Feature Archives

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.

The Student/Farmworker Alliance announced that May 11th and 12th would be Days of Action vs. Burger King calling on the world's #2 burger chain to take responsibility for the conditions of farmworkers in the fields. On May 11th, four students from the University of California at Santa Cruz and one loyal Burger King customer went to the Burger King on Mission Street / Highway 1 in Santa Cruz to drop off a letter to the manager calling attention to the human rights crisis in Florida's tomato fields.

On Tuesday, May 8, students from UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley occupied the UC "Anti-Poverty" Center protesting poverty wages by demanding that the UC release $8.5 million earmarked for custodians by the State Legislature. The UC administration has been holding up the money - meant for low-paid workers on 4 campuses - in an attempt to force concessions in contract negotiations. Meanwhile, The Coup's Boots Riley joined Danny Glover in boycotting UC Berkeley's graduation speech in support of the custodians' wage-parity campaign.

Palestine Awareness Week is taking place at UC Santa Cruz from May 7th through May 10th and began with a Check Point established in the Baytree Plaza. At that check point, five Palestinians were being detained for no apparent reason while two Israeli soldiers mentally and physically abused the detainees and prevented them from leaving the prison cell. One Palestinian women plead over and over to be released because she was pregnant and worried should would lose her baby.