Dear President Napolitano, Chancellor Larive, EVC Kletzer, Executive Director Chester, and other UC administrators:
Last night, at a widely publicized and largely attended event on the UCSC campus, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, esteemed scholar in the Department of African-American Studies at Princeton University and author of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, spoke about the wildcat strike on our campus. For those who were not in attendance, this is what Taylor said:
“With the wildcat [strike] here and labor in general, what did Frederick Douglas say? ‘Power concedes nothing without a demand.’ And so people are often put into these positions because the status quo and the defenders of the status quo—meaning the administrative bodies—drag their feet. They always promise to look into things, another fucking commission to investigate ‘blah blah blah,’ and meanwhile people are actually trying to pay the rent. People are trying to figure out how to make the ends meet from one week to the next. And you get to the point where the time for studying and investigating has passed, and we need action. Apparently the only thing that motivates [administrators] to act is the withdrawal of labor.”
Taylor, it seems to me, understands our situation well. You have had enough time to investigate. You have all the surveys and assessments you need. We demand a COLA, and we demand it now. It is your choice whether you decide to defend the status quo or throw your lot in with us and challenge it. It is your choice whether you listen to the wisdom of social justice scholars invited to your campuses, and social justice scholars who research and teach on your campuses, about what the right side of history is and how to get with it. I hope you do listen, because as our COLA movement grows stronger, it should become increasingly clear that we will get what we demand. The question, at this point, is not whether you should grant a COLA, but how powerful or powerless you will look when you grant it.
Best,
Stephen David Engel