Wednesday, April 14, 2010

New Questions About UCSC Fines � Student Activism

New Questions About UCSC Fines � Student Activism

New Questions About UCSC Fines

A UC Santa Cruz blog has posted what it says is the itemized list of charges on which the university based the $944 fines that it has assessed against students involved in last semester’s Kerr Hall occupation. (Photos of the document can be found here, with a transcript here.)
If this document is genuine, a few aspects of it seem quite significant.
First, though news reports based on administration statements have characterized the takeover as causing “nearly $34,000 in damage,” several of the line items on the list appear to be unrelated to physical damage to the building. The list includes a $1242.60 charge for the university’s lockshop to “check locks, panic bars,” a $121 charge for an “HVAC check out” that found “no damage to equip,” and a $242 charge for a check of fire alarms’ “signal history” that found “no problems.”
Second, many of the listed charges appear to refer to the cost of university employees’ labor. These entries include those listed above, as well as listings for carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and even $720 for Physical