A statement in support of the Faculty, students and staff of the University of California from the University of Southern Maine Faculty Senate

We, members of the University of Southern Maine (USM) Faculty Senate, cannot remain indifferent in front of the repression by the police of the protest which the students of the University of California (UC) have organized against the decision by the UC administration to layoff many faculty and staff and raise tuition fees by 32%. It is unacceptable that a mass mobilization in defense of the California system of education be addressed with batons.

Equally important, the de-funding of the California education system is a defeat also for teachers, staff and students in Maine and across the country, given the important role that UC has played in the history of public higher education in North America, and the example this policy sets for other university administrators.

Already, in state after state, in the name of the economic crisis, university budgets are slashed, jobs are terminated, and rising tuition fees are forcing students out of the universities, which are thereby becoming accessible only to the well-to-do. It may be only a matter of time until many of us face the same cuts the UC students, staff and faculty are now protesting and have to choose between capitulation to an unjust policy or brutalization.

Consequently, we, members of the USM Faculty Senate, express our support of the resistance which the UC faculty, staff and students have organized against lay-offs, furloughs, and tuition increases, and call upon the California legislature, the governor, and the UC governing board to rescind such a disastrous policy. We also condemn the violent suppression of the non-violent protest of the UC faculty, staff and students and call for the release of all students arrested and the dropping of the charges against them.