Dear Editor,
I was puzzled by Monday’s editorial, which seemed to imply that I approve of cuts to the higher education budget. In fact, I spend many hours every year working with the governor and the state legislature on behalf of more funding for higher education. I have also spoken in favor of a moratorium on tax cuts because past tax cuts have contributed to the current revenue shortfall.
My recent comments were simply to approve the bipartisan efforts of the governor and legislative leaders to cut education, including higher education, much less than the cuts to other areas of state government. The budget agreement means higher education will be cut by approximately 3.5 percent for this budget year. This is compared to cuts for other state agencies, which will range from 7.5-10 percent.
With state revenue falling $1.2 billion below last year, it will be a struggle to keep higher education cuts as small as possible. Oklahoma is now among the hardest hit states in the nation in revenue shortfall for this year. While we were able to avoid any increase in tuition and mandatory fees for this year, what happens next year will depend on the final decisions made at the state Capitol.
We must all work as hard as possible on behalf of the higher education budget in order to keep university education accessible to all students.
Sincerely,
David Boren
President
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The following is a group response to the partially inaccurate Our View entitled “We need to voice our discontent”. There is, in fact, a solidarity action planned March 4 by a group of students unaffiliated with any campus group.
The 3.5 percent budget cuts for higher education that our Oklahoma legislature recently passed is only one small incident in the larger struggle of education rights going on in our nation today.
On March 4th, students, workers and teachers throughout the nation and across the globe will strike. Pre K-12, adult education, community colleges and state-funded universities will come together in an international Strike and Day of Action to resist the neo-liberal privatization and destruction of public education in California and beyond. But this is about far more than education. This is about the crisis we find ourselves in, student or not. The economic and social relations holding this world together are bankrupt, and we want something new.
Tomorrow, students from the University of Oklahoma will act in solidarity, occupying an admittedly small portion of the South Oval to call attention to the actions of students in California and around the world. There will be music and dancing, literature and games, and there will be freedom, as brief as it may be. We are not here to make demands, we are here to stand together. If you want to know more, meet us on the oval. There might be two of us or there might be 20. There should be thousands. That’s up to you.
Tate James is the lead author of this letter and a visual communications senior.
The Oklahoma Daily is pleased to provide you the opportunity to share your thoughts about this article. We encourage lively debate on the issues of the day, but we ask you refrain from using profanity or other offensive speech, engaging in personal attacks or name-calling, posting advertising, or straying from the topic at hand. To comment, you must be a registered user of OUDaily.com. Thanks for taking the time to offer your thoughts.
You must be logged in to leave a comment. Log in | Register
arkface 2 years, 2 months ago
dave, we stand in solidarity with you! hope your living it up over there!
Tate 2 years, 2 months ago
To Boren: We are not interested in your statistics or quotations. We are questioning a larger problem than this year's budget. A problem that desperately needs to be addressed. We don't want more money or lower fees. We want to sit down on the South Oval tomorrow and talk about the failures of the current system and the possibility of something new. You are welcome to join.
JJanowiak 2 years, 2 months ago
Blah, blah, blah. What boring liberal talking points crap. "Occupation." "Solidarity." If students want to protest the "neoliberalization" of their education (i.e., they want a bigger state subsidy) then they should put their money where there mouth is and demonstrate for higher taxes. California's specific educational funding problems are its own. Here in Oklahoma, the entire state budget hurts and I don't see any easy pot to dip into for college funding. Yet most people, even liberals, don't seem to understand the horrifying truth that in a healthy economy you don't get all those snazzy social services without more taxes. Which is fine by me. But call it what it is rather than using alienating highfalutin' language.
Tate 2 years, 2 months ago
To JJ: I never asked for more taxes or reallocation of funds, and I am sorry that an online interaction is not providing the nuances of a real conversation. I would be more than happy to have a dialogue about these things in person, that's what this is about.
To Chris: Your "economists" are the exact problem I am talking about here. Vaguely quoting liberal economists on the efficiencies of the World Bank and the IMF is not exactly proof that such liberal economic institutions are beneficial. The imposition of regulations and "reforms" by financial institutions on developing nations based on statistics and data is not exactly the solution to poverty. Again, this format is not exactly appropriate for legitimate discussion. We'll be on the oval tomorrow.
Chris_Robertson 2 years, 2 months ago
Don't worry JJanowiak, I'm sure all the dancing, drum circles, and "solidarity" will be an immensely successful endeavor to bring about social and political change.
It is amazing to me that the author claims that "the economic and social relations holding this world together are bankrupt," when economic liberalization has freed millions of people around the world from poverty. India is a prime example of how socialist policies failed to redistribute wealth without destroying capital and investment in the process. Only after India started liberalizing their economy did it make a significant dent in alleviating poverty. This is not partisanship, this is economic fact. Please refer to the IMF or World Bank's literature and statistics on the subject and decide for yourself.
