIc

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At a pre-curfew enforcement press conference Oakland police chief Manheimer had a squad of police appear at attention behind her in a show of force. https://t.co/WY9fclvvPP

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These are UCPD cops. My disgust with my institution is immeasurable. https://t.co/g60KtkTKIc

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These are UCPD cops. My disgust with my institution is immeasurable. https://t.co/g60KtkTKIc

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At a pre-curfew enforcement press conference Oakland police chief Manheimer had a squad of police appear at attention behind her in a show of force. https://t.co/WY9fclvvPP

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UCD: Pepper Spray Incident Website Scrubbing

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UCD: Pepper Spray Incident Website Scrubbing

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Students pepper-sprayed by campus police at the University of California at Davis have reacted in anger at the "vastly inappropriate" and "insulting" decision by their university to contract firms to systematically scrub mentions of the story on the internet.

The university is being accused of censorship after quietly seeking to hide web references to a widely reported incident in which police sprayed student activists from the then nascent Occupy movement four years ago.

The photograph and video went viral across the world, prompting a major backlash against the California university and its chancellor Linda PB Katehi, who was accused of using heavy-handed tactics against peaceful activists Students are once again calling for Katehi's resignation.

Details of the attempt to remove references of the pepper-spraying incident were revealed by the Sacramento Bee, which reported that UC Davis hired a communications firm on a $15,000-a-month contract with a goal of eradicating "references to the pepper spray incident on Google", including "negative search results" for Katehi.

The information was obtained through a Public Records Act request and is part of a broader investigation by the paper into Katehi's affiliation with private corporate boards.

"It's not surprising," said Ian Lee, who was an 18-year-old freshman when he was pepper-sprayed during the peaceful protest. "It's consistent with what [Katehi] has done and she should resign."

"It bothers me because it's personal," he added. "It's a personal thing that changed my life. They're trying to erase the history of resistance at UC Davis."

Tom Zolot, who was a senior when he took part in the protest and was also hit with pepper spray, said it was "insulting" to attempt to bury mention of the protest and its handling.

"This was a moment of resistance," he said of the 2011 campus-wide protests and pepper-spraying incident. "This was a moment of shame."He described the decision to spend public money on hiring PR firms to seek to conceal the incident from search results was "vastly inappropriate".

The Bee investigation found that the university, a state-funded institution that has faced severe budget cuts in recent years, paid the Maryland-based Nevins & Associates communications firm $92,971 to work on its online reputation management relating to the November 2011 spraying incident and surrounding controversy.

The contract signed in January 2013, over a year after the incident, promised "an online branding campaign designed to clean up the negative attention the University of California, Davis and Chancellor Katehi have received related to the events that transpired in November 2011".

The university subsequently entered into multiple five-figure contracts with another firm to improve its online image. In total, there were more than $175,000 in contracts to address issues with the university's online reputation.

Multiple contracts were with Sacramento-based IDMLOCO, which was awarded its first six-month contract in June 2014 for the amount of $82,500, for "search engine results management" that involved creating new content to push "negative" results lower in searches.

In a statement on Thursday, UC Davis said: "Increased investment in social media and communications strategy has heightened the profile of the university to good effect. As part of this overall communications strategy, it is important that the excellent work underway at UC Davis with respect to educating the next generation of students, pursuing groundbreaking research, and providing important services to the State is not lost during a campus crisis, including the crisis that ensued following the extremely regrettable incident when police pepper-sprayed student protesters in 2011."

The pepper-spray incident occurredafter students associated with the Occupy movement were ordered to remove a tent encampment in the university's quad. Students gathered to protest against the closure, and a number of them sat down with their arms linked in a peaceful demonstration across a concrete walkway.

Campus police in riot gear arrived, and one officer doused the seated protesters at close range with pepper spray while bystanders shouted: "You don't have to do this."

Lee, who was among the students pictured in the image, sheltering from the spray, said the attack was "extremely painful". "My entire face felt like it was on fire," he said.

"For a couple months afterward I wasn't even involved in the student movement," he added. "I was just too scared."

The incident was videoed by multiple bystanders and quickly went viral, becoming the top trending topic on Google and broadcast on TV news programs across the world.

Though Katehi was not directly in charge of the police department and has said she was unaware that force would be used in the removal of the campers, she had ordered the removal of the students and, at the time, much of the criticism was directed at the controversial chancellor. On campus, she acquired a number of nicknames, including Chemical Katehi.

A few days after the pepper-spray incident, Katehi was once again the focus of a firestorm of criticism after another video involving student protests went viral.

This one occurred after students surrounded a small building where she was holding a press conference. The students refused to let her leave, and a campus minister, Kristin Stoneking, was called in to help negotiate a solution.

Hours later, Katehi was allowed to exit by walking past a gauntlet of students seated silently along the sidewalk. This video quickly became dubbed the "walk of shame" and has been viewed more than a million times on YouTube.

Katehi has been under a new wave of public scrutiny in recent weeks over her service on multiple corporate boards. She was forced to resign from the for-profit educational institution DeVry Education Group, which paid her $70,000 a year plus stock.

Katehi, who earns $424,360 in her official capacity as chancellor, has also served on the board of textbook company John Wiley & Sons, earning about $420,000 in pay and stock, according to SEC filings. After that appointment received public attention, she donated some of the proceeds to a scholarship fund at UC Davis.

Students have occupied the foyer of her administrative offices on campus for weeks to protest about the board positions and other issues, and to call for her resignation. State lawmakers have questioned her judgment, with at least one also calling for her resignation.

Zolot and Lee both said that they felt the university and Katehi failed to make meaningful changes after the pepper-spraying and that the recent allegations of misconduct by the chancellor are part of a larger pattern of "privatization" of the university that is not in students best interests.

"Nothing systemic really changed," Lee said. "UC Davis is trying to paint itself as this institution that really cares about its students and that really cares about its workers [but] by trying to erase this history they're misleading people."
Topics

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Pepper-sprayed students outraged as UC Davis tried to scrub incident from web

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Students pepper-sprayed by campus police at the University of California at Davis have reacted in anger at the "vastly inappropriate" and "insulting" decision by their university to contract firms to systematically scrub mentions of the story on the internet.

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Editor's note: This is an October 2013 article that is picking up traffic in April 2016.
(10-23) 17:18 PDT DAVIS -- A former UC Davis police officer whose pepper-spraying of protesters gained worldwide notice thanks to a viral video has been awarded more than $38,000 in workers' compensation from the university for suffering he experienced after the incident.

Former police Lt. John Pike, who gained a degree of infamy for his role in the incident, was awarded the settlement Oct. 16 by the state Division of Workers' Compensation Appeals Board. The claim "resolves all claims of psychiatric injury specific or due to continuous trauma from applicant's employment at UC Davis."

The incident that resulted in the $38,055 settlement happened Nov. 18, 2011, on the UC Davis quad during a demonstration opposing tuition increases. On the widely circulated video, Pike is seen dousing protesters for about 15 seconds with orange pepper spray.

Pike was suspended with pay afterward. According to a database of state worker salaries, he earned $119,067 in 2011, the last year for which figures are available.

More than 17,000 angry or threatening e-mails, 10,000 text messages and hundreds of letters were sent to Pike after the video went viral, according to the police union.

Pike repeatedly changed his phone number and e-mail address and lived in various locations. He left the campus police force in July 2012.

In a statement, UC Davis spokesman Andy Fell said, "This case has been resolved in accordance with state law and processes on workers' compensation. The final resolution is in line with permanent impairment as calculated by the state's disability evaluation unit."

Earlier this year, UC Davis settled a federal lawsuit by paying $1 million to three dozen protesters who were pepper-sprayed.

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UC Davis pepper-spray officer awarded $38,000

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A former UC Davis police officer whose pepper-spraying of protesters gained worldwide notice thanks to a viral video has been awarded more than $38,000 in workers' compensation from the university for suffering he experienced after the incident. Former police Lt. John Pike, who gained a degree of infamy for his role in the incident, was awarded the settlement Oct.

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Nov. 20, 1011—, 2011 -- Two campus police officers caught on video using pepper spray on seated Occupy protesters at University of California, Davis, have been put on administrative leave, the school announced today.

"I spoke with students this weekend, and I feel their outrage," UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi said in a statement released today. "I have also heard from an overwhelming number of students, faculty, staff and alumni from around the country. I am deeply saddened that this happened on our campus, and as chancellor, I take full responsibility for the incident.

"However, I pledge to take the actions needed to ensure that this does not happen again," she said. "I feel very sorry for the harm our students were subjected to and I vow to work tirelessly to make the campus a more welcoming and safe place."

Katehi said that she had also accelerated the timetable for a task force to investigate the events surrounding the arrests, including communications from the police to the administration. She set a deadline of 30 days for the task force to issue its report.

Katehi said the task force will be chosen this week, and will include faculty, students and staff.

Katehi's announcement comes as faculty and students began calling for her resignation over the incident, which occurred Friday and was captured on video that was postd on YouTube.

At a teleconference Saturday, Katehi said she didn't think it's "appropriate" for her to resign, the Modesto Bee reported.

She initially voiced support of the police, who wore riot-gear during the stand-off, having given them to order to dismantle the UC Davis Occupy encampment because camping on college grounds is officially forbidden, but then said she would form a task force to probe the incident.

"The use of pepper spray as shown on the video is chilling to us all and raises many questions about how best to handle situations like this," Katehi wrote in a statement posted on the school's website.

Los Angeles attorney Okorie Okorocha called the pepper spraying unreasoned and excessive.

"Tear gas you spray in the area you want people to move away from," Okorocha told ABC News. "Pepper spray is to keep the people from being able to mount an attack. Here the police officer is trying to disperse a crowd. Why would you incapacitate them?"

To control crowds and remove demonstrators from their open-air encampments, police in various cities have been using pepper spray and tear gas, including a canister that fractured the skull of one Occupy Oakland protester.

He is still recovering.

After the UC Davis Occupy was disassembled Friday, students on Saturday resumed their protest with a night time rally on the roughly 31,000-student campus.

"I covered my face with my scarf and sweatshirt, but I couldn't breathe," said Sarena Grossjan, a sophomore who hopped from a tree, where'd she'd been filming the confrontation, to link arms with other protesters.

The stinging and burning sensations from being sprayed lingered until Saturday morning. "The part that hurt the most was the pepper spray in open sores," she said. "My eyes weren't that bad. My tears cleaned that out."

ABC News' Alyssa Newcomb contributed to this report.

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UC Davis Pepper Spraying: Cops Suspended

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Nov. 20, 1011-, 2011 -- Two campus police officers caught on video using pepper spray on seated Occupy protesters at University of California, Davis, have been put on administrative leave, the school announced today. "I spoke with students this weekend, and I feel their outrage," UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi said in a statement released today.

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"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."

~Frederick Douglass

[About the above image: On March 19th, 2008, "The Coalition to Free the UC took nonviolent direct action at the UC Regents meeting at UCSF Mission Bay campus demanding democratization of the UC." (Indy Bay 2008)]

This manifesto is a demand to finally have our voices heard, as well as a call to action to resist the neoliberal forces encroaching on our university that are increasingly present in higher education systems worldwide.

On May 17, 2017, I traveled with a group of students to the University of California Regents meeting in San Francisco. Originally, we had planned to speak in the "public comment" portion of the meeting, in protest against the Board of Regents and the UC Office of the President (UCOP). However, because of strict security measures, few of us spoke at all. Our experiences being silenced and policed are not unusual and reflect a decades-long struggle against corruption in the UC system, alongside worsening conditions of inequity, social injustice, and a lack of transparency.

We were responding to the latest news about corruption in the UC system. On April 25, 2017, the California state auditor released a "scathing" report revealing UCOP hid $175 million in reserves, even from its own Board of Regents. UCOP had intentionally interfered in an ongoing investigation, altering data sent to the state legislature. UC President Janet Napolitano's office had intercepted "a confidential survey the auditor sent to individual campuses about the quality and cost of services they received from the central office, causing campus officials to soften their responses" ( Murphy 2017). At least one Chancellor, UC Santa Cruz's Blumenthal, knowingly altered the campus survey response under the direction of Napolitano's staff ( Masters 2017). The state audit revealed administrative spending at the UC is excessive compared to other universities, claiming "administrative spending increased 28%, or $80 million, from fiscal years 2012-13 through 2015-16" ( McGreevy 2017a). Napolitano was also found padding the salaries and benefits of her administrative staff, paying "top workers... significantly higher than that of similar state employees" ( McGreevy 2017b).

More details from the audit demonstrated the UC Regents have expensive habits. UCOP paid $13,000 for dinner and security for 86 people at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco in January 2016, an event to honor two departing members of the Board of Regents, Fred Ruiz and Paul Wachter (while on the Board, Wachter used his position for direct profit). Over the course of six months, between November 2015 and May 2016, the President's office spent $36,400 hosting Regents' dinners. Other spending included "$862,000 spent on Napolitano's Oakland apartment over the past four years. That cost includes the $11,500 monthly rent" ( Gutierrez 2017). In response to the latest report, state legislators have called for President Napolitano's resignation and for the UC Regents to rescind the latest tuition hike enacted in January ( Jensen 2017).

However, this latest scandal is not an isolated incident. All in all, the UC system has faced six state audits over the past three years. This is not a coincidence, but is symptomatic of widespread corruption within the elitist UC Regents' system of governance-corruption that has only worsened in recent decades.

Spending by UCOP has nearly doubled in recent years, reaching an annual budget of $686 million (twice the amount of the CA state legislature budget). In March 2016, an audit revealed the Regents had purposely "softened admissions standards for out-of-state students... even as it turned away record numbers of in-state applicants" ( Asimov 2016). Between 2010 and 2014, there had been an 82% increase in out-of-state and international undergraduate admissions, coinciding with a 1% drop in Californian student admissions. Non-resident students pay about $37,000 in tuition each year, or more than three times the (still ridiculous) $12,000 California students pay annually for their public university schooling. Despite evidence the UC administration was purposely using out-of-state applicants as cash cows while restricting in-state access, it was revealed "the UC [Regents] mounted a $158,000 publicity campaign to dispute claims its admissions policies had disadvantaged resident students" ( Koseff 2016).

$175 Million Scandal in Historical Context

The latest scandal cannot be understood in isolation. Institutional memory is shortsighted. Social structures encourage institutional forgetting in ways that naturalize power and normalize oppression. No exception to this, the narrative of the UC Regents is too often a narrative of silences. To counter our tendency of institutional forgetting, let me take you back.

From 2005 to 2006, UC administrators granted millions of dollars in extra pay and perks to top executives, frequently without public disclosure. At UC Santa Cruz (UCSC), in October 2006, the UC employee union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3299, and the Student and Worker Coalition for Justice (SWCJ) rallied in support of living wages for custodians, resulting in the disruption of a UC Regents meeting on campus. "In the process, a dozen students [were] pepper-sprayed by UC police for the first time in UCSC's history, and three students [were] arrested" ( Sonnenfeld 2007). The university tried to make an example out of one of the arrestees-a black, female activist-by suspending her for three years. A struggle ensued to combat the punitive charges most activists felt were designed to silence activists on campus ( Sonnenfeld 2007).

In 2007, it was revealed that, during the fifteen months following the executive pay scandal, the Regents overrode newly enacted rules intended to mitigate executive compensation abuses. They continued to routinely grant exceptions, handing out more than $1 million to about 70 top executives ( Schevitz 2007). The scandal ultimately led to UC President Dynes' resignation ( Potter 2008).

