STATEWIDE CALL TO ACTION:
(UPDATE: BAMN is continuing to build the movement, and the UC Regents are expected to vote on the Commission on the Future's proposals in July 2010. Check BAMN.COM and subscribe to our mailing list for further updates.)

On Tuesday, March 23rd the UC Regents' subcommittee, the "Commission on the Future", charged with determining the size, future character and funding mechanisms of the University of California system, will meet to put forward their system-wide masterplan that will be voted on at the July Regents' meeting.  This masterplan proposal will determine the future of public higher education across the state of California for years to come.

Because of the importance of this proposal, we will hold a BAMN meeting after the Commission meeting on the 23rd, and after theRegents' meeting on the 24th to have a discussion of what the proposal of the Commission on the Future is.  The Commission will be discussing every issue that is of concern to the movement and we must put out our own perspective on how best to defend public education.

Between now and July when the Regents vote on the proposal we must be intervening to shape it to conform to our views about what a public university should be: maintaining it as a public rather than private institution, that it should be a publicly accountable institution, that it should create a UC wide Dream scholarship program, that it should use all lawful means to increase under-represented minority student enrollment, that it should maintain all its departments and course offerings, and that it should rescind the fee hikes.

We must demand that the Regents pass a resolution to give undocumented students access to institutional scholarship funds.  If passed, this resolution will not only give AB540 students access to much needed scholarship money, it will also represent a declaration by this nation's most prominent and important public university system that it is a center of social progress, prepared to strike a blow against the second class treatment of Latino/a and immigrant students and to reassert it's proud tradition of being the leading public institution in this nation.  Winning campus-based UC Dream scholarships will clear the path for a passage of a statewide Dream Act, and a Federal Dream Act.

OVERTURN PROP 209 and INCREASE UNDERREPRESENTED MINORITY STUDENT ADMISSIONS AT UC BERKELEY AND UCLA BEGINNING THIS SPRING

This February the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) - this nation's most successful civil rights organization standing in defense of affirmative action - brought legal action to strike down Proposition 209—the statewide ban on affirmative action.

The California lawsuit is modeled on a lawsuit filed by BAMN against Michigan’s statewide ban on affirmative action (Proposal 2 - 2006). BAMN has sued the UC Regents and the Governor of California demanding that they stop discriminating in admissions. In 2001, after mass protests at the UCs, most importantly at UC Berkeley and UCLA, the UC Regents voted to reverse their own policy banning affirmative action in admissions, and voted to oppose California’s statewide ban on affirmative action. Last year a state hiring and contracting lawsuit challenged the continued use of affirmative action policies by the City and County of San Francisco. In response, the California Attorney General (AG) issued an opinion stating that he regards Prop 209 as unconstitutional and discriminatory.

BAMN is asking student, community, labor, educational and other associations and public bodies to become plaintiffs in the suit, along with the dozens of Latina/o, black, Native American, immigrant -documented and undocumented, high school, middle school, college, and university students to join on to the suit as plaintiffs. We ask the UC Regents to pass a resolution consistent with their own prior position and the AG’s position, stating that Prop 209 is unconstitutional, discriminatory, and impossible to enforce without denying tens of thousands of brilliant young California Latina/o, black and Native American students equal opportunity and access to our flagship public university campuses.

Such a declaration by the UC Regents would immeasurably advance our struggle to stop the resegregation of higher education, to increase the number of under-represented minority students on our campuses, and to make our university a more welcoming environment. We would strike a real blow against the whole racist California project of defending white privilege and making our public universities more elite, less egalitarian and increasingly more private. The right wing has used California as the launching pad for their campaign to further racism and reaction throughout the nation. Now our new movement gives us the chance to lead a national movement for civil rights, for immigrant rights, for public education and for an equal, egalitarian and just America from this same soil. It is time for this majority-minority state to make a new America in our image.

Connecting these two initiatives, the creation of campus-based UC Dream scholarships and overturning Prop 209, is the best way to link the struggles of our state’s Latina/o, black and immigrant communities to each other and to link our campus fight to defend public education to the communities which give us the power to win.

*Its not too late to still organize carpools, rental vans, or even buses from your area to get to the Regents meeting.  We can help pull it together on your campus.  Contact us ASAP. Lets figure out how toget lots of people to spend part of their break at UCSF!