Amid shouts of “Whose university? Our university!” and “Lay off Yudof!” thousands of protesters demonstrated on the UC Berkeley campus yesterday against the university administration’s handling of the budget crisis.
Protest Pictures – Click Here
A systemwide faculty walkout and a strike held by the University Professional and Technical Employees union united campus and university community members in teach-ins and picket lines in a call for reform to legislators and UC administrators.
The day’s events culminated in a general assembly of walkout participants Thursday night that decided to reconvene next Wednesday to determine future action.
At the peak of a noon rally, an estimated 5,000 demonstrators flooded onto Upper Sproul Plaza, cheering and waving signs on the ground and overhead on balconies as they listened to speakers.
“Our problems are connected,” said Isaac Miller, a member of the Solidarity Alliance, a group that helped organize the rally. “Our struggles have the same roots. If a crisis is a moment to choose, then it’s time for us to make an educated decision. Our solidarity cannot be cut.”
Union members approved the strike in July after negotiations with the university for a new contract had been ongoing for 18 months. Soon after, a group of faculty members called for the systemwide walkout to take place on the same day, saying they were angered by what they call a breach of their right to shared governance of the university.
After the almost two-hour rally, protesters marched around campus before moving onto nearby streets, forcing the Berkeley Police Department to stop traffic at several points during the procession, including the busy intersection of Bancroft Way and Shattuck Avenue in Downtown Berkeley.
While many students attended their classes as scheduled, many professors and GSIs cancelled or adjusted their lectures and discussions to accommodate the walkout.
The workers’ strike forced the Bancroft Library to close due to a lack of security staff, according to Charles Faulhaber, the library’s director.
Some speakers at the rally drew parallels between yesterday’s events and the 1964 Free Speech Movement that brought thousands of protesters to the same plaza.
“They’re telling us, ‘screw you,'” said African American studies professor Percy Hintzen. “We have to be courageous like the ’60s … we have been called to change the world over and over again, and we are going to win this war.”
But campus officials said yesterday that blame for the university’s financial woes lies with the state government, which made an $813 million reduction to the university’s budget for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 fiscal years.
UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau held a conference call with reporters yesterday in which he said he supports the repeal of Proposition 13, which many point to as a key cause of a decline in state revenues that led to the budget crisis.
“I think that students should be upset and they should be expressing their opinion on the fee increases,” he said. “I tell them: go down to Sacramento, go down to your local legislator and tell them that it’s the obligation of the state of California to support this great educational system.”
Jelger Kalmijn, systemwide president for the union, said he was inspired by the unity shown at yesterday’s events, and that although he is willing to work with the university, the union plans to continue protesting.
“This is just a taste of what’s to come,” he said. “I haven’t seen this unity … at the University of California in 25 years.”
Hundreds of students gathered on the plaza at 6 p.m. to discuss what actions to take next, but tensions rose after the meeting was moved to Wheeler Auditorium and someone announced that students had occupied the second floor of a campus building at UC Santa Cruz.
Minutes later, someone announced that eight of the nine doors to Wheeler Hall’s main entrance were chained shut, which caused panic and confusion.
Some attendees left the meeting, and UCPD arrived and removed the chains at about 9 p.m. Meeting organizers said those who chained the doors were unaffiliated with the general assembly.
The attendees voted to hold the next UC Berkeley assembly meeting next Wednesday at 6 p.m. on Lower Sproul Plaza to “determine the plan of organization” for a proposed Oct. 24 state conference.
“We’re going to keep fighting forward because this does not end today,” Blanca Misse, a GSI in the French department, said at the meeting.
Source: Daily Cal
dprogram.wordpress.com 
I was there, at the UCSC protest though.
University of California President Yudof Approves $3,000,000 to Outsource UCB Chancellor’s Job
The UC President has a UCB Chancellor that should do the high paid job he is paid for instead of hiring an East Coast consulting firm to fulfill his responsibilities. ‘World class’ smart executives like Chancellor Birgeneau need to do the analysis, hard work and make the difficult decisions of their executive job!
Where do consulting firms like Bain ($3,000,000 consultants) get their recommendations?
From interviewing the senior management that hired them and will be approving their monthly consultant fees and expense reports. Remember the nationally known auditing firm who said the right things and submitted recommendations that senior management wanted to hear and fooled government oversight agencies and the public? Consultants never bite the hand that feeds them
Mr. Birgeneau’s executive officer performance management responsibilities include “inspiring innovation and leading change.” This involves “defining outcomes, energizing others at all levels and ensuring continuing commitment.” Instead of demonstrating his capacity to fulfill his executive accountabilities, Mr. Birgeneau outsourced them. Doesn’t he engage University of California and University of California Berkeley (UCB) people at all levels to help examine the budget and recommend the necessary trims? Hasn’t he talked to Cornell and the University of North Carolina – which also hired Bain — about best practices and recommendations that might apply to UCB cuts?
No wonder the faculty and staff are angry and suspicious. Three million dollars is a high price for Californians to pay when a knowledgeable ‘world-class’ Chancellor is not doing his job.
Please help save $3,000,000 for teaching our students and request that the UC President require the UCB Chancellor to fulfill his executive job accountabilities!
Why does one of the top universities in the world have to spend $3 million of taxpayer money for consultants to do what should be done internally by UCB Chancellor Birgeneau?
Who teaches auditors how to audit? Do UC professors not have the knowledge to perform what they teach?
Having firsthand knowledge of consulting, I know one cardinal rule, “Don’t bite the hand that pays you.”
In a nutshell, we have a high-paid, skilled UCB Chancellor who is unable or unwilling to do the job he is paid to do. Why do we wonder that UC and California are in a financial crisis!
I’m sure taxpayers would not object to the $3 million payout if the money is reimbursed by taking money from the UCB Chancellor’s salary over the next 10 years.
Stop the spending of $3,000,000 on consultants by President Yudof and the UCB Chancellor and do the job internally
Respectfully