In November 2009, the UC Regents "voted to increase tuition a whopping 32% to more than $10,000 annually-[reflecting] a three-fold increase in a decade" ( O'Leary 2009). In response, students and faculty began mass protests. At the UC Regents meeting in LA, "2,000 students from the 10-campus system confronted riot police, shouted slogans and blocked building exits... students surged against barricades and briefly seized a building near the main campus quad; police used taser guns on several protesters, and arrested nearly 20. All the while, police helicopters hovered overhead" ( O'Leary 2009).

On November 20, 2009, at UC Berkeley, 43 students locked themselves inside Wheeler Hall while thousands gathered outside for support and militant push-back against scores of riot police called in from several counties. One faculty member at UC Berkeley was arrested... (Video: "UCB students take Wheeler Hall." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISZrR7qE-Oc) Police unleashed unwarranted violence on students on the outside. They used batons and rubber bullets, injuring the unarmed bodies of hundreds of peaceful protesters and sending some to the emergency room with broken bones... At UCSC, over 100 students participated in a sit-in at the campus' Kerr Hall. They occupied the building for an entire three days before surrendering to police... At UC Davis, 51 students and 1 faculty member were arrested at the main administration building. In December 2009 at UC Berkeley, hundreds of students re-took Wheeler hall for a week to hold open workshops, classes, and teach-ins [and demanded 38 dismissed janitors be rehired, see Kingkade 2011]... On December 11... 66 students were arrested at 4 am without a dispersal order...The legitimacy of all these actions is seriously contested in a number of lawsuits...The UC administration responded with overwhelming police force to protests-university police in riot gear, local county sheriff's offices, California Highway patrol and state police were regularly called out during campus protests. As protests persisted, the administration escalated police violence, intimidation, and suppression of free speech, exposing the structural role of police and state violence in the privatization of public services. On March 4, 2010, hundreds of protesters blockaded Interstate Highways 880 and 990 at Oakland during rush hour. 150 protesters were arrested and one was hospitalized. (Video: "Police attack 880 Interstate takeover." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsjadfLYnD4) Protesters displayed a banner that read "Occupy everything," while shutting down the roadways for an hour, an action that has been described as a precursor to the Occupy movement [of 2011]" ( "2009 California college tuition hike protests", Wikipedia).

March Forth actions also occurred on other campuses, including a sit-in at UCLA and arrests at UC Davis ( Asimov 2010).

In September 2010, amid evidence of management bloat ( Schwartz 2016), there were reports the Regents regularly made risky investments to benefit their own financial holdings ( Byrne 2010). During the previous decade, the Regents had invested $2 billion in a series of deals directly profiting at least four regents: Blum, Lansing, Wachter (recall his $13,000 retirement party?), and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ( Liu 2010). Yet Lansing and Blum still remain on the Board. The Regents then hired private money managers who charged higher fees, serving to further increase management costs and limit transparency.

The Regents authorized $3 million in bonuses to a handful of top administrators, all while claiming financial hardship for the UC system. Workers' salaries dropped, the Regents reduced pay for janitorial staff, lecturers were furloughed, and the retirement savings for the lowest-paid employees were negatively impacted, all while protecting or boosting benefits for highly compensated executives ( AFSCME 2010). Meanwhile, classes were eliminated and class sizes rose ( Byrne 2010). Despite this, on November 17, 2010, "the Regents voted for another 8% tuition increase while hundreds of police in riot gear used tear gas and batons to fend off protesters... UC San Francisco (UCSF) police officer Jared Kemper drew his gun [twice, see video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dz0oY_jNL4] in front of dozens of students, threatening to shoot at them. More than 700 students and several faculty members were arrested across campuses between late 2009 and the middle of 2011" ( Wikipedia).

Ultimately, it was only continued mass protests and the intervention of the Governor which led to a freeze on UC tuition. However, UC President Yudof would float the idea of tuition hikes again the next fall, spurring the statewide Occupy UC movement.

On November 9, 2011, peaceful protesters at Occupy Cal were brutalized by police responding to the encampment on orders of the UCB administration. (Video: "Occupy Cal brutalized by police." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buovLQ9qyWQ) 39 protesters, including Professor Langan, were arrested. Following the arrests, a coalition of protesters "sued the UC-Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau, other administrators, UCPD, and other Alameda County Sheriffs for $15 million for excessive force, false arrests, and violation of First Amendment rights... The lawsuit went on for a number of years... showing police and administrator actions were excessive and aimed at repressing political speech... The outcome of the lawsuit awarded the protesters $15 million for punitive and general damages" ( Wikipedia).

On November 11, 2011, peaceful protesters at Occupy UC Davis (UCD) were pepper-sprayed by campus police (with military-grade spray, at point-blank range) responding to the encampment on orders of UCD's Chancellor Katehi ( Wikipedia). (Video: "Occupy UCD protesters pepper sprayed." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AdDLhPwpp4) The incident went viral. Eleven protesters received medical treatment; two were hospitalized. The officer involved, "(Lt.) Pike was suspended with pay afterward" (he earned $119,067 that year) ( Garofoli 2016). The three dozen student protesters who were attacked "were collectively awarded $1 million by UC Davis in a settlement from a federal lawsuit" ( Stanton and Walsh 2012). Later in April 2016, it was revealed Chancellor Katehi spent at least $175,000 in a futile attempt to scrub online references to the incident ( Brunell 2016).

In 2013, Janet Napolitano (of the latest $175 million scandal) was chosen as the next president of the UC system ( Fry and Brown 2013). Napolitano was former head of the Department of Homeland Security under Obama and "one of the architects of the so-called Secure Communities (S-COMM) program that deputizes local law enforcement officers as deportation agents" ( Barrows-Friedman 2013). She oversaw the deportations of more than 2.5 million people and was the first UC President to have absolutely zero experience in university administration ( Fry and Brown 2013).

Faculty and students dissented, protested, and were even arrested trying to stop her appointment. Cinthia Flores, the only student Regent on the 26-person board, was the only dissenting vote. UC students started a petition to say "No To Janet" ( DREAM Activist 2013). One UC Irvine Professor, Mark LeVine, argued her appointment represented a "clear and present danger" ( LeVine 2013). At UC San Diego, the student government proposed a statement of no confidence in Napolitano and the Regent's incredibly secretive appointment process ( ASUCSD 2013, Gordon 2013). The San Diego Faculty Association wrote an open letter of concern regarding her appointment ( UCSDFA 2013). At her confirmation, police handcuffed and removed at least four protesters and arrested one undocumented student ( Taylor 2013).

In 2014, the Regents proposed another 5% annual tuition hike over five years (a 25% total increase). One day later, they raised the salaries of three of the lowest paid UC Chancellors by up to 20% ( AFSCME 2014). The 2014 proposed hikes were determined to be in violation of state law ( AFSCME 2015). Ultimately, massive protests and demonstrations occurred again, resulting in an extension of the tuition freeze (which ended recently when Regents raised tuition in January 2017 ( Watanabe 2017)).

In 2016, it was revealed Regents board member William De La Pena violated ethics rules when he attempted to make a financial deal involving his eye clinics and UCLA ( Vogel 2016). Yet De La Pena also remains on the board. Later that year, the press released audio recordings of Regent Norman Pattiz sexually harassing an employee, asking to touch her breasts while he was armed with a gun ( Barriera and Fix 2016, Asimov and Tucker 2017). Yet Pattiz remains on the board.

UC Regents again gave raises to chancellors in 2016-four of whom received their second pay bump since the previous July. The only chancellor to not get a raise was UC Davis' Linda Katehi, who was "on administrative leave pending an outside investigation into allegations that she lied about her involvement in online reputation-management contracts, violating UC's ethics policy, and that she engaged in nepotism and misspent student funds" ( Murphy 2016). Katehi was also on leave due to controversial moonlighting positions.

In 2011, the year Davis students were pepper-sprayed by campus police, their chancellor Katehi had served on a board in Greece, co-authoring a report aimed at ending anti-austerity student protests, which recommended the Greek government abolish its University Asylum Law. The law was designed to protect students from police brutality during on-campus intervention in protests ( Partridge 2011). In 2016, it was revealed Katehi received $70,00 a year while serving on the board of the DeVry Education Group, which was under investigation by state and federal authorities over allegations of deceptive advertising about graduate job and income prospects ( Watanabe 2016). Katehi received "$420,000 over three years as a board member for John Wiley & Sons, a college-textbook publisher," another controversial position given routine textbook price inflation to maximize corporate profit, sending students further into debt ( Bidwell 2014). This was all in addition to her $424,360 annual salary (Katehi also receives free housing in a neighborhood where homes are typically valued at over $1 million) ( Watanabe 2016).

Her questionable behavior spurred a student movement to "Fire Katehi", which occupied Mrak Hall (where her office is located) for over a month ( Greenwald 2016). Activists argued Katehi "was merely a manifestation of the corruption and misconduct that festers throughout all levels of UC management." UC officials spent nearly $1 million investigating Katehi ( Lambert and Stanton 2017). After her resignation, she was provided a year off with full pay before returning to a faculty job at the same university where peaceful student protesters were pepper-sprayed under her guidance ( Lambert 2016). This deal reflects an increasingly common trend within the UC system for Chancellor positions to include severance packages on par with CEOs in the financial sector ( Reese 2015).

Her case led to tougher rules for moonlighting proposed by none other than Napolitano herself, and approved by the very Board of Regents that was accused of unethical behavior. No surprise, the latest "regulations" are full of loopholes and are woefully inadequate, still permitting "executives to serve on the boards of companies that do business with their campuses" ( Asimov 2016). Rather than stipulate university presidents cannot also hold outside board memberships at for-profit companies, the number of such appointments has been capped at two, rather than three. The "revised conflict-of-interest rules apply only to executives who request permission to do outside work from now on. About 50 of UC's 165 senior executives already have such gigs and are exempt from the new rules." The new policy hasn't stopped UC Davis' newest Chancellor, Gary May, from having conflicts of interest. He recently came under fire for earning $325,780 a year sitting on the boards of two defense technology companies, in addition to his annual salary of $495,000 ( Lambert 2017, Floyd 2017).

At the 2016 meeting where these completely ineffectual conflict-of-interest rules were approved, 3% raises for 19 top executives were also ratified ( UC 2017). A day earlier, UC workers had staged a protest over wages they argued were so low many had to skimp on meals and give up city apartments. A recent study shows 7 in 10 UC workers struggle with food insecurity ( Sherief 2017). (Recall that $13,000 retirement dinner the Regents threw for corrupt board members?)

Understanding Flaws in the Regents System

We can think of the UC Regents system of governance as a kleptocratic form of autocracy-a "rule by thieves" where corrupt leaders (kleptocrats) use their power to exploit the people and natural resources of their domain to extend their personal wealth and political power. Natural resources in the university system can include things like the intellectual resources of those exploited, but also include more material resources like land. For example, consider the attempt by administration at UC Berkeley to privatize the Gill Tract, which spurred the 2012 Occupy the Farm movement (watch the documentary here). Kleptocratic exploitation often takes the form of embezzling funds at the expense of the wider population, in this case students and workers. Corruption of the UC Regents isn't the case of a good system gone bad. The system is working exactly how it is meant to.

The Regents system of power justifies, rationalizes, and normalizes exploitation. The Regents and their goons consistently put themselves first before the needs of students and workers. They have undermined our university system by pushing privatization to line their own pockets and they use an increasingly militarized police force to do their dirty work.

Police presence on campuses is not normal. Campus police became common after the 1960s, when civil unrest at universities led to violent clashes and even deaths, such as the Kent State massacre. These instances of unrest were utilized by administrations as a justification to create and subsequently increase campus security ( Nelson 2015). Historically, the attempt to increase on-campus police presence wasn't about student safety. It reflected the desire of university administrations to have an on-campus security force under their administrative control who could and would crack down on student protesters. Today, campus cops are increasingly armed with military-grade weaponry and their numbers, as well as the powers they possess, have expanded disproportionately in relation to crime rates or growing student populations ( Bauman 2014):

Officers have increasingly gained the ability to arrest and patrol outside jurisdictions, and the growth to law-enforcement hires has outpaced that of student enrollment... more and more sworn officers-including those outfitted with firearms (94%), chemical or pepper spray (94%), Taser-like devices (40%), and in some cases military-grade equipment-were added to college campuses. Campus police departments typically act as independent law-enforcement agencies and enjoy expanding authority without the same public-reporting requirements as municipal police; they typically report to university presidents or high-ranking college officials ( Anderson 2015; see also Keim 2011).

The UC Regents consistently utilize not just campus cops but outside police forces to control student dissent (recall nearby city police who were bussed in during particularly contentious Regents meetings). Such policing is characterized by unwarranted brutality against unarmed students, workers, and concerned community members. The Regents use police to protect their own interests and the status quo in ways that add to inequality and inequity within the university system-targeting, tracking, arresting, attacking, and otherwise penalizing student/worker activists.

The Regents are increasingly afraid of interactions with the students and workers they supposedly serve, with administrative inaccessibility becoming more widespread. The Regents used to host meetings at numerous UC campuses-now they primarily hold meetings at UCSF, a campus dedicated to health sciences and the only UC that does not have an undergraduate student body. This change was purposefully made to ensure meetings would be more difficult/costly for students and workers to attend, and because the UCSF campus is more defendable against protests.

The UC Regents used to allow speakers three miniscule minutes during public comment-this has decreased to 60 seconds. Speakers used to be able to sign up online-now, you have to arrive early enough to find the sign-up list at a table manned by armed cops (after going through metal detectors staffed by riot cops, who search bags and confiscate any protest signs-you can't even bring a water bottle into the meeting). If there aren't enough speakers to fill the entire scheduled meeting time, the Regents end the meeting early. And, god forbid, protesters think of throwing chairs-the chair legs are all zip-tied to prevent being moved (because revolutions always start with chair throwing?).

This inaccessibility isn't just characteristic of Regents meetings. UC Davis, for example, has enacted disturbing security measures since the Fire Katehi occupation. To reach the fifth floor of Mrak Hall (where the Chancellor's office is located), you now have to be buzzed in and escorted-every single door to the floor is locked.

DEMANDS: Demilitarize! Deprivatize! Democratize!

This expose reveals scandals spanning the past fifteen years. There are additional scandals, as well as other campaigns waged against the Regents, which have not been included here. Problems with the UC Regents prior to 2005 are also not discussed. However, even this limited historical exposé is damning.

The only way to solve the problems of privatization, neoliberalization, and militarization on our campuses is to fundamentally change the way our university is organized. The only answer to the corrupt Regents system is to abolish it.

Our struggle to abolish the Regents is an old one. Lest we forget, the decisions of UC Regents' and their appointed UCB Chancellor led to the free speech movement (FSM) in 1964/1965. The FSM was responding to flaws and corruption inherent in the UC system, and as such it was a movement demanding democratization of the UC ( Kell 2014). Recall the words of Mario Savio, who was targeted by administration and pushed out of the UC system after his prominent organizing role in the FSM:

We have an autocracy which runs this university. It's managed... If [UC] President Kerr actually tried to get something more liberal out of the [Board of] Regents... why didn't he make some public statement to that effect? And the answer we received, from a well-meaning liberal, was the following: ...'Would you ever imagine the manager of a firm making a statement publicly in opposition to his board of directors?'...

Well, I ask you to consider: If this is a firm, and if the Board of Regents are the Board of Directors; and if President Kerr in fact is the manager; then I'll tell you something. The faculty are a bunch of employees, and we're the raw material! But we're a bunch of raw materials that don't mean to be... made into any product... We're human beings!

