ASUCSD To Vote on Abandoning Their Resolution of Neutrality

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Alec Weisman, Alumni (Editor-in-Chief 2008-2011)

Originally posted on The Word From the Wise, Alec’s personal blog.

According to Samer Naji, the Vice President of External Affairs for the Associated Students at the University of California, San Diego, due to complaints and “various concerns raised about the Occupy Resolution, the External Affairs Office decided to draft a different resolution directed mainly towards our campus.”

Therefore, instead of passing a resolution to support the occupy movement, they decided to focus their efforts on passing a resolution in support of Reclaim UCSD.

However, the AS office of External Affairs does not stop there. Instead, their new resolution decides to overturn their former Resolution Upholding Commitment to the Principles of Community that was passed last April. The new resolution states: “LET IT BE RESOLVED, the ASUCSD shall rescind their decision to maintain neutrality in regards to world events and political issues and instead shall take a more proactive approach to allow the association to partake in relevant political affairs that deeply impact students and are significant to their student lives.”

This clause effectively overturns AS decision to remain neutral regarding world events and national political issues. Sadly this clause in the current resolution is completely unnecessary. The Resolution Upholding Commitment to the Principles of Community only restrains AS from remaining neutral on “divisive external political issue[s].” Although divisive, Reclaim UCSD is an on campus issue and does not fall under the purview of the Resolution Upholding Commitment to the Principles of Community. Therefore, the AS Office of External Affairs is effectively trying to once more assert itself as a partisan organization by seeking to repeal the Resolution Upholding Commitment to the Principles of Community.

It was your actions and your emails that got the AS office of External Affairs to update its resolution. Keep up the hard work. To express your disapproval for the Associated Students at UCSD passing this resolution, email asvpexternal@ucsd.edu or contact the council members directly: http://as.ucsd.edu/council

Attached is the updated resolution: Resolution in Support of Reclaim UCSD

Boulevard of Broken Promises?

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Alec Weisman, Alumni (Editor-in-Chief 2008-2011)

Originally posted on The Word From the Wise, Alec’s personal blog.

On April 13, 2011 the Associated Students at the University of California, San Diego voted to endorse a principle of neutrality on political and divisive issues and refrain from passing resolutions.

Yet this promise has faded quickly, with the announcement that the AS Vice-President External Affairs Samer Naji will be introducing a resolution on Wednesday, November 30, 2011 that will explicitly announce the Associated Students support for the Occupy movement.

Although I am generally sympathetic with some of the goals of the Occupy movement, such as their concern that big business is in collusion with government and that bailouts for banks are wrong, yet other claims, such as debt forgiveness for all and “magic” money for every pet project they could imagine are hollow demands and are stupid. In addition, the recent acts of violence in Washington DC, Oakland, and San Diego (among others) has slowly eroded their positive attributes.

In addition, the resolution conflates the recent protests that have been met in some cases with what could be characterized as “excessive force” in the UC System with the Occupy movement at large. The resolution opens with statements claiming: “reckless greed committed by Wall Street firms and Executives,” “corporations prey[ing] on the hopes and aspirations held by millions of people with the simple and selfish aim to maximize profit,” “these corporations are responsible for the eviction of millions of people from their homes due to predatory lending practices.”

Most concerning of all however, this resolution calls upon the “Associated Students [to] provide support for protests and or occupations, should students decide to set up an occupation on campus.” This means that the A.S. will be using your student fees to bring the Occupy movement to UCSD and then proceed to disrupt traffic and interrupt classes and speeches. If members of A.S. want to use their stipends to cover the “Occupy Movement,” then that is their prerogative. But it is a shame that the Associated Students at UCSD continue to try to misrepresent more than 23,000 undergraduates, display their biases in a official capacity, and for revealing their belief that they know whats best for you.

I hope that UCSD students will tell AS to keep itself out of political and controversial matters and let them get back to problems that they have direct influence over, such as improving the parking situation at UCSD, dining dollar inflation, and restoring SunGod.

