"Save California's universities", Judith Butler, (The Guardian, 04/10/09) + revue de presse (maj. 09/10/09)
Les 23 et 24 septembre 2009, le collectif Save the University of Californiacréé par des professeurs de l'Université de Berkeley entrés enrésistance contre la politique universitaire des conservateurs aupouvoir dans l'Etat de Californie, a organisé une grève qui a eu ungrand retentissement aux Etats-Unis.
Lors de ces deux journées, les enseignants grévistes ont organisé des teach-indevant les étudiants de Berkeley afin d'expliquer les enjeux de lapolitique actuelle de l'Etat de Californie et de leur opposition. Ces teach-in ont été filmés et postés sur You-Tube. Ils peuvent être vus ici.
Voir aussi: Pétition de soutien à Save the University (Berkeley) - novembre 2009
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Save California's universities - Judith Butler, the Guardian, 4 octobre 2009
http://www.sauvonsluniversite.com/spip.php?article3001
The promise of affordable higher education is dying. The University of California's students and faculty demand answers.
Itmay seem that the thousands of people who converged on the Universityof California Berkeley's famous Sproul Plaza, home of the free speechmovement, on 24 September were simply upset about money. Where has allthe money gone ? Who has taken it away ?And perhaps there is no one toblame.
The University of California finds itself with a shortfall of$1.15bn for the next two years, the result of an $813m cut in statefunding and another $225m increase in costs for student enrolment.Everyone knows that the state government is dysfunctional, that publicfunding decreased by 40% between 1990 and 2005 and that this year alonebrought another 20% reduction, accelerating the abandonment of thepremiere public university by a California legislature fully paralysedby minority rule (a two-thirds majority is required for sealing anybudgetary deal) and Proposition 13 (the 1978 ban on increasing propertytaxes that strangleholds any attempt to increase revenues for publicservices).
It would seem like UC faces the same situation as other publicservices and institutions : layoffs, cutbacks, decreased services andthe prospect of a seriously compromised education for undergraduatesand graduates alike. So what's the problem ?
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Cracks in the Future - Bob Herbert, The New York Times, 3 octobre 2009
http://www.sauvonsluniversite.com/spip.php?article3007
While the U.S. has struggled with enormous problems over the pastseveral years, there has been at least one consistent bright spot. Itssystem of higher education has remained the finest in the world.
Now there are ominous cracks appearing in that cornerstone ofAmerican civilization. Exhibit A is the University of California,Berkeley, the finest public university in the world and undoubtedly oneof the two or three best universities in the United States, public orprivate.
More of Berkeley's undergraduates go on to get Ph.D.'s than those atany other university in the country. The school is among the nation'sleaders in producing winners of the Nobel Prize. An extraordinaryamount of cutting-edge research in a wide variety of criticallyimportant fields, including energy and the biological sciences, istaking place here.
While I was roaming the campus, talking to students, professors and administrators, word came that scientists had put together a full analysis and a fairly complete fossilized skeleton of Ardi,who is known to her closest living associates as Ardipithecus ramidus.At 4.4 million years of age, this four-foot tall, tree-climbing wonderis now the oldest known human ancestor.
Lire la suite sur le site du New York Times.
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University of California campuses erupt into protest - Mary O'Hara, The Guardian (24 septembre 2009)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/24/california-university-berkeley-budget-protest
http://www.sauvonsluniversite.com/spip.php?article3000
Students and faculty members demonstrate against plans to raise tuition fees and cut workers
In the sweltering California heat with their placards, posters, red armbands and chants of "no cuts, no fees, education should be free", the demonstrators packed in to Sproul Plaza at the centre of University of California Berkeley campus today meant business.
The crowd cheered and passing cars hooted as speakers implored themto fight state authorities' plans to hike student fees and lay offworkers.
Daniella, a petite second-year Latina undergraduate sitting quietlyin the shade echoed what many making the rallying calls werearticulating. "My whole life I wanted to come here. If they increase the fees I will have to drop out. We have to fight this."
The Berkeley protest was one of many held across California in anunprecedented day of action directed at university authorities andstate governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger as he attempts to curb thestate's multibillion-dollar budget crisis. Faculty, students and unionsfrom the University of California's 10 campuses including its two mostprestigious, UCLA and Berkeley, joined forces in what was the biggeststudent protest for more than a generation.
Pour lire la suite sur le site de Guardian