Regards, Chris Robertson
Tate 2 years, 2 months ago
In response to Chris: even the most basic and shallow research into IMF and World Bank histories will quickly reveal the violent and oppressive nature of both of these institutions. To think they legitimately bring liberation of any form is more naive than any "drum circle" will ever be.
The fact that both of these comments are only able to provide solutions involving the expansion of the current system is discouraging, but equally telling. This is not about liberal talking points or higher taxes, but rather, about a recognition of the failures of corporatist and capitalist institutions, and solidarity with those who are crowded out by those same broken ideals.
Of course this is not about partisanship, I'm frankly offended that you would even imply such a thing.
Chris_Robertson 2 years, 2 months ago
Tate,
The IMF and World Bank are "violent and oppressive institutions?" The IMF exists to stabilize exchange rates and facilitate lending to poorer countries to spur economic development. They have guidelines to prevent governments from taking on too much debt or spending the money in frivolous ways. In what way is this violent or oppressive?
If these ideas (capitalism) are so "broken" and unsuccessful then why do economists overwhelmingly agree that economic liberalization has helped lift millions out of poverty? Why is it that thousands of people in developing countries fight for jobs with multinational corporations? What is their next best alternative? I'm not the one being naive here about what drives economic growth and what helps people lift themselves out of poverty.
Regards, Chris Robertson
JJanowiak 2 years, 2 months ago
Tate: again, just talking points. I'm not unsympathetic to your position, but the way you're describing this protest is frustratingly vague. What exactly is so bankrupt about our current system? Are you an anarchist or something? I would like reform just as much as you, but to put it in practical terms, you want taxes to be higher and a reallocation of funds so that public higher education will be more subsidized (something that I totally support and is desperately, urgently needed in California).
However if you'd like everyone on both the right and the left to completely ignore your message, by all means continue to write about those evil corporatist capitalist pigs who are oppressing all the poor students and shutting them out. Let's hear your wonderful alternative society (citing Western Europe doesn't count because that's all part of "the system").
Supersooner 2 years, 2 months ago
I don’t know, Janowiak and Chris, the event kind of sounds like fun to me. If it’s not your thing, then why don't you just stay at home in front of your computer blogging about how other people aren’t as enlightened as you are and wanking with your almighty "invisible hand." Have fun!
Shanaynay 2 years, 2 months ago
Tate,
I find your response to President Boren to be rather disrespectful. "We are are not interested in your statistics or quotations." Really? DBo took his time to send the student paper a letter to clarify what occurred? Would you have preferred that he not respond?
"We don't want more money or lower fees." Wouldn't more money or lower fees solve the problem?
Academia costs money, running a campus is expensive, and students need to pay for it. We should be very grateful that funding wasn't cut more.
Don't blame the President or the University. Blame the state government for planning their budget around the price of natural gas.
Supersooner 2 years, 2 months ago
Dear online blog editors,
Are you blocking my posts for some reason, or are you just not updating regularly? If you are rejecting my posts, please explain to me why so I can modify my responses accordingly. And DON’T POST THIS COMMENT. Post my previous comment. This is just a query. I’m just wondering what happens to my posts that don’t get posted.
Supersooner
soonerboomers 2 years, 2 months ago
Someone isn't in on the joke. Can someone explain the joke to joe? Please. He is typing himself into an early death from confusion.
JJanowiak 2 years, 2 months ago
PS: Tate, the fact that you don't ask for more taxes or a reallocation of funds shows that you have absolutely zero interest or legitimate concern over what's really going on in California. You really don't care about the UC system.
For the benefit of other posters, here is the absolute diarrhea put by these morons on flyers around campus:
"These times are revolutionary, it must be said, even if the people are not yet. (After all, waht the f--- else is there to do?)"
"We seek to push the university struggle to its limits. Though we denounce the privatization of the university and its authoritarian system of governance, we do not seek structural reforms. We demand not a free university but a free society. A free university in the midst of a capitalist society is like a reading room in a prison; it serves only as a distraction from the misery of daily life. Instead we seek to channel the anger of the dispossessed students and workers into a DECLARATION OF WAR." (my emphasis)
...And it goes on. Truly, you are the stupidest, most sycophantic, facile, and shallow bunch of activists in my entire college career.
JJanowiak 2 years, 2 months ago
Oh my gosh, did you call in your army of Marxists or something? This is ridiculous. Let me quote some of the rambling BS from your flyer: "These times are revolutionary"; "A free university in the midst of a capitalist society is like a reading room in a prison."; "what the f--- else is there to do?" (I find this the best summation of this event); "declaration of war."
