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UC Berkeley Students Occupy Blum Center: The Blum Center Takeover Manifesto
On February 13, students took over the Blum Center at UC Berkeley and released the following manifesto.
The Blum Center Takeover Manifesto
The Blum Center Take-over group calls for:
1) UC Berkeley Chancellor Dirks to publicly renounce Janet Napolitano.
2) For all those in solidarity to cancel classes tomorrow (Friday, Feb 14), and for people to build a strike in support of Napolitano’s resignation and for the democratization of the University.
3) Full amnesty for all those reclaiming campus space, including those who have taken the Blum Center.
Why we are taking the Blum Center:
Richard Blum, the primary funder and namesake of the Blum Center, represents and acts as a driving force of privatization and reorganization of the University of California system. As an investment banker, Blum profits from the fact that the UC is no longer funded primarily through the federal government. As a central figure in pushing away from federal subsidization of education, and therefore a completely affordable or free public education, Blum and other bankers and financiers on the board of regents--including Monica Lozano--have compelled the University to take out massive bonds from private banks to compensate for this lack of funding. Public funding is legally allowed to go to only educational resources bonds, and the tuition system that allow this process to happen can be used for whatever the regents want. In many cases, this money is tied to companies that these regents own. For example, Blum owns the equity management firm Blum Capital, which has massive investments in the companies that do all of the construction at the UC. To those who believe in a public and democratic education, this is seen as legalized fraud and corruption.
Blum and Janet Napolitano’s Special Relationship:
UC regent Richard Blum was central in proposing Janet Napolitano. Richard Blum’s record includes firing Robert Dynes in 2007, leading the search for Mark Yudof, and encouraging Yudof's resignation before overseeing the "search" for a new UC president. Although the Regents state that this was done through a headhunting agency, Blum was instrumental in making the final decision. We conclude that central decisions for filling the highest-ranking positions in the UC system continue to be made by those who stand to profit from privatization. Blum’s interest in keeping a business-as-usual that allows for massive profits for companies to which he has ties indicates Napolitano’s appointment as a means to continue this process of implementing policies of social control during her time in DHS.
Blum’s 12 year term as a UC regent ended in January. His reappointment by Jerry Brown for a second 12 year term this past January shows that the regents, like him, will continue to retain power unless there is a social response to this injustice.
The appointment of Napolitano exposes the undemocratic process by which the UC system makes decisions. In order to address this structural problem, we demand a restructuring of this process which includes: a) a campuses-wide election for all future UC regents and presidents; this includes having the ability to nominate, endorse, and campaign for candidates b) the power to impeach both UC presidents and regents c) a general democratization of the regents to include actual participation of students, faculty, and UC workers in the central decision making processes of the University.
We call on all students, faculty, and staff to join us, to take action in the coming days and weeks, and to demand the restructuring of the decision making process in our university system, so that we can make the promise of a public education a reality.
http://reclaimuc.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-blum-center-takeover-manifesto.html
The Blum Center Take-over group calls for:
1) UC Berkeley Chancellor Dirks to publicly renounce Janet Napolitano.
2) For all those in solidarity to cancel classes tomorrow (Friday, Feb 14), and for people to build a strike in support of Napolitano’s resignation and for the democratization of the University.
3) Full amnesty for all those reclaiming campus space, including those who have taken the Blum Center.
Why we are taking the Blum Center:
Richard Blum, the primary funder and namesake of the Blum Center, represents and acts as a driving force of privatization and reorganization of the University of California system. As an investment banker, Blum profits from the fact that the UC is no longer funded primarily through the federal government. As a central figure in pushing away from federal subsidization of education, and therefore a completely affordable or free public education, Blum and other bankers and financiers on the board of regents--including Monica Lozano--have compelled the University to take out massive bonds from private banks to compensate for this lack of funding. Public funding is legally allowed to go to only educational resources bonds, and the tuition system that allow this process to happen can be used for whatever the regents want. In many cases, this money is tied to companies that these regents own. For example, Blum owns the equity management firm Blum Capital, which has massive investments in the companies that do all of the construction at the UC. To those who believe in a public and democratic education, this is seen as legalized fraud and corruption.
Blum and Janet Napolitano’s Special Relationship:
UC regent Richard Blum was central in proposing Janet Napolitano. Richard Blum’s record includes firing Robert Dynes in 2007, leading the search for Mark Yudof, and encouraging Yudof's resignation before overseeing the "search" for a new UC president. Although the Regents state that this was done through a headhunting agency, Blum was instrumental in making the final decision. We conclude that central decisions for filling the highest-ranking positions in the UC system continue to be made by those who stand to profit from privatization. Blum’s interest in keeping a business-as-usual that allows for massive profits for companies to which he has ties indicates Napolitano’s appointment as a means to continue this process of implementing policies of social control during her time in DHS.
Blum’s 12 year term as a UC regent ended in January. His reappointment by Jerry Brown for a second 12 year term this past January shows that the regents, like him, will continue to retain power unless there is a social response to this injustice.
The appointment of Napolitano exposes the undemocratic process by which the UC system makes decisions. In order to address this structural problem, we demand a restructuring of this process which includes: a) a campuses-wide election for all future UC regents and presidents; this includes having the ability to nominate, endorse, and campaign for candidates b) the power to impeach both UC presidents and regents c) a general democratization of the regents to include actual participation of students, faculty, and UC workers in the central decision making processes of the University.
