The real costs lie ahead
I am amazed that the cost of the monthlong student occupation of UC Davis cost only $8,500, as revealed by the university. The students should be commended for building an effective campaign against university privatization that took on national and international proportions for such a small amount of money!
The good news is that Chancellor Linda Katehi makes that amount of money in less than one week’s worth of work! I’m sure she would be happy to donate less than a week’s wages to cover this cost, because as an educator, I’m sure she recognizes the value of taking personal responsibility for one’s actions.
The spreadsheet figures I’m looking forward to are the costs that will dwarf that of the occupation — the cost of Chief Annette Spicuzza and Lt. John Pike’s paid time off, the cost of police overtime and backup due to increased surveillance and repression, the lost labor time due to the public relations campaign, and the cost of the multiple investigations themselves, now getting under way.
Of course, the real unknown will be the cost of possible lawsuits that may emerge from the pepper-spray incident. The university must understand, of course, that these lawsuits may not be settled with money that comes from student tuition, as this would indeed be a case of insult upon injury.
Jesse Drew
Davis
Short URL: http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=117889
View this story on page A6
Posted by Letters to the Editor
on Dec 20 2011.
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