By Tara Raffi Contributing Writer, The Daily Cal Tuesday, November 24, 2009
As I walked through campus on Friday and saw masses of students assembled in front of Wheeler, police cordoning off crowds and the overpowering assortment of noises-chants, fire alarms, bullhorns-I came away with an overpowering sentiment: this school has become nothing more than a parade and a circus show. This strike stems from a blinding, illogical sense of entitlement, fueled by ignorance. Friday only gave me an intense sense of disappointment with my fellow students, who are supposed to be among the smartest and most inquisitive in the nation.
However convenient it may be for students to miss class and chant hypnotically outside of Wheeler, other than creating a scene of Orwellian mass mindlessness, what does this accomplish? I had not heard one viable solution posed, nor talked to many students in the crowd whose reasoning didn't ultimately come to: "well, I'm actually not that educated on this issue."
The type of literature published by the Solidarity Alliance is simply an unfocused and unsubstantiated diatribe against "the institution", designed to make students read it and scream "Yeah! I'm against this unbelievable abuse! Down with the oppressors who are purposefully destroying my education!"
The shameful facade that is the ucstrike.com homepage blatantly and irresponsibly takes advantage of student trust. I simply don't understand how their demands are viable when the State of California is facing a budget gap of billions. This strike has all the markings of groupthink and religious fervor aimed at a ridiculously romantic ideal-qualities that I did not think defined UC Berkeley until now.
My question to the strikers is what solution are you proposing? How do you expect the regents to compensate for budget cuts? Should they halt current construction projects, causing hundreds of construction workers to lose their jobs? Or maybe they should deprive the medical facility of its reserve kept in case of natural disasters so they can treat wounded people. Or better yet, they should carry torches and spears to drive out all of the administrators from their offices and install a cooperative consensus-based democracy where all 35,000 students on this campus vote for every decision that needs to be made!
I have heard only one logical argument, which is to protest the state for their mis-prioritization of funding for our country's number one public university system. The state has cut UC funding by $813 million this year, much less than the cuts to prisons. Between 1990 and now, state funds have fallen by approximately $7,200 per student. This is irresponsibility that needs to be focused on, but instead it is tucked away on the corners of Strike websites and excluded from picket signs.
Yudof can lobby legislators for increased funding, but is ultimately at the mercy of a dysfunctional and bankrupt state. We are facing fee increases because the state has cut our funding, not because the regents have some sinister intent to charge us extra money or buy diamond-encrusted bobble heads for their desks. It is easy to cite "lack of transparency" when you don't like what the regents are doing, but how many people have actually tried to research this before assuming Yudof would use our money to the detriment of the university?
But we ignore these questions and march out to Sproul to demand that Yudof be fired. Why is Yudof being interviewed by The New York Times instead of the governor? Because of us! Because we are framing this protest against the regents, we are targeting media attention for this issue to the intermediary, and we are wasting an invaluable opportunity to target the people that have most power to improve our situation.
Instead of facts, answers, and change, the only thing that I see happening is that our limited academic resources are being squandered. The university was forced to spend funds on police forces to contain the protests, in addition to the money already paid for teaching, classrooms and other services that Friday were so forcefully deprived of us. Isn't this a budget crisis? It costs $30,000 to open the Moffitt and Doe libraries during finals for the next two semesters, ironically the subject of an earlier Solidarity Alliance protest. Instead money was wasted on students screaming at a misconceived aggressor for an imaginary solution.
I know fee increases make it difficult for students to attend Berkeley-this makes me sad and angry. But the regents cannot simply conjure the money it takes to continue operations. As long as there is no increase in state funding, Yudof could sell his house, all of his possessions and forego all pay but the university would still have to implement fee increases in order to maintain the academic quality of the UC system.
As UC Berkeley students, we must learn about this crisis and its causes. At the recent ASUC-sponsored Townhall with the Chancellor, I was horrified to see people directing angry and accusatory words toward the Chancellor, not to mention the hundreds of self-righteously angry students that scoffed at the idea of even attending the event, which was an unparalleled opportunity to learn.
So where is the real irresponsibility of the UC Berkeley Budget Crisis? It is in the students inspired by mob-mentality to throw trash at California Hall instead of writing to state legislators. The students that caused libraries to be closed all day on Friday. The students that got a thrill from engaging in dull-eyed chants outside of Wheeler while causing 3,800 of their peers to miss class.
I originally became involved with this marrow registration drive as Tu Tran, the current Executive VP in the ASUC (Cal's student government) mentioned to me that Susan Haber was interested in having a drive on the UC Berkeley campus. He knew that I had been involved with the Cal Hep B Free program (a movement to screen Cal students for Hepatitis B) and this program along with Project Michelle and AAA (Asian American Association) had sponsored a drive together. Tu was looking for information on how to sponsor a drive. Unfortunately, I was unable to help him out as I had not participated in the drive and knew nothing about a marrow registration drive.
However, a couple of weeks later, the founder of the club that I am currently president of, Team HBV, forwarded me an email from Jiro Okochi, who was also interested in sponsoring a drive. And I figured that I could connect Susan and Jiro together since they had the same plan and also connect them to the ASUC (Cal's student government) as I am also currently one of the ASUC's Health Services Directors, so that all these people and organizations could come together to hold a drive. I actually did not intend to coordinate the drive and was trying to find a friend to coordinate it, but those plans didn't quite work out as I became more and more involved with the project.
In general, one reason I was able to make this drive a success is that I do happen to know of many resources that Cal offers as a result of my various involvements with different organizations and my experiences on the Cal campus. If you are a college student and attempting to coordinate a marrow drive, find a way to become more knowledgeable about the resources on your campus such as the website of the office in charge of student organizations or in charge of reserving rooms/locations or be affiliated with a group that can help them find those resources. In my case, I had my past involvement with student organization and I am also affiliated with the ASUC (Cal's student government) that could help me find resources that I am unaware of.
Additionally, I would suggest that it is important to have a team behind them and then work closely and delegate duties and responsibilities to them as well as making sure that there are assigned deadlines just to ensure that everything is done on time. For duties, I would suggest having someone in charge of fundraising/finances, volunteers (recruiting them, organizing the schedule, training them), and publicity (getting word about the drive out). It is VERY difficult to try and attempt to coordinate everything on your own and one of the biggest reasons why Cal's drive was a success was because I was able to work with a wonderful team of people from those in the ASUC, Jiro and his family, Susan, my boyfriend, etc...
Right now, it's Day 2 of the Inaugural Team HBV National Conference and Jonathan Chen just gave a presentation about the Qinghai Project and it really made me think about how in just one province, 50,000+ people were vaccinated and in particular, how those 50,000 were comprised only of grade school and kindergarteners.
That's super impressive and how through their efforts, Hepatitis B is being even further eradicated and one generation will now be free of Hepatitis B. Additionally, those children were also educated about Hepatitis B and taught a song to the melody of Frere Jacques. But just think, because an entire generation has been vaccinated and educated, how much more empowered the province of Qinghai now is. This collaboration of education and screening has never been done before and how in the US, this is something that Team HBV, the Asian Liver Center, and the Jade Ribbon Campaign advocate on a daily basis.
Right now, I can't help but feel so impressed and excited about what the future for the Jade Ribbon Campaign holds for all us.
Today was the first day of the conference. And I must say that I was a little nervous and very excited about meeting a lot of new people with lots of Team HBV spirit. However, my butterflies were totally unnecessary as everything's been pretty amazing thus far.
The worst part was probably getting carsick on the way over and realizing that all of us forgot to print out directions and then trying to find our way from the hotel to Tressidor Union for the dinner in the dark, especially when we were at this Dorkelstein Auditorium and couldn't figure out exactly where the place was when it was just the next parking lot over. LOL
However, everything after that totally made up for getting lost. Dinner was yummy Thai food. And then mingling and getting to know everybody else was really cool. Everyone's been super chill and pretty relaxed and LOADS of fun. And then, it was super funny playing the icebreakers with the China people because they decided to say the questions in Mandarin, which meant that the English-only speaking folks were relying on the Mandarin speakers for help. And just working together was really fun and after a while, each table got their competitive Team HBV spirit on.
We then went back to the hotel and let me just say the hotel is really nice and it's cool being able to relax and enjoy yourself although I'm probably going to start watching Bio webcasts soon and my life will get even better. LOL
The pool was also nice and super warm and Jen and my roomie, Katrina is really nice and it's really interesting talking to her as well. We've been getting lots of cute roomie pics. Anyhow, time to shower.
I can't wait to see what exciting events await us tomorrow!
Today, Jen, David, and I were practicing our presentation for the Team HBV National Conference. I'm super excited because practicing with all them was awesome and I know that we're going to be amazing this weekend.
And especially now that my Physics midterm is over with, I know that the Team HBV National Conference is going to rock all of our socks off!
PS - Just think, everyone attending this conference in spirit or in person will have more Team HBV buddies. Yay for Team HBV awesomeness and promotion of Hepatitis B awareness!
