Unite4ed is proud to announce the publication of the Radical Review Issue #2. Articles were submitted by CSUF students, faculty, alumni, and community members. The topics in this issue include Democracy at the University, Academic Constitution Principles, CSU Power Structure, CSU Graduation Initiative, Gambling With Your Money, End Casualization of Academic Labor.

Download the color pdf version, Radical Review Issue 2

For the Grayscale version, click here.

 

Unite4ed has published the 1st issue of our newsletter "Radical Review." Articles were submitted by CSUF students, faculty, alumni, and community members. The topics in this issue include A Reflection on March 4th, Democracy, Capitalism, Fresno's Nazi Connection, and A Response to Welty's Fresno Bee Editorial.

You can download the pdf version here: Radical Review Vol 1 Iss 1

For a black & white version click here

 

In order to have a well functioning democracy you must have an educated public. This is a truth which we, the university community at Fresno State, are very much aware of. The continual deterioration of the school system and the current crisis are evidence that there is a problem and something must be done about that problem as it continues to get worse. The problem is at Sacramento, and D.C., but the problem is also right here in Fresno as well as every other city and university. The problem lies in the very structure of this system and in order to try and fix this problem we must challenge the root of it. The growth of the administration is a symptom. As we see more and more administrators being hired and paid six-figure salaries with regular raises, we see faculty who have to teach to larger class sizes and who have been denied their contractual raises for most of the last decade. The administration views the university as a business and their primary goal is to make a profit. Their bad investments are largely a part of what has gotten us into this mess. How many millions have been lost because of the Save Mart center? Who is going to have to pay when Campus Pointe proves to be the same cash drain? The administration has misplaced priorities and is not fit to make decisions which affect the university and entire community. This is why we have declared our independence and are drafting our own constitution to take back our campus and give power to the students, faculty and staff so that we can make our own decisions rather than having them handed down from Welty’s ivory tower.

The march & rally that occurred at Fresno State were planned by a broad coalition consisting of students, faculty, representatives from California Faculty Association, Prison Moratorium Project, United Farm Workers, Students for Quality Education, and numerous community members. The day began at 7:30am with students and faculty members picketing at the campus entrances to attract attention. At 9:30am, buses transported students and faculty from campus to the starting point of the march at Shaw and Blackstone Avenues. At 10:30am, over 250 students, faculty, staff, K-12 teachers, and community members began the two-mile march down Shaw Ave to Fresno State. Carrying banners from many organizations and advocacy groups, the marchers took their message to the streets of Fresno. The messages ranged from democratizing the University to curbing prison funding.

As the marchers entered campus at 12pm, they were enthusiastically greeted by over 200 people at the rally already in progress. The highly energized group chanted in unison for unity in the fight to take back our education system. The rally continued until 1pm as scheduled speakers addressed the crowd of 500. The speeches had a wide array of messages. Some of the topics included, Culture of Fear at Universities, Failures of Student Governments, Need for a Democratic University, Effect of Education Policy on All Sectors of the Community, Direct Connections between Education and Prisons, and personal stories from struggling students.

After the rally, 80 students, alumni and community members entered Vice President Dr. Oliaro’s office on the second floor of the Joyal Administration building, we were taking back public space and asserting our power. Our entire lives we have been told what we can and can’t do, we are forced into tiny boxes where we do not belong and can never really fit. If we want to build a better world we have to take control of our own lives and our own destinies, taking back our university is a beginning step towards this. For those 8 hours, that office was our space, and we transformed it into what we wanted it to be at that moment. We wanted it to be a space where we could be alive and breathe; so we conversed, we danced, we lived and when the group decided to leave, we left. We were accused of misconduct, of creating a disturbance, but what greater disturbance to students education is there than furloughs, fewer and larger classes, and constant fee hikes meaning another part time job? Is this not administrative misconduct when the funds are going towards hiring more administrators, giving current administrators hefty raises, non-academic construction projects, lawsuits caused by administrative negligence, and so on and so on? And the administrators really don’t seem to get it; they don’t understand the importance of education to the community or democracy.

