UC Davis graduate student Kurt Vaughn, right, joins other minimally clothed students as they protest a plan to raise fees. The rally's goal was to get other students to join in a walkout Thursday, the first day of classes.
Professors at all 10 University of California campuses planned the walkout to express frustration with UC’s furlough program. They wanted to take some of their furloughs on teaching days, but the administration won’t allow that.
Now the walkout has grown to include students who are upset about a proposal to increase fees by more than 30 percent and non-teaching staff who are locked in labor negotiations. Across UC campuses on Thursday, union workers will picket, students will rally and professors will walk out.
But how many?
More than 1,100 UC professors statewide have signed an online pledge to participate in the walkout – out of a faculty of about 19,400. That includes nearly 200 UC Davis professors out of roughly 2,000 faculty members.
About 1,000 UC Davis students – of the school’s 31,000 students – have joined a Facebook group supporting the student walkout, said student activist Sarah Raridon, 21.
On Tuesday, she encouraged UC Davis students to participate in the walkout. Raridon and about a dozen other students held a “naked rally” to protest UC President Mark Yudof’s recent proposal to raise fees.
The students – wearing underwear or bathing suits but holding signs across their midsections so they appeared nude – chanted, “Higher tuition, we can’t make it. Three more grand, we’ll get naked.”
One held a sign saying, “Don’t let the UC strip you of your right to public education. Walk out 9/24.”
“I hope it’s going to be huge,” Raridon said of Thursday’s walkout.
She said she already has e-mailed her professors telling them she won’t be in class Thursday because of the walkout, and asking them to send her their syllabuses.
UC Davis spokeswoman Claudia Morain said some professors who are walking out are e-mailing material to students or posting lecture notes online. Some may greet classes and dismiss them early, she said. Other courses will be taught by department chairs serving as substitutes.
Chancellor Linda Katehi is sending students a letter urging them all to attend class.
Rachel Wu, a sophomore, said she is planning to show up for the first day of classes.
“I’m scared that for some classes, if you don’t show up the first day, they drop you,” she said.
A group of philosophy graduate students eating pizza on the quad Tuesday said their professor will hold class off campus Thursday because he doesn’t want to cross a picket line but doesn’t want to skip class.
Campus administrators believe the walkout “is going to be small and that huge areas of the campus aren’t going to be affected at all,” Morain said.
Professional schools and science departments will probably see few impacts from the walkout, she said, while humanities and social science departments likely will have more participants.
For parents such as John Sulpizio, the whole thing is a frustration. The West Sacramento man said he is unemployed, so he can’t help his daughter with her UC Davis tuition. It went up 9 percent for this fall and could go up 15 percent next spring and 15 percent more next fall.
“Now we’re talking about something like a 41 percent increase in the cost of a UC education, and we’re hearing from professors that they’re not going to deliver the education because they think they ought to have their day off on a day when they should be in the classroom teaching,” Sulpizio said. “There is something frustrating and irritating about that.”
But many professors will be holding class as scheduled Thursday, including James Chalfant, a professor in the department of agricultural and resource economics.
“This is my favorite class, and I want to use the time,” he said.
Even though he’s not protesting, Chalfant said he shares his colleagues’ concerns about budget cuts and furloughs, and agreed that UC employees “need to say ‘help’ to anyone who is willing to listen.”
“It’s not about retaliating,” Chalfant said. “It’s about saying, ‘Please pay attention to what’s happening to UC.’ ”
Courtesy Sacbee.com
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