A Test of your knowledge about UCSC

1. Tuition at the University of California just increased 32%.

A) True.
B) Not true, there is no tuition at the University of California.
C) True, they just don’t call it tuition.
D) Not true, they would never lie about something like that.

2. The California Constitution mandates that the University of California Regents be “broadly reflective” of the economic diversity of the State. So multimillionaires (more than $50 million net worth), representing roughly .1% of Californians, are represented by how many of the 26 voting Regents?

A) 1 Regent (3.8 %).
B) 2 Regents (7.7%).
C) 4 Regents (15.3%).
D) 18 Regents (69.3%).

3. The California Constitution mandates that the University of California Regents “be entirely independent of all political or sectarian influence.” So how many of the 26 voting Regents have significant political careers and/or ties?

A) 0 Regents, as mandated by the Constitution.
B) 1 Regent.
C) 2 Regents.
D) 25 Regents.

4. The students have one voting Regent appointed by the other Regents. How many voting Regents do the workers (faculty and staff) of the University have?

A) 2 Faculty and 2 Staff.
B) 2 Faculty and 1 Staff.
C) 2 Faculty and 0 Staff.
D) Bupkis. But there are two observers for the Academic Senate.

5. Why have most of the cuts the University has made been to teaching humanities and social science?

A) Because teaching them loses money. As President Yudof asked, “Who is going to pay the salary of the English Department?”
B) Because the mission of the University of California is to foster economic development and help corporations be profitable and English and Sociology don’t do this.
C) Because the students don’t want these classes; they want to be trained for jobs.
D) Because the faculty and students in these programs are annoying, inconvenient, and difficult to “privatize.” Some of them even seem to care about preserving “the rights and liberties” of the people.

6. The fastest growing expense in the UC system, by far, is the bureaucracy. The top administrators at UC have been giving themselves tremendous raises because:

A) They work harder than everyone else.
B) New management technologies and techniques require more and much better paid administrators to apply them.
C) They only work for money and if they didn’t get top dollar they’d go somewhere else. Only top-dollar managers can do the great job the UC administration is doing.
D) They can.

7. Which UC campuses don’t have official Ethnic Studies programs?

A) All of them.
B) UCI, UCR, UCSB, UC Merced.
C) All but UCB.
D) Only UCSC.

8. UCSC doesn’t have official Ethnic Studies programs because:

A) The students don’t want them.
B) They aren’t part of the UC’s mission.
C) The faculty doesn’t want them.
D) Broken promises by the UCSC administration.



9. The proposed “reform” of admissions is supposed to increase the diversity of the students admitted. But this is in doubt because:

A) One of three studies commissioned by the Regents themselves predicts that diversity will decline with the new system.
B) Two of three studies commissioned by the Regents themselves predict that diversity will decline with the new system. The other study predicts no change.
C) True diversity of the University of California is not compatible with the long-term goal of the Regents: privatization.
D) B and C.

10. Among the various proposals to secure the financial future of the University of California, the official Commission on the Future has suggested:

A) Eliminating extraneous UC “businesses” such as managing the National Weapons Labs at Los Alamos and Livermore.
B) Drastically cutting administration costs, which should drop year by year and not increase exponentionally.
C) Raise tuition regularly by 5% or more, charge more for UCB and UCLA, recruit more out-of-state students, add a “virtual” campus for on-line degrees.
D) All of the above.

11. The Students and Workers at UCSC have a cunning plan to solve the budget crisis…

A) Yes, our scientists and students have developed a way to make hydrogen power. We’ll all be rich.
B) Yes, the impending commercialization of Ultimate Frisbee will put UCSC into the elite league of money making big time college athletics.
C) Yes, magic spells discovered by Marxist-Pagan witches and wizards in various unnamed interdisciplinary humanities programs will reveal the next 10 winning lotto numbers.
D) Not exactly. But, a democratic process can surly do better than the current disastrous leadership.

12. If nothing else, the Regents and top administrators of UC uphold the highest ethical standards.

A) Except for UCLA Medical School selling organs to organized crime bosses from Japan.
B) Except for Regents having major conflicts of interests, such as Regent Blum’s investments in the private education companies Career Education Corporation and ITT Tech (increased when he voted to raise tuition by 32%) and construction companies that build UC buildings.
C) Except for the raises given top administrators that even violated the Regent’s own policies.
D) Actually, their ethics are embarrassing.

13. During the March 4 Strike, the Vice Chancellor put out a press release that said: “Reports of protesters carrying clubs and knives, smashing a car windshield with a metal pipe, denying a resident of faculty/student housing the right to exit the campus, and keeping a campus heath care worker from getting to work, escalated this morning’s protest into behavior that is disruptive, intimidating, and destructive.”

