Feature Archives

A day after students and workers held a protest outside administrative offices, the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) rehired Crown custodian and AFSCME 3299 member Angela Ruiz. Ruiz was fired on April 9 for attending a union-sponsored protest against UC President Robert Dynes, even though she had received excellent evaluations and the protest was during her lunch hour. Angela's re-hiring marks the 3rd victory in the past month for activists at UCSC.

UC Santa Cruz is preparing to cut down approximately 150 acres of trees on upper-campus to make room for all the new buildings that are part of the much-criticized expansion plan. This would be one of the most serious logging operations on UCSC's campus in decades, meaning the loss of well over 1,000 trees — mostly 2nd generation redwoods and mixed evergreens.

On Wednesday, May 30, black student activist Alette Kendrick and the administration of the University of California, Santa Cruz reached a landmark deal ensuring Alette’s future at the school. While the administration had previously announced their intention to suspend Alette for 3 years, she will now only be suspended for the Summer and Fall Quarters – returning to UCSC next Winter. Acting Vice Chancellor, Jean Marie Scott signed off on the deal Friday, June 1.

On May 22nd, University of California workers, represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, announced that a settlement has been reached with the University of California to address the wage equity fight for custodians at UC Berkeley, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz and to end the practice of outsourcing groundskeepers at UC Irvine. The settlement includes an immediate initial wage increase of $1.25 per hour for custodians at UC Berkeley, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz. This wage increase is retroactive to April 2007 and will be additionally increased by $.50 per hour in October, 2007.

Ethnic Studies Committee writes: On May 3rd, the Ethnic Studies Committee planned an informational meeting to inform the community about the battle for Ethnic Studies at UCSC and the state of the movement today. The program included a timeline of our struggle accompanied by 5 testimonials (given by a UCSC professor, graduate student and 3 undergraduate students) and a guest motivational speaker along with a short clip of the TWANAS hunger strike in 1981 (in support of Ethnic Studies).

However, the program was unintentionally altered; intruded upon when Oakes Provost, Pedro Castillo, took it upon himself to barge in and take for himself the power to say what he felt. As a coordinator walked up to the stage to introduce the next speaker, Pedro Castillo followed her and insisted that he be heard. After invading this space, he was still treated with respect. He went on to relay his satisfaction at seeing such an event, and applauded the students that had come. Then, he started expressing his feelings about Ethnic Studies at UCSC, which completely contradicted his general rhetoric and the overall purpose of the event. He went on to scorn students, questioning their involvement by naming specific ethnic-based classes he had taught at UCSC and asking who had taken them. Read More

previous coverage: The Need for Ethnic Studies

Administrators of the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) have announced their intention to “suspend” Alette Kendrick, a prominent Black activist, for a period of three years — in essence, a sentence of expulsion for the third-year student. In response, Alette has immediately requested a formal hearing — her right under the school’s judicial process — while supporters have organized a week of action culminating in a large rally on Thursday, May 24th, featuring Angela Davis as a speaker.

A hunger strike initiated by 44 UC students, several alumni and a professor has passed its 1-week mark. The hunger strikers are demanding that the UC Board of Regents withdraw from their contracts to operate Los Alamos and Livermore National Laboratories based on, “the grounds that the Reliable Replacement Warhead program and Los Alamos Labs’ ongoing preparations to conduct plutonium pit manufacturing both clearly violate Article VI of the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.” The UC has been identified by the hunger strikers as a site of strategic importance in the campaign against new nuclear weapons.