Protesters Vandalize University of California-Berkeley Chancellor's House

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The UCB budget gap has grown to $150 million, and still the Chancellor is spending money that isn't there on expensive outside consultants. His reasons range from the need for impartiality to requiring the "innovative thinking, expertise, and new knowledge" the consultants would bring.
Does this mean that the faculty and management of a world-class research and teaching institution lack the knowledge, impartiality, innovation, and professionalism to come up with solutions? Have they been fudging their research for years? The consultants will glean their recommendations from interviewing faculty and the UCB management that hired them; yet solutions could be found internally if the Chancellor were doing the job HE was hired to do. Consultant fees would be far better spent on meeting the needs of students.
There can be only one conclusion as to why creative solutions have not been forthcoming from the professionals within UCB: Chancellor Birgeneau has lost credibility and the trust of the faculty as well as of the Academic Senate leadership that represents them. Even if the faculty agrees with the consultants' recommendations - disagreeing might put their jobs in jeopardy - the underlying problem of lost credibility and trust will remain.

Milan Moravec of CA 7:49PM April 29, 2010

Seems like the last poster is a well known west coast consultant (see http://www.moravecglobal.com ) who is sore that he didnt get a contract.

Truth B. Told of CA 11:18PM December 17, 2009

here are the headlines of the latest scandals at UC - some of the background to the frustration felt by so many - the story above fails to mention...
you can read the stories at http://cloudminder.blogspot.com/
• List of Salaries of UC Highest Paid Employees
• Big raises for CSU, UC-executives prompt bill
• After Livers, Cash to UCLA
• Big Oil Buys Berkeley
• UC Piling Extra Cash On Top of Pay
• Schwarzenegger vetoes whistleblower protections for UC workers
• Journalism Students Data Breached
• 6,000 UCSF patients' data got put online
• Japanese Mob Boss Gave $100,000 to UCLA, rewards after controversial liver transplant
• UC Irvine to fire whistleblower nurse?
• New UC Davis Chancellor Linked to "Clout" Admissions Probe
• UCSF refuses to release outside review of its finances
• Whistleblowers at Los Alamos Fired in Retaliation
• UCLA Dentist Whistleblower Resigns Post
• When Scientists Kidnap Embryos
• Claims Against UC Irvine's Fertility Clinic
• UC Irvine Med Center still out of compliance
• LANL Whistle-Blower Beaten
• The Case of the Battered Whistle-Blower
• Audit Firms backs up fired UCSF dean claim
• WhistleBlower Dean Kessler Fired From UCSF
• Meet Linda Morris Williams, in charge of whistle blowing at Cal
• UC Berkeley Alums Get Breached...AGAIN!
• UC Spending Big Despite Budget Crisis (video)
• UC Davis Chancellor's Actions Cause Concern
• UC Admits Misleading Public About Buyout Taker
• Robert Dynes example of larger UC problem
• Senator Grassley Supports UCSF Whistleblower
• Cal/OSHA chief to oversee criminal investigation of fatal UCLA lab fire
• Deadly UCLA lab fire leaves haunting questions
• What can be learned from the death of a young biochemist at UCLA?
• UC Irvine and Liver Transplants...
• Kin of 9 who died waiting accuse UCI
• UCLA acknowledges sale of body parts as donors' families sue school
• UC Berkeley computers hacked, 160,000 at risk
• A Tangled Web At Berkeley
• Data security breach at UCSF may have exposed thousands
• UCIMC Administrators Ignored Federal Warnings
• Farrah Fawcett helped prove UCLA leaked her health records
• UCLA suspends its Willed Body Program
• UC regents award huge pay increases to execs while furloughing staff
• The scandal, the scapegoat, and the suicide
• UC 's Egregious Actions
• Scandal Mars UC Chief's Legacy
• UCSD Big Money and the Ball Club
• Regents excuse UC president in salary scandal
• After the Fall
• UC Chief Yudof Changes Buyout Policy
• Union protest pre-empts chancellor's annual meeting with staff
• Berkeley chancellor's perks raise eyebrows
• Berkeley Chancellor delivers grim budget news..
• UCB RIP by Erik Tarloff
to read these stories: http://cloudminder.blogspot.com/

