Event #3: Lecture

Yesterday, I attended a teach-in on the budget cuts titled “Whose University is this?: A Teach-In on the Budget Cuts” at the UNC Student Union. The event consisted of a panel consisting of students, staff, and faculty. The topics of discussion were tuition hikes, layoffs, budget cuts, and the economic crisis. The speakers included of: Rakhee Devasthali, an undergraduate student, Frank Dominguez, a Professor of Romance Languages, Salia Warren, an organizer with UE150, and Marko Duman, a graduate student in Russian and East European History.

The main argument that Prof. Frank Dominguez made was that workers, specifically the women and minorities, at UNC are being exploited. They are being paid relatively low compared to the others that perform the same duties as them. However, Salia Warren’s main concern was that the budget cuts are being made at the lower level rather than the administrative level. People such as housekeepers are barely paid enough. Hence, cutting their wages even more is probably not a good idea. However, if these same wage cuts are done at the administrative level, then they would not be affected as much since they already earn so much. The lower level workers do not even have any savings that they can depend on once they are laid off. Also, she felt that the lower-wage workers were being exploited by being hired as temporary workers. The important thing to notice is the fact that temporary workers at UNC have to go through a temporary agency owned by UNC. Hence, they benefit from hiring temporary workers who have to give a certain percentage of their income to the temporary agency, which in this case is owned by UNC. So, UNC benefits in that sense as well. Salia Warren was a very good speaker. She knew what she was talking about, which made people pay close attention to what she was saying. Most importantly, her voice tone was very loud and clear.

The other members of the panel included of students at UNC, both undergraduate and graduate. They basically talked about how the budget cuts are affecting them. Their main concern was that classes were being canceled in certain departments, class sizes are being enlarged, and that more classes are being taught by overworked and underpaid faculty and graduate students.

Prior to attending this teach-in, I had no idea about the budget crisis at UNC. However, this event really informed me about the topic and what the university is doing to overcome this crisis. I would completely agree with them that layoffs or forced time off without pay occur at the administrative levels only, and that the University not cut costs and rely on the use of temporary workers.