Monday, November 28, 2011

2011-11-28 "Protesters disrupt UC regents meeting in San Francisco" by Amy Crawford from "SF Examiner" newspaper
[http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/education/2011/11/protesters-disrupt-uc-regents-meeting-san-francisco#ixzz1f7naoUKH]
The revolution will be run according to parliamentary procedure.
Protesters who disrupted a meeting of the University of California regents at UC San Francisco’s Mission Bay campus Monday took over the boardroom and held their own meeting, voting on motions including a resolution demanding the resignation of top officials.
“We are inviting the regents to participate in a people’s regents meeting,” said UC Berkeley graduate student Erica Ward, who facilitated the assembly of a few dozen students, faculty, parents and staff.
The regents, scattered between four campuses and a Florida hotel, held their meeting by conference call. A gathering originally scheduled for two weeks ago was canceled amid fears of violence.
On Monday, regents allowed 90 minutes of comment, during which people at the four campuses criticized officials’ connections to moneyed interests and bemoaned tuition increases and budget cuts, as well as the violent response by university police to recent protests at UC Davis and UC Berkeley.
When public comment ended, Mission Bay protesters drowned out the voices of regents. Then, after rearranging their chairs into a circle, the protesters held a meeting governed by Robert’s Rules of Order, introducing a series of resolutions and voting with a show of hands.
“We demand that UC President Mark Yudof, the president of the university, and Chancellors [Robert] Birgeneau [of UC Berkeley] and [Linda] Katehi [of UC Davis] vacate those positions immediately,” proposed a UC Berkeley student who identified himself as Dan.
The resolution passed, 26 to 0.
Most of the regents present at Mission Bay retreated into another room, but Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom joined the protesters. He expressed sympathy with their cause, but declined to sign when presented with a pledge to raise taxes on the rich.
“Every one of these things I am happy to orally commit to,” he said, while adding that he did not believe in signing pledges.
Meanwhile, the other regents continued their teleconference in another room, where they unanimously approved a 2012-13 budget including $6.5 billion in core operating expenditures, with $2.7 billion needed from the state. If Sacramento does not approve that request, tuition increases will be on the table.

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