A) No he didn’t. Spreading such unverified reports (all of which were untrue) would be incredibly irresponsible. Besides, how do “reports” escalate the protest, when the reports are wrong?
B) Yes he did, but when the police announced that they did not know of any such reports he quickly issued a correction.
C) Well, maybe there was no correction during the protests, but soon after he did apologize to the community and assure us that he wouldn’t do such dangerous media “spinning” ever again.
D) None of the above.

14. During the March 4 Strike several picketing students were injured and there was minor damage to a few cars.

A) Because vicious protesters ran amok terrorizing everyone good and decent at UCSC.
B) Because vicious protesters ran amok terrorizing everyone good and decent at UCSC.
C) Because vicious protesters ran amok terrorizing everyone good and decent at UCSC.
D) It was tense, people in cars tried to get through. There was no major damage to people or vehicles.

15. Undergraduate student tuition covers what percentage of undergraduate instructional costs?

A) 30%.
B) 50%
C) 100%
D) More than 100%

16. The UC student judicial system…

A) Denies students almost all basic rights, such as counsel, access to the evidence, and judgment by peers.
B) Presumes that students are guilty if there is a “preponderance of evidence” against them, not enough to go beyond reasonable doubt.
C) Permits collective punishment (illegal under International Law).
D) All of the above.

17. In April of 2010, 35 students were fined almost $1,000 each to pay for the $35,000 of claimed damage during the Kerr Hall occupation in ?

A) Well, at least they had a fair judicial process and a careful review pf the evidence.
B) Well, at least someone will pay for the horrific damage to Kerr Hall.
C) Well, at least they didn’t charge any journalists or people negotiating with them who weren’t even there.
D) None of the above.

18. The University greatly values its workers, faculty and staff:

A) But not the graduate students who teach so much. UC has fought their attempts for fair pay and better teaching conditions for years.
B) But not the faculty, UC has increased their load, interfered with their academic work, and limited their pay to a fraction of that for senior administrators.
C) But not the staff, who are being asked to do the same work for less pay and in less time, and who UC continually tries to marginalize and privatize.
D) All of them.

19. The crisis of the University of California is…

A) Just a run of bad luck.
B) A simple problem caused by the 2/3-budget rule, Prop. 13, and Republicans who hate students. Sign an initiative!
C) Because the UC managers are particularly inept.
D) Caused by the same elitist, profit-over everything, for sale political processes that not only allow our planet’s daily unnecessary suffering from wars, misogyny, racism, disease and hunger, but are rushing all of us, including our fragile postmodern civilization, toward any number of disasters including horrific war (WMDs), mass extinctions, and global climate change (weirding).

20. One thing for sure, is that protesting…

A) Is only for selfish students trying to get a great UC education on the cheap by getting their fees lowered.
B) Is only for selfish faculty and staff who want to get paid too much for their cushy jobs that already pay more than they could earn in the real world.
C) Is un-American, done by spoiled rich kids, coddled welfare mothers, and illegal immigrants stealing the wealth of all those legitimate Americans who came to this empty land and made it great.
D) Is not only often successful, but now is certainly necessary.


GRADING
1. C 2. D 3. D 4. D 5. D 6. D 7. D 8. D 9. D 10. C
11. D 12. D 13. D 14. D 15. D 16. D 17. D 18. D 19. D 20. D

20 Correct: You are too well informed. Get a life. Skip the next Strike, Strategy, Twanas, AFT, GSOC, or FOG meeting. Take a walk.

15 to 19 Correct: You are very well informed. What are you doing about it?

10 to 14 Correct. You are reasonably well informed. Doesn’t changing this system seem reasonable?

4 to 9 Correct: You are awake. Have some coffee and plan something.

1 to 3 Correct: Hello! This is not a dream, a trip, or a video game. Real world stuff happening here.

0 Correct: Is this President Yudof? UCSC Vice-Chancellor Kliger?

ANSWERS EXPLAINED
Question 1. C.
By their own Master Plan, the University of California is not allowed to charge tuition, so they call it fees. As UC’s own Educational Relations Department said of the University’s mission, in January 2007 (quoting from UC web site): “Reaffirmation of California’s long-time commitment to the principle of tuition free education to residents of the state.” Despite this, everyone calls it tuition--the newspapers, the parents, the students, and often UC administration itself. A nice lesson in language, the rule of law, hypocrisy or…something.

