Ra Ra Riot: “The State is Broke, and Berkeley is in Revolt”
2010 JANUARY 15
To jump on coattails of Paul Craft’s post and to further discuss the crisis in California, here is an article about by Tad Friend on the recent protests surrounding the fate of public education in California. The tagline of his January 4th article, in the New Yorker, “Protest Studies,” is “the state is broke, and Berkeley is in revolt.” (Here is the article in another form for New Yorkersubscribers)
According to Friend (and who wouldn’t trust someone named Friend!), here are the basics of the issue.
What is the root of the unrest?
Friend would agree with the points raised in Paul’s article about, well, a huge fiscal crisis and severely diminished funding for higher education.
Who do protesters believe to be the villains?
UC president Mark Yudof, for one, though Robert Birgeneau, Berkeley’s “gangly, staunchly liberal chancellor,” says that,