cloudminder of CA 1:34AM December 17, 2009

UC Berkeley is well known for PR tactics to support there side and this article is great example of what happens when journalists don't do their own investigation and rush to print based only on such PR. Here are some facts:
1. They claim only 2 were UC Berkeley students. What they fail to mention is that 2 more were UC Davis students and one more student of City University of New York studying at Berkeley. One more of the arrested was actually a journalist there with a camera.
2. As to what happened, more reliable sources tell me all "vandalism" was due to crowd of students rushing away from the house when police showed up. The vases outside were broken when people were running away and not on purpose. I did not hear about any windows being broken either and windows on that house are actually special kind that would not break. Also these were not torches but flares that can not easily light anything else.
3. 8 people arrested were booked in prison for 6 felony charges. They were supposed to be charged on Monday but that did not happen. All 8 are now released and no charges are being filed. Similarly no charges so far have been filed against any students occupying buildings on campus - prosecutors are refusing to go along with UC police and file cases for what is basically exercise of free speech against university administration.
For direct eye-witness account (by UC Professor who was in the building right across) of what happened see: http://greenrhet.blogspot.com/2009/12/interesting-e-mails-regarding-last.html
And for somewhat more fair news story see http://www.contracostatimes.com/education/ci_14003300?nclick_check=1
Similar bad PR is coming from UC administration in regards to other protests and arrests. What precipitated demonstration in front of Chancellor's house was arrest of 66 persons with all being sent to prison for 10-15 hours for "trespassing". They reported that only 40 were students but, of the remaining 25, 2 were UC professors at 10 may have been visiting students from other colleges. They claimed the action was due to planned concert that may go on all night, but police actually planned the raid for Friday from day 1 of "Live Week" event (students taking over one building to keep it open 24/7 for studying, teach-ins and other activities instead of having "dead week" forced on by university due to furloughs) and concert was planned to end at most 2am so that everything could be cleaned up and building left in better shape then when students first came in. This was entirely peaceful protest event and unlike other "occupations" there was no interference with any scheduled review sessions or other activities in the building. Police were present in the building and had discussions with students about what is going on, while behind the scene they were planning a raid. Some of this is discussed in letter from SOA: http://liveweek.net/?p=77

William of CA 3:18AM December 16, 2009

$3 Million Extravagant, Arrogant Spending by UCBerkeley Chancellor Birgeneau to Hire Consultants - When Work Can Be Done Internally
These days, every dollar counts. Contact Senate (Ms. Romero 916.651.4105) & Assembly (Ms. Brownley 916.319.2044) Chairperson’s Education Committees or your representatives.
Do the work internally at no additional costs with UCB Academic Senate Leadership (C. Kutz/F. Doyle), the world – class UCB faculty/ staff, & the UCB Chancellor’s bloated staff (G. Breslauer, N. Brostrom, F. Yeary, P. Hoffman, C. Holmes etc) & President Yudof.
President Yudof’s UCB Chancellor should do the high paid work he is paid for instead of hiring expensive East Coast consults to do the work of his job. ‘World class’ smart executives like Chancellor Birgeneau need to do the hard work analysis, and make the tough-minded difficult, decisions to identify inefficiencies.
Where do the $3,000,000 consultants get their recommendations?
From interviewing the UCB senior management that hired them and approves their monthly consultant fees and expense reports. Remember the nationally known auditing firm who said the right things and submitted recommendations that senior management wanted to hear and fooled the public, state, federal agencies?
$3 million impartial consultants never bite the hands (Birgeneau/Yeary) that feed them!
Mr. Birgeneau's accountabilities include "inspiring innovation, leading change." This involves "defining outcomes, energizing others at all levels and ensuring continuing commitment." Instead of deploying his leadership and setting a good example by doing the work of his Chancellor’s job, Mr. Birgeneau outsourced his work to the $3,000,000 consultants. Doesn't he engage UC and UC Berkeley people at all levels to examine inefficiencies and recommend $150 million of trims? Hasn't he talked to Cornell and the University of North Carolina - which also hired the consultants -- about best practices and recommendations that will eliminate inefficiencies?
No wonder the faculty, staff, students, Senate & Assembly are angry and suspicious.
In today’s economy three million dollars is a irresponsible price to pay when a knowledgeable ‘world-class’ UCB Chancellor and his bloated staff do not do the work of their jobs.

Milan Moravec of CA 11:23PM December 15, 2009