We promised we’d be bringing you all the latest from the walk-out and teach-in. And here we are, at the teach-in. Hopefully I’ll come up with a better picture by the end of the night (EDIT: As of 1 a.m., we have new pictures, courtesy of Hannah Jewell), and I’m also willing to bet good money that someone’s going to trip over my laptop cord at some point.

So without further ado…

7:03 Nothing’s happening yet. The auditorium is full and someone said they’re not letting anyone else in.

7:08 Ricardo Gomez, you’re speaking at this too?

7:11 Peter Glazer is giving introduction. Robert Reich isn’t here yet, but will be making dramatic entrance later. I’m excited.

7:18 Kevin Padian: “Californians sold their children down the river for real estate.” In reference to Prop. 13.

7:25 If the proposed fee increases go into effect, fees will have doubled in the course of 3 years.-Padian

7:28 Ananya Roy speaking about solidarity as “a member of the faculty and a proud Cal alumna.”

7:30 “As a teacher, I bear witness to the conditions of working poverty that California college students must endure, and it saddens me.”-Roy

7:32 Roy refers to proposed online UC as “a sub-prime education.” News liveblog is up and running.

7:38 Standing ovation for Ananya Roy. “We all have to make visible the crisis of state defunding that is upon us,” she said. “I will reject the administrative logic that says that my job and my salary are at risk unless others in this university suffer great harm.”

7:39 Catherine Cole takes the stage. Robert Reich appeared. Just walked in though. I was expecting him to apparate or something.

7:49 I’m noticing a lot of people wearing red armbands. Anyone know what that’s about?

7:52 Cole just drew a parallel  between California and apartheid South Africa. Yikes.

7:58 “There is nothing about our current economic crisis that is either inevitable or permanent.”-Cole

8:00 Robert Reich describes the smell of Berkeley: “Eucalyptus, marijuana and tear gas.”

8:06 Robert Reich says of his time in Washington, “When I started I was six foot two.” Somebody give this man a raise.

8:10 “The people we really do need to engage with is people who do not share our values,” Reich said. “We need to bridge that gap.”

8:11 “This is the worst government I have ever seen,” Reich said. “I don’t blame Bobby Birgeneau and I don’t blame Mark Yudof. I blame that fact that so many of us for so many years have turned our back on the problem and not addressed the problem.”

8:17 Wendy Brown takes the stage to discuss the privatization of the UC. This could get depressing.

8:22 “The beast is already inside the house,” said Brown of privatization. “A turn away from equal opportunity.”

8:27 “Privatization means constriction of academic freedom on many levels,” Brown said. Also some venom toward the BP deal.

8:33 Student Q&A session begins.

8:35 Students have apparently scheduled lots of meetings with administrators tomorrow.

8:38 “This is not a sound-bite situation” is predictably one of my favorite sound-bites of the evening.

8:42 Wendy Brown suggests students protest the fee hikes by not paying them, and writing on their checks: “In the name of public education”

8:52 “I know that I do not know you, but I want you to know that I love both of you”-Student

8:54 “Don’t wait for everyone to get on board. Just go and do it.” -Padian

9:07 I know what you look like now Ricardo Gomez. Apparently hundreds of students who were turned away after the auditorium filled up held their own teach in outside.

9:08 I’m typing, so I can’t play five fingers. Sorry Ricardo.

9:15 “I hope everybody’s ready to take this battle to Sacramento,” Gomez said. That’s all folks.

Image Source: Hannah Jewell

Posted in: News
Tags:budget crisis, in light of the economic downturn, Teach-In, walkout
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