The UC Board of Regents approved student fee increases on Nov. 19 against the backdrop of protests around the 10-campus system, including one at UC Davis that ended with the arrest of more than 50 people who refused to leave the Mrak Hall lobby at closing time.
“Adriel,
I noticed you, as well as the rest of ILL, haven’t made any comments on the recent UC Strike or the situation. I would appreciate your comments on the matter and your support for the cause. I currently go to your alma mater and was sad I didn’t get to see Dahlak perform. I was out protesting at Mrak Hall where the 52 were arrested. Please come back to UCD to perform again! I would give anything to see you guys in person 
Thank you and God Bless.
- G’Mae”
Not to shit on anyone’s efforts, sacrifices, or methods, but to be blunt…
5 reasons why this is a bad idea (Please Read ALL 5):
1. Because they are laughing at you. I got this picture from a liberal news source and even THEY thought it was fitting to capture – what I believe to be – a serious protest with the above picture of a wholesome-looking, smiley, cheerful white girl on her way to Yolo County Jail. Not that there is anything wrong with a wholesome-looking, smiley, cheerful white girl – I LOVE wholesome-looking, smiley, cheerful white girls. They are great for romantic comedies. But this is not the face of revolution. This looks more like an advertisement for Legally Blonde 3. Your protest is being painted as a farce. Therefore, your protest is being taken as a joke.
2. You don’t wanna taint your criminal record over a joke. Especially you people of color who are probably feeling the worst end of the increased fees. Because at the end of the day, wholesome-looking, smiley, cheerful white girl is going to have a way easier time finding a job than you – especially with a mark on your record for protesting the college you didn’t graduate from because you didn’t have enough money to pay the hiked fees you were protesting. Fucked up, right?
3. It’s a dated method. At best, it’s publicity stunt. At worst, it’s communal tantrum throwing. When’s the last time you heard somebody say, “Whew, that ‘hell no, we won’t go’ chant really got them thinking about social justice”. Because the fact of the matter is, you WILL go. And CNN WILL stop reporting it. And the people who are not vested in the cause will drop off. The Regents just have to defend their position, not harm you, and wait it out.
4. You have no leverage. You come to the table with no power. Not that you have none but you protest with the mentality of the powerless. As if you are asking for something. As if you NEED to ask for something. What you don’t realize is that they need YOU. To pay their salary. To keep them in the U.S. News Top 50. To give meaning to that piece of paper that says you graduated from their college. You have SO much power – which moves me to my final point -
5. Organize a quarter-off. It will be the easiest revolution ever. Take a vacation. Get a job. Do something you’ve always wanted to do. Get away from school. You know how easy this will be to sell to other college students. You/Mom/Dad won’t have to pay ridiculous school fees. You won’t have to pay back student loans yet. You can earn extra money. You can organize an educational trip to Madrid or Paris or Argentina, etc. No midterms or finals. AND it’s for a cause??? Watch how quick those fees drop if you can convince even a quarter of those undergraduates how easy, beneficial, and personally advantageous taking a quarter off of school can be. They will start negotiating even if they catch word that you are actively organizing a college strike. A REAL strike. A strike that YOU can afford at this point of your life. They can’t. And that’s where your power lies. In the extreme case that this doesn’t work, you can and will go back or, if you really can’t afford it, drop out of UC Davis. But this is what the situation would have forced you to do anyways. There is no real loss for you.
Fight the power, ya’ll. But fight the power with power. And that’s the truth, Ruth. Best of luck to you.
All rights reserved
7 responses so far ↓
1 pops // Nov 23, 2009 at 1:41 am
i like it…
2 Bobby James // Nov 23, 2009 at 3:11 am
I loved this post.
But (there had to be a but right?), I think your solution is not realistic. We are in a time where there are more college applicants than ever before and even if there was a massive effort to organize a quarter or semester off those students who decided to follow through with it would be replaced by an overly competitive placement process in our economy currently.
However, while I’m not down for your 5th point, I do recognize the truth in what you said in points 1-4. Society looks at the Brady Bunch walking out in hand cuffs thinking “aww, thats cute” and she’ll have a real nice story to tell her kids about that one time she was an activist in college, “sticking it to the man.”
So as this random person critiquing your response to what happened at your former school what solutions do I myself offer? None, and I will be the first to admit that.
I do believe though that any real effort to mitigate fee increases will have to come by those affected most by these increases (the traditionally underrepresented and underserved populations of California) and until they unite and demand a position at the discussion table the Regents and the Board of Trustees will continue to collect they’re pay check and sit back until we have all graduated and moved on.
3 Dahlak // Nov 23, 2009 at 5:10 am
Well, you gotta understand Bobby James, I wrote this post damn near running out the house. I understand that it’s not a polished idea but with some strategy and creativity, I believe it could truly work. It’s only a QUARTER. If done correctly, strategically, unified, the universities would not have enough time to make the adjustments necessary to fill the empty slots. But imagine how much MONEY they would lose. Off of ONE quarter. PLUS, the policy of the University allows students to take quarters off for VALID reasons – like money. And okay, they can change admission policies and quarter-leave policies but that looks bad on them. Bad publicity. Which can be used as another point of leverage.
But in the end it’s all about being in creative in finding solutions to these problems. This idea – however – with some VERY fine tuning can be a strategy that is revolutionary enough for the angered minority and convenient enough (if pitched right) to the complacent masses.
4 Bobby James // Nov 23, 2009 at 2:21 pm
I feel that. HARD.
If organized properly, students could keep their enrollment at the school but drop the quarter or semester the weekend before classes started, leaving too short of a notice for the university to fill those spots.
Good shit.
I comment because we at Sac State we are amassing a student coalition the way Davis and UCLA have, but we feel that what we do needs to be most effective with our time and energy and are still pursuing different ideas. This ones dope and unique, I wonder what else there is.
5 Aida // Nov 23, 2009 at 5:16 pm
I think it’s time for autonomous schools.
6 Mae // Nov 28, 2009 at 4:54 am
Thank you for this post. We know there have been talks to this non-legitimacy of the protest. We protesters know this. WE KNOW the image the press has put on this.
But there are things in the works that call for a mass reconstruction of CALIFORNIA education to the capital and beyond. Students are working hard in every which way to accomplish this, as well as the uc worker’s union that you don’t see. Yes they’ve heard us yell, but we know it’s time for them to hear us speak.
And it’s not just California schools demanding a change, there are protests all over Europe that our going in solidarity with what we’re calling for.
We know that we can’t change the Regents minds that quickly and we have a lot of work ahead of us.
And yes it has come to mind about the quarter off. But honestly there’s a lot of us that are trying to graduate on time and that’s not an option for many.
The UC system has not only increased our fees, but they have also taken away the Cal grant system, closed down our programs, and cut back on the staff and the service which the school provides.
And yeah I saw the pictures and the headlines saying the arrests were fluffs and blah blah. But that’s just what the media wants you to see. The coverage of meetings with administration, or how the chancellor of UC Davis refuses to speak on the budget or her signing bonus, or any focus on the regents is ignored. You know how it goes.
Anyways thanks again for the post, all though I wasn’t expecting that lol.
I feel like I rambled a bit, but maybe I’ll leave another comment that’ll update you guys or on something other than this topic.
Take Care and God Bless.
7 iLL-Literacy // Nov 29, 2009 at 2:23 pm
[...] brainstorming a piece about campus activism right now. Especially in light of Dahlak’s protest against the UC protests (which I strongly back him up on), there is a whole can of worms centered around the themes of [...]
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