To express your disapproval for the Associated Students at UCSD passing this resolution, email asvpexternal@ucsd.edu or contact the council members directly: http://as.ucsd.edu/council

Below is the Resolution in full.

***

Resolution to Support the Occupy Movement

Whereas, individuals in the United States and across the world have been severely impacted by the reckless greed committed by Wall Street firms and Executives;

Whereas, these corporations preyed on the hopes and aspirations held by millions of people with the simple and selfish aim to maximize profit1;

Whereas, the profits made by the major businesses and corporations are being used to influence the American political system and the choices it makes, regardless of the impacts to ordinary individuals2

Whereas, these corporations are responsible for the eviction of millions of people from their homes due to predatory lending practices3;

Whereas, University of California, San Diego students, faculty, staff, and workers have been deeply impacted by the 2008 Financial Crisis and following recession that was caused by reckless management of domestic and international financial systems;

Whereas, billions in taxpayer dollars were committed to bailing out selfish and predatory corporations at the cost of neglecting Main Street America and cutting public funding for vital public services4;

Whereas, funding cuts to institutions of higher education, including the University of California, have led to skyrocketing tuition and fees, service cuts, and faculty, staff, and worker layoffs;

Whereas, personal and student debt has and continues to skyrocket5;

Whereas, concerned individuals have committed to peaceful occupation of symbolic centers in protest of the symbiotic relationship between corporate and government institutions, in addition to protesting public service cuts and the continual reduction of their standards of living,

Whereas, the demands made by the various occupations are closely aligned with the demands made by the University of California Student Association, including but not limited to:
The demand for corporate accountability,
The demand for a separation between corporate money and the American political system,
The demand to reform Proposition 13 to raise corporate property tax rates,
The demand to return for public higher education to return to be fully publicly funded and affordable.

And whereas, local police departments, including the University of California Police Department, have resorted to forceful eviction and suppression of peaceful demonstrators, in violation of their First Amendment rights to peacefully assemble6;

Let it therefore be resolved that the Associated Students of the University of California, San Diego endorse the Occupy movement;

Be it further resolved that the Associated Students provide support for protests and or occupations, should students decide to set up an occupation on campus;

Be it further resolved that the University of California, San Diego Chancellor sign a pledge, ensuring students’ rights to free speech and assembly on campus;

And let it finally be resolved that the Associated Students strongly condemns and demands that the University of California, Davis, and the University of California, Berkeley Chancellors and Police Chiefs resign immediately for authorizing the use of force by the University of California Police Department on UC students, faculty, staff, and workers

1. http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/109/bradley.html
2. http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/10/13/the-10-biggest-corporate-campaign-contributors-in-u-s-politics/
3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12184365

4. http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/national/200904_CREDITCRISIS/recipients.html
5. http://www.npr.org/2011/05/16/136214779/college-student-debt-grows-is-it-worth-it
6. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/03/occupy-militarisation-policing-protest

Iran Walking the Tight Rope

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Steven Perlin

Iran dug itself into an even deeper hole on Tuesday when a collection of United States federal agencies foiled an Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington. In addition to this plan, it is also widely suspected that Iran was planning on attacking the Israeli embassy in Washington.

As the story goes, two Iranian citizens held a meeting in Mexico in May of this year seeking assistance with the assassination of the Saudi ambassador. That is when U.S. federal agents began to infiltrate the plot which then led to the September 29 arrest of Mr. Arbabsiar, one of the two men believed to be a part of the conspiracy.

Politically, this has come at a very bad time for Iran. The Iranian regime is currently seeking a nuclear program, whether it is for power or weapons. In response to these Iranian actions, the U.S. Congress has passed sanctions against Iran in order to slow down the Iranian financial sector. Congress’ hope is that this pressure will grind Iran’s nuclear program to a halt. Not only does the United States fear a nuclear armed Iran, but so do regional actors such as Saudi Arabia and Israel and others as confirmed by Wikileaks. Although up to this point the United States has spoken somewhat rhetorically in regard to an attack on Iran in order to prevent the advancement of their nuclear program, it seems that this Iranian attempt might be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back.
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Graph of UC Administrative Growth

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A graph showing the growth of UC administration, faculty, state funding and student fees was designed by the California Review alumni James Wu. See the startling results below.