Question 2. D.
Much about the wealth of the Regents is not public knowledge but it is clear that a number are supersuperwealthy (Gov. Swarzenegger, Richard Blum, Russell Gould, George Kieffer, Bonnie Reiss, Leslie Tang Schilling, and Paul Wachter) while most of the rest (totaling at least 18) are just very rich, in that top .1%. The exceptions among the appointed regents are Odessa Johnson, (former community college administrator), Charlene Zettel (dental hygienist turned liberal Republican politician), and Jesse Bernal, the student regent. Among the “ex officio” Regents (serving because of their office), several of the politicians, the alumni reps (President and Vice-President of the Alumni Association) and President Yudof may not be super rich. All of these “poorer” regents, except for Jesse (a first generation college student) are clearly among the wealthiest 20% of Californians. Perhaps it is comforting to note that since the top 20% of US taxpayers control 85% of the wealth, the economic diversity of the regents (96.2% from this 20%) does give more than fair representation to the money of California, if not the people.
In terms of the other “diversities” the regents are supposed to represent, only 7 of the 26 are women and 9 of the 26 seem to be African-American, Asian-American, or Hispanic. California is more than half female and roughly half non-white.
(Estimates on the wealth of Californians are from, among other sources, “California Wealth Distribution, 2009, by UCB Professor Emanuel Saez. Estimates of the wealth and background of the Regents is from news reports and the public record).

Question 3. D.
We can hope that the student regent is too young to be “under the influence” of political or sectarian forces. None of the other voting regents seem to be apolitical or prepolitical or even independent of the two dominant parties. A number are major players, Including, for the Democrats: Richard Blum (husband of Sen. Diane Feinstein), George Kieffer (lawyer for the governor’s wife), Jack O’Connell (State Superintendent of Public Instruction), John Perez (Speaker of the Assembly) and for the Republicans: Swarzenegger, Bonnie Reiss (Schwarzenegger’s Secretary of Education) and Paul Wachter (Schwarzenegger insider who manages his foundation). (Various public records.)

Question 4. D.

Question 5. D.
Actually, tuition more than pays for the costs of teaching English and Sociology, as Robert Watson points out in his article “The Humanities Really Do Produce a Profit” (Chronicle of Higher Education, March 26, 2010, p. A36). When Yudof claims that most of UC’s “businesses” (his word), such as the medical complexes, “are in good shape” but there is a problem with paying for English and Sociology and “the humanities” he is just being stupid. Most humanities courses, and certainly all courses delivered by lecturers (writing, languages, the core courses), produce a profit. They are used to subsidize other areas of the University, and not just the libraries and instruction in the sciences and theatre and digital media, which seems appropriate, but also gyms for elite athletes (UC Berkeley, UCLA), extravagant administration salaries, technoscience labs whose discoveries are turned into corporate profits, and other projects far from UC’s mission.
The myth that UC top management needs fantastic salaries has two problems: 1) There is no evidence from the corporate world or the educational world that the highest paid managers are the best. 2) The current UC leadership is managing the University to destruction. For this we pay extreme salaries?
The mission for the University of California is to “preserve the rights and liberties of the people”, (California Constitution), not economic development, not training workers for corporations, not even curing cancer. The humanities and the social sciences are central to this mission. We should also ask, if the mission of UC is strengthening democracy, shouldn’t it be democratic itself?

Question 6. D.
They can, even when it is against their own rules!
UC management, for all they are paid, has proven a gross failure in preventing the consistent erosion of the State’s contribution to the University, despite massive public support for UC. They have imposed drastic cuts on numerous undergraduate and graduate programs. At UCSC, for example, not only are Community Studies and History of Consciousness being starved to death, Literature has been cut [details and source], the language programs and even writing classes are being limited and directly threatened. Meanwhile UC sits on a $50 billion reserve fund (even lending some to the State), spends more and more money on administration, and uses future tuition to guarantee extravagant building projects. (See “They Pledged Your Tuition” by Prof. Bob Meister at http://www.cucfa.org/news/2009_oct11.php) And when they mismanage their pet projects, say for Sports page fame, these failures are subsidized by tuition and those who made the bad decisions are rewarded with more power and a higher salary.
Consider the Varsity Gym at UCB and Pauley Pavilion at UCLA. The Berkeley gym, famous for destroying a grove of trees after a year of protests to save them, is for the 500 most elite Cal athletes. It is costing $153 million and counting. Originally, it was to be funded with money “borrowed” from future investment earnings but when the market collapsed the costs were moved directly to the general fund. The genius behind this, Nathan Brostrom, was promoted to UC’s executive vice president for Business Operations. The same failed funding scheme was used to renovate the locker rooms, scoreboard, and put in cushier seats at Pauley Pavilion at UCLA. Now student fees are being raided for $25 million to subsidize this and UCLA administrators are lying about it. Good seats at Pauley for Bruin basketball games cost more than Laker seats and season tickets are in the thousands. (On Cal see “Sports center debts decried” by David Downs, SF Chronicle, March 30, 2010, pp. C1, C5. For the UCLA story, see “State universities tap student fees for unintended projects” by Jack Dolan, latimes.com, April 4, 2010.)
Between 1997 and 2007, Senior UC administrative positions increased 118% compared to a 24% increase in faculty positions and 39% increase in student enrollment over the same period. In 2008 senior management increased four times faster than the rest of the University work force. If current trends continue, soon there will be one senior manager for every faculty member. Pres. Yudof’s 2008 salary was *28,000. The new UC Davis chancellor is paid 27% more than her predecessor. http://keepcaliforniaspromise.org/469/soon-every-faculty-member-will-have-a-personal-senior-manager.