This was a non-violent action, no one was hurt and nothing was damaged, the only threats made were made by the administration. One woman brought her children with her to the sit-in; Dr. Oliaro told her “my wife is a social worker, I should call CPS on you. You should be more careful with your children.” She defiantly told him that she was there because she wishes one day to have the chance to go to college, and for her children to go to college. She explained to Oliaro that she had brought her children with her because this is what Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King did and said you should do, she wanted to raise them as conscious individuals who are not afraid to stand up and fight for their future. It has been said that occupations are an act of desperation, but these are desperate times which call for desperate measures. We can no longer sit idly by hoping that the administration will somehow magically solve the problems that they have created. We must take action now before it’s too late. Chancellor Reed has instructed each campus to take this crisis as the perfect opportunity to “restructure” the CSU system with fewer students and more corporate sponsors. We have decided that Chancellor Reed is partially right; this is the perfect opportunity to do some “restructuring”, so we are creating a structure free from the dead weight of overpaid administrators. A democratic university is where the people who do the work of teaching, staffing and learning decide how they will teach, staff and learn.

Local Media Coverage

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/03/04/18639651.php

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/03/04/18639602.php

http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/video?id=7313165

http://www.cbs47.tv/news/local/story/Day-of-Action-Event-at-Fresno-State/2DP1BzNbJUeuEssNoowXXg.cspx

http://www.ksee24.com/news/local/86508082.html

http://www.kmph.com/Global/story.asp?s=12088592

 

 

 

 

 

We read our new Declaration of Academic Independence on Monday, Jan.25th in the Peace Garden at 11 AM. This document was developed by a group of concerned CSU Fresno Students, Faculty, Staff, & Community Members.

Students, faculty and community members voiced their rejection of the current process of privatization of the CSU by means of a public reading of "The Declaration of Academic Independence." The demonstration began just before noon as the group took over the free speech stage equipped with a speaker system, and authentic 19th century cavalry clothing. The demonstration is the first in a line of many planned theatrics and actions to illustrate the ensuing corruption of public postsecondary education.

The following is the full text of the Declaration. For the pdf version, click here. Feel free to share this with anyone concerned with the future of higher education.

A Declaration of Academic Independence
CONCERNED STUDENTS, FACULTY, & STAFF

STUDENTS, FACULTY, STAFF!
YOUR UNIVERSITY IS IN DISTRESS!

When in the life of a university it becomes necessary for students, staff, and faculty to dissolve the political bands that connect them to an unscrupulous class of CSU Executives, and to assume among fellow citizens, the equality and freedom guaranteed to all persons by the Law of Nature, a decent respect to the opinions of those same citizens (and taxpayers) requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these academic truths to be self-evident: that, concerning governance, all members of the university are equal; that staff, students, and faculty are endowed with reason and, thus with equal rights; among these rights are life, liberty, and full participation in all decisions concerning the university. To secure these rights, democratic procedures for governance must be implemented assuring the participation and consent of those who are directly affected by university decisions. Whenever any form of university governance becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the staff, students, and faculty to alter or abolish such governance and to institute a new governing system, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form which seem most suitable to assuring their future academic freedom and integrity.

Staff, faculty and students have demonstrated that they are more disposed to accept inept, inefficient, and self-serving administrators when tax revenues and University budgets are ostensibly flush. The current fiscal crisis has given CSU Executives an opportunity to solidify their power and expedite the process of privatization. The history of Charles Reed, the Board of Trustees, the CSU Presidents, and the senior administrators’ at all twenty-three campuses has been one of Executive financial gratification, aggrandizement of their own powers, and undermining of democratic governance. When a long history of abuses of power, pursuing a single objective, indicates a design to reduce staff, students, and faculty under absolute despotism, it is the right and moral duty of the University Community to proactively address such problems by throwing off such despotism and fundamentally altering the existing system of University governance to safeguard the future security of University education. To illustrate this, let facts and examples be submitted to a candid world.