NO. It doesn't take any sort of invisible-hand wanking enlightenment to see that you are a bunch of stupid, airheaded wannabe Marxist twits. This has nothing to do with the UC system and its specific problems. You just want to complain about how evil capitalism is and glorify the proletariot. You and your ten little activists listening to music and taking naps out on the South Oval are INSULTING the very real problems of the UC system and California. However, you are conveniently avoiding the responsibility of having to address those problems by trying to change the issue from specific causes to extremely vague denunciations about how authoritarian our privatized universities are. No. There is no wiggle room in this. You and your friends are acting like stupid activists, insulting and disrespecting a real cause, and driving away people who would otherwise be sympathetic with your fake 1968 manifesto. I'm not being elitist; I'm talking the extreme, rational majority view here. How about next time your revolutionary club not insult the real work that Californian activists are doing in government and organizations to fix the UC, California-specific problems that emanate specifically from flaws in California's system of government instead of wankishly declaring war on capitalism?
This is so frustrating. Liberals should not have to be policing their stupid, arrogant, radical leftist peers out of making idiots of themselves. Grow up. At least I care about causes and effects. Nowhere on either of the two fliers in front me are anything specific to do with real-world problems. Please stop posting, and better yet, please vacate the South Oval for people who would like to take non-ideological nap times.
rosa 2 years, 2 months ago
JJanowiak, just throwing this out there, but have you ever stopped to think that perhaps these words are not ours, but rather the words of the UC students themselves? Those same UC students whose cause you seem so sympathetic towards?
I adore that you troll this post, calling my friends facile and shallow, yet you praised my last letter to the editor? Calm down, spend some time outside, and maybe next time come and talk to us in person, as that is why we spent 9 hours on campus with open ears, free food and laid back music. You might check out another take on the issue: http://www.wearetheundercurrent.com/2010/03/occupy-everything/
JJanowiak 2 years, 2 months ago
Yikes, the above comment officially has more typos than the tazered woman story, sorry. You get the draft, though.
jssooner4 2 years, 2 months ago
JJanowiak Thank you! Do people not realize that higher taxes would solve many of our countries problems. People (republicans) argue for safety from terrorists but refuse to pay for a multibillion dollar war. They want social security but don't want to pay into it themselves. They want excellent higher education, but get upset when tuition increases or budget cuts are passed. The best lesson I have learned in life so far is that you get what you pay for, and that is exactly what americans are getting.
JJanowiak 2 years, 2 months ago
Rosa: I am sympathetic to the plight of UC students, which is why I am so offended by the way your coterie has taken a real issue with real causes and real effects and turned it into a parade of stupid left-wing stereotypes. No, I have no respect for that stupid rag of a website you just linked to. The system isn't bankrupt and we are not in need of a revolution: you're just another overly enchanted college student playing at revolutionary while the real footwork to mobilize change is being done by others. This protest has made more riled than just about anything else done this year because unlike the dime-a-dozen religious right-winters around here, you make me genuinely ashamed to be a liberal. The fact that you are so deaf, dumb, and blind to the pleas to just say one substantial thing beyond overthrowing the system is just pathetic. And now you're pretending at being polite, trying to trick us into thinking you have something real to say. You're a horrid affront to the left and you shame our campus. The words that you crib from others are strings of self-evidently facile crap and they don't deserve any sort of response. Try harder next time.
Supersooner 2 years, 2 months ago
“Trouble knocked on the door, but, hearing laughter, hurried away.” (Benjamin Franklin) Marxists, Janowiak, really? I doubt many of them have read Marx. If you had bothered to spend some time there you would have seen a diverse bunch of students chatting, eating, sharing information, and just having a good time. When I passed by I overheard straight-edgers, Christians, and construction workers discussing employee benefits at OU. (You must be quoting from some of the UC literature they had on hand. I don’t remember reading anything like that on their fliers.) There was no ideology behind the symbolic occupation, because an expression of solidarity with the plight of students across the country needs no ideology. How do you not see, Janowiak, that the ideologue here is you! Your ideology: the dictatorship of the real, a dogmatic do-nothing liberal positivism that still clings to “hope” for a “change we can believe in.” You await the arrival of this change like it’s the messiah, and because it never comes you are consumed with bitterness. You could just stew in your own bile, but you insist instead upon intoxicating others. You berate, and, in your own words “police” those who still possess creativity, those who can still imagine that the world could be other than it is. Education in America is in crisis, and you are haunted by armies of Marxists? If the South Oval occupants were Marxists, they were students of Groucho, but you are so “grown up” now that even humor is beyond you. Who knows, maybe their armies will one day tear us all down. Una risata vi seppellirà!