A Series of Tubes

So the latest writings about the tree sit we have the marriage of Science and corporate greed. A quote and image from Darwin BondGraham from his indymedia post/news piece is below:

“It’s interesting that within the City On A Hill that is UCSC, it is “Science” that has now come to occupy the tip top of the “Hill.” This is not mere coincidence or symbolism. UCSC’s administrators along with the UC Regents and powerful business interests and benefactors based out of Silicon Valley (like Jack Baskin) have sought now for several decades to recast UCSC into a major research university with hard science and engineering at its core. In doing so they have adopted the self-righteousness and mission-zeal of puritan colonists, even if their ideological drive is different. They have truly colonized UCSC and now they expand into the woods, the “natives” be damned. Profit, prestige and power rely on physical expansion and transformation into a knowledge factory.”

So the argument being made is that the regents and other people at UCSC in positions of power are on the board of directors of various corporations. They want to increase the bottom line of those corporations and themselves. They use all the tools necessary to increase their bottom line, specifically funneling money at the Universities they manage into research that can be utilized by the corporations that they preside over. Although the money to fund the research can be direct funding from corporations, the less direct path is the one being most utilized at UCSC.

This argument made has at its core a very important issue. The board of regents has 18 people appointed to 12 year terms by the governor, 1 student that is appointed by the rest of the board, and The remaining 7 Regents are ex officio members. They are the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Speaker of the Assembly, Superintendent of Public Instruction, president and vice president of the Alumni Associations of UC, and the UC president. (got my info from wikipedia) The majority of the board of regents is not directly elected by the voters. The singular student on the board isn’t even voted for by the students. This is a massive problem because those that steer the University do not represent the best interests of the body they preside over because they are not elected. Solving conflict of interest problems can be done by making the regents server shorter and elected terms. Conflicts of interest between two posts should be dealt with by resigning from a post that would influence a persons decision in the other.

The argument made by Darwin BondGraham is not pointed at the tossing of democracy to the curb when selecting regents, but rather at the University leaders’ attempts to alter the University to maximize their own bottom line. The problem is that I don’t think Darwin proved his point. Did UCSC plan on building the biomed building because the regents and other officials were influenced by their ties to corporations? Did the faculty in the sciences need more space? Did researchers at the University have a strong desire to understand the world that we live in and to share that information to the public have those desires in mind to push for more facilities? How is this not UCSC bending to the will of “big faculty”? Stating two facts, that the regents are on the board of directors of various corporations and UCSC building a biomed facility, does not constitute a proof that one caused the other. If the connection is there then the regents and others in charge must be in the pocket of “big digital and new media” and “big humanities and social sciences” since those are the two previous big buildings to be put up at UCSC. Blumenthal is so stuffed down the pocket of “big digital and new media” that he showcased the new building when presenting the LRDP to the board of regents. The other option is that those in charge of the University are terrible at implementing their own nefarious corporatization plans. The thing is that I don’t see any proof of the charges being made.

Perhaps Darwin BondGraham will post the proof I desire in my comments section.

By the way, I find the Einstein picture frign hilarious. Einstein is pictured as both predicting and opposing the Long Range Development Plan at UCSC. He truly was a visionary. I can just imagine his inner monolouge:

Hmmm I really need to prove this “science is not the only truth” thing here. What can I use to support it…I’ve got it. E=mc^2! Boy I sure nailed that one. No disputing it now. I bet they give me another nobel prize for that one.