-- CSU Executives have shown a persistent and pervasive lack of academic advocacy. They have taken a passive role in regards to advocating for fiscal prioritization of higher education funding in the State of California.

-- The oligarchic structure of the CSU governance inhibits full political democratic participation and self-governance inclusive of all Staff, Students, and Faculty. Consequently, student and faculty governing bodies have been co-opted by CSU Executives, by limiting them to a non-binding advisory role, which gives the appearance of shared governance, but reinforces the status quo.

-- CSU Executives, by their own admittance, allow non-uniformed state agents to conduct surveillance on students and faculty at university events.

-- CSU Executives make investment decisions such as the Oracle/PeopleSoft system that serve their personal financial interests at great expense to the university.

-- CSU Executives operate clandestine auxiliary corporations that have refused public records requests and funded non-academic, financially questionable schemes including Save Mart Center, University Village, Campus Pointe, and other continuing construction projects.

-- CSU Executives invested millions of dollars in lobbying against state legislative bills that would have required full fiscal transparency in University auxiliary corporations.

-- Administrative negligence for Title IX costs the CSU system millions annually in legal fees. They have diverted private monies intended for academics to the athletics department and failed to provide adequate accounting in athletics. They have hired coaches who have failed to follow NCAA rules and failed to adequately supervise athletes.

-- CSU Executives have significantly increased their own salaries and provided themselves perks including lavish university homes, cars, maids, moving expenses, closing costs on personal houses, and continued salaries even after leaving the employment of the university.

-- CSU Executives, by reason of economic crisis, cut tenure-track slots, laid-off faculty and staff to be replaced by part-time faculty. All the while, they maintained salaries higher than those of corporate executives for athletic coaches, salaries of administrators and campus presidents that eclipse those of leading members of Congress, and monetary compensation for Chancellor Reed that exceeds that of the President of the United States.

-- CSU Executives, in violation of the California Master Plan for Higher Education, have implemented policies that deny enrollment to eligible students, illegally enact retroactive student fee hikes, and deny access to classes necessary for students to graduate.

In light of these facts and the indifference with which CSU Executives have met our previous petitions, we, the concerned University Community, out of our sincere regard for the real purposes of university education and research, declare that the staff, students, and faculty are, and of right ought to be, free and independent arbiters of the future of the university. We absolve all allegiance to the present administration and sever all political connections between ourselves and them. We reject the oligarchic methodology of decision-making concerning our University, and the corrupted, market-imposed ideology of higher education as merely a means of labor production. We pledge ourselves and our honor to taking the necessary steps for establishing an autonomous, self-governing university dedicated to equitable, accessible & quality education, and excellence in teaching and research.

 

Media Coverage

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/02/04/18637049.php

 

On Nov. 20th, over 100 CSU Fresno students successfully held a Study-In at the Henry Madden Library in protest of the severely limited access to the University's greatest academic resource. Over 50 Community Members braced the cold rain to chant outside the library in support of the students. Library doors were locked at 5pm, however students stayed in the library all night. Student leaders held successful negotiations with Dean of the Library, Peter McDonald. They agreed to leave peacefully at 8am Saturday morning. As a result, library hours were extended for the remainder of the semester. Progress is being made towards extending library hours for the Spring semester.

Here are links to media coverage of the event:

http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&id=7130989

http://collegian.csufresno.edu/2009/11/22/students-study-in-to-voice-frustration/

 

*******************PRESS RELEASE********************* 
WHEN:  Friday, November 20th 4:30pm- Saturday Nov. 21st 1:00pm
WHERE:  Henry Madden Library 2nd Floor, Fresno State University 
WHO: Fresno State students, faculty, staff and community
WHAT:  Study-in
WHY:  Inadequate library hours and lack of shared governance   
 
      The Henry Madden Library is the largest library in the entire California State University System. Eleven of all CSU campus libraries are open 7 days a week (San Marcos, Sonoma, Pomona, East Bay, Sacramento, Northridge, Chico, Stanislaus, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, San Francisco, and San Diego). However, since Fresno State’s library inauguration in February, it has been operating on restricted hours 6 days per week.