UC student costs 1997-2011 vs CA state funding
• Also: # of Faculty and # of Senior Administrators.
• Student Fee is full student fee. State Funding is CA funding to the UC General Fund. Both are adjusted for inflation to CPI-U.
 • The # of Faculty is full-time-hours equivalent of regular ladder-based faculty (most common type of faculty).
• The # of Senior Management is full SMG (Senior Management Group) & MSP (Manager and Senior Professional) count.

U.S. Invites War with World: Intellectual Privilege, Jurisdiction, and Property Rights

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Alumni, Peter Anthony Tariche

Cross posted on Peter’s blog.

Recently the United States Customs and Enforcement(ICE) agency has shutdown more than a hundred .com and .net websites, under the grounds these websites are under U.S. jurisdiction. customsErik Barnett, Assistant Deputy Director for ICE, claims the United States has jurisdiction over all .com and .net websites because all Domain Name Service(DNS) indexes are “routed” through Verisign, a United States based company. In this article, I will outline three protests against the over-expansion of ICE’s power: jurisdiction, international law, and constitutional law. And, ultimately, I will question the very nature of intellectual privilege that has lead to these abuses. First, let us debunk the argument the United States has jurisdiction over all .net and .com websites.
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Sacrificed on the Altar of the Regents

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Alexander Kreedman

After increasing tuition nine times over the last ten years, undergraduates in the UC system will now be paying more than 200 percent what their contemporaries ten years ago had paid, in order to pay for a bigger UC bureaucracy. Since 2000, the UC administration has also increased in size by more than 200 percent.

At the UC Regents upcoming meeting on July 12-14 in San Francisco, the Regents plan to discuss an additional 9.6% tuition increase. If this tuition increase is passed, it will raise costs for an instate student from $11,124 to $12,200 for the coming academic year.

In March 2011, the President of the UC Regents, Mark Yudof, told students to be prepared for a possible mid-year tuition increase of 32% for 2011-2012 if state funds are not restored. At the current rate of tuition increases, it has been estimated that instate student tuition could hit $25,000 by the 2015-2016 academy year.

To understand the effect of this increase on a UCSD undergraduate, the cost of fall tuition alone in 2003-2004 was $2,035.50 while in 2011 it will have increased to $4,352.56.
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A Classically Liberal General Critique of Marxism

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Ankur Chawla

***Editors Note: This paper discussing Marxism was submitted as a final paper in Spring 2011 at UCSD and was later permitted to be republished on the California Review.

The twentieth century has seen many opposing philosophies that attempt to reconcile economic productivity with democratic ideals such as equality and freedom (which we will attempt to define over the course of this essay). Perhaps chief among these opposing viewpoints are those of Marxism and classical liberalism. Liberalism in this sense is meant to mean economic and even social freedoms which eschew most government oversight, whereas Marxism is generally defined as a social philosophy grounded in ideals such as class equality and social welfare. It is important to note that although there are many different variations of liberals and Marxists, we will stick to these general definitions for the sake of simplicity. This essay will attempt to make a general liberal criticism of Marxist class analysis by critiquing two fundamental Marxist arguments: (a) that the leisure class necessarily dominates the working class, and (b) that the free market is a fundamentally repressive institution. This analysis will in large part concern economics, which both perspectives would use as a necessary premise for their social philosophies. We will use the works of liberal scholar Milton Friedman and Marxist scholars Thorstein Veblen and Herbert Marcuse to further make sense of this argument.

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Capitalism: A Poem

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Kara Henderson, Staff Writer

I love Capitalism
It’s way better than Marxism

It’s slogan should be “Yes, I can
I don’t need the man!”

Marx was a goon
He wanted all your money by noon

Capitalism is the best
It let’s me invest
In whatever I want

Marx can only taunt
At his misguided theories
That make me so dreary

Capitalism is the best
It made everyone move west
Away from Marx the goon
Who wanted redistribution to the moon!