There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels...upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all! ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYSY2ohHFnQ)

The UC system is powerful, not because of the UC Regents' leadership, but in spite of it. It is the labor of workers, faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students that makes this university system powerful. Again and again, students and workers have had to repeatedly and consistently sacrifice our time, money, energy, resources, health, and safety to combat the Regents' corruption and demand social justice on our campuses.

For over fifty years, the Regents system has made our university less safe for students and workers, particularly those most marginalized. The Regents have repeatedly shown they prioritize their own salaries and those of their administrative goons over the well-being, safety, and security of students and workers. The Regents and their appointees, especially Chancellors, continue to have more in common with Wall Street executives than with faculty, students, and workers ( Bond-Graham 2010, Roehrkasse and StudentNation 2013). They regularly use the UC system as a means to enrich themselves and their friends ( Miller-Leonard 2013, Jaschik 2016) at the expense of the very communities they purport to serve.

Attempts by the state legislature to "curb the autonomy" of the Regents in light of the recent $175 million scandal are not enough. For too long, the Regents have been undermining the public UC system, becoming another form of monarchical absolutism, a kleptocracy used by the 1% to impose outdated and damaging values on a public education system that should serve the needs of students and workers.

The UC Regents may believe they have a divine right to rule, but they do not. It is time to create a new, democratic governing body for the UC that meets the needs of workers and students, especially those most marginalized. If our state government and the Regents won't take steps to make this happen, students and workers will continue to increase pressure on elites, mobilizing change from the ground up and demanding the re-formulation of the UC system to be more democratic, transparent, and equitable.

WE DEMAND THE UC ADMINISTRATION:

1. Denounce Donald Trump's government

2. Restore free education

3. End state policies that enable racial segregation at all levels of education

4. Designate Sanctuary School status to protect undocumented members of our community

5. Grow, not cut, independent science funding

6. Fully demilitarize UC campuses

7. Fully divest from toxic UC investments

8. Make the UC budget fully transparent

9. Implement survivor-led process for holding people who commit acts of gender-based and sexual violence accountable

10. Commit to providing free and accessible trans and reproductive healthcare, including abortion access, to students and workers

11. Democratize the Regents

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UC Democracy: A Manifesto - Demilitarize! Deprivatize! Democratize!

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"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." ~Frederick Douglass [About the above image: On March 19th, 2008, "The Coalition to Free the UC took nonviolent direct action at the UC Regents meeting at UCSF Mission Bay campus demanding democratization of the UC."

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The University of California Board of Regents has approved 3 percent raises for eight of its 10 chancellors.

UCSF Chancellor Samuel Hawgood was the highest-paid campus leader to receive a raise. His salary will increase from $795,675 to $819,545 a year.

The other chancellors are:

*UC Irvine's Howard Gillman, $499,550 to $514,537.

*UCLA's Gene Block, $454,574 to $468,211.

*UC San Diego's Pradeep Khosla, $449,208 to $462,684.

*UC Santa Barbara's Henry Yang, $401,020 to $413,051.

*UC Merced's Dorothy Leland, UC Riverside's Kim Wilcox and UC Santa Cruz's George Blumenthal, $394,655 to $406,495.

Chancellors from UC Berkeley and UC Davis joined the university in July and August, respectively, so they weren't included in the merit-based salary increase.

The increases passed Wednesday with a 10-6 vote.

The regents based their decision on comparisons to other chancellors in the Association of American Universities, which represents UC and 34 other public universities in the U.S.

According to the regents' executive summary, eight UC chancellors are at or below the 10th percentile compared to their counterparts in the organization.

"UC chancellors remain in the bottom fourth of compensation as compared to their peers, despite the demanding and highly complex work they do," said Dianne Klein, press secretary for UC's president.

She said regents met Thursday morning and discussed how to develop a long-term plan to align chancellor salaries with what is seen in the marketplace.

But representatives from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a union for public service workers, said the raises were excessive and alarming.

"The regents' actions are troubling," AFSCME President Kathryn Lybarger said. "UC has become a living monument to income inequality."

AFSCME represents thousands of workers at UC, including food service, sanitation and hospital employees. Lybarger said UC is taking advantage of these workers, who haven't seen anywhere near the salary growth as the management level.

According to an analysis by AFSCME, the gross pay for all UC chancellors combined has increased by 33 percent in the past six years. And in 2016, there were 80 people at UC who were paid more than $400,000 - more than President Trump receives.

"We shouldn't be running a public university system in California on the backs of the lowest paid workers," Lybarger said. "It's outrageous and it's not how you run a university."

In 2014, UC approved 20 percent raises for its three lowest paid chancellors - UC Merced, UC Santa Cruz and UC Santa Barbara. The decision came one day after finance executives told the regents that academic quality was in jeopardy due to budget shortfalls.

Chancellors also received raises last year, Klein said.

Alison Graham is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: agraham@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @alisonkgraham

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UC regents give pay raises to eight chancellors

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The University of California Board of Regents has approved 3 percent raises for eight of its 10 chancellors. UCSF Chancellor Samuel Hawgood was the highest-paid campus leader to receive a raise. His salary will increase from $795,675 to $819,545 a year. The other chancellors are: *UC Irvine's Howard Gillman, $499,550 to $514,537.

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Class-action gender discrimination lawsuit certified against UC Davis - The Aggie

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UC Davis is facing a class-action lawsuit alleging that its intercollegiate athletics program discriminates against women. Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. certified Brust et al. v. Regents of the University of California as a class-action lawsuit on Oct. 24.

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In solidarity with Folawole and his ongoing fight to hold the University of California system accountable for racial and employment discrimination, we as students and alumni of the UC and concerned community members call on the UC system to award Folawole his rightfully earned MFA degree and end its systemic anti-black violence. Our opposition is a continuation and an intensification of concerns raised by UC Davis Performance Studies students in a 2012 statement in support of Folawole.

To support this effort, please join us in signing this petition and CONTACT THE UC REGENTS and DONATE TOWARD LEGAL FEES.

1) CALL UC REGENTS: 510-987-9220 // regentsoffice@ucop.edu

2) DONATE via venmo: https://venmo.com/folawole

3) SHARE the petition!

Folawole was denied his Theater & Dance MFA despite completion and was forced four times to leave the Performance Studies PhD program after discriminatory interactions with Theater and Dance and Performance Studies faculty. Each time, he was readmitted. Specifically, Folawole was profiled and threatened when he broached issues of structural racism in his program. Before his MFA thesis performance in the Mondavi Center, his advisor, rather than supporting his student and promoting the event, instructed the undergraduate stage manager to call the police. This instruction from his advisor, who was out-of-state at the time, was in direct retaliation for his discussion of racism in the program. The stage manager, frightened by the instruction to call the police, instead wrote a report indicating that this advisor pressured her to call the police. Given what we know about how police treat black men, the advisor's deputized suggestion not only constitutes a violent disruption of Folawole's performance through its function as an intimidating and potentially lethal threat, but also openly promotes a climate of anti-black terror--particularly for black students who often face severe retaliation for simply appearing on campus as students, accessing public facilities, and attempting to complete their degrees.

Additionally, the denial of Folawole's degree has disturbing historical resonance with the segregatory practices that Brown vs. Board of Education attempted to overturn-specifically, it prohibits a Black student from accessing his right to education. The UC's stance also violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits discrimination against employees based on race. These two violations starkly evidence how the UC system perpetuates the legacy of racial slavery by denying black students their degrees, which unduly restricts their social and economic mobility.

The University of California continues to deny Folawole's right to his MFA degree and hence future employment opportunities. This is in spite of the fact that the Academic Senate decided in 2012 that Folawole successfully completed his MFA program and should be granted the degree. In addition, the Yolo County judge-a graduate of the UC-dismissed the original case, falsely claiming that Folawole was not an employee of the university despite the fact that he was employed as a Teaching Assistant, Associate Instructor and English advisor for the Fulbright program. This dangerous ruling from a judge, who was not forthcoming concerning his conflict of interest as a UC alumnus, attempts to set precedent that student workers are not employees and hence not entitled to the same rights of redress and due process for racial and employment discrimination. Folawole is appealing this decision. Read more at http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Folawole-vs-University-of-California-.html?soid=1126995245189&aid=WQw_Um-604M

Folawole continues to fight on behalf of current and future students across the University of California against both structural racism and violations of workers' rights. The University of California's strategic plan for diversity and inclusion supposedly aims to "Ensure bodily safety and productive academic, health and work environments, free from exclusion, intimidation, offensive or hostile conduct, and biased behaviors related to power differentials" (DISP, 15). However, the UC system's blatant disregard for and proactive violence against Folawole directly reveals the lack of commitment to this objective.

What should be a simple resolution to grant Folawole the degree he earned, the UC has dragged on for five years, preventing him from moving on in his life and his career. We are outraged that he and others, particularly Black students, consistently face boldly racist learning environments at the UC. He is not alone, as students in our program and programs across the UCs continue to face discriminatory and retaliatory actions from faculty and administration. Until 2016, despite admitting Black students into the program, the Performance Studies graduate group at UC Davis had never awarded a Black student their PhD.

We amplify the 2012 statement's recognition of "a pervasive culture of whiteness and structural racism" in the materials and methodologies of the Department of Theater and Dance and the Performance Studies graduate group at UC Davis. We recognize that this reality extends across programs and campuses. One concrete step toward just redress is the immediate overhaul of curriculum and pedagogic practices that persistently promote and coerce anti-black, colonial thinking and scholarship. We also recognize and reject the lack of effective structures of support and expiation. We extend the statement's call to "improve graduate student solidarity especially for students of color." We understand solidarity as an active process of confronting racist behavior and dismantling discriminatory systems on the terms of those who experience the discrimination-namely, students of color and specifically Black students.

We call on the UC Regents, the President of the University of California, the Academic Senate, the Dean of Graduate Studies, and the Department of Theater and Dance at UC Davis to honor the Academic Senate ruling and award Folawole his MFA degree. We also call for the UC to desist from any application of section 998 of the California Code of Civil Procedure, which can be used prior to a trial to intimidate Folawole from pursuing the case to trial. CCP 998 effectively allows the UC to pressure Folawole by sending him bills for legal fees the UC incurs while litigiously obstructing him from obtaining his rightfully-earned MFA degree.

We call for the UC to serve its public mandate and to take into full account the holistic and far-reaching harm done by the UC's continued discriminatory labor practices and anti-black antagonism.

1) CALL REGENTS 510-987-9220
2) DONATE via Venmo link above

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Award Folawole his MFA and End Anti-Black Racism and Employment Discrimination in the UC System

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Folawole was denied his Theater & Dance MFA despite completion and was forced four times to leave the Performance Studies PhD program after discriminatory interactions with Theater and Dance and Performance Studies faculty. Each time, he was readmitted. Specifically, Folawole was profiled and threatened when he broached issues of structural racism in his program.

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BookProject - April 2012: Uneasy Remains - UC Davis and Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act - April 3, 2012

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Film and panel discussion featuring Brook Colley, Cutcha Risling-Baldy, Christina Ortiz, and Gina Caison. April 3, 2012

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@ucdavis @ASUCDofficial @Chancellor_May why is UCD selling dream catchers under "what's hot" but erases the fact that this campus is on Native land. Cultural appropriation is not "hot" and maybe you should try not profiting from people who you deny a space to

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@ucdavis @ASUCDofficial @Chancellor_May why is UCD selling dream catchers under "what's hot" but erases the fact that this campus is on Native land. Cultural appropriation is not "hot" and maybe you should try not profiting from people who you deny a space to https://t.co/z0eUcEcVHH

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@ucdavis @ASUCDofficial @Chancellor_May why is UCD selling dream catchers under "what's hot" but erases the fact that this campus is on Native land. Cultural appropriation is not "hot" and maybe you should try not profiting from people who you deny a space to pic.twitter.com/z0eUcEcVHH
— i cant anymore (@Queerest_cat) April 10, 2018

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@ucdavis @ASUCDofficial @Chancellor_May why is UCD selling dream catchers under "what's hot" but erases the fact that this campus is on Native land. Cultural appropriation is not "hot" and maybe you should try not profiting from people who you deny a space to https://t.co/z0eUcEcVHH

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@ucdavis @ASUCDofficial @Chancellor_May why is UCD selling dream catchers under "what's hot" but erases the fact that this campus is on Native land. Cultural appropriation is not "hot" and maybe you should try not profiting from people who you deny a space to https://t.co/z0eUcEcVHH

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@ucdavis @ASUCDofficial @Chancellor_May why is UCD selling dream catchers under "what's hot" but erases the fact that this campus is on Native land. Cultural appropriation is not "hot" and maybe you should try not profiting from people who you deny a space to

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Department of Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano's nomination to be the 22nd president of the University of California announced days ago has already provoked skepticism and opposition from numerous faculty and students. Christopher Newfield, a professor of English at UCSB, wrote on his widely read blog that Napolitano is "unqualified to be a university president," due to her lack of academic background and knowledge of how universities operate. "She has no political network in California," added Newfield, "no local knowledge of the players, no constituency in the state, no national or state-based academic network, no direct understanding of the state's history or current society."

The UC's graduate student union which represents thousands of student employees across the ten campuses, from Berkeley to San Diego, stated in a press release that they are "shocked and troubled," by Napolitano's nomination. "We fear that this decision will further expand the privatization, mismanagement, and militarized repression of free speech that characterized Mark Yudof's presidency and will threaten the quality and accessibility of education."

Yudof of course was UC's cigar chomping, bald, and gruff president recruited from the University of Texas in 2008 to replace Robert C. Dynes and whip the school's administration into shape. Dynes was a physicist who presided over various scandals including one that has been emblematic of the decline of universities across the U.S. over the past two decades: bloated and growing executive compensation packages even while colleges trim their budgets, lay off faculty, and hike tuition. UC's executives were lambasted in the press for their six-figure salaries and cronyism until the Regents, that lofty board of millionaires, mostly friends and donors to the Governor of California given ultimate power of the nation's largest university, told Dynes it was time to retire back to his laboratory at San Diego.

Napolitano is a departure from Yudof and Dynes in that she doesn't appear to have been selected purely for her unique qualifications to handle the crisis de jour for the University. Yudof cleaned up Dynes' mess. Dynes was recruited by several of the Regents in order to assemble Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a private corporation in which the university is a partner with Bechtel. LANS, as it's called, was a creature to necessity; in the early 2000s another set of scandals -spying, theft, and various deadly accidents- threatened one of the UC's most prized possessions, it's sole, lucrative, and much coveted contract to manage the nation's largest nuclear weapons laboratory in the high desert of the Land of Enchantment, New Mexico. Dynes arrived largely to assemble the UC's joint bid for the contract with Bechtel and a few other large military-industrial corporations. He was successful in keeping UC wed to the nuclear lab.

Prior to Dynes was Richard Atkinson, an academic's academic, a former head of the National Science Foundation, and Chancellor of UC San Deigo. Many UC faculty today look back on Atkinson as the ideal type, his reign the good old days, the high water mark for UC, untainted by worldly corruption and materialism, a set of little cities upon golden California hills where patient scientists and scholars could plod away at their research unhurried and secure in tenure and prestige.

But the UC has always been run by cops, spooks, weaponeers, and financiers at the top. The very first board of Regents in 1868 included William Ralston, California's top banker whose wealth was built from deposits of the Comstock silver mines, and whose financial empire collapsed upon his wild speculative schemes. The second board of Regents included Irving Scott, a proto-Northrop Grumman building warships for the U.S. military. Scott's company, the Union Iron Works, built the USS Oregon battleship which was deployed in the 1890s to the Philippines where it shelled the filipinos into submission - for their own childish good said UC's leaders.

