New UC Student Regent-Designate Jesse Cheng on Students and the Future of UC Education

Jesse Cheng campaigning on campus. Photo © Daniel C. Tsang 2009

On our 27 July 2009 Subversity show, we talked with new University of California Student Regent-Designate Jesse Cheng, a highly visible and endearing UCI student advocate, about the future direction of the UC in these dire economic times, and what his plans to counter escalating student fees and the calls to expand foreign student enrollment. He said he supports the UC pay cut and furlough plan that has been imposed on non-unionized faculty and staff. (The current UC student regent actually voted for it.) Interviewer is show host Daniel C. Tsang. Both Jesse and Daniel both were pulled over in recent years (Jesse just a couple months before the show) by Irvine PD in what they consider to be separate cases of racial profiling.

Jesse Cheng is an Asian American Studies major with an Education minor at UC Irvine. He has a secret passion, he says, to write superhero comic books as a career. Jesse is not naturally politically inclined, a quality to which his co-workers regularly attest. Jesse was first introduced to politics and public policy through work with the Asian Pacific Islander community on issues of education, bilingual services, and immigration.

He is only the second UC student regent from UCI. Jenny Doh, who currently heads the UCI Alumni Association, and also an Asian American, was the first from UCI.

You can follow Jesse's exploits, thoughts, and first-hand facts and news about California higher education on twitter.

He is featured on the UCI web site: Voice of the People.

To listen to the 27 July 2009 show, click here: .

Campus Activism Not Dead!

Irvine -- Campus activism is not dead. Up north at UC Berkeley, activists are currently rallying to the cause of Jesus Gutierrez, an AFSCME activist who was arrested at his job on a campus eatery for allegedly using a stolen Social Security number. He now faces possible deportation as a result. (See Daily Californian story. Activists are upset over the involvement of the campus authorities with ICE, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Students have also called for making UC Berkeley a sanctuary from ICE raids, just like the city of Berkeley. (See the Facebook advocacy page.

NOTE: May 11, 2009, KUCI marked the last day of its 40th anniversary fund drive (You can contribute at: pledge site, or call 949 824 5824 to make a pledge.

On KUCI's Subversity Show, from 9-10 a.m. May 11, 2009 we talked with Hoku Jeffrey, Southern California Coordinator for BAMN. BAMN stands for the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary.

Jeffrey is helping organize protests at southern California campuses over the Jesus Gutierrez case. BAMN has been actively building the new youth-led integrated civil rights movement.

Upon graduating from UC Berkeley, Jeffrey moved to Los Angeles to organize the Los Angeles chapter of BAMN. He helped mobilize area youth in the historic Spring 2006 immigrant rights marches. He also led successful campaigns of youth to win recognition of the Cesar Chavez Holiday in the Los Angeles Unified School District and has also led struggles for the DREAM Act to win the right to financial aid and a pathway toward citizenship for undocumented immigrant students.

And here at UCI, the Radical Student Union is appealing to UCI students, faculty and staff to come to Disorient UCI! Planning meeting for the 09-10 UCI Disorientation Guide Tuesday, May 12, 8:00pm, Anthill Pub, UCI Student Center. For more information, see the Subversity blog.

Thanks for listening. And do contribute to help make KUCI and shows like this stay on the air. As usual, podcasts will be posted sometime after the broadcast.

To listen to the show, click here: .

Government Surveillance post-9/11: Student Activist Gets FBI Visit

Irvine -- US law (the Privacy Act) prohibits the federal government from collecting or retaining information about the First-Amendment-related activities of citizens and permanent residents but since 9/11, all bets are off it seems. A Washington Asian American student activist was visited 29 November (last month) by the FBI at his residence after he spoke out against "Islamo-Fascism" week.

On the 10 December 2007 edition of Subversity, we chat with Shemon Salam about what happened, what this portends for activists today and more generally about the state of activism today, especially among Asian Americans.

Salam is a University of Washington graduate student and an Asian American Muslim. He has been an anti-war and Palestine solidarity activist for the past six years. He has also been involved with anti-fascist organizing, and been active countering police brutality and immigrant deportation.

See his: "A Visit from the FBI: When Fear is Not an Option," CounterPunch, 1 December 2007.

To listen to the show, click here: