Drake and Yudof have also lied to students and departments in saying that the graduate block hasn’t been cut, yet grad students are being stripped of their contractually-given funding due to lack of funds. Drake and Yudof are constrained by the limits placed upon them by Sacramento, but they have proven to be pathological liars when it comes to budget allocations.

It was also recently revealed that tuition dollars are deposited in a bank in NY and held as collateral for bonds used exclusively for the construction of new buildings. So, bonds have risen from $4 Billion to $6.5 billion over the past year or so, while tuition will be rising as much as 50% between fall 2008 to fall 2010.

It’s hard to tell exactly what Yudof and co. are up to, since they have been so secretive. But as Milton Friedman preached, periods of crisis or even perceived crisis provide the opportunity to make profound changes to social services that people wouldn’t normally allow. It seems that Yudof is taking this advice to heart, artificially deepening the crisis as we perceive it here in order to restructure the mission of the university.

In response to John:

As I stated in my Opinion piece, the administrators were subject to the same furloughs put on hourly employees (that may have changed recently that I am unaware of). President Yudof is highly paid, and perhaps he should take additional cuts. But, even if he (and all of the other highly paid members of the Senior Management Team) were forced to work for free, we would still need additional measures to fill the budget gap. There are other solutions to the UC’s problems, but simply pinning them on President Yudof (or any single place) is what I take issue with.

I am unaware of any secret plot to privatize the University of California or to force out low-income students. As a part of our campus constitution, one third of all tuition increases go directly to financial aid. In my opinion, the students in the middle (who receive no financial aid, but who do not make enough to pay for their tuition without huge loans) are the ones suffering from tuition hikes.

Furthermore, the University of California has an A+ (or higher) credit score because of the way that credit is calculated. In the past, the UC has paid off its debt on time (probably) 100% of the time, has been borrowing for a very long time (boosting the credit score), and has a moderate debt to asset ratio. These factors can misleadingly give rise to high credit ratings (like the banks who still have A or BB+ credit ratings but needed billions of bailout money in order to survive).

And call me naive, but when comparing the global economy and state budget problems with what Yudof is saying about the UC’s budget problems, I believe them. It seems reasonable that we have a large deficit, and unlikely that it is a hoax in an attempt to cut employees and privatize the campus.

I am interested in any information that counters what I have read.

And finally, in response to Adrienne:

Facebook is always 100% serious. I must not be creditworthy based on one of the many humorous groups I have joined (I realize that some do not share my definition of humorous). Similarly, people who participate in “Mafia Wars” are serious about their desire to sell drugs and commit murder. Their opinions are not as valid as yours.
You should friend me, I was tagged in a photo depicting a man holding a baby on a sandwich roll. That will surely justify your claim.

You are welcome to voice your disagreements with my opinion (In fact I encourage it). However, attacking my credibility based on a social networking website seems (to me at least) as a desperate attempt to justify your own viewpoints without any backing whatsoever.

How’s that for uneducated ranting?

The problem with your argument, is that students aren’t just “ranting.” Student and faculty are organizing to resist the cuts, just as administrators are resisting their own cuts. We’re also proposing some equity in the furloughs, so that Yudof, who partially got us into this mess, bears more of the burden than hourly workers and students. Finally, until Yudof actually releases the budget, which should be available to the public but is being kept secret, it’s impossible to say that tuition hikes and furloughs are actually necessary. Judging by their effort to hide budget information, it seems like there’s something they don’t want us to see.

Finally, we’re not bearing the burden so that they can fix the UC. This is part of a larger strategy to further privatize the campuses and force out lower-income students. The Council of UC Faculty Associations just published a report (http://www.cucfa.org/news/2009_oct11.php) that the tuition hikes are actually being used to pay back bonds. This is why the UC system, which itself is in the midst of crisis and is funded in part by the state of California, which is also on the verge of bankruptcy, is able to secure high-rated bonds, A+ ratings I believe. Let me repeat: despite allegedly having no money, and being forced to lay off workers, furlough faculty, and raise tuition, they have an impeccable credit rating.