Demand #1. Transparent and Democratic Budget Allocation. Decisions must be made by those who are most affected by them. That is democracy. It cannot exist so long as the university community is denied access to and participation in decision-making processes that determine the distribution of campus resources. We are the university, and we demand power.
Demand #2. Cut from the top administrators: cap all salaries at $150,000 per year. The hardest work done at the U is done by those lowest paid. CEOs know NOTHING about maintaining buildings, or teaching classes, and should NOT be making the most money at the U! High-level Administrative salaries are inflated by at least 20% at the same time as unionized workers are fighting for raises of 2-3%. CUT FROM THE TOP, NOT FROM US
Demand #3. No layoffs. The University of Washington has used the budget cuts as an opportunity to selectively lay off the lowest paid and most necessary workers on campus. Layoffs have disproportionately affected immigrant workers, people of color, and women at this University. Meanwhile, upper level administration and managers are INCREASING. The U has consistently laid off union workers to hire part time workers for less money with no benefits in their place, or to out contract jobs to private companies! We demand an END to LAYOFFS and a REHIRING at PREVIOUS RATES of laid off workers!
Demand #4. No speed-ups for workers. Vacancies left by layoffs, firing, and restructuring have led to campus wide speed-ups for workers. Speed-up is worker abuse, and a University cannot exist on the basis of continual oppression and exploitation of its workers and students. End Speed Ups for all workers!
Demand #5. Accessible public education for all. Increase access to universities for students who are people of color, low income, working class, queer folks, immigrants, women, and folks with disabilities.The high tuition/high aid model is a joke for working and poor students. The only way to make the university accessible is to LOWER tuition; not raise it and then make students of color, poor students, and working students jump through impossible hoops like circus animals to get your pittances. Working students, students of color, immigrants, women, queer folks, folks with disabilities ARE this UNIVERSITY! We should be at the forefront of the University as primary participants in our own education. We will fight together to take back the University.
Demand #6. Freeze Tuition. We will fight to make UW a public university. Any increase is unacceptable. Any increase makes it even more difficult for working students and students of color to access an educational system already bent on marginalizing them within it or, worse, excluding them altogether. We demand that you freeze tuition, as a first step towards creating open access to higher education for everyone.
Demand #7. Replace Loans with Grants. What's called "financial aid" deceptively includes merit-based grants and loans, in addition to need-based grants. Merit based scholarships do not provide aid to those who need it to access higher education. Loans are repaid in full with exorbitant interest, often generating handsome profits for lenders. We demand that you stop calling loans aid. It is dishonest and misleading. We demand that you expand real financial aid. Increase need-based grants that allow low-income students and students of color to access higher education without saddling them with devastating, lifelong debt.