UC's tenth president was selected partly based on his anthropological work in service of the growing U.S. imperium in Asia. David Prescott Barrows led the Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes, "re-educating" the Filipinos, indoctrinating them into American culture, and the English language used by their new rulers. Barrows was molding colonial subjects. He once wrote as if he were molding play dough: "the physique of the Filipino is also being modified for the better. The race is physically small, but agile, athletic and comely." Barrows concluded in a patriarchal tone, "in the face of these benefits the Filipinos are not unappreciative."

By the time Clark Kerr took the reigns of UC in the 1960s era, UC had become the uncontested heavy weight champion of the military-industrial-academic complex. Yale could certainly boast deeper ties and more recruits sent yearly to the CIA, but UC Berkeley had John McCone, industrialist, weapons manufacturer, and chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, and for his crowning achievement in the halls of the national security state, director of the CIA from 1961 to 1965. Yale sent the future spied, Berkeley's patron McCone ran the show. Today there is a building named after McCone on Berkeley's campus, but history is alive. If one looks deeper into UC's federal labs, and into its administration and faculty, one will find live lines to Langley.

McCone was just one among many of UC's ultra-powerful spooks and Pentagon dons who sloshed money and personnel and gadgetry between Washington and California. After Clark Kerr's ouster by right-wing, red hunting Regents and the nation's paranoid FBI director, Charles Hitch took over the nation's biggest and still fast growing university. Hitch was an economist brought to UC Berkeley to teach business, but his scholarly expertise lay in the economics of military budgeting. Among his greatest hits: The Economics of Defense in the Nuclear Age; Decision-Making for Defense; The Defense Sector and the American Economy, and; Defense Economic Issues, all very dry tomes patiently and authoritatively discussing the most scientifically effective ways to spend billions of tax dollars on nuclear-tipped intercontinental missiles. Professor Hitch was appointed assistant secretary of defense by Kennedy just prior to his taking the post of UC president. It was a natural progression.

Skeptics of Napolitano's nomination to be UC president point out that running a big federal bureaucracy doesn't make for skills transferable to UC, but in Hitch's case that was in fact part of the reason the Regents selected him. Hitch was a budget man for the Cold War defense contractors and Uncle Sam. He was also chairman of the Budget Review Board and the Capital Outlay Review Board for UC while on faculty. So what better man to run the entire integrated show, not just lecturing and writing about how to budget the military-industrial-academic complex, but in fact drafting the operative budgets for the Pentagon and later the UC?

Napolitano does differ from the previous 21 white men who presided over the University of California in being a woman. She's not different at all with respect to her career and connections to the national security state. Plenty of UC's leaders, from Chancellors to the Regents to the President have been insiders in the Pentagon, the nuclear weapons complex, and other branches of the warfare state. However, DHS chief Napolitano is unlike the previous UC presidents in that she an academic outsider, and that is the singular and new difference she signals, a full departure from a presidency that once required the credentials of scholarship and pedagogy.
Darwin Bond-Graham, a contributing editor to CounterPunch,is a sociologist and author who lives and works in Oakland, CA. His essay on economic inequality in the "new" California economy appears in the July issue of CounterPunch magazine. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion

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The University of California and the Military Industrial Complex - CounterPunch.org

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Department of Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano's nomination to be the 22nd president of the University of California announced days ago has already provoked skepticism and opposition from numerous faculty and students. Christopher Newfield, a professor of English at UCSB, wrote on his widely read blog that Napolitano is "unqualified to be a university president," due to her lack of academic background and knowledge of how universities operate.

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UCD: animal testing / nuclear testing / cancer

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UCD: animal testing / nuclear testing / cancer

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The radioactive beagles are long gone, their frozen carcasses hauled off to a nuclear waste dump in Washington state along with 140 tons of radioactive dog sewage.

Their legacy, however, has jolted residents of this environmentally conscious college town, which declared itself a "nuclear free zone" a decade ago. After all, this is a community where the bicycle is king, recycling is a popular pastime and smoking is banned even on downtown sidewalks.

But on the edge of the UC Davis campus, about two miles outside the city, sits a contaminated ghost town of empty kennels, deserted research laboratories and aging landfills surrounded by barbed-wire.

The secluded Department of Energy facility--where UC scientists fed beagles radioactive chow in a 30-year study of nuclear fallout--is so toxic that it is proposed for listing as a federal Superfund site.

Revelations over the past five years that the facility has emitted radiation and contaminated ground water have left some neighbors feeling betrayed by the university and the government.

"A lot of people gave the university the benefit of the doubt, as I did in the beginning," said Julie Roth, a neighbor whose well is fouled by radioactive tritium and toxic chemicals. "I believed they, more than anyone else, would know the dangers and (take) the most steps to protect people.

"In fact, I found out it was just the opposite."

From 1956 until 1986, when the last of 1,200 beagles died, researchers at UC Davis were part of what they called the Beagle Club, a set of experiments in six states to study the effects of nuclear contamination. At the Davis Laboratory for Energy-Related Health Research, scientists fed some beagles strontium 90, injected some with radium, and irradiated others with cobalt to see how nuclear fallout might affect people.

Now, some neighbors and former workers at the site say they were alarmed to learn they may have been unknowingly exposed to radiation from a cobalt irradiator used on the beagles outdoors for 15 years without public warning. One former university student who worked with the dogs has filed a lawsuit, charging she developed cancer from the radiation.

Furthermore, radioactive and chemical wastes from the facility have poisoned wells on neighboring farms, prompting the university to provide bottled water to nearby homes. Some farm owners say they may sue over lost property values.

"We never had any idea we had the potential of being exposed," said Roth, who has lived on her farm for more than a decade.

The beagle research center is one of 4,000 Department of Energy sites contaminated by radiation or chemical waste during the Cold War rush to produce nuclear weapons and study the effects of radiation.

The department, which recently admitted conducting radiation experiments on humans without their knowledge, estimates that it will cost as much as $200 billion over 30 years to clean up the toxic mess caused by half a century of nuclear development.

The Beagle Club experiments began at a time of "Cold War hysteria," when fears of a nuclear war were widespread and some nations, including the United States and the Soviet Union, were testing atomic bombs above ground, explained Marvin Goldman, who headed the Davis research for 20 years.

The scientists experimented on beagles because they are long-lived, have greater genetic diversity than other dog species and their skeleton and bone marrow resemble that of humans.

The research was sponsored by the Atomic Energy Commission, a forerunner of the Department of Energy, which contracted with UC Davis and other institutions to conduct specific studies.

At Colorado State University, researchers looked at the effect of radiating beagles inside the womb. In Albuquerque, scientists studied beagles that inhaled radioactive material. Researchers at Hanford in Washington and the University of Utah Medical School examined the effects of plutonium on beagles. And scientists at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago studied external radiation and long-term genetic damage.

At UC Davis, the scientists' primary mission was to determine the danger of strontium 90, a bone-seeking isotope that is present in nuclear fallout. Long-lasting and deadly, strontium is absorbed by crops, eaten by cattle and passed on to people through cow's milk. Even today, the atmosphere contains strontium from atomic tests during the 1950s.

From before birth to the time they reached adulthood, 300 beagles at UC Davis were fed a daily diet that included strontium 90.

"This was to simulate a contaminated world," said Goldman, a research radiobiologist. "This was to simulate people living downstream from a leaky nuclear facility."

To make a valid comparison with humans, other beagles were injected with radium to replicate the exposure early this century of women who developed bone cancer from painting radium dials on watches. A third group of beagles was not exposed to radiation.

Another experiment tested the dogs' response to full-body radiation. At first, these beagles were given cesium, a radioactive particle; later they were exposed to radiation from the cobalt irradiator.

Goldman said the UC Davis research led to important discoveries that helped shape medical policy for the nuclear era and set international radiation safety standards.

The Davis researchers found that high levels of strontium 90 caused bone cancer and that higher levels caused leukemia. At the same time, they found at lower levels--up to 1,000 times background exposure--there were no health effects. From this they concluded that strontium emitted by nuclear plants is well below the level that would be considered unsafe.

Goldman insisted that the beagles were treated well, got excellent medical care and lived "three times longer" than beagles kept as household pets. The dogs were kept two to a pen, separated by gender, and lived celibate lives.

Detailed records were kept on each dog. When they died, their bodies were kept in huge freezers so scientists could go back and analyze tissue samples. Even today, the experiments are providing raw data for scientists who are studying radiation exposure.

Although the radiation research at the lab was not a secret, nearby residents say they were never told of any hazards and only learned about possible dangers after the cleanup started in 1989 and they began asking questions.

Neighbors were especially startled to learn about the cobalt irradiator, which was heavily used until the mid-1980s.

UC Davis and the Department of Energy sought to assure residents that they were not harmed, but then found that researchers had kept virtually no records on the amount of radiation emitted.

"What was surprising to me was an absolute lack of any scientific information they kept on the potential exposure," said Julie Roth, whose farmhouse is a quarter-mile from the facility.

Embarrassed, the government commissioned a study to estimate the exposure levels during the 15 years the irradiator was used. The report concluded that the device did not pose a hazard, although skeptical neighbors remain unconvinced.

As a UC Davis student in 1972 and 1973, Rheem Araj worked at the research center helping to take care of the beagles. According to her lawyers, she was never told of radiation on the site or issued a radiation monitoring badge.

In 1984, she contracted lymphoma, which is now in remission. She did not connect her cancer to the beagle research until after 1990, when word of radiation exposure at the site began to surface. Now she is suing the university, contending that exposure caused her illness. The university denies any connection between her illness and the beagle project.

"She did not know that the beagles were irradiated or that she was being irradiated," said her attorney, Scott Wechsler.

Department of Energy officials acknowledge that in the climate of Cold War secrecy, the public was not warned of potential radiation dangers from facilities such as the Davis center. Now they say they are trying to correct their mistakes, in part by talking openly about radiation exposure from nuclear facilities and experiments on unwitting humans.

"We freely admit that people were not given adequate notice of activities at our sites," said Roger Liddle, the Department of Energy project manager for the Davis cleanup.

Knowing the experiments would produce radioactive waste, the Davis researchers built a special septic system to treat and contain contaminated sewage. Goldman said the system was innovative for its day--a time when many scientists routinely disposed of hazardous radioactive and chemical waste in unlined pits.

One former worker at the site has alleged at public meetings that overflow radioactive sewage was sometimes channeled into nearby Putah Creek, which empties into Lake Berryessa. UC Davis officials deny there was improper disposal.

Cleanup of the facilityis complicated by earlier toxic dumping on the property. Before the dog experiments began in 1956, the 15-acre site was where UC Davis scientists buried radioactive cow and calf carcasses in unlined landfills and trenches, along with other hazardous laboratory waste.

Tests of the ground water have found unsafe levels of tritium--a radioactive tracer used in the cow studies--as well as chromium, nitrates and other hazardous chemicals.

In addition, radioactive strontium and radium used in the beagle experiments are in the soil, the laboratories and the kennels.

At this point, UC Davis and federal officials say there is no threat to human health from the research facility.

"No one is drinking water contaminated with radiation," said Greg Baker, an official with the Environmental Protection Agency. But because of concern about the potential exposure to people in the area, the EPA announced last month that it will step in.

After completion of a detailed assessment to determine the extent of the problem, federal officials expect the site to be placed on the EPA's Superfund list, making it one of the top national priorities for toxic cleanup.

Earlier, the frozen beagles were packed in 55-gallon drums and shipped to Hanford, followed by the radioactive sewage, which was mixed with concrete to form solid blocks. The controversial cobalt irradiator was sent to a private research center. And workers recently finished stripping the laboratories.

While taking steps to clean up the site, UC Davis officials defend their researchers. They also point out that the radiation experiments were public knowledge and that the center even gave public tours.

"As far as we know, the facility operated according to the health and safety regulations in effect at the time," said university spokeswoman Karen Watson. "Of course, the standard practice then is not the standard practice now."

But in Davis, where the university dominates the community's economy and social life, revelations about the handling of radiation at the research center have caused some to question the university's credibility.

Among them is resident Larry Bidinian, who successfully sued in 1992 to block UC Davis from developing the site without preparing an environmental impact report on its hazards.

"I don't think anybody knows the full extent of the problem because everybody did their best to cover it up and then downplay it," he said.

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COLUMN ONE : Fallout From Toxic Beagle Experiments : Davis residents feel betrayed by how nuclear tests occurred at kennels. Radiation has leaked into the air and ground.

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The radioactive beagles are long gone, their frozen carcasses hauled off to a nuclear waste dump in Washington state along with 140 tons of radioactive dog sewage. Their legacy, however, has jolted residents of this environmentally conscious college town, which declared itself a "nuclear free zone" a decade ago.

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The settler colonialism of UCI on Tongva and Acjachemen land

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The settler colonialism of UCI on Tongva and Acjachemen land

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Most of Orange County, including the site of UC Irvine, is located on the shared territory of the Acjachemen and Tongva native tribes. While UCI was built on tribal lands in 1965, today, tribe members, along with UCI faculty and staff, are seeking to address the invisibility of Native nations through active community engagement
No Federal Recognition of Acjachemen and Tongva Tribes
Nearly 200 Native nations exist in California today, of which 111 are federally recognized. The Acjachemen and Tongva tribes are among the tribes that have not been federally recognized.

According to the U.S. Department of Indian Affairs, a federally-recognized tribe "is recognized as having a government-to-government relationship with the United States" and "is eligible for funding and services from the Bureau of Indian Affairs." Federally-recognized tribes also possess "certain inherent rights of self-government."

"Federal acknowledgement would provide us with resources, such as educational resources and medical resources," said Acjachemen Tribe Manager Joyce Stanfield Perry. "The federal government would have more of a say on how we run our tribal government, as federally-recognized tribes are wards of the state under the United States of America."

The Acjachemen tribe had been actively seeking federal recognition for decades, but was continuously denied recognition. According to Perry, a portion of the Acjachemen tribe has recently withdrawn itself altogether from the process of seeking federal recognition, while the tribe's other portion was again denied recognition.

According to member of the Acjachemen Nation and founder and Executive Director of the Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples, Angela Mooney D'Arcy, the Acjachemen and Tongva tribes have not received federal recognition due to the geographical location of their lands.

D'Arcy explained that Orange County is the "hotbed of the most racist tweets west of the Mississippi" and is a very "privileged and expensive" area, and thus it is not in the U.S. government's best interest to give legal jurisdiction of this area to Native Americans.

"The reason we don't have federal recognition is because that would give us brown people the capacity to assert legal and territorial jurisdiction over land within one of the wealthiest, whitest and most privileged areas in all of the United States," said D'Arcy. "We see the anti-immigrant and anti-Latino sentiment in Orange County by the fact that the KKK was actively recruiting on Martin Luther King day in Santa Ana this year and last year."

Perry described that not being federally recognized has its pros and cons. While non-federally-recognized tribes do not receive federal resources, they exert sovereignty through an internal government, which has a more "community-oriented" and "grassroots focus." Perry added that many tribes with formal recognition may not have this approach, since they have a reservation of their own, and specific criteria to meet in their dealing with the federal government.

Despite not being federally recognized, the Acjachemen tribe has asserted sovereignty outside of its internal nation as well. For instance, the U.S. Marine Corps consults with tribes, including the Acjachemen nation, who have ancestral ties to the area on which Camp Pendleton is built. In 2008, the U.S. Department of Commerce denied a permit for construction that would have affected an Acjachemen sacred site.

