Cost of Occupy protests: $13,000, so far, UCD says
The cost of dealing with Occupy UC Davis is adding up, but protesters say that’s more evidence of the administration burning through money.
Through Wednesday, about $5,000 has been spent on the encampment, while another $8,000 was spent in preparation for Monday’s general strike and UC Board of Regents meeting, according to an estimate requested by The Enterprise.
UCD said it has provided portable toilets, hand-washing stations and electricity to the encampment on the Quad, spokesperson Claudia Morain said.
That $5,000 figure does not include salaries of staff monitoring the encampment or overseeing its safety, she said.
Officers regularly walk or bike through the encampment, the fire marshal makes inspections and staff have made suggestions about food safety.
Student health workers are monitoring several gastrointestinal illnesses among protesters, Morain said, and the Fire Department gave advice on the safe placement of propane heaters.
The campus has declined requests for refrigeration and additional blankets, she said.
“The focus is on safety,” Morain said. “The requests that aren’t related to safety and are more on a comfort side aren’t something we’re taking on.”
Senior Willy Roberts said protesters didn’t ask for the portable bathrooms; staff just informed students they were being provided.
“We’re all occupying but a majority of us have houses close by. If we need to use the bathroom, take a shower or make some food, outside of the operating hours of the (Coffee House), we can do that,” he said.
The cost figure for Monday includes hotel costs for additional police, staff meals at the emergency operations center, relocated fire operations, vehicle rental and supplies.
“The vast majority of those costs were spent to suppress protests,” said Geoffrey Wildanger, a UCD graduate student. “They didn’t bring in 75 cops in order to help us protest more efficiently — they brought them in to keep us from protesting or to try to intimidate us.”
Added Roberts, “If needed the police needed a place to stay, they could have come to the Quad and we could have hooked them up with a tent and a sleeping bag.”
Protesters also have occupied Dutton Hall, home of campus financial aid offices, since Monday.
Morain said the police and fire marshal have visited, in part to make sure exits are clear in case of emergency. Some offices have temporarily relocated, while others have simply shut their doors.
“They’re getting the work done,” Morain said.
About 100 tents remain on the Quad. Roberts said all are occupied by protesters or their possessions, though numbers have been down during final exams.
At Dutton, two to three protesters remain at any given time with 10 to 15 spending the night. During teach-ins, about 40 to 50 people typically take part, protesters said.
Protesters first came to the Quad to protest police use of force at an Occupy camp at UC Berkeley and record tuition costs, and for reasons that jibe with the broader Occupy movement decrying economic inequality.
On Nov. 18, police cleared the UCD camp, arresting 10 and pepper-spraying about a dozen more in a moment captured in a YouTube video that grabbed the world’s attention.
Wildanger offered some advice on economizing.
“They can start by saving $400,000 by forcing (Chancellor Linda) Katehi to resign and $35 million to disband the (University of California Police Department),” he said.
In other Occupy news:
* Katehi was set to meet with graduate and professional students on Thursday evening. Student organizers ask that media not be present.
* A letter signed by 571 alumni has been sent to the chancellor, calling for top administrators to “better engage with and understand student life; “coordinate with student, faculty, and alumni leadership in the selection of task force members who represent a broad spectrum of opinion and are committed to a thorough review of the facts”; “a thorough accounting of chain-of-command decisions and authorization of force on November 18, as well as drafting or revising policies and procedures so that they directly protect the student right to peacefully assemble and protest.”
“We expect that in the future, campus police and administrative leaders will judge UC Davis students by a set of protocol that fit the Davis culture and campus standards, not by a detached set of policies and responses,” the letter reads.
Signatures were collected in about a week, mostly through Facebook.
— Reach Cory Golden at cgolden@davisenterprise.net or (530) 747-8046. Follow him on Twitter at @cory_golden
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Were the meals she sent to the “occupiers” on Thanksgiving out of her personal checking account or from her Chancellor’s slush fund? I’d like to think it was the former, but I’m pretty sure it was the later.
We were told Chancellor Katehi paid for the meals.
The cost in staff time, which was not estimated here, far outstrips the cost in supplies.
