Issues

Student Empowerment: Social Consciousness Through the ASUC

CalSERVE is not a student political party. CalSERVE is a community organization that runs candidates through the ASUC as a means to creating student empowerment, social consciousness, and social justice.

We hold the conviction that our campus has the ability to make major social change and progress. CalSERVE believes that the strongest change comes when people work together, instead of alone or against each other.

This year, CalSERVE along with a broad-base of other campus community organizations and members, helped initiate and build the student movement against the budget cuts and fee increases. Our members have been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, Democracy Now with Amy Goodman, Time Magazine, and the NY Times.

Last year, CalSERVE was instrumental in registering 10,000 students to vote for the 2008 Presidential Election, the 2nd largest student-led voter registration effort in the entire nation. We didn’t do it alone, and that’s what makes CalSERVE successful: working together.

Access, Affordability, Quality, Justice

We don’t need to tell you about the challenges that massive fee increases pose to students and the barriers to access that these fee increases represent. At the Nov. Regents meeting, the Board of Regents voted to increase student fees by 32% by next year, pushing student fees to over $10,000 per year for the first time ever. CalSERVE is a strong advocate for lowering student fees and has been successful in rolling back student fees in the past. CalSERVE also stands opposed to newly proposed fee increases like differential student fees for business and engineering students.

In the face of massive fee increases, the quality of our education continues to fall. We are paying more, losing quality professors and GSIs, getting less course selection, and larger discussion sections. CalSERVE advocates for protecting the academic courses and programs that students need and want as well as protecting the overall academic quality of our university.

An issue that is often overlooked by administrators and the general student population is the issue of social and economic justice for those who make it possible for our university to function: campus workers. Budget cuts give administrators an excuse to cut worker pay and increase workloads. Not only does this push more workers into poverty, but it results in unsanitary campus conditions and unsafe working conditions for everyone. CalSERVE is a strong voice for better labor relations and socially just conditions for campus workers.

Campus Safety

The recent hate crimes and hate speech that hit UCSD, UCSB, and UC Davis against black, LGBTQ, and Jewish students have left students across the UC and here at Cal feeling unsafe and under attack. Unfortunately, these incidents of hate are not new. They are symptoms of larger systemic problems within the UC.

CalSERVE believes in and advocates for real systemic change. In the past, CalSERVE has been successful in making the curriculum on campus more friendly for marginalized students, making student-run buildings more accessible for disabled and differently abled people, and making the Chancellor agree to funding programs and services that make students feel safe on campus such as the Multicultural Center in MLK. CalSERVE will continue to stress the importance of funding community programs that make for a positive campus climate.

Environmental Sustainability

From campus development to daily student activities, our community of 35,000 graduate and undergraduate students can have a considerable impact on the local environment. Through our mass purchase of particular goods and services, we also have an effect on the environment in other places around the world. CalSERVE officials are dedicated to ensuring that our campus behaves in a way that is conscious of its impact on the environment. CalSERVE believes that students must be on important city environmental commissions like the Berkeley Zero Waste Commission and the Community Environmental Advisory Commission.

CalSERVE is not only a strong advocate for the environment, we practice what we preach. CalSERVE makes its best effort to lessen its campaigns’ environmental impact. For instance, we print our flyers on recycled paper and often with soy-based inks.

Academic Preparation and Recruitment and Retention Centers

Despite de jure desegregation, California’s education system is still segregated and stratified with vast disparities in student achievement.

This is why Academic Preparation programs and Recruitment and Retention Centers like those in the brides Multicultural Coalition are so important. Unfortunately, campus administrators have chosen to make deep cuts to these programs, making it harder for them to do the vital work that they do.

Meanwhile, governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed to eliminate all funding for academic preparation programing, which includes funding for student initiated groups like bridges Multicultural, but also high school and middle school programs like Early Academic Outreach Program and Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA).

Academic Freedom & Integrity

CalSERVE strongly believes in the value of academic freedom and will stand by professors, graduate students, and undergraduate students when their rights in this regard are threatened in a targeted way. However, we also recognize the serious threat posed by closed-door deals like the one that the University has adopted with British Petroleum, and more recently, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. CalSERVE officials support strong oversight and involvement in such deals to ensure that the integrity of the University’s academic research and programs is not threatened by outside political or economic interests.

Student Rights: Protecting Privacy and Free Speech

While Berkeley is often remembered for the Free Speech Movement of the 1960s, this right should never be taken for granted and is only there as long as we stand up for it. CalSERVE officials will never support the University administration or off-campus entities in any actions which chill free speech by penalizing students or student groups for their speech activities.

Recently, university officials have misused and abused their powers to stifle student free speech. CalSERVE will advocate against such abuses and for the right of all students to make their voices heard.