School Budget Cuts
In Other Words wants to hear how budget cuts are affecting your school. Leave us a comment or send us your pictures and videos.
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In Other Words is part of the Digital Natives project, a CPB funded partnership between Youth Radio and KQED Public Media.
UC Students Energized By Turnout at Protest
Photo: Roseanne Pereira
By Youth Radio Staff
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA- A high energy rally attended by thousands of UC Berkeley students and faculty is building at the university’s Sproul Plaza.
Nineteen-year-old Ricardo Gomez is a student organizer with the Solidarity Alliance and Berkeley Students Against the Cuts. He says the rally is the biggest political action he’s ever seen on campus, with an array of constituencies, from “multicultural and ethnic groups, to just random ass students.”
UC Berkeley police report a turnout of four to five thousand people at Sproul Plaza as of 1:30 p.m.
Gomez says he thinks the rally’s impact will go beyond symbolism. “I think it will lead to UC regents and administrators, and the California legislature evaluating their actions a little more closely – I don’t think they want to see this continuously,” he said. “It’s important for them to see students involved in this because there are more of us than anyone else on our campuses. When we have students, we have power because we have numbers.”
Twenty-year-old Michelle Thomas said she’s been inspired by speakers at the rally, especially the custodial workers. “It’s amazing to hear the perspectives of people who have been hurt the most, who have lost their jobs. They want us to get together. This is just the start – they want us to sign the agreement to support them, and us.” Thomas said she came on her own but plans to join as many groups as possible involved with the action.
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UC Students Walkout Thursday
Students hold signs during a rally at UC Berkeley. Photo: Roseanne Pereira
By Denise Tejada
Students have joined forces with faculty and staff as part of a massive walkout at ten University of California campuses on Thursday. Student protesters say budget cuts have negatively impacted the quality of their education. Youth Radio spoke with 20-year-old Tu Tran who is going into his fourth year as an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley. Tran is also the executive vice president of the Associated Students of the University of California.
What role have you played in organizing the walkout?
I haven’t played any direct role, but ASUC has helped a lot. For example, we help … to provide mics for the rally, and to build a bridge between students, faculty, and administration members. We also have been spreading the word, sending emails to our undergraduate population … in support of the walkout. It shows that we stand in solidarity with the people who support this.
What reasons have students shared with you in terms of why they’re walking out or helping plan this walkout?
We have a diverse campus so it’s hard to tell you what they all think. But it boils down to being upset. Not only as a vice president, but as a student at Cal, we’ve had enough with the budget cuts. It hasn’t been since the 1930s that such a drastic increase in tuition [has been proposed]—it’s been proposed that tuition would increase 32 percent.
How have UC budget cuts impacted you and your Cal education? Please give specific examples.
I’ve seen services drastically decrease. We used to have computer stations and now we don’t. We use to have set library hours and now we don’t. It’s getting harder to get into undergraduate classes. I was looking into saving this year and now it’s looking hard to do so. What I don’t understand is, if we are going to pay more to close the budget, we should still have the same services — but in this case we are getting the short end of the stick.
KQED’s Forum Discusses the UC Walkouts
Yesterday, KQED’s Forum discussed the UC walkouts. Have a listen and find out what all the fuss is about.
Guests included:
- Judith Butler, professor in the departments of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley
- Lawrence Pitts, interim provost and executive vice president for academic affairs for the University of California
- Nanette Asimov, education reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle
- Victor Sanchez, president of the University of California Student Association
Youth Radio Investigation Sparks Top Military Review
UPDATE: The following story is a continuation of our feature, “Investigation: Sailors’ Abuse Kept Silent in Navy Canine Unit.”
(Click here to listen to the full story.)
For access to all documents, posts, and images associated with this story see our Sailor’s Abuse Investigation Hub.
After Youth Radio exposed a culture of hazing, including psychological and physical abuse, at a U.S. Navy canine unit in Bahrain, the nation’s top Naval officer has ordered a review of how the abuses were handled. The Chief of Naval Operations who ordered the review is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and principal Naval advisor to the President. Deadline for that review is October 6th.
Incidents of wrongdoing in the unit ranged from spraying down uniformed personnel with hoses to directing sailors to simulate sex acts on videotape. Youth Radio’s interviews reveal that the abuse was sanctioned and in some cases instigated by the unit’s leadership.
