In response to: 6,154 UAW members publicly call on UC to bargain a fair contract by 9/30

Ike Solem comments, "Let me point out here that the University has proposed to set aside $70 million for a new "Biomedical Research Facility" [at UC Santa Cruz] for the year 2007-2008.

This facility is unlikely to do much for undergraduate research, and represents a continuation of the ongoing corporatization of the University of California. The research done there will undoubtedly be done for the benefit of private pharmaceutical corporations, a theme that is already quite common in the Chemistry Department. As an ex-PhD student in the UCSC Chemistry Department (2000-2002), and the recipient of an NSF Graduate Student Fellowship in Microbiology, I have a good idea of what I'm talking about.

This new facility is a major part of the planned expansion of the University, but it will play no role in furthering undergraduate education. The City of Santa Cruz and the voting public in the region opposes this expansion, which the UC administrators are trying to justify as 'required under California law'. Their argument is that they are required to provide education for the growing number of students in California.

However, despite all the renovation on campus, organic chemistry labs (which I TAed 8 times) are still taught in the same decrepit 70's era labs in Thimann. The university expansion has not benefited students, but rather is just another step in the ongoing corporatization of the University. Not only that, but the new patent-obsessed atmosphere of university research hinders the free exchange of ideas, and creates a secretive environment that all too frequently can lead to a lack of scientific integrity in research."

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