UCI Chancellor Drake Grilled by Students

Chancellor Drake listens as the spouse of an outsourced worker asks in Spanish to be treated with dignity, captivating the audience. Photo © Daniel C. Tsang 2010

UPDATED with audio link: To listen to the show, click here: .

Irvine -- UCI Chancellor Michael Drake, for the first time since a critical UCI Faculty Senate blasted him for (initially) firing founding Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky in 2007, faced Wednesday 13 January 2010 another hostile audience at a public forum organized by student protesters who gave what OC Register's Gary Robbins called a "verbal drubbing" -- with all but one student criticizing his leadership of the campus. It was a P.R. disaster for Drake.

Unlike previous "town hall" meetings where Drake managed to be in control, students criticized him for deferring to aides and not answering the questions "man to man". Asked pointedly if he would still continue to stay at UCI should his pay be further cut, he never answered the question, nor did he made a commitment to remaining at UCI.

While Drake and UCI police chief Paul Henisey declined to comment on the police abuse at UCLA protests (saying they were not there to see what happened) -- after the public forum, Subversity managed to ask the police chief if he would drop charges against sociology graduate student John Bruning, who had been arrested at a protest late last fall. Chief Henisey said it was up to the Orange County District Attorney.

At the forum, students laughed when Drake declared that UCI's commitment to free speech was nationally known. The chief then denied his cops were ripping down protesters' posters on campus. Both Drake and Henisey said they knew nothing about that. See photos of a UCI police officer ripping down posters on the Occupy UCI! blog.

Subversity has also learned that in another sign of intimidation by campus police, protesters who have been chalking on campus recently -- writing statements such as "UCI is Racist" on walls and the ground -- have been confronted by campus police who take down their name and threaten to charge them with "defacing" university property should the chalk not be able to be removed. This week's rains are likely, however, to wipe away the chalk.

The only time Drake seemed moved and did not act like a CEO of a corporation was after the wife of an outsourced worker who has worked at UCI for 20 years pleaded with him to provide benefits to the workers. Drake responded that he was committed to "quality experience" for everyone at UCI and said he had been working to help the disadvantaged and dispossessed in his career.

A day after the forum, dozens of outsourced workers demonstrated on campus and a smaller group of workers and student supporters gave Ramona Agrela, an associate to Drake, posters of workers who had been laid off.

Subversity, a KUCI public affairs program, airs today (18 January 2010) at 9-10 a.m. audio from the public forum as a public service. The program airs on KUCI, 88.9 FM in Orange County, California, and is simulcast via kuci.org.

UCI Dean Sharon Salinger on Closing SAAS

Dean Sharon V. Salinger. Photo © Daniel C. Tsang 2009

On the 14 September 2009 Subversity Show, we aired our exclusive interview with Sharon V. Salinger, Dean of Undergraduate Education at the University of California. The interview was taped the previous Thursday.

Under fire for closing an important unit on campus, SAAS (Student Academic Advancement Services), which served first-generation, low-income and disabled students, Salinger says it was budget cuts that led to the closure and layoffs of five staff members, including the SAAS director. The U.S. Department of Education recently renewed funding to UCI for the same services provided to SAAS, which closed August 31, 2009. A faculty member, with two academic advisors, will constitute the new team. The new federal grant provides more student financial aid as well as additional funding for student advisors. Salinger is hoping former SAAS student peer advisors will continue to work in the new restructured unit. Salinger is interviewed by show host Daniel C. Tsang.

In addition, we aired audio from the students' Save SAAS at UCI video (posted on YouTube) and part of UCI Chancellor Michael V. Drake's pep talk at a recent townhall, where he called on UCI employees to work more with less pay.

SAAS supporters, meanwhile, have organized a "SAAS Love" sit-in slated for Monday 21 September 2009 and the next day from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. outside the old SAAS offices. Salinger says she may bring pizza. A Facebook event page has been set up: SAAS Love. The original Save SAAS at UCI Now! Facebook page continues. A video from SAAS supporters is posted here: video. OC Weekly recently covered the SAAS closure: Navel Gazing blog

To listen to the show, click here: .

UCI Law School Saga continues: Unanswered Questions

Irvine -- While the UCI community seems happy that the UCI Chancellor has rehired (last Monday) as law school dean Erwin Chemerinsky, and then apologized to the academic senate for making a mistake in earlier rescinding the job offer, some faculty remain unconvinced that Chancellor Michael V. Drake has provided all the answers about the law school hiring/firing/rehiring debacle.

We talk with one such doubter, Sociology Prof. David S. Meyer, a specialist on social and political protest. We discuss how faculty protest at UCI quickly fizzled out after Chancellor Drake made an apology to the faculty senate last Thursday.

We also air highlights from the emergency session of the faculty senate, which passed a resolution reminding the UCI administration of the need to uphold academic freedom, but tabled any resolution that hinted at any criticism of the Chancellor. The body did adopt a motion, put forth by a founding law school faculty member, Prof. Joseph F. Dimento, to create a committee to investigate the Chancellor's actions.

Despite the "love fest", others outside UCI have continued their criticism of the Chancellor's action earlier this month, which brought national attention to UCI, amidst allegations of the university caving in to outside pressures.

A Los Angeles Times editorial writer continued to call on the Chancellor to " 'Fess Up" while one commentator called him "The Most Corrupt Man in California". See also:

L'affaire Chemerinsky:href="http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2007/09/19_opinion.shtml" www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2007/09/19_opinion.$
OC Register on last week's show:Google News

To listen to the entire show, click here:

Political Pressure and UCI Law Deanship Hiring/Firing

The developments over the hiring and firing of a liberal new law school dean at UCI threatens to derail not only the opening of the law school, but endangers UCI's reputation as a site of renowned scholarship free from political interference.

Faculty and newspapers, such as the New York Times, have already called for the UCI Chancellor, Michael Drake, to reverse his decision and say he made a mistake. Subversity has learned the chancellor may already be flying to North Carolina to meet with the hired and fired dean, Duke University Prof. Erwin Chemerinsky and renew negotiations with the latter. We are seeking confirmation of that unconfirmed account.

In our next show, slated for Monday, 17 September 2007, at 9-10 a.m., we talk with two key faculty members about this sad saga.

We talk with a founding faculty member at the forthcoming law school, Distinguished Prof. Elizabeth Loftus, who talks about one way out of this impasse.

We also talk with Prof. David Theo Goldberg, who heads the UC-system's Humanities Research Institute headquartered at UCI, and who drafted the "open letter" in the form of an online petition, calling for the Chancellor to re-offer the dean's position to Prof. Erwin Chemerinsky.


To listen to the entire show, click here:

Recent Articles linked on Google News:

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=UCI+law+school&btnG=Search+News

Nationalism in Vigils: How about a Vigil for those killed in Iraq?"

On our 30 Aril 2007 show, we chat with UCI anthropology graduate student Philip Grant, whose research is on Iran, about why he wrote the UCI Chancellor Michael Drake, to challenge UCI on why Drake's email to UCI evoked "our nation" as being in "deep sorrow." How about those not of this nation, Grant asked. See press release. To listen to the show, click here: