Dear President Napolitano, Chancellor Larive, EVC Kletzer, Dean Williams, and UC Regents:
In response to the mass firing and barring of roughly 80 UCSC graduate workers from spring quarter appointments, on Thursday, March 5th, striking grads and their allies seized both entrances to campus and held them for 10+ hours. We know you know this, because we know it had a huge impact on the daily operations of the university.
Classes were cancelled, building projects were halted, the flow of goods onto campus was cut off, food was not prepared, bathrooms were not cleaned, trashcans were not emptied. We did not want to resort to this. We never wanted to resort to this. But when you fire international, POC, undocumented, pregnant, broke, indebted, hungry, rent-burdened, angry, and principled people, you should expect an uprising.
And it is an uprising you are getting. Grads at Santa Barbara have gone on full strike. Grads at Davis and San Diego are on grading strike. Dozens of departments at Berkeley and Los Angeles are strike-ready, and more are following their lead. Four other campuses are organizing and starting to catch up.
We know you never expected this. You thought you could keep this from spreading. You thought firing us would scare others away. You were wrong. What you’ve never seemed to understand is that we are committed not just because we want better material conditions but because we are true believers in education and equal access to it. It is this that makes us unstoppable.
If you haven’t yet understood this, I direct you to this video in which a number of us are interviewed. You should see the faces of those you fired, and listen to what they have to say. These are people whose risk and sacrifice are rescuing this university from its neoliberal demise. You owe them your respect, because they are doing the job that you repeatedly fail to do.
Yours very truly,
Stephen David Engel