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.

*This statement passed the USM Faculty Senate nearly unanimously on Friday,
December 4, 2009. For more information contact the Chair of the USM Faculty
Senate, Prof. Jerry LaSala at LASALA@USM.MAINE.EDU.