Yet, even tribes that are federally-recognized face difficulty when acquiring land trusts and legal jurisdiction. Former Acjachemen Chief Clarence Lobo actively sought more than just federal recognition in the early twentieth century. He started a political movement with a coalition of other tribes to claim tribal lands that were stolen, but the movement was largely ignored.

In order to draw attention to his cause, Lobo famously dressed in Plains Indian attire - the attire most stereotypically associated with Native Americans by the public - and stood at the site of construction of UCI in 1963. He expressed concern that Native American history would be completely erased in future generations.

"Our children shall not know the experience of roaming over these rolling hills and listening to the wild birds as they talk to nature," said Lobo at the UCI construction site. "Our footprints upon the sands of time shall be history to them."
Invisibility of Native Nations
As the Acjachemen and Tongva tribes have not been federally recognized, and will perhaps never be given their geographical location in Orange County, the invisibility of these tribes - and Native Nations in general - continues nationally today, as Lobo feared.

"Most people don't recognize that there are nearly 200 nations in California alone today," said D'Arcy.

This invisibility of native tribes is also augmented by the lack of media coverage of Native Americans, explained D'Arcy. For instance, according to the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (CJCJ), an organization that researches police brutality and criminal justice, "the racial group most likely to be killed by law enforcement is Native Americans."

Perry added that, when talking about under-resourced and underprivileged minorities, Americans think of African Americans, Hispanic Americans or Asian Americans. Native Americans are "among the most impoverished minorities," but they are still not acknowledged.

"I think the bottom line is that if [the American public] acknowledges that the Native Americans are still here, they have to acknowledge the history of the nation, and that's very contrary to the image that they want to project today," said Perry.
Addressing Invisibility at UCI
The invisibility of the Acjachemen and other nations, which Lobo feared standing at UCI in 1963, is being actively addressed at the community level by Acjachemen and Tongva tribe members along with faculty and staff at UCI today.

Last year, UCI's law school hosted a symposium titled "Cultivating Consciousness of Acjachemen Homelands" to discuss the relationship between Native nations and the university community. Speakers included D'Arcy and Perry.

Abby Reyes, who runs UCI's Sustainability Initiative, which promotes sustainability on campus through community engagement, described that the initiative has been collaborating with the Acjachemen and Tongva tribal leaders.

"Indigenous communities, both here in Southern California and around the world, are really leading the social movement for environmental balance, economic vitality and social justice," said Reyes. "We believe these communities have a lot to teach about this topic."

Reyes added that many of these communities are facing economic disparity and injustice, and do not have access to the land and resources necessary to sustain traditional practices. The Sustainability Initiative has been working on various projects to bring attention to this injustice and to create strategies to address it.

Moreover, D'Arcy encourages students to work to correct the invisibility. The 200 Native nations in California today affect all areas that students research, including land use, health, political representation, law and public policy.

"It is important to have the skills and the capacity to engage with Native nations, and if people have no understanding of the real history of California and no real understanding of federal Indian law, it's going to be very difficult for them to be adequately prepared to engage with Native nations," said D'Arcy. "The reality is, particularly in a place like California, there is going to be a greater and greater need for that."

This October, Indigenous organizations, Native nations, community organizations and universities worldwide will be gathering at UCI's Beckman Center for the World Indigenous Law Conference.

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Local Native Tribes Address Invisibility at UCI

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Most of Orange County, including the site of UC Irvine, is located on the shared territory of the Acjachemen and Tongva native tribes. While UCI was built on tribal lands in 1965, today, tribe members, along with UCI faculty and staff, are seeking to address the invisibility of Native nations through active community engagement No Federal Recognition of Acjachemen and Tongva Tribes Nearly 200 Native nations exist in California today, of which 111 are federally recognized.

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UCD: animal testing / ethics  violations

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UCD: animal testing / ethics  violations

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Seven infant monkeys were accidentally poisoned and died at one of the largest primate research centers in the US, internal documents shared with the Guardian have revealed.

The young macaques died after their mothers were marked with dye at the University of California, Davis, primate research laboratory.

Once reunited with their infants, the female macaques inadvertently transferred the dye, which proved toxic to them. Seven of the infants, none more than a few weeks old - with one just a day old - subsequently died.

UC Davis reported the incidents to federal authorities in April 2018, with further details provided in a letter sent a year later. In the latter document, UC Davis told the federal watchdog Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare that two of the infants were found to have "generalized weakness and respiratory distress", with dye found on their lips and tongues.

Both of these infants had "severe edema and swelling of the larynx and tongue" and, despite emergency treatment, died. The other deceased infants were "either found dead or euthanized upon arrival at the hospital". All seven of them had some amount of dye on their fur, skin or around the mouth, which probably triggered a deadly allergic reaction.

In response, the Office of Laboratory and Animal Welfare told UC Davis that infants aged under six months should not be marked with dye and that mothers and babies should be kept apart longer to minimize the transfer of the markings. The correspondence has been released under Freedom of Information laws.

The tragedy is the latest blow to the primate research operation at UC Davis, one of the largest in the country. The university said it had about 4,200 primates, mostly rhesus macaques, which it keeps for research into HIV/Aids, Zika virus and other infectious diseases, respiratory disease, reproductive health, Alzheimer's disease and ageing.

In 2016, it emerged that UC Davis was among nine federally funded research centers being investigated over mistreatment of primates. In March of that year, a primate fractured both legs after escaping through an unsecured door at the facility, with another primate subsequently injured following a similar incident.

UC Davis has been targeted by animal rights activists over these incidents, as well as a 2005 episode where seven monkeys died from apparent heat exposure. The US Department of Agriculture subsequently handed the university a $4,815 fine.

The latest deaths show that "seven infant rhesus monkeys ranging in age from one to 19 days of age were forcibly removed from their mothers, had a physical exam, were tattooed, had blood drawn, were marked with a dye with irritant capacity, and then placed back on their anesthetized and unresponsive mothers", said John Gluck, an academic and former primate researcher.

"How could UC Davis fail to consider that this intensely stress-provoking experience would not place these infants at risk? Negligence is the word I would use."

The New England Anti-Vivisection Society, which wants UC Davis and other facilities to reduce the numbers of primates used for research, said it has written to the USDA requesting that the university be fined $70,000 over the infant monkey deaths.

"It's 2019, and we can no longer deny the science that shows non-human primates suffer like we would and feel pain like we do," said Mike Ryan, head of government affairs at the group.

"Invasive and deadly experiments on captive primates who are abused in cages for their entire lives must end."

The US government has curbed some primate research in recent years, with the National Institutes of Health announcing in 2015 it would no longer fund biomedical research on chimpanzees. Facing hefty public opposition to primate testing, some facilities, such as at Harvard, have wound down their programs and sent their apes and monkeys to sanctuaries.

Testing on primates in the US is far from over, however, with figures released last year showing nearly 76,000 non-human primates in captivity for research purposes. Supporters of primate testing argue it is essential in order to discover new cures for diseases that afflict humans.

"We strive to take the best possible care of animals in our charge," said a UC Davis spokesman, who added that many of the captive primates are kept in extended family groups, get regular medical exams and can live for up to 38 years, double the expected lifespan in the wild.

UC Davis has typically used dyes to identify individual primates but following the infant deaths "center staff changed procedures so they no longer dye-mark monkeys under six months of age and take other steps to minimize dye transfer", the spokesman said.
Topics

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Seven baby monkeys died from poisoning at US research center

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Seven infant monkeys were accidentally poisoned and died at one of the largest primate research centers in the US, internal documents shared with the Guardian have revealed. The young macaques died after their mothers were marked with dye at the University of California, Davis, primate research laboratory.

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News that thousands of students at the University of California often go hungry because they can't afford meals prompted a generous promise last summer from UC President Janet Napolitano: $3.3 million for more food pantries and other ways of feeding the young scholars.

The money, to be spent over two years, would come from the "president's initiative fund," a discretionary pool of cash financed by the interest from university investments, UC officials told The Chronicle in July.

It turns out the food allotment is part of the $175 million that California State Auditor Elaine Howle says the president's office hid in secret funds and did not spend as of June 2016. Howle said in her April 25 audit of spending in the president's office that Napolitano regularly submitted inflated budgets and swept unspent money into secret reserves to spend on projects of her choosing - then asked the regents to raise tuition for next fall.

The approved tuition increase is expected to raise $143 million for UC next year - less than the money squirreled away in the central office in Oakland that performs administrative services across the UC system's 10 campuses, five medical centers and three national laboratories.

The Chronicle took a closer look at the $175 million and met Friday with Napolitano's chief operating officer, Rachel Nava, and other budget experts to learn more about why their office didn't disclose the money to the regents or the public as part of the president's office budget.

In addition to the food program, Napolitano's office set aside funds to pay for initiatives such as " carbon neutrality," to help UC become the first university to end its reliance on fossil fuels by 2025; cash to make up for federal financial aid, Pell grants, that have been canceled for summer study; wetlands restoration at UC Merced; and financial aid for immigrant students living here illegally.

The president's staff insists - contrary to what Howle found - that they were transparent about the funds.

Nava said some were lumped together in the budget presented to the regents under such broad categories as the "president's endowment initiative." But she said individual programs were not necessarily broken out in the budget.

Instead, Napolitano's staff made separate, periodic presentations about the individual initiatives to the regents, she said. The office also sent press releases out, such as in the case of the $3.3 million food program.

"We don't believe any of this was hidden," Nava said.

Discovery of the reserves, a major finding in the auditor's report, forced the UC president to answer questions from angry lawmakers on May 2. It prompted Napolitano to agree to implement, over three years, all 33 of the auditor's recommendations for cleaning up the office's unorthodox budgeting practices. And on Thursday, it led Gov. Jerry Brown to announce that he is withholding $50 million from the university's annual funding allocation in his proposed budget until UC proves it has made progress on reforms.

"We still have a lot of questions," said Assemblyman Jose Medina, D-Riverside. Napolitano "never took full responsibility for the issues found in the audit."

Because the president's staff didn't disclose the funds, her office has said its budget was $686 million last year. The auditor says it was actually $747 million.

Howle said the mysterious $175 million was the cumulative amount of undisclosed cash left unspent over four years. Her report says repeatedly that some of the funds should be given to UC's cash-strapped campuses.

Nava said Friday that the true amount is $170 million, and that the auditor erroneously included $5 million that belonged to campuses.

Howle said her office has had difficulty identifying the amount and source of the reserves, and that Napolitano's office didn't know how much was there until auditors pointed it out.

Emails obtained by The Chronicle show that auditors had to repeatedly ask Napolitano's office to show what the reserves were going to be used for.

"This is a very complex budget," Nava said Friday. "Some of these things are difficult to explain - not because we don't know what's going on, but because of the complexity."

On Friday, Napolitano's staff offered more information about funds broken down by Howle into these three groups, with the amounts the auditor said were unspent as of last June:

Restricted funds ($83 million). Napolitano's staff says the source of each fund prescribes how the money can be spent. The auditor says it is Napolitano herself who is issuing the prescription.

An example is $6.3 million left over from an Enron lawsuit settlement after the energy company went bankrupt amid fraud and corruption.

"That's restricted for our strategic energy program," said Eva Goode, the president's budget director, referring to UC's " Wholesale Power" program, in which the university is the main energy supplier to five campuses and medical centers, including UCSF.

Asked if the terms of the settlement required UC to spend the money on its own energy program, Nava, the operations officer, said it was more likely that the president's staff chose to do so because the money had come from energy contracts and investments in the first place.

Howle recommended that UC re-evaluate such restrictions and consider sending the money to campuses to spend on students.

Uncommitted funds ($38 million). This money represents savings from unfilled vacancies in the president's office, interest income from the university's endowment, and annual fees from campuses that finance most of the budget for the president's office, according to Nava, Goode and Thera Kalmijn, executive director of operations at the president's office.

Howle said that $32 million of the unspent $175 million came from the fees paid by campuses, and she recommended that this money go back to them.

Discretionary commitments ($54 million). These are projects Napolitano specializes in, her staff said. She has set aside funds for practical purposes, like broken heating systems in UC buildings ($2.5 million); improving cybersecurity ($7.2 million); and fixing the homes of campus chancellors ($250,000).

But she has also started large projects - "multiyear commitments" - of a kind her predecessor, Mark Yudof, never did, said Napolitano's spokeswoman, Dianne Klein. Napolitano became president in July 2013.

Among them are employee trainings on how to address sexual violence and harassment on campus ($200,000); financial aid and other services for students in the country illegally ($2.5 million); and the food program for hungry students.

Auditors found $5.2 million unspent in the president's "Global Food Initiative" fund, which includes the $3.3 million announced last summer after a UC-wide survey of nearly 9,000 students found that 1 in 5 skips meals for lack of funds.

A budget for the Global Food Initiative shows that Napolitano started it in 2014. But the budget hasn't been updated since December and shows no expenditures from the $3.3 million touted by her office last summer in a news release.

It does show, however, that past expenditures ranged from $606,000 on food research; about $430,000 on food projects for kindergartners through 12th-graders, and nearly $1 million on communication about food, obesity and agriculture.

Napolitano's staff will present a new budget for her office to the regents on Thursday for their approval.

Unlike in past years, Nava said, "there will be a very detailed, lengthy budget presentation."
Nanette Asimov and Melody Gutierrez are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com, mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov, @MelodyGutierrez

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Closer look at $175 million UC hid from the public

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News that thousands of students at the University of California often go hungry because they can't afford meals prompted a generous promise last summer from UC President Janet Napolitano: $3.3 million for more food pantries and other ways of feeding the young scholars.

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While @UCIrvine chancellor is enjoying all the amenities that undoubtedly comes with this MASSIVE MANSION & receiving police protection, UCI students are skipping meals, sleeping in their cars, & getting assaulted by cops.

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UC Invested in Weapons Manufacture, Violation of Palestinian Human Rights

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UC Invested in Weapons Manufacture, Violation of Palestinian Human Rights

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There has been much discussion about how UC administrators are petitioning to keep UC SHIP exempt from the standards of the Affordable Care Act and how UC Office of the President mismanaged UC SHIP to the tune of nearly $60 million. What I haven't seen or heard discussed is how these factors may spell the demise of UC SHIP when the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") kicks in next January.

Since UC SHIP is a self-funded student plan, it is not mandated by ACA to meet certain standards. UCOP's response to this has been to get UC SHIP classified as "minimum essential coverage." The problem with UCOP doing this is that it keeps UC SHIP in this gray-zone where the elimination of caps is still not mandatory. Currently, students face a yearly prescription drug cap and a lifetime coverage cap under UC SHIP. The reality is that this cap is far from sufficient for dealing with a long-term or costly medical condition such as cancer. UCOP thinks it has done us a favor when in fact it has just further cemented UC students' lack of health security.

Next there is the deficit. UC SHIP is expected to be just under $60 million in debt by this summer. When UC SHIP was formed by consolidating the existing campus health insurance plans all oversight became centralized under UCOP and campus health services were no longer able to oversee the plan. Hired consultants did some poor math, and UCOP didn't keep their own tabs on the plan or get any second opinions, and let the plan go into debt year after year, until we got to the situation we are in now. UCOP's solution is to charge students for their mismanagement, nearly doubling our fees over the next few years.

Most important is what all this will mean if UCOP does pass the buck on to us and doesn't remove the caps. Next January, students will face the option of buying a cheaper insurance plan on the state exchanges which doesn't have any yearly or lifetime caps, or sticking with the more expensive UC SHIP plan which will not be there for them if they face a catastrophic illness. Which would you choose: the cheaper plan which offers more health security or the more expensive plan with less coverage? The obvious choice for many students will be to go to the exchanges and drop UC SHIP. If students do this in large enough numbers than the buying power of our plan will be significantly reduced. At this point we basically have a downward spiral, where more students leaving the plan causes more students to leave, until UC SHIP is just no longer a competitive plan at all.

