Hi Folks,

Below are the notes from a discussion 50 of us or so had this afternoon. The purpose of the discussion was to initiate a conversation about the forging of a common political platform -- a list of demands different constituencies on campus can unite around and win. The last two days of Tent University are focused on platform building. Our discussion, and these notes, are meant as a resource for those who participate in these vital discussions on Thursday and Friday.

I’ve organized our discussion into three categories:

1) Our Targets
2) Our external demands
3) Our internal resources, and work we need to do

TARGETS

*UCSC administration
*UC Regents + UCOP (office of the President)
*Sacramento

Below, I’ve organized the suggested external demands according to their appropriate targets. In other words, who do we need to agitate to win these demands? Obviously, winning these demands will require hitting multiple targets, but this break-down is a decent starting point.

EXTERNAL DEMANDS

UCSC:

*A more diverse student body at UCSC

*American Studies currently substitutes for the kind of Ethnic Studies programs there are at other UCs. This is problematic. Though ghettoizing discussions of racism and racial injustice in ethnic studies programs is problematic aswell…How to make the general curriculum anti-racist?

*End of Grading System – Return to Narrative Evals

*Fully fund language programming at UCSC – perhaps create a language department

*Re-open the Long Range Development plan for serious debate

*Military Recruiters off the UCSC campus

*Free speech should not stop at 8pm

UCOP + REGENTS:

*Living Wages for all of UC’s workers

*Restore funding to outreach programs

*Stop UC’s bid on the Nuclear Weapons Research Lab.

*Moratorium on all student fee increases.

*Better student representation on the Board of Regents

Sacramento:

*Military Recruiters in high schools replaced by UC recruiters

*Tax the richest 1% of California in order to raise funds for public education

*Fully fund Proposition 98; it guarantees a minimum level of funding for public schools.

INTERNAL RESOURCES AND WORK TO BE DONE:

Student Union Assembly (SUA)
University of California Student’s Association (UCSA)
Graduate Students Assocation (GSA)

*Inter-organization meetings are held every Friday at 2pm in the Bay Tree Conference Center

*Indy Media type site for UC Santa Cruz where organizers and students can communicate and post etc…. www.fucktheregents.com could possibly serve this purpose.

*Learn from history of past successes at UCSC. Like the successful campaign to boot sodexho off campus

*UCSC was conceived as the premiere UC for undergraduate education. Our liberal arts tradition stands in contrast to the corporate vision of the ‘Research University.’ There are many faculty and alumni disgusted with the turn UCSC has taken. We can really tap into that.

*Build relationships. Launch a coordinated and concentrated effort.

*Build a more effective state-wide student organization.

*Regents are meeting on May 25 and 26th at UCSF