What happened on Wednesday at UCSF

The UC Regents are people too. Severely disconnected, disproportionately privileged and often disturbingly unsympathetic people, but definitely people. I managed to catch a few of the Regents individually during the lunch break at the meeting on Wednesday, and had some interesting experiences.

Hadi Makarechian is a fucking lizard. (Google ‘Hadi Makarechian UC Regent’ and look at the 3rd result). I caught up with him while he was walking up the stairs and asked:

"Do you really think that you represent me?" His answer?

"I don't know." He had a sickening smile glued to his face, and wouldn’t make eye contact with me.

"What do you mean 'you don't know?' Isn't that your JOB?" No answer. I didn’t know how else to respond to that, so I threw another question at him.

“According to the California Constitution, Regents are to be able persons broadly reflective of the economic, cultural and social diversity of the state. Do you really think you fit that description?”

No answer.

“How much money do you make?

“I don’t make any money.” (Ha.)

“Not in your position as a Regent, no, but you’re a hell of a real estate mogul. Your company donated thousands of dollars to Schwarzenegger’s gubernatorial campaign, and he’s the one who appointed you as a Regent.” By the time I finished that sentence we were at the top of the stairs, and a guard stopped me at the door of the meeting room, letting Hadi pass. I yelled “Thanks for ignoring me!”

I also got a chance to speak with Dick Blum. He actually stopped to talk to me for about 30-45 seconds. I know that's not a lot of time, but his words and tone make me pretty damn confident that the guy DOES have a conscience, and that he DOES think that he truly represents students and their interests. He's just horribly, horribly disconnected. I asked him the same opening question.

“Do you really think you represent me?”

“Yeah, I think I do.” As hard as it may be to believe, he sounded sincere.

“How much time do you spend talking to students?”

“A lot. I run the poverty research center at Berkeley, and I spend a LOT of time dealing with students through that.” ( http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/04/20_blumcenter.shtml
http://articles.sfgate.com/2003-05-11/business/17489134_1_blum-capital-partners-san-francisco-examiner-owen-blicksilver-blum Look at the two articles, and try not to choke to death on the irony.)

"How much money do you make?"

“I don’t think that’s relevant.”

“The reason for poverty is income inequality, and you don’t think it’s relevant?”

“NO one donates more money to this university than I do, and I bust my ass for it. Maybe someday one of you will even say thank you.”

And then he walked away. I could have followed him, but I didn’t know what to say to that.

My point is, the Regents are a mixed bag. Some of them, like Hadi Makarechian, seem to be aware of their evil-doing, and know that they shouldn’t even try to defend themselves. They know that they’re better off trying to ignore criticism entirely than to try and justify their actions. Others, like Dick Blum, seem to think that they really are doing right by students, and by humanity in general. He lives in a bubble, and has obviously never been effectively challenged to examine his role in the capitalist system from an anticapitalist perspective. Would it be easy to show him that perspective? No, primarily because he lives in a very inaccessible social bubble, and also because no one likes to come to terms with the fact that their actions have been counterproductive to the realization of their ideals.

Admittedly, the minute that I had with each of them was not enough time for me to get a detailed grasp of each of their perceived roles in this mess, but I think there was some insight to be gained from each of the encounters. I think some of the Regents do what they do out of conscious, unadulterated self-interest, but others may actually want to do good for the world, and are hamstrung by a fundamental misunderstanding of our global economic system. I think that’s something to consider.

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Towards the end of the lunch break, I went back through the security check and into the meeting room. I sat in the front row and thought over the conversations of the last ten minutes. Mark Yudof and Russell Gould were chatting amiably at the center of the conference table about 30 feet in front of me. I was one of only three or so students left in the room. After a few minutes, Gould picked up his gavel and banged it on the table to call the meeting back into session. As he did, I stood up and said loudly to all the Regents what I’d just said to Makarechian:

“Excuse me, if I could have your attention for a moment. According to the California Constitution, Regents are to be able persons broadly reflective of the economic, cultural and social diversity of the state. Do you REALLY think you fit that description?”

Guards started hurrying over as soon as I started the first sentence, and by the time I was halfway through the last one, they’d grabbed me by the arms and started escorting me to the exit. As we passed through the doorway, I yelled back “THINK ABOUT IT!”

I don’t know if they will, but I thought it was worth a shot. After the guard led me outside, I was handed off to a police officer. They asked what I did, took down information from my driver’s license, then took pictures of me in front and in profile, saying I wasn’t allowed back into the building. Gee, thanks officer. I wouldn’t have known.

Anyways, that was what happened to me on Wednesday. I won’t write about the intense police conflict, because it’s been pretty well documented already. (If you haven’t seen it, check out this article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/angus-johnston/u-of-california-in-crisis_b_785392.html and this video: http://www.ktvu.com/video/25828298/index.html .)

I hope it was a good read. All of the conversations are as close to verbatim as I was able to remember. I jotted them down shortly after they happened, so I’m pretty confident that it’s accurate.