Despite 93 incidents of abuse and misconduct uncovered in a 2007 Navy investigation, to date the Navy has not provided a full public accounting of disciplinary action taken against those responsible for the abuse. We do know the unit’s Chief at the time, Michael Toussaint, received only a “non-punitive letter of caution”. That’s the military’s equivalent of a slap on the wrist.
To continue reading on the Youth Radio website, click here.
Tell Us Your Stories!
In Other Words wants to know how California’s budget crisis is impacting education. Whether you’re a student, a parent, or a teacher, tell us how this year is different from years past.
You can do this in a few ways:
Leave your story in the comment section.
Email your pictures to inotherwords@kqed.org and we’ll put them in our Flickr photostream. Or you can upload them directly to our Flickr group, In Other Words.
Send your videos too. Simply email us the YouTube embed code.
We’d like it if you would include your name and school in your comments, but that’s completely up to you.
To get a better sense of how our community works, check out KQED’s community guidelines.
UCs Plan Walkout Against Budget Cuts
By Denise Tejada
Faculty and students of UC campuses are taking the system’s budget cut crisis into their own hands and walking out on Thursday Sept 24th. It’s been announced that 10 UCs are taking part of this walkout–UC Berkeley being one of them. This year alone UC faculty experienced a cut of 4-10 percent in their salary, including 26 furlough days. Students are being hit by the budget squeeze as well. There has been an increase in tuition, less financial aid is available, and school resources have been cut.
According to Dan Mogulos, Executive Director of Public Affairs at UC Berkeley: “last year in the fall 1500 classes were held on Thursday, there is no way of knowing how many classes we’ll be canceled for that day.” Mongulos says the number of faculty participating—as of right now—is 100 out of 2130 faculty members. Mongulos says this number is expected to change as the day gets closer.
According to Mongulos faculty members have the right to walkout, but before they do they need to ensure their students have material to work on. “If they—professors—walkout, they have to notify the students ahead of time and make sure the course material is done.”
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What is the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act?
By Denise Tejada
The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act—an act that will reform the federal student loan system to save taxpayers $87 billion and will direct $10 billion in savings back to the Treasury. Now the bill heads to the Senate.
Saving taxpayers tons of money sounds good, but how will this new bill make college more affordable to students? To answer this question Youth Radio talked to Mike Larsen, Communications Director for Congresswoman Jackie Speier.
YR: Which students will benefit from the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act?
Larsen: Most students will benefit. Any student requiring a student loan will now be able to get a lower cost and more stable loan because this act takes the loan process back from private lenders. Also, loan programs will be expanded and opportunities for low income students increased.
YR: If made into law, how will this bill expand access to financial aid programs?
Larsen: It expands the Perkins Loan Program to every college and makes it easier for students from middle-class families to qualify for Pell Grants. The biggest change, though, is simply making loans more affordable by taking them away from private, for-profit, lenders.
YR: What requirements are needed for students to benefit from this bill? Is there an income they have to meet?
Larsen: Some of the grant and assisted-loan programs have income standards because they are intended for low-income students. Most, though are open to any student.
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UC Fee Hikes Draw Protests
The California Report says that fee and tuition increases will make the cost of attending a UC next fall 44% more expensive than this year’s starting cost.
Teen Drug Runners
Today’s California Report aired a fascinating piece about teens who smuggle drugs between Mexico and the U.S.
Senior Year Not All Fun and Games
Lately, I find myself waking up at 5 in the morning and hitting the sack at around midnight. With the constant stress of tests like the SAT, early morning AP classes, and the ultimate fear, college applications, my senior year is not turning out they way I would expected it would.
There’s been plenty of talk about college and financial aid. But what people haven’t been mentioning are the reverberating effects of the economic climate. I go to a charter school in Los Angeles and was hoping that my in-state applications would be my “safety schools.” But that’s turning out to be a pipe dream. With the budget cuts, the University of California and California State University systems have less money to go around and are raising their minimum GPA requirements and lowering their acceptance rates. Since they can service only a smaller number of California residents, the competition among high school seniors will get more intense.
And I thought this year was going to be fun.
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