Occupy UC Davis

Open Letter to the Public from Bernie Goldsmith, Occupier

Open Letter to the Public

I keep hearing, “Why can’t Occupy UC Davis be like those great protests of our past? Like the peace protests? Everyone was behind those students at Kent State.” 

A Gallup Poll conducted one week after the Kent State shootings found that 58 percent of the public blamed the students themselves, while only 11 percent blamed the National Guardsmen. Newsweek, May 18, 1970, p. 30. They got what was coming to them.

We look into the past at successful social justice movements and idealize them. Of course the civil rights movement was right. Of course women should have the right to vote. Of course abolitionists would prevail. We take these things for granted; who could ever have disagreed with these sentiments? We forget that these movements had an uphill battle for a reason, that, in their time, their heroes were condemned as radicals, thugs, troublemakers, dirty bums, agitators, and more, just as protesters of today are condemned. 

We also have a very selective memory. Many people mention Kent State, but have you ever heard anyone ever invoke the massacre at Jackson State University, just ten days later, where police indiscriminately barraged a student dormatory, killing two students of color? When creating our glorious narrative of that era of civil disobedience in the name of social justice, how easily we gloss over certain events and emphasize others. We must remember, after the pepper spray wears off and the necessary inconveniences of a protest continue, not to apply the standards of this idealized past to the activists of social conscience of today and tomorrow.

Bernie Goldsmith, Occupier

Open Letter to the Chancellor from the Master’s of Public Health Student Working Group

Open Letter to the Chancellor

Dear Chancellor Katehi, 

As students in the Master’s of Public Health program here at UC Davis, we agree that the health and safety of students is a priority for the administration and the UCD community as a whole. However, we resist the use of concern for health and safety as a justification for police use of excess force against student demonstrators. In fact, it is the very issue of continued tuition fee hikes that will ultimately threaten the health and safety of our future generations. 

If the UC administrators are concerned about health and safety, perhaps they can consult the large body of research pointing to a strong correlation between level of education and long term health outcomes. Across every intersection of society, higher education buffers communities against poorer health. Those who sat in the quad demanding accessible education and a stop to the increasing fees have a strong claim to concern for health and safety based on evidence that education is a social determinant of health. Increasing fees will do more than decrease access to education, it will further burden marginalized communities with the chronic cost of poor health. 

Additionally, as students of this University, we also call for an end to the disproportionate increase of fees. The UC system is a public system meant to serve Californians with affordable education, but unfortunately, this is becoming more and more difficult as fees continue to increase. Rising costs of education equal rising debt. In Public Health, we seek to promote healthy and thriving communities. Our ability to adequately address the populations most in need will likely be determined by the salary offered instead of our conviction for a program’s capacity to improve our communities. We deserve the opportunity to grow from our education at UC Davis and the flexibility to serve those who need Public Health services the most. We also view rising debt as a stressor that will continue to deter from the potential of populations to thrive. The lack of access to education and the burden of student debt is a tax on California’s most vulnerable populations. 

As a public land-grant university, the University of California system has a responsibility to the public to maintain accessible education. We are aware of the arguments for austerity coupled with increasing cost. However, you have failed the students of this university and the public of California by forgetting to factor in the long term costs to the health of our communities caused by your and your fellow administrators’ disregard for the right to an affordable education. 

Sincerely,
Master’s of Public Health Student Working Group:

Ashley Scarborough 
Katrina Wyatt
Lesly Martinez 
Haley McDermott
Edward Cruz, MD
Rachel Aumann, MSW
Jennifer Shoemaker
Carla Stack
Rachel Hollander, MD
Melissa Spahr

Surge II

From the Daily Show

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