Question 7. D

Question 8. D.
In 1981, after massive student protests, the UCSC administration promised, in writing, to establish funded Ethnic Studies programs with tenured faculty. In 1983 they broke this promise and dissolved the Oakes College Ethnic Studies courses. In 1985, after more protests, the Academic Senate voted to make Ethnic Studies a GE requirement. In 1990 a student sleep-in helped ensure Ethnic Studies courses are in the Schedule of Classes. In 2000 the Engaging Education program was conceptualized and in 2002 the students with 69% of the vote funded it. Although the administration implied this would lead to the establishment Ethnic Studies, these courses continue to be taught by faculty from other programs, temporary lecturers, and even students.

Question 9. D.
See, among many other news articles: http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=c077e3b7f4e745606b3a2462256493a8

Question 10. C.
The recommendations of the official Commission on the Future about funding UC are pathetic. [http://ucfuture.universityofcalifornia.edu/]

11. D.
Instead of pursuing new models of management, UC seems intent on proving the Iron Law of Bureaucracy (they always grow). Many disciplines and business theories argue that hierarchical organizations are not the most efficient by far. Read the interview Yudof gave the New York Times Magazine, where he explained that his job of being President of UC as being “manager of a cemetery” and decide if he is worth his compensation:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/magazine/27fob-q4-t.html

12. D.
On UCLA selling organs to mobsters: http://articles.latimes.com/2008/may/31/local/me-ucla31
On Blum: http://theava.com/archives/3874
On UC salaries here is a link to a series of articles from the San Francisco Chronicle: http://berkeleyaft.org/sfchron/execpay

13. D.
Later press reports, and research by UCSC faculty and others did not find any evidence to support these reports. And the press release can still be seen at: http://press.ucsc.edu/text.asp?pid=3596&Cat=Group

14. D.
A close look at the two confrontations between cars and picketers during the March 4 protests reveal that aggressive drivers were the instigators of both minor incidents, which resulted in a foot being run over (and a car window broken.

Question 15. D.
The University administration claims that student “fees” only cover 30% of the cost of their instruction, but actually student fees only cover 30% of the cost of the instruction AND research budget. Prof. Charles Swartz has estimated that undergraduate tuition covers 100% of the cost of undergraduate instruction. (http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~schwrtz/ “Cost Accounting at a Research University”.) However, considering the opacity of UC accounting, and that recently the administrations at UCLA and UCSC have actually been caught misallocating self-imposed student fees (not really tuition), then it seems reasonable to assume that student tuition subsidizes other aspects of UC’s “business”. (On UCLA see the answer to Question 6. On UCSC’s misallocation of student summer funds see “Taking Charge” by Dana Burd, City on a Hill, March 11, 2010, pp. 10, 11, 18.)

16. D.
Really, it’s worse than you think. See the ACLU’s letter [http://occupyca.wordpress.com/] or just read the code for yourself: http://www2.ucsc.edu/judicial/

17. D
The damage was minimal and most of the charges were thousands for carpet cleaning and other obviously bogus numbers. See the letter from the Graduate Student Organizing Committee: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/11/24/18630407.php

18. D.
The record of UC and labor is clear. They hire the #1 union-busting law firm Littler Mendelson, block unionization, penalize workers who protest and on and on. For extra credit look up the evidence for yourself.

19. D.
Really, you should look into this for yourself. If the UC crisis is indeed linked to the general crisis of the State of California, of the US, and of postmodernity as a whole, than we really should do something about it.

20. D.
Maybe protesting now won’t make a difference. Many protests are failures. The protests to stop women voting, to save segregation, to keep homosexuality a crime, they have all failed. And some protests succeed, obviously. At UCSC there have been victories, defeats, and always, ongoing struggle. Which side are you on?