I am not the only one who thinks this way. I sit on the UC SHIP student advisory committee here at Davis and one of the directors of Student Health and Counseling Services said in our Feb. 13 meeting that this is a very realistic scenario and that she thinks that after a few years of the state exchanges being established that the UC will no longer offer health insurance to students.

Either we can demand that UCOP pay for its mistakes and that the caps are dropped, or we can sit by and watch as UC SHIP wastes away its last few years, at the expense of those students who do not immediately leave the plan.

Duane Wright
Ph.D student in Sociology
Unit Chair of the UC Student Worker Union UAW 2865 at UC Davis
Member of the UC SHIP student advisory committee
dewright@ucdavis.edu

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Letter to the Editor: UCSHIP exemptions - The Aggie

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There has been much discussion about how UC administrators are petitioning to keep UC SHIP exempt from the standards of the Affordable Care Act and how UC Office of the President mismanaged UC SHIP to the tune of nearly $60 million.

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Primate research funded by Elon Musk's Nerualink

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Neuralink, Elon Musk's secretive startup dedicated to the development of brain-computer interfaces that could make it possible for people to communicate with computers using only their thoughts, is funding primate research at a California university, according to public records obtained by Gizmodo.

This research grant marks Neuralink's first successful foray into the arena of animal testing, a necessary but often hidden step in the process of developing brain-computer interfaces. Neuralink previously explored the idea of building a lab in San Francisco that would test on rodents, but ultimately abandoned the project, Gizmodo in March.

An between Neuralink and the board of regents of the University of California, obtained in response to a public records request, outlines the terms of the deal and the scope of the research to be conducted. Neuralink will pay $796,006for research conducted at UC Davis's National Primate Center, one of seven centers nationwide dedicated to the study of health and disease on primates.

"Research performed at the Facility and other National Primate Research Centers provides necessary information before proceeding to clinical trials in humans, leading to new drugs, therapies and surgical procedures that benefit human health and quality of life," the contract states.

The Davis research facility, located about 75 miles outside of San Francisco, is home to most of the primate research subjects in the state of California. In 2016, the most recent year for which the Department of Agriculture has released statistics, there were 3,596 primates available for research in the state and Davis housed 2,530 of them. Most of the primates at Davis are rhesus macaques, although the university is also home to about 1oo titi monkeys.

Neuralink inked the deal with UC Davis in September 2017, roughly three months after it told city officials in San Francisco that it had abandoned plans to build out an animal testing lab at its headquarters there. An architect working with Neuralink told San Francisco officials that the company planned to eventually build its facility outside the city.

It's not clear how long the contract lasts-the end date of the research is redacted. However, UC Davis generally reports its research grants in fiscal year cycles, and since Neuralink started funding research in the fall semester, the contract will likely need to be renewed after the spring semester.

UC Davis heavily redacted its agreement with Neuralink before releasing the document to Gizmodo, citing exemptions to the California Public Records Act designed to protect unpublished academic research. "The courts have recognized that premature disclosure of proposed or on-going research may result in a chilling effect on academic research, noting the possibility for misappropriation of research results, the fear of additional disclosure in the future, and of potentially severe harm to the integrity of the research and to the investigator's careers," a spokesperson for the university wrote. The spokesperson also argued that the redactions would help preserve Neuralink's trade secrets.

Under the agreement, Neuralink employees can work side-by-side with academic researchers at the Davis facility. Davis researchers are allowed to publish their findings based on Neuralink-funded research, provided that they allow Neuralink to review the work prior to publication for confidential information. A Neuralink spokesperson declined to comment on the contract.

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Neuralink Is Funding Primate Research at the University of California

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Neuralink, Elon Musk's secretive startup dedicated to the development of brain-computer interfaces that could make it possible for people to communicate with computers using only their thoughts, is funding primate research at a California university, according to public records obtained by Gizmodo.

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UC Invested in Settler Colonialism in Hawai'i

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UC Invested in Settler Colonialism in Hawai'i

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“We’re here to inform you that the people of Hawai'i will not accept this anymore,” said Joshua Lanakila Mangauil, an organizer of the protest. “I ask this body to reinstill that money … and take care of your own students.”

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Communities
Protesters oppose Mauna Kea telescope at UC regents meeting

About 80 protesters gathered at a UC Board of Regents meeting Thursday to demand that the UC system divests from the Thirty Meter Telescope, or TMT, project on Mauna Kea - a mountain that is sacred to Native Hawaiians.

These protesters consisted of the Mauna Kea Protectors, students from various schools within the UC system, Bay Area residents and some Native Hawaiians from the state itself, according to UC Santa Cruz Mauna Kea Protectors member Karli DeRego. The group gathered around 8 a.m. and spoke at the meeting to express its concerns about the UC system investing in TMT, according to Mauna Kea Protectors at UC Berkeley organizer Sarah Bancroft.

"We're here to inform you that the people of Hawaii will not accept this anymore," said Joshua Lanakila Mangauil, an organizer of the protest. "I ask this body to reinstill that money ... and take care of your own students."

The TMT International Observatory is a partnership between the UC system and the California Institute of Technology, as well as other organizations from Japan, China, India and Canada. Mangauil alleged that India, one of the partners in the project, said it wanted the TMT project moved away from Mauna Kea.

The protesters then went outside to hold a press conference and read a letter written by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. DeRego, along with Ashley Garelick from Intersectional Feminists at UC Santa Barbara and Angeli Noelle Cabrera from the UC Santa Barbara Pacific Islander Student Association, read excerpts from the letter aloud.

"Accordingly, the committee requests the state party to provide information on the steps taken to ... ensure the right to consultation and free, prior and informed consent to Native Hawaiians affected by projects on or near their ancestral lands and territories," stated the letter. "Consider the suspension of the Thirty Meter Telescope project. ... Consider adopting concrete measures to effectively protect the sacred sites of indigenous peoples."

Mangauil then led the group in an "aha" protocol, a traditional Native Hawaiian ritual practice, after a member of a local indigenous community spoke and prayed for the success of the Mauna Kea protesters. For the next hour, Mangauil played a massive drum and chanted while the other protesters repeated his chants and danced traditional dances. Some bystanders joined in the dancing, and some protesters took their shoes off.

At the end of the rally, Mangauil spoke to the crowd and explained the purpose of them demonstrating for Mauna Kea. He spoke of transforming systems that are "not serving" the people and of the importance of fighting for one's community.

"Call that mana," Mangauil said. "Face that fire." Then, with a closing song, the protest concluded.

TMT would be one of the world's most powerful telescopes and would be able to provide images 10 times sharper than those from the Hubble Space Telescope, according to UC Office of the President spokesperson Stett Holbrook.
Contact Olivia González Britt and Megha Krishnan at [email protected] .
TMT has collaborated with the Hawaiian community for more than 10 years to address cultural, environmental, educational and economic issues, Holbrook said in an email. Holbrook added that UC Board of Regents chair John Pérez wanted the discussion of the TMT project to come before the full board.

"The TIO and its individual partners have a longstanding history of advancing astronomy on Hawaii Island and have worked diligently for more than a decade to engage community members, the local business community and the state in finding a peaceful path forward on Maunakea," Holbrook said in the email. "TMT remains committed to integrating science and culture, providing the best possible stewardship, enriching the local economy and supporting educational opportunities as it enables this global scientific endeavor."

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Protesters oppose Mauna Kea telescope at UC regents meeting

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Communities About 80 protesters gathered at a UC Board of Regents meeting Thursday to demand that the UC system divests from the Thirty Meter Telescope, or TMT, project on Mauna Kea - a mountain that is sacred to Native Hawaiians.

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UCSC Terminates students in midst of COVID-19 pandemic

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UC Irvine students and staff workers demonstrated outside Aldrich Hall last Tuesday morning to protest and bring awareness to several issues surrounding the UC Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP).

Alliant Insurance Services, an actuarial firm that was hired by UC SHIP management, released a report on Jan. 11 that detailed the approximate $54 million deficit that UC SHIP accumulated during 2010-13.

The deficit is partially the result of miscalculations by the firm pricing benefits at too low of a premium.

The UC Office of the President (UCOP), which manages UC SHIP, has outlined several options to alleviate the deficit that include increasing premiums and cuts to available benefits under the policy.

Demonstrators at the rally on Tuesday held signs that condemned UC mismanagement and that students and workers should not bear the brunt of the consequences.

UAW 2865, a labor union representing Academic Student Employees (ASEs) across the nine UC campuses, organized the protest outside Aldrich, then moved inside the Student Center with members of Associated Graduated Students (AGS) for a meeting with representatives from the UC Office of the President, including those involved with UC SHIP.

Jessica Conte, a graduate student majoring in East Asian languages and literature, said the majority of questions were based on the exclusion of students from the decision-making process.

The Student Health Insurance Advisory Committees (SHIAC) UC-wide include undergraduate and graduate students and administrators at each campus, and it makes recommendations regarding UC SHIP to the administration and UCOP. Despite its efforts, Conte said SHIAC had its shortcomings.

"One of the biggest problems with this is that this is a small group of representatives," she said. "They're volunteers, so they don't have the resources to research what is needed."

Conte also said that in previous dialogues, it was very difficult to get information from UC officials.

Tetsuro Namba, a graduate student majoring in comparative literature, echoed these difficulties and said the news of the deficit was a surprise only for students.

"The deficit covers two and a half years," Namba said. "It's not like this is a surprise for [officials]. It's been a developing problem, but it's just that they didn't tell student representatives."

While UCOP officials have said they are open to student input, the options on the table are not very promising for students' wallets.

1. The Lifetime Coverage Cap

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare, will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2014.

It will require all citizens to have a form of health insurance and prohibits insurance companies from placing lifetime coverage caps on insurance plans.

The insurance policies that are exempt from eliminating the lifetime cap are self-funded student plans, which fall under the "minimum essential standard" of care.

The UC, which switched to the self-funded system in 2011, is one of an estimated 30 U.S. college institutions that funds its student insurance plans. The university takes on the financial risk of medical claims and the self-funded model is considered cheaper and more customizable.

Protestors on Tuesday said they were "trapped" under lifetime caps to lifesaving care.

During the meeting with UCOP officials, the students said the "minimum essential care" qualification acted as a loophole for the UC and emphasized the situations of students who are close to, or have exceeded, the limit.

UAW 2865 began a petition in January to urge UC SHIP to lift the $400,000 lifetime coverage and $10,000 annual prescription drug coverage caps to match the requirements under the Affordable Care Act.

UC SHIP is not required to drop the lifetime caps, but officials have said they are looking into the feasibility of doing so.

2. Raising the Premium, Cutting Benefits

UC SHIP insures about 60 percent of undergraduates and 80 percent of graduates at UCI, with more than 130,000 students voluntarily enrolled system-wide. Undergraduates and graduates respectively pay $924.00 and $2088.00 per year (the UC-wide average premiums are $1,275 and $2,172 per year).

All UC students are required to be covered under an insurance policy and are automatically enrolled under UC SHIP. Students can opt out of UC SHIP after providing proof of an equal or better coverage.

However, some options on the table include making the opting out process more difficult, ensuring a lower cost throughout a larger population.

The report released by the consulting firm in January also recommends student premiums be increased by an average of 25 percent for the 2013-14 year.

Other options also include cutting services, such as dental and vision care, as well as reducing "unnecessary emergency room visits" and encouraging students to utilize UC facilities.

UC officials will make their final decisions about SHIP in mid-April. Until then, all options are on the table until specific ones are confirmed.

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UC Student Health Insurance Program Faces Deficit

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UC Irvine students and staff workers demonstrated outside Aldrich Hall last Tuesday morning to protest and bring awareness to several issues surrounding the UC Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP). Alliant Insurance Services, an actuarial firm that was hired by UC SHIP management, released a report on Jan.

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The UC's handling of the shift to remote instruction reflects a lack of interest in "prioritizing student education and providing lecturers what they need to support their students," according to lecturers from UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Los Angeles, UC San Diego and UC Santa Cruz who spoke at a University Council-American Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT) press conference held today.

Alison Black, an education studies lecturer at UCSD, said she was teaching her last class of Winter Quarter when she found out - through her students - that the university was moving to remote learning in Spring Quarter and that Winter Quarter finals were interrupted.

"I couldn't answer any questions, because they found out before I did," Black said. "Students, for the most part, found out about the instructional changes before instructors and faculty."

Lecturers like Black, who are on the quarter system, had only the remainder of the last week of instruction for Winter Quarter, finals week and spring break to prepare for an online Spring Quarter.

Crystal Chang Cohen, who lectures at UC Berkeley, one of the two semester schools in the UC system, had to make the switch from in-person to remote instruction in one day.

She recalled being in class on March 8 and the next day receiving an email telling her not to come to class "because everything is going online."

"We were struggling to go immediately online," Chang Cohen said. "I keep hearing things from my students before things become official, which makes me feel so ill-informed, unprepared and stupid in front of them."

The UC said decisions made regarding the dissemination of COVID-19 information are determined by each campus, in a statement from the UC Office of the President provided to The California Aggie via email.

"Each campus has its own COVID-19 website for its community, including students, with local resources and contact information," the statement said. "Systemwide employees can find information and resources on UCnet [...] and are encouraged to speak with their supervisor with any concerns."

UC-AFT, which represents over 3,500 lecturers in the UC system, has been bargaining with the UC over COVID-19 protections since March 13. The union has also been in contract negotiations with UC since April of 2019, according to an FAQ and bargaining update on the UC-AFT website. The current contract protecting lecturers expired on Jan. 31, 2020.

Mia McIver, the chief negotiator for UC-AFT's bargaining unit and a lecturer for the writing program at UCLA, said she hopes the UC will implement more standardization in its COVID-19 response.

"We want to have comprehensive emergency response plans for all campuses and contract extensions for all teaching faculty so they know that they can and should be preparing classes for the summer and fall," McIver said.

This is particularly important, she added, because lecturers, who are on short-term, part-time contracts and often work multiple jobs to stay afloat, already face job insecurity, without a pandemic.

According to a press release from the union published on April 6, UC lecturers teach over 30% of student credit hours. At UC Davis, around 30% of classes are taught by lecturers.

"UC has historically been reluctant to invest in lecturers even though we are front-line educators primarily responsible for developing relationships with and teaching our students," McIver said.

McIver also expressed concern about the inconsistency of resources from campus to campus, calling the available resources "collections of links to explore in [their] own time" and saying they are not targeted to what people need on an individual level.

The UC said in its statement that it has been working "very hard" with UC-AFT and individual lecturers to provide lecturers with the support they need.

"[This has been through] including resources for working at home such as addressing Internet connectivity, as well as using their empty office on campus if working at home is not feasible," the UC's statement said.

The union, however, contested this in its press release, which centered the experience of UC Davis lecturer Jillian Azevado, arguing that the UC has not been taking lecturers' job security, health and safety seriously.

Azevado, according to the press release, has asthma, and was recently told by administrators to go back to work at her campus office, which is a "small, shared room in which safe social distancing would be impossible" because she didn't have a desk or a steady internet connection.

"While refusing to supply better Internet, UC negotiators expressed frustration that Azevedo kept disappearing from the Zoom call because of her weak Internet connection," the press release stated.

Katie Rodger, the president of UC-AFT Local 2023 and a lecturer for UC Davis' University Writing Program, said lecturers weren't just asking for better equipment for the sake of it.