What is the ‘cost’ of the Occupy protests? This is one of the questions I have really wanted to pose to the Chancellor and UCD administration. These costs you list here are minimal and exclude the costs associated with November 18 which need to be included. My guess is that Occupy UC Davis will most likely end up costing the university $3million plus, costs that are a direct result of some really poor judgment (and that will again be subsidized by students). There are two policemen and a police chief on administrative leave so you have to add in their salaries. There are the medical bills of the students that were hurt (including the costs of their lingering health problems – pepper spray is a toxin) and the cost of their potential lawsuits. Then there are the costs of the time of the investigators, (in another article their time is calculated at $250/hr and $160/ hr – I have seen it cited elsewhere that Bratton charges $300/hr). Then there is the loss of employees/administrators time due to the questions/interviews associated with not just one investigation but FIVE. And then there is the loss of staff and faculty time talking about the incident and writing letters and circulating petitions. The ‘cost ‘ of Occupy UC Davis should also include the damage to the UC Davis ‘brand’ that was done and the loss of students who surely will not be interested in attending a university that abuses its own students. If only the Chancellor and her administration had considered more carefully their decision on November 18 to bring in police – If they had done that perhaps the costs of Occupy UC Davis would have been the mere $13,000 that you cite here.
All these costs wouldn’t have been necessary had the students just followed the police order and dissolved the unlawful encampment at least temporarily. Remember, it’s the protesters breaking the rules that triggered all this mess.
Real waste of tax money, while damaging the reputation of their own school and of thousands of other students who weren’t even interested in all this occupy nonsense.
These students have every right to protest peacefully. The protesters have legitimate concerns.
If the chancellor and the police had not violated their rights, it would have cost a lot less. The chancellor should step down, the UCDPD should be disbanded and replaced with private security, and the next chancellor needs a pay cut. Those savings could be passed directly to the students in the form of tuition reductions.
I agree that the police and Chancellor handled the situation badly. No argument there.
I still think this whole mess could have been avoided if the students resorted to a lawful protest. Encampment was clearly against the rule. The students persisted despite repeated warnings. They just wanted to provoke the police for whatever reason, and they succeeded. That was unnecessary, immature, and unfortunate. The result, a costly mess that benefits no one involved.
I wish the story had listed the amounts UC will be paying Bratton et al. to “investigate” their f**k up in order to put these costs in perspective.
We’ve previously reported an approximate fee — $300 per hour — for former LAPD chief William Bratton, whom UC President Mark Yudof has selected to lead a fact-finding investigation of the events of Nov. 18: http://is.gd/MVFTuq We’ve also made a public records request for his contract. More on that when we get it. We also have a story today that includes the fees being charged by two other firms that UC Davis has hired to look into what happened: http://is.gd/jMg7B4
The above was just a suggestion, but overall, I think you are doing an excellent job!
Cost of Wall Street greed: $ Trillions
Cost of pointless wars: More $ Trillions
Katehi’s “moving” allowance: $100,000
Cost of Occupy UCD: $ 13,000
Free Speech: Priceless
The protestors who are upset in part about rising tuition costs should realize that their shenanigans will just cost students more in the long run. They are not accomplishing anything at this point other than causing further damage to the school’s reputation. I think the University should fully enforce the rules and end the occupy portion of the protest once and for all. Students can peacefully protest while following the rules.
That sounds like speculation to me. I speculate that the protesters’ peaceful actions may result in the UC system giving higher priority to its students and doing its best to keep UC accessible to as many people as possible (i.e., affordable).
Send Katehi the bill – “As chancellor, I take full responsibility for what happened and have been reaching out to the entire UC Davis community to make sure we never subject any of our students to anything like that ever again.”
Clearly there is a accountability/ trust issue and break down in communications with the students. If the students violated a campus rule of camping then first and foremost the campus rule process should have been used. It would seem “The Official Disciplinary Process” was violated (ignorance is stated as not an excuse) by the administration and started an avalanche effect. The police being called upon prematurely served only to incite rage within student community and create a problem that could have been completely avoided.