Feature Archives

On June 6th, communities of color at UC Santa Cruz held multiple rallies and confronted Chancellor Denice Denton to demand concrete infrastructural support for diversity at UCSC. While the University has made a rhetorical commitment to diversity, custodians (who are predominately workers of color) continue to receive up to 30% less in wages than their counterparts at Cabrillo and CSUMB; the University has actively denied institutional support and failed to recognize the centrality of student initiated outreach and retention programs to making diversity viable at UCSC; large numbers of valuable senior faculty of color have been (or may be) forced to resign due to hostile working environments. Administrators and university policies have actively upheld all these problems. Read more

photos: UCSC Charged With Disadvantaging Students, Faculty and Workers of Color || Students & Workers charge institutional racism & sexism; Demand affirmative diversity
video clips: Surprising Denton || Denton giving in to watching the students' skit

see also: Affirmative Diversity Talking Points

On May 23rd, UC Santa Cruz's custodians, part of the union AFSCME, continued their hard-fought wage parity campaign by staging a respectful protest inside Chancellor Denice Denton's Brown Bag event. The workers are frustrated over the Chancellor's lack of support for custodians and their families. While the Chancellor consistently refers to 'market rates' to justify top admin salaries (she earns upwards of $400,000/yr.), she has yet to support custodians whose poverty wages are up to 30% less than neighboring colleges. At the event, AFSCME organizer Julian Posadas announced that some workers were considering a hunger strike and that the Chancellor has June 5th as a deadline to support the workers.

While over 1,700 student petitions were delivered to the Chancellor, showing student solidarity with workers, many students associated with the successful C.A.R.E. (Community and Resource Empowerment) measure from last spring attended to remind the Chancellor of her yet unfulfilled legal commitment to provide the funding she promised for Student Initiated Outreach (SIO) and retention programs. The SIO programs, housed in the student-run Engaging Education (e^2) center, are responsible for the recruitment and retention of thousands of students of color on campus. Yet, when the Chancellor announced that UCSC's class of 2006-2007 was, for the first time in history, majority people of color, she failed to mention the students who are largely responsible for this occurance. Read more and view photos

On May 18th, students at UC Santa Cruz held the annual Take Back the Night. Starting with a rally at 6:30pm in Baytree Plaza, there were speakers and live performance addressing issues such as prison violence, sterilization, borderline violence, and institutionalized patriarchy. After marching through the colleges on east side of campus, the march stopped outside the College 9/10 Multi-Purpose Room for performances by UCSC's Slam Poets Team, before making their way through the rest of the colleges. Finally ending up at Oakes, students ate food while listening to testimonials about gender-based violence.

Take Back the Night has been organized at UC Santa Cruz since 1983 - two years after the event was started in San Francisco. Traditionally an empowerment space for women-only, this year's event, controversially, was open to all genders. Read more and view photos

On May 17th, students, workers and unions were at the UC Regents meeting held at UC San Francisco, primarily in response to University of California's plan to cut workers' pensions. The unions were united and unapologetic, cheering loudly as three California State Senators, including Figeroa (D) and Maldonado (R), called for President Dynes' resignation. ( Audio | Photos)

For the second straight year, anti-nuke/demilitarization activists from around the state disrupted the second day of the UC Regents meeting at UCSF on May 18th. In addition to concerns of corruption on behalf of top UC officials, students continued the decades old tradition of opposition to UC's vital role in the production of weapons of mass destruction. Through it's management of both Los Alamos National Lab and Lawrence Livermore, UC employees have designed every nuclear weapon in the U.S. arsenal. As such, the University of California would be complicit in the event of a nuclear strike on Iran. Read more and view photos.

past coverage: DeNuke UC! -- UCSC Students Rally Against Bechtel and Nuclear Proliferation || UC Regents Ignore Massive Resistance, Vote to Build Nukes

On April 11th, a crowd of 200 gathered at UCB to support a" sweat-free UC". Condeming the University's use of sweat shop labor in the production of collegiate apparel, and promoting United Students Against Sweatshops' designated supplier program, students staged a "Naked Truth" rally and sit in that resulted in 18 arrests and more verbal volley from University administration

Students were disturbed that their legal observer, a member of the National Lawyer's Guild, was removed by police at the beginning of the sit in while the University's legal advisor was allowed to stay on for the duration of the event. The sit in ended in 18 arrests for "trespassing and refusing to leave" after aproximately 2 and a half hours of proposals and demands.
Read More | Photos | USAS action alert | United Students Against Sweatshops

Previous Anti-Sweatshop Coverage: UC Sweat-Free Coalition Crashes UC Office of the President | Students Strip for Sweat-Free UC |UCSC students fight for sweatshop free apparel | Creative Activism Raises Issues at Denton's Investiture Friday | Students and Workers Demand a Sweat-Free UC

On April 11th, 2006, in spite of the pouring rain and administrative attempts to stifle students’ free speech, Students Against War (SAW) organized over 150 students to march from the center of campus to the job fair, where they nonviolently prevented access to military recruiters through sit-ins and other measures. After about an hour and a half of negotiations and students’ refusal to back down, military recruiters left the job fair.

The students’ first victory appeared early in the day, as administrators separated military recruiters from other employers, allowing the protesters to block access to the military, while the remainder of the job fair continued...

The successful protest was also significant in light of the fact that University administrators hired, at great cost to the school, a number of police from other UC campuses. These police, local officers, and a top local official, physically assaulted multiple students without provocation and repeatedly refused to provide identification when requested. Students were pushed, punched, choked, and a student’s hand was slammed in a door. One student, acting as a legal observer, was pushed and arrested for documenting police surveillance, but was released after an immediate display of student support...

In the face of administrative and police repression the students remained remarkably peaceful... Read More

Photos: Military Recruiters Evicted From UCSC Job Fair, Again! || Military Recruiters Out At UCSC After SAW's Third Strike
Video: The moment of departure

See also: Military Recruiters Abandon Post at UCSC Career Fair

Previous coverage: SAW to protest Military Recruiters on April 11 || UCSC anti-war group SAW makes demands of administration concerning career fair|| UC Students Demand Answers about Spying Scandal || Students Denounce Pentagon Surveillance of Counter-Recruitment Activities || Rally, Queer Kiss-in Greet Military Recruiters at UCSC || UCSC Students Kick Military Recruiters Off Campus

On Wednesday, March 22nd there will be a rally for affordable health care for Oakland School Employees. Oakland Schools Administrator Randall Ward wants school classified employees, who are the lowest employees in the district, to pay for future increases in their health care. These workers have not been given any pay raises in the last few years. The rally will demand a fair contract and respect from the Oakland Unified School District. People will gather from 4:00 to 5:30pm on Wednesday, at 1025 2nd Avenue in Oakland. Flyer

SEIU Local 790