"Faster Wi-Fi, our own computers, better desks - these are essential tools," Rodger said. "If [the] UC wants to claim it's the greatest educational institution in the world, it needs to stand by that claim and implement the best educational infrastructure in the world."

Rodger emphasized the fact that not every lecturer has an office in an accessible location, and that lecturers who are parents - including herself - cannot just leave their children.

Black said that working from home has been a "huge struggle," as she has been working while also tending to her family's emotional needs.

"The work-life balance is always emotionally burdening, and when I'm the instructor, I can't lose it," Black said. "I considered taking unpaid leave for the whole quarter."

Though she tried to access faculty and staff mental health services, she said it takes weeks to get an appointment "if you're lucky," and that she hasn't been able to take advantage of those services yet.

Black's department eventually helped her and her family relocate, but she echoed McIver's wish for more standardized support from UC.

"We don't have the resources we need to maintain stability and focus at the levels required for our success and our students' success," Black said.
In its statement, the UC said it would follow campus reimbursement policies, with requests for resources handled on a case-by-case basis to determine how it can best accommodate individual needs.

"We are continuing to work with public health officials to take steps that prioritize the health and safety of the UC community while continuing to deliver quality educational services," the statement said. "The University is dedicated to making sure UC instructors are successful in the remote learning environment."

Josh Brahinsky, a lecturer from UCSC, called the university's response "chaotic," and said it bore parallels to the way the Trump administration responded to the pandemic.

"We are happy to do our work and make sure we do it well," Brahinsky said. "{The] UC is recognizing that lecturers' work is crucial, which is interesting. It's new recognition, but they're not giving us the support we need to make [our work] happen."

Brahinsky pointed out that most of the lecturers in the call were taking care of their kids, were in their kids' spaces or had their kids in the background while participating in the press conference.

He said that UC management has tried to ask faculty and librarians to sign agreements to say they would not be responsible for childcare during work hours.

"For most of us, that's completely impossible," Brahinsky said. "Who are you going to hire? The kid down the street?"

Rodger, who has two degrees from universities in the UC system, said it was hard to get "more Team UC than me."
"I'm proud to be part of the UC system, but I'm just so appalled [at the UC response]," Rodger said. "If I had a student in the system right now, I would be furious at the lack of response on behalf of the students. I just want action. I want to see more leadership."

Written by: Janelle Marie Salanga - campus@theaggie.org

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Janelle Marie Salanga - campus@theaggie.org

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UC lecturers say UC has failed to provide adequate resources for their success at today's UC-AFT press conference - The Aggie

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UC says it continues contract negotiations with UC-AFT, is working hard to provide individual lecturers with support The UC's handling of the shift UC says it continues contract negotiations with UC-AFT, is working hard to provide individual lecturers with support

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JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC

Editor's Note: Voice of OC brings you the best, most comprehensive Orange County COVID-19 news absolutely free. No ads, no paywalls. We could use your help. Please click here to make tax-deductible donation or to become a monthly sustaining donor.

Students at UC Irvine are attempting to break their leases with the Irvine Company to move back in with their parents amid the coronavirus shutdown, and many are finding they can't afford it.

The average cost of breaking the lease ranges from six to eight thousand dollars per apartment according to the Irvine Co. Resident Handbook and documents reviewed by Voice of OC. Residents must pay two months of rent as a lease break fee, as well as paying a pro-rated final month to end the lease early.

The students protesting the costs live in the University Town Center, a shopping center and apartment complex owned by the Irvine Co. exclusively for students.

Over 3,000 people have signed a petition calling for the Irvine Co. to lower the cost of their lease break fee, with hundreds of online commenters sharing their reasons for signing, sharing their concerns about the costs of rent for students.

"These are hard times, and everyone was advised to go home they shouldn't have to pay for a place they aren't currently living in," said Vanessa Alba.

According to student leaders, some students have gone back to live with family members, but are still paying out the remaining lease on their apartments because they can't afford the one-time payment to break the lease. Others are still living in their apartments but are trying to figure out how they can afford to leave.

"It's an outrageous cost that's not affordable for a student," said Lori Sinanian, a student at UCI. "The termination fee makes students want to stay there because it feels like their money is going nowhere."

The Irvine Co. also added their own response to the petition two weeks ago, stating that they would be rolling out a rent assistance program.

"We understand this is an unprecedented time and many students want to be home with their families and loved ones," the company said in the comment. "The well-being of our customers remains our top priority."

The Irvine Co. declined to comment to Voice of OC reporters.

The program allows Irvine Co. renters to pay only half their rent for the months of April and May and then pay the remaining rent in installments over six months along with their standard rent according to the company's website.

There is no mention of assistance or guidance for tenants interested in a lease break.

Members of the UCI administration reached out to the Irvine Co. who indicated they were open to meeting with students according to an email sent to UCI faculty by Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Wille Bank.

"UCI reached out to the Irvine Company and they indicated a willingness to work with their renters to a certain degree. My suggestion is for the individual students to reach out to the Irvine Company directly," Bank said in the email.

However, students have reported an inability to get in touch with any members of the Irvine Co. Many students reported that they spoke to someone who offered to either call back or speak to a superior and then heard nothing else when they tried to follow up.

"We tried to contact (University Town Center) folks but they just referred us to the new rent assistance program," said Daniela Romero, the internal vice president in UCI's student government. "Students don't really see (the rent program) as a solution. Bottom line, they're staying in their apartments because they have nothing else to do. Some are having to pay with the support of loans."

"Kids are going to end up having to try and figure out some way to pay unless we take a collective action approach," said Salaar Maghazeh, a student activist who has been one of the primary organizers on the issue.

Multiple students have responded with concerns that the program won't help them make their rent, as many have been furloughed or laid off as businesses comply with Gov. Newsom's stay at home order.

"It doesn't really help. If you don't have a job, math is math, you can't just pull money out of your ass to put down for rent if you've lost your job," Maghazeh said. "We've heard they're willing to negotiate, but I find it hard to believe because they haven't reached out once to us."

Commenters on the petition also shared that even the reduced monthly rate could still be too high for them.

"I am a student at UCI and need more than Irvine company's "rental assist" which only delays partial payment. We cannot afford full rent period, but the Irvine Company still wants full payment when people all over the country have been relieved of rent payment," said Jesse Moran in a comment on the petition.

UCI's spring quarter just started this past week, limiting the time students can commit to organizing a response according to Professor Margherita Long. Long has been working with Romero and other students to figure out how to navigate the issue.

"Their landlords are charging them these huge fees and they don't have the money they used to earn because they're part time," Long said. "I think they're trying to figure out how they can have strength in numbers and how they can bind together to make some sort of collective agreement."

While students are still trying to figure out their response, some have said they would be open to a strike against paying the lease break payments.

"The only thing we're forced to do, our only route is a strike because that's where our power comes from. If we hold back the fees that we pay to the Irvine Co. that's where we can draw them to the negotiating table and have concessions for students," Maghazeh said. "We're still not exactly sure what we'll do."
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC Reporting Fellow. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @NBiesiada.

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UC Irvine Students Wrestle With Lease Break Payments

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JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC Editor's Note: Voice of OC brings you the best, most comprehensive Orange County COVID-19 news absolutely free. No ads, no paywalls. We could use your help. Please click here to make tax-deductible donation or to become a monthly sustaining donor.

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SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION) After a group of graduate students began withholding grades in an effort to demand higher pay, UC Santa Cruz said it would begin firing student teachers who continued to withhold them.

Graduate students said a new wave of firings has started, even though the country is now in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The students said dismissal notices went to several students who withheld grades Tuesday, but not just to those who withheld them as part of a strike. They said students who did not get grades in on time due to stresses brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic also got dismissal notices.

"In the midst of a global pandemic and a faulty and fundamentally misguided transition to online education, the University of California has begun a new wave of discipline against graduate and undergraduate students associated with the wildcat strike. It is horrific for the university to fire workers for striking for a living wage under any circumstance. By doing so in the midst of the most deadly pandemic in living memory, the administration is now acting like the lives of its student-workers truly don't matter," said Veronica Hamilton, the Santa Cruz unit chair of UAW 2865.

KION reached out to the university, and spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason said some teaching assistants have withheld grades again for the winter quarter.

"We acknowledge the anxiety and real-world impacts that a few individuals
can create. It's disheartening to see that a number of our undergraduates
are without winter grades. After meeting with and hearing the concerns from many of our undergraduates and parents, we understand the frustration that exists," Hernandez-Jason said on behalf of the university.

The university said it has placed eight students who have withheld winter grades on leave while the school takes steps to end their spring teaching appointments. Hernandez-Jason said the university decided to take action because the teachers assistants have continued to ignore their contractual obligations to give undergraduates a summary of their academic performance.

"We ultimately cannot retain graduate students as employees who will not fulfill their responsibilities and threaten our undergraduates' success," he said.

Hernandez-Jason said the university appreciates the graduate students who have submitted grades.

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UCSC continues to take action against grad students withholding grades - KION546

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SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION) After a group of graduate students began withholding grades in an effort to demand higher pay, UC Santa Cruz said it would begin firing student teachers who continued to withhold them. Graduate students said a new wave of firings has started, even though the country is now in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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COVID: Transition to Online Classes Meme

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COVID: Transition to Online Classes Meme

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Text: (all caps) "UCI admin deciding to have remote classes all next quarter; while not giving students their money back for tuition, campus fees, etc; while recommending that students go to their "off campus housing" if they live on campus; while forcing the predominantly POC workers to stay on campus while the predominantly white admin can self quarantine; while having students who borrow computers from campus now not have equal access to courses because of lack of resources... is racist and classist!!"

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A University of California employee union said the UC is not providing safe and effective working conditions amid the COVID-19 outbreak at a Friday press conference.

Leaders of the University Council-American Federation of Teachers, which represents nonsenate faculty and librarians, hosted the press conference over Zoom. They shared personal experiences they said led them to call out UC's lack of support, specifically with technical difficulties, communication and job security.

Josh Brahinsky, a continuing lecturer from UC Santa Cruz, said although the UC has recognized educators' work is crucial, it has not given them essential tools now that all UC instruction has moved online.

Such tools include stable internet access and a quiet space to teach, said Alison Black, a pre-continuing lecturer at UC San Diego.

Black said she struggles to find a space to teach without being interrupted by her toddler.

The UC Office of the President is working to provide lecturers with essential resources, including internet access and empty office space on campus, said Andrew Gordon, UCOP spokesperson, in an emailed statement.

However, UC-AFT president Mia McIver, a continuing lecturer at UCLA, said the reality is that most faculty members are not able to teach on campus, and UCOP has not provided adequate resources to teach at home.

"The idea that we can still teach on campus is absurd," McIver said. "Many of us don't have offices on campus, buildings are locked and traveling to be physically present on campus is forbidden in some areas. Even if it weren't, teaching faculty cannot travel to campus without exposing themselves to possible infection."

Katie Rodger, a continuing lecturer at UC Davis, has been teaching her online classes from a shed in her backyard. She said though her setup is not ideal, it is nicer than what some other lecturers have.

"We're not just sitting here saying 'Give us better equipment' because we want nicer computers, or 'I want faster Wi-Fi' for my own benefit," Rodger said. "These are necessary tools."

Beyond logistical and technological shortcomings, several union leaders said the UC has displayed a lack of empathy toward its faculty throughout the pandemic.

The UC usually gives instructors a full quarter to prepare to teach an online course, said Joy Hagen, a continuing lecturer at UCSC. With the switch to online instruction, however, instructors had just a few weeks to completely redesign their courses with little understanding or compensation from the UC, she said.

Additionally, the UC has made no protocol for what to do if a lecturer contracts COVID-19, Rodger said. That leaves a lot of the decisions up to individual departments, Rodger said.

"In my department at (UC) Davis, we have 60-plus full-time lecturers teaching writing, and they are desperately trying to stay healthy," Rodger said.

Despite this, lecturers who have poor Wi-Fi connections at home are still encouraged to go to campus to use Wi-Fi there.

John Branstetter, a pre-continuing lecturer at UCLA, said the UC has made a no layoffs pledge until June 30, but for him, that does not mean much. Branstetter's contract ends June 30, which means he will receive his last paycheck June 1 and lose his health insurance June 30.

"UC hasn't made any effort to extend my contract, at least, through the summer so (that) I can count on health coverage during this really crazy time," he said. "They haven't even made a decision of if I will be able to teach next year."

Pre-continuing lecturers are lecturers who have taught less than 18 quarters or 12 semesters at a UC campus. As a pre-continuing lecturer, Branstetter said he has less rights than a continuing lecturer with regard to contract renewal

At UCLA, the teaching faculty turnover rate is 45%, which means almost half of the lecturers lose their jobs every year, McIver said.

"I'm trying to teach classes, and I'm trying to do a good job for my students, but I've got this economic worry hanging over my head," Branstetter said. "While the University goes around saying 'We've done this great thing with no layoffs,' it's completely empty for the majority of UC-AFT lecturers because our contracts expire May 30."

UC-AFT would like to see the UC produce a comprehensive emergency response plan and contract extensions, but has been unsuccessful in receiving this from any UC campuses, McIver said.

"If the University of California wants to claim that it is the greatest research and educational institution in the world, it needs to now stand by that claim and implement the best infrastructure for online education," Rodger said.

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UC-AFT leaders speak on UC's lack of support amid COVID-19, online instruction - Daily Bruin

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A University of California employee union said the UC is not providing safe and effective working conditions amid the COVID-19 outbreak at a Friday press conference. Leaders of the University Council-American Federation of Teachers, which represents nonsenate faculty and librarians, hosted the press conference over Zoom.

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Last week UCI housing director sent an email stating that struggling students will not be charged a late fee for rent but this morning they sent out delinquent notices to graduate students who are suffering in inadequate housing amid a global pandemic

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Sign the petition to demand accountability for the racist police violence experienced by a Black alumna at UCI on February 20, 2020, here: https://www.change.org/p/uc-irvine-chancellor-howard-gillman-accountability-for-the-incident-regarding-a-black-uci-alumna-on-2-20-2020-at-uc-irvine

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UCI alumna Shikera Chamndany was taken into custody while trying to obtain her transcripts from Aldrich Hall amid a lockdown initiated by UCIPD on Feb. 20. Chamday was taken into custody and to the Orange County Women's jail by UCIPD despite denying reports that she attempted to assault a police officer while getting her transcripts from UCI administration. She was released from police custody on Feb. 21.A petition was created on the same day detailing events.

Chamday's arrest occurred after a lockdown was initiated in response to actions taken by students participating in a Cost-Of-Living Adjustment (COLA) rally. The rally was to show solidarity with the UCSC graduate student strike that was taking place the same day.

During the rally, students attempted to access Aldrich Hall in order to speak directly with the administration, namely Chancellor Howard Gillman, about their own concerns with COLA. UCIPD responded by putting Aldrich Hall on lockdown.

While the building was on lockdown, student protesters heard screams coming from within Aldrich Hall. Following the source of the sound, they found that Chamday had been tackled and handcuffed by UCIPD Sgt. Tricia Harding.

The UCI alumna was not affiliated with the COLA protest and was trying to obtain their transcripts when the incident took place.

The UCI Black Student Union and United Students Against Sweatshops, who were both present at the COLA rally, are now calling upon the UCI community and Chancellor Gillman for accountability for the incident and financial support for Chamday's legal fees.

A petition was created by the Black Student Union and United Students Against Sweatshops calling for Chancellor Gillman to acknowledge and act on their list of demands following the incident. In addition to financial support for Shikera's legal fees, the petition demands that she get psychological support, for the officer who tackled and handcuffed her to be fired and for the abolishment of the UCIPD.