We call on all students, faculty, and staff to join us, to take action in the coming days and weeks, and to demand the restructuring of the decision making process in our university system, so that we can make the promise of a public education a reality.
http://reclaimuc.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-blum-center-takeover-manifesto.html
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Twenty Two Years In The Making, The Reform Of Public Policy Through The California Educational System 1992-2014
Isn't It Ironic:
The man who oversaw the clearcutting of intact ancient forest ecosystems in Northern California, and a company that broke every environmental law along the way, who oversaw the liquidation of capital assets of a longstanding sustainably run family logging company, the theft of it's pension funds and a regimen that tripled the cut, and left behind environmental effects that caused landslides (from clearcut ridges) to cover homes and destroy communities, went on to be a global crusader for environmental action. And while the sale of Headwaters Forest to the State of California was imminent, Seidl allowed the cut to go on, into the heart of Headwaters, Death Road. And the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation hired him.
In late 1992, a group called the New Foundations Working Group was formed at Harvard University the oldest American college. Harvard College, originally for men, was founded in 1636 with a grant from the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The New Foundations Working Group was comprised of a consortium of institutional investors, corporate CEOs, senior managers, board members, and legal and economic experts on governance.
The charter of the group was to train their assembled expertise on a search for new approaches to governance in public policy that would allow corporations and investors to capitalize on the new realities of the market.
John Seidl was on the board and often a main speaker. his bio and some credits are listed- Former Chairman Kaiser Aluminum, President MAXXAM, ENRON Corporations. Celebrated at the 2002 Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Iomega Corporation: “Mr. Seidl, 62, had been a Director since 1999. He was also Chief Program Officer, Environment, of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation located at The Presidio in San Francisco. Mr. Seidl is a director of the Denver, Colorado-based St. Mary’s Land and Exploration Company, and a former member of the Board of Governors of the Nature Conservancy of Arlington, Virginia.”
Reinventing the University: Object Lessons from Big Business
California's State University educational systems and Institutions of Philanthropy were often headed by the same “cultural despots” of the recent MAXXAM/ENRON regime. Having seized control of the obvious land use margins of error within the continental borders of the US, and survived numerous national scandals, mergers, stock market fluctuations, lawsuits, and the collapse of savings and loan institutions, the officers of publicly traded corporations profiting on hostile takeovers and increased extraction rights to the commons, became stewards of culture for the new century.
Barry Munitz, Vice President of MAXXAM, went on to be the right hand man of Governor Gray Davis, and Chancellor of the Regents at CSU System, after causing problems there, went on to the J. P. Getty Trust where after 8 years of corporate inappropriateness he got fired in 2006. He hit the gold brick campaign trail as a speaker for the 'Golden Parachute Club'. In recent years, under great controversy, he returned to the Regents Board, a first in their history.
Stay Strong Students, hooray!
Isn't It Ironic:
The man who oversaw the clearcutting of intact ancient forest ecosystems in Northern California, and a company that broke every environmental law along the way, who oversaw the liquidation of capital assets of a longstanding sustainably run family logging company, the theft of it's pension funds and a regimen that tripled the cut, and left behind environmental effects that caused landslides (from clearcut ridges) to cover homes and destroy communities, went on to be a global crusader for environmental action. And while the sale of Headwaters Forest to the State of California was imminent, Seidl allowed the cut to go on, into the heart of Headwaters, Death Road. And the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation hired him.
In late 1992, a group called the New Foundations Working Group was formed at Harvard University the oldest American college. Harvard College, originally for men, was founded in 1636 with a grant from the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The New Foundations Working Group was comprised of a consortium of institutional investors, corporate CEOs, senior managers, board members, and legal and economic experts on governance.
The charter of the group was to train their assembled expertise on a search for new approaches to governance in public policy that would allow corporations and investors to capitalize on the new realities of the market.
John Seidl was on the board and often a main speaker. his bio and some credits are listed- Former Chairman Kaiser Aluminum, President MAXXAM, ENRON Corporations. Celebrated at the 2002 Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Iomega Corporation: “Mr. Seidl, 62, had been a Director since 1999. He was also Chief Program Officer, Environment, of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation located at The Presidio in San Francisco. Mr. Seidl is a director of the Denver, Colorado-based St. Mary’s Land and Exploration Company, and a former member of the Board of Governors of the Nature Conservancy of Arlington, Virginia.”
Reinventing the University: Object Lessons from Big Business
California's State University educational systems and Institutions of Philanthropy were often headed by the same “cultural despots” of the recent MAXXAM/ENRON regime. Having seized control of the obvious land use margins of error within the continental borders of the US, and survived numerous national scandals, mergers, stock market fluctuations, lawsuits, and the collapse of savings and loan institutions, the officers of publicly traded corporations profiting on hostile takeovers and increased extraction rights to the commons, became stewards of culture for the new century.
Barry Munitz, Vice President of MAXXAM, went on to be the right hand man of Governor Gray Davis, and Chancellor of the Regents at CSU System, after causing problems there, went on to the J. P. Getty Trust where after 8 years of corporate inappropriateness he got fired in 2006. He hit the gold brick campaign trail as a speaker for the 'Golden Parachute Club'. In recent years, under great controversy, he returned to the Regents Board, a first in their history.
Stay Strong Students, hooray!
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