On Wednesday November 18th, 2009 an abrupt announcement was made by the Dean of the Library, Peter McDonald to create a new policy that would open the library for a mere 4 hours on Saturdays. We are led to believe that this spontaneous decision was due to the one-time federal stimulus money received October 2009. However, it appears as though the decision made was as a reaction to recent students’ promotion of a study-in at the library.

      

On Nov. 3rd, CSU Fresno students held a public negotiation with President Welty. Over 300 people filled the Peace Garden to listen to the demands of the students. President Welty refused to conceed to any of the demands. Students presented the following demands:

1. That the recent student fee increase be abolished and all funds derived from the 32% increase be refunded to students; student fees be returned to the level they were at in the year 2000 and that no student fee increase be allowed that exceeds the rate of annual inflation or 4% annually, whichever is lower;

2. That all administrative perks and privileges from associate deans up through the chancellor be immediately rescinded including free houses, free cars, free travel, and any other such privileges not available to faculty; and no salary exceed double the average base annual salaries for the top paid professors at each of the 23 campuses;

3. That all furlough days be abolished, professors that have been laid-off be reinstated, and that all classes that have been cut be re-established.

4. That current CSU Fresno budget be reviewed by a special committee of faculty and students (the committee to be elected by students and faculty members) and that any such projects and programs deemed non-essential be eliminated

5. That funding for these demands be achieved through the support of a severance tax on oil extracted in California as provided for in Assembly Bill 656 as well as a surtax of 2% on the income of any California citizen whose annual income exceeds one million dollars

Below are videos of the event:

http://collegian.csufresno.edu/2009/11/03/welty-students-hash-out-differences/

http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/education&id=7099448

 

Following the Walkout, a group of 80 students marched up to Presdent Welty's new office suite on the 4th Floor of Henry Madden Library. They occupied the lobby for 4 hours, waiting to present a list of demands to Welty. Vice-President Oliaro eventually agreed to a public negotitation to be held on Nov. 3rd in the Peace Garden.

Video of the Sit-In can be seen here: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/10/22/18626407.php

RESOLUTION FOR THE COMPLIANCE OF CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, STUDENT/FACULTY DEMANDS

WHEREAS, the representatives of the people in the California State Assembly and State Senate and the Governor have chosen to put the profits of corporations and the wealth of the richest Californians ahead of the basic needs of the people, including college students; and faculty.

WHEREAS, the administrators of the CSU system, starting with Charles Reed and the Board of Trustees have completely failed to defend the basic interests of the university while continuing to accept obscene salaries (some larger than the President of the United States) and benefits, and

WHEREAS, student fees have tripled over the last decade while the quality of education has deteriorated severely, and course offerings have been dramatically reduced

LET IT BE RESOLVED, that the Students/Faculty of California State University demand that:

1. That the recent student fee increase be abolished and all funds derived from the 32% increase be refunded to students; student fees be returned to the level they were at in the year 2000 and that no student fee increase be allowed that exceeds the rate of annual inflation or 4% annually, whichever is lower;

2. That all administrative perks and privileges from associate deans up through the chancellor be immediately rescinded including free houses, free cars, free travel, and any other such privileges not available to faculty; and no salary exceed double the average base annual salaries for the top paid professors at each of the 23 campuses;

3. That all furlough days be abolished, professors that have been laid-off be reinstated, and that all classes that have been cut be re-established.

4. That current CSU Fresno budget be reviewed by a special committee of faculty and students (the committee to be elected by students and faculty members) and that any such projects and programs deemed non-essential be eliminated

5. That funding for these demands be achieved through the support of a severance tax on oil extracted in California as provided for in Assembly Bill 656 as well as a surtax of 2% on the income of any California citizen whose annual income exceeds one million dollars

LET IF FURTHER BE RESOLVED that all students, student organizations, student government, all faculty, faculty bodies, as well as any administrators of conscience to support these reasonable demands and a CSU system-wide walkout on October 21, 2009. Failure to comply with these demands will be met by increased levels of activism by students.