"We demand support from UCI graduate students involved with COLA, who were not at the jail to demand Shikera's release. We demand that such graduate students fully support COLA4ALL, of which a core tenant is the commitment to fighting anti-Blackness in all forms," the petition states.

Since September 2019, UC Santa Cruz graduate students have been organizing for livable wages as they struggle with the housing and high cost of living crises in California. According to a document given out by members of "UCI4COLA" at the rally, "UC Santa Cruz graduate students generally spend more than 30%, and often as much as 60 and 80%, of their average $21,000 annual income on housing costs."

UCSC COLA representatives have struggled to reach a mutual agreement for increased wages for students with the UC system. In response, UCSC graduate students have engaged in a strike to withhold Fall 2019 grades since Dec. 9. The UCSC graduate students were given a Feb 21. deadline to turn in their Fall 2019 grades, which was extended to Feb. 27. It has been reported that UCSC has terminated 54 graduate students who did not adhere to the final deadline.

The COLA sentiment has been echoed in actions taken across the UCs. UCI graduate students launched their own COLA campaign and held a rally with students and faculty attending in support of the cause outside of Aldrich Hall on Feb. 20. As reported by the 2018-2019 AGS Graduate Student Life Survey, "the average Irvine graduate student spends 43 percent of their income on housing, while some spend as much as 80 percent."

During the rally, students stood outside of Aldrich Hall, specifically waiting for Chancellor Gillman, who was reportedly not present at the time, so that they could give him a call to action.

It was during this effort that the UCI alumna was arrested by UCIPD as they attempted to keep rally participants out of the building.
Tatum Larsen is a Campus News Intern for the 2020 winter quarter. She can be reached at tnlarsen@uci.edu.

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UCI Alumna Arrested By UCIPD During Cost-Of-Living Adjustment Rally For UC Santa Cruz Graduate Students

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UCI alumna Shikera Chamndany was taken into custody while trying to obtain her transcripts from Aldrich Hall amid a lockdown initiated by UCIPD on Feb. 20. Chamday was taken into custody and to the Orange County Women's jail by UCIPD despite denying reports that she attempted to assault a police officer while getting her transcripts from UCI administration.

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A UCSC grad student was hit by cops with batons because the UC brought in cops to the picket line of #UCSCstrike. The student suffered a concussion and other injuries and was racially targeted. That's why we demand COPS OFF CAMPUS!

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COVID: UC Regent Richard Blum engages in insider training and profits off of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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COVID: UC Regent Richard Blum engages in insider training and profits off of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Several senators, including three committee chairmen and the spouse of the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, unloaded stocks after receiving briefings on the coronavirus, according to multiple reports and financial disclosures.

Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Intelligence, dumped between $628,000 and $1.7 million in dozens of stock transactions on February 13, ProPublica reported late Thursday night. It was his most active one-day session in over a year, and his larger sell-offs included up to $250,000 in hospitality stocks, including Wyndham Resorts and Extended Stay America.

"Senator Burr filed a financial disclosure form for personal transactions made several weeks before the U.S. and financial markets showed signs of volatility due to the growing coronavirus outbreak," a spokesperson told ProPublica. "As the situation continues to evolve daily, he has been deeply concerned by the steep and sudden toll this pandemic is taking on our economy."

Thursday was a pretty bad day all around for Burr. That morning, NPR published a recording of a closed-door speech he gave to donors on Feb. 27 in which he likened the potential of the coronavirus to the 1918 Spanish flu. It was a wildly different tone from a Fox News op-ed he co-authored earlier that month with Sen. Lamar Alexander, in which they claimed that the U.S. was "better prepared than ever" to tackle public health crises.

In a series of tweets Thursday night, Burr called the NPR story a "tabloid-style hit piece" that "irresponsibly misrepresented" his closed-door speech.

On Thursday night, Fox News host Tucker Carlson called for Burr to resign immediately and face prosecution if he doesn't have an "honest explanation" for the trading.

Burr should hardly be singled out. Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California have also sold significant amounts of stocks in recent months. All but Feinstein are Republicans.

Loeffler is married to NYSE chairman Jeffrey Sprecher. The couple made nearly 30 transactions between January 24 - the day senators received a private briefing from Dr. Anthony Fauci and CDC officials - and mid-February, the Daily Beast reported Thursday. In total, Loeffler and her husband sold between nearly $1.28 million and $3.1 million in stocks, according to the Daily Beast. One of the few stocks Loeffler bought was in the technology company Citrix Systems, which makes teleworking software.

Without naming the outlet or story, Loeffler - who was appointed to the Senate in December and is running for the same seat in a special election this fall - pushed back late Thursday, calling it a " ridiculous and baseless attack." She also claimed she was only made aware of the transactions in mid-February.

Johnson, the Senate Homeland Security chair, filed a disclosure yesterday revealing that on March 2, he had sold all of his stock in his family's Oshkosh, Wisconsin-based plastics manufacturer PACUR Inc. - between $5 million and $25 million worth. He was formerly the company's CEO, a position he stepped down from when he was elected in 2010.

Since January 28, Feinstein's investment banker husband, Richard Blum, has twice sold stock in San Francisco-based Allogene Therapeutics, according to disclosure forms. The couple's sales in the company total between $1.5 million and $6 million. On February 18, the day Blum and Feinstein sold between $1 million and $5 million in stock in the company, its share price closed at $23.20; it currently sits at $20.58 after hitting a low of $18.26 earlier this week, according to Yahoo.

Three days after the Senate Health briefing, meanwhile, Inhofe sold up to $400,000 in stock in companies including Apple, PayPal, and Intuit, Senate disclosures show. Inhofe then made another sale in February between $50,000 and $100,000 in assets in Brookfield, an asset management company.

This isn't the first time Inhofe has come under fire for untoward stock trades. In 2018, the Senate Armed Services Committee chair was heavily criticized for purchasing tens of thousands of dollars worth of shares in the defense contractor Raytheon after lobbying the Trump administration to increase defense spending.

Inhofe later claimed he wasn't aware of the transaction made by a "third-party adviser" and canceled the transaction when asked about it by the Daily Beast.

Burr, meanwhile, was one of just three U.S. senators to vote against the 2012 STOCK Act, a bill banning insider trading for top federal employees and requiring more stringent and transparent disclosures from congressional members and staff. In an interview at the time, Burr defended his vote as a courageous one.

"It's ludicrous. That's why Dr. Tom Coburn and I were the two brave souls that walked up and said we shouldn't be doing this," Burr told a local radio station in Asheville. "We're going to have political theater this week as to whether it applies to the executive branch, whether it doesn't. The fact is SEC law applies to every person who trades in America."
Cover: Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., talks with reporters in the Capitol before the continuation of the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump on Thursday, January 30, 2020. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

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Meet the U.S. Senators Who Dumped Stocks Ahead of the Coronavirus Market Crash

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Several senators, including three committee chairmen and the spouse of the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, unloaded stocks after receiving briefings on the coronavirus, according to multiple reports and financial disclosures. Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Intelligence, dumped between $628,000 and $1.7 million in dozens of stock transactions on February 13, ProPublica reported late Thursday night.

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UCD: Animal Testing / Nuclear Testing / Ethics Violations

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UCD: Animal Testing / Nuclear Testing / Ethics Violations

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The LEHR site in Davis, seen in 1976, once performed radiation research on animals.

In the early years of the nuclear age, scientists at UC Davis began studying the impact of radiation on beagles in a laboratory complex a mile south of the main campus. The lab and an adjacent landfill became a Superfund site, a toxic stew of chemicals, contaminated soils and dangerous metals such as hexavalent chromium and strontium-90.

The radioactive materials were cleared away and the laboratory buildings got cleaned years ago, and now UC Davis plans to clean up the rest of the site, more than a half century after the radiation studies began.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it has reached a settlement agreement that calls for UC Davis to spend $14 million to clean up a landfill adjacent to the former Laboratory for Energy-Related Health Research, a cluster of buildings where studies were conducted on hundreds of dogs.

The entire site covers 25 acres south of I-80 and east of Old Davis Road. The buildings are occupied by a university program called the Center for Health and the Environment, a successor to the original research program at that location.

"This settlement is an important step toward addressing several decades' worth of contamination at UC Davis," said EPA regional administrator Mike Stoker in a prepared statement. Deputy Director Mohsen Nazemi of the state Department of Toxic Substances Control said the cleanup will include installation of a "multi-acre protective cap" that will keep toxic substances from spreading to neighboring properties.

"This is a site we have been proactively addressing since the 1990s," said university spokeswoman Melissa Blouin in an email. "This announcement reflects the EPA's approval of our long-term plans for this portion of the property."

The radiation program was originally called Project Four, according to the UC Davis website. In the early 1950s, university researchers began exposing beagles to strontium, radium and other radioactive metals under an agreement with a unit of the Defense Department that had overseen the Manhattan Project during World War II. The unit eventually became the Atomic Energy Commission, which was succeeded by the present-day Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The program expanded in the early 1970s, when an "irradiator facility" was built at the lab to study "the effects of chronic exposure to gamma radiation," according to EPA records.

The research activities ended in 1988, as the Cold War was winding down, and the entire area was placed on the EPA's Superfund list in the mid-1990s.

The federal government spent millions of dollars decontaminating buildings and hauling away the remains of hundreds of dead dogs, with the work reaching completion about a decade ago.

UC Davis was left to clean up the adjacent landfill, which is contaminated with pesticides, lead, chloroform and other toxic materials, said EPA spokeswoman Soledad Calvino. There are no radioactive materials in the landfill, Calvino added.

Blouin said that a few small sheds and storage buildings on top of the landfills will be demolished as part of the cleanup.

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UC Davis irradiated beagles during the Cold War. Now it's agreed to clean the laboratory landfill

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In the early years of the nuclear age, scientists at UC Davis began studying the impact of radiation on beagles in a laboratory complex a mile south of the main campus. The lab and an adjacent landfill became a Superfund site, a toxic stew of chemicals, contaminated soils and dangerous metals such as hexavalent chromium and strontium-90.

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COVID: UC Irvine refuses to supply face masks to its on campus essential employees, instead recommending tutorials on “how to make your own masks.”

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COVID: UC Irvine refuses to supply face masks to its on campus essential employees, instead recommending tutorials on “how to make your own masks.”

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The novel coronavirus is provoking an unprecedented social crisis; we are witnessing corporate profiteering, renewed calls for neoliberal austerity, and small but powerful examples of collective action. As educators and students scramble to rearrange life to study and teach from home, graduate students in the University of California (UC) system - the #1 public university system in the world, and the largest employer in the fifth-largest economy in the world - are pressed to the brink. Already rent burdened and food insecure, as of this week, almost a thousand are striking to demand cost of living adjustments as they struggle to keep colleges functioning.

On December 9, 2019, more than 200 graduate students - classified as academic student employees (ASEs) - from the University of California, Santa Cruz began striking to demand a cost of living adjustment (COLA) of $1400 per month to meet basic needs. In February, UC Santa Cruz (UCSC) fired 54 striking ASEs, forcing single parents, international students, and students living with chronic illnesses and disabilities to lose health coverage in the midst of a global pandemic. ASEs do the bulk of teaching and grading across the UCs and receive, on average, only $21,900 annually, despite living in some of the most expensive zip codes in the US. Half of all ASEs spend between 40 to 60% of their salaries on rent and 40% of all UC students experience food insecurity. Economic precarity has devastating social and psychological effects. According to the California Budget and Policy Center, the proportion of UC students seeking mental health services rose 78% in the past decade. These are the everyday realities of a university system that repeatedly touts itself as " student-centered."

The COVID-19 epidemic has further accentuated these existing vulnerabilities and inequities. Administrators swiftly moved all education online without consulting students; most faculty remained completely unaware of the shift as well. Until now, most prestigious universities have not been able to sell online education to faculty or the public, given numerous studies indicating its inefficacy compared to in-person classroom teaching. Yet, periods of large-scale shock can be used to enact highly deleterious ideas and transform them into common practice. The COVID-19 crisis allows policy-makers and administrators to experiment with what they see as the future of higher education: online education taught by underpaid (but talented) lecturers instead of tenured faculty and developing course content in marketable and modular microcertifications owned by the university that can be recycled, reused, and adopted.

Past experience of the Great Recession also tells us that the impending economic recession likely means that lecturer employment will be further reduced while faculty are furloughed-leading to larger course sizes. In the process, they turn a deeply flawed, unequal and baleful plan into an efficient stroke of administrative genius in the name of "educational continuity." Meanwhile, faculty must learn to teach remotely, and many will normalize these conditions. The novel coronavirus may not mark the end of classroom education, but it may be a critical turning point.

To be clear, we are not arguing against the need for accommodations during a pandemic. Was an educational change necessary? Absolutely. However, more humane alternatives were possible. Given that education must be classified as essential work, the UC administration could have suspended classes to allow students to attend to family, health and employment matters without laying off or furloughing workers. Remote learning also raises unresolved questions about intellectual property rights and privacy, given the need to run online sessions and upload course content, including lectures, onto private platforms, such as Zoom, a company which was just sued for sharing data with third parties such as Facebook. Nor has the university considered tuition and fees rebates for students, many of whom are now displaced from campus and will receive a lower standard of learning given the unpreparedness of many faculty unfamiliar with remote teaching.

COVID-19 make COLA demands more important than ever, even as the pandemic and an impending economic downturn threaten to drown out calls for dignified working and living conditions. Yet, in lieu of responding to the needs of student workers in this time of increased precarity, the UC budget reveals an institution which rewards high-level administration and pursues a growth-at-any-cost model. The number of administrators earning salaries in excess of $174,000 per year has nearly doubled since 2012 - from 5,931 to over 10,000. State defunding has led the UC to invest in commercializable endeavors like the Los Angeles campus " hotel empire." These trends violate the system's public trust to support the research necessary to address the pressing challenges of our times: pandemics, ethno-nationalism, surveillance capitalism, economic inequality and climate emergency.

Amidst widespread calls throughout the UC system to reinstate 82 fired ASEs, UC President Napolitano and the UC Santa Cruz administration offered to rehire them on the condition that they submit their withheld grades within 24 hours and waive their rights to file grievances over their firings. With little time to respond, COLA organizers asked for clarification of the offer as well as other assurances, including of non-retaliation and full reinstatement effective in the current Spring quarter. Without acknowledging these concerns, the UC administration withdrew the offer. A counteroffer submitted by strikers to the UC administration on March 31 has not yet received a response. The COLA movement's immediate goal is to reinstate the 82 fired UCSC graduate students, demand an immediate halt to ongoing disciplinary procedures, and remove disciplinary letters from terminated students' employment files so that they are not penalized in future hiring. Despite its inadequacy, the UC offer demonstrates that graduate student labor is an essential function of the university.

The COLA movement is more important than ever before. It is growing by combining collective striking with mutual aid to support fired and precarious students. While important, these cannot substitute a genuinely public and democratic educational system that pays all its workers enough to live with dignity. A COLA for graduate student workers is an important first step towards this goal. While this is a long-term struggle, it is winnable.

Follow the COLA strike through the hashtags #cola4all, #spreadthestrike, and #payusmoreucsc.

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How the University of California is using the pandemic to exploit students and lecturers

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The novel coronavirus is provoking an unprecedented social crisis; we are witnessing corporate profiteering, renewed calls for neoliberal austerity, and small but powerful examples of collective action.

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UCI Dean of Grad Division blocks emails from a UCI Grad student