UC Santa Cruz Administration Sabotages Student-Run Career Event

UC Santa Cruz Administration Sabotages Student-Run Career Event
Students Angered by Administrative Dishonesty, Foul Play


SANTA CRUZ, CA – After months of wrangling with the administration of UC Santa Cruz, students who were planning an Ethical Career Opportunities (ECO) career event, ECO-7, for January 25th have been forced to cancel the program after the administration blocked access to the group’s website for a crucial period of time. The website, removed without warning, was the primary organizing tool of the event, which would have provided much-needed job opportunities for conscientious students.

The website issue was the culmination of a whole series of administrative actions to prevent the ECO-7 career event from taking place. UCSC administrators maintained that any career fair could not occur on campus unless military recruiters were specifically accommodated, using this as an excuse to prevent the group from accessing the over $1,000 ECO had raised mainly from other students. Yet, as a student-run and student-financed educational career event with a specific focus, students assert that ECO-7 would not be affected by the Solomon Amendment, the federal law forcing colleges to allow military recruiters on campus in violation of their non- discrimination policies. ECO agreed to take the matter before a University attorney and make its case there. However, despite the promise of a swift opinion, as of now – a mere 12 business days from the date of the event – there has been no answer from the administration and therefore ECO is still not allowed to operate. Ironically, military recruiters are scheduled to visit UCSC on January 31 – 5 days after ECO-7 was to take place.

Initially, ECO had wide support from the administration, with the Career Center even co- sponsoring the event. Yet, as administrators irrationally decided that military recruiters must be invited to all career-related events, regardless of who organizes or funds them, they forced the Career Center to back out and threatened other potential sponsors against lending their support. UCSC Public Relations didn’t even wait for a response from the UC lawyer before ordering the blocking of access to ECO’s website. So-called ‘legal’ decisions were clearly being politicized. Administrators, as high as Chancellor Blumenthal, dragged student organizers through unnecessary and time-consuming hurdles, all in the promise of working out a way to make the event happen. ECO was happy to comply with every demand and suggestion. But at the end, the administration was able to kill ECO-7 through time-honored stalling tactics and sabotage. Having been given extensive details of ECO-7’s event plan, the administration was well aware that if it simply stalls, the event would be impossible to put together in time.

ECO-7 would have been a first for UC Santa Cruz. Founded by a group of concerned students and activists involved in Students Against War, the event sought to provide a positive, alternative model for career events on campus. Many students are deeply disturbed by the ‘official’ University career fairs that feature sexist, intolerant and violent organizations as well as abusive multi-national corporations, environmental polluters and weapons manufacturers. With ECO-7’s forced cancellation, the administration has seriously damaged its own credibility to deal with career related student grievances at UCSC.

For a more detailed letter about the event cancellation, see: http://saw.revolt.org