Good. I hate to say it but I encourage as many people as possible to sue UCD for as many reasons as possible for huge damages. The reality is that massive settlements are the only way to get the attention of the legislature that wholesale firings are needed from middle management up. I don’t have passion around PE per se but I have passion around the idea that a public university should be run fully in the sunshine without sudden or back room decisions. Over and over again this crop of administrators makes secret policy decisions and then implements without warning to effectively castrate any discourse or protest effort as too late. Fundamentally, students, taxpayers, faculty, etc should have a direct voice at the table beyond the distant premise of electing a governor who appoints regents. A few years ago, dining services held several public forums and took a year to consider whether to use fresh or packaged guacamole in campus food outlets. Why is it that stupid things like that can be considered out in the open but more meaningful things are done in secret?

Can you tell us how you really feel? :cool: Provocative.

The article seems lacking in places. Didn't the Referendum support ICA and PE? We're not Ohio State, and your "administrators" seem intent on erasing many of our unique qualities. Who benefits? Coaches who come here from big time programs and don't want to teach, administrators who have a new source of money to play with ($2 Million?), and Campus Recreation which gets to charge (fleece?) students for classes they formerly took for free?

We should be expanding PE and intramural opportunities, not reducing them.

Do you have other specific examples of these administrators? Eliminating the Cal Aggie Marching Band and (illegally?) taking their endowments?

I don't know Coaches Barbara Hahn or Darryl Lee well, but I really appreciate their input.

sure the band stuff was personal to me, but there have been other things. Years ago they tried to bulldoze the domes without warning. Bonfire was eliminated. MU Games Center a ghost of its former self. Different chancellor but a lot of the same Vice chancellors. More recently all the stuff with Freeborn Hall and now they are trying to can KDVS.

As far as I understand, PE was a condition of the student referendum that allowed D1 athletics. Clicking some of the links, it looks like funding is being diverted to other “wellness” initiatives - hiring more psychologists and offering free swim lessons, CPR, and self defense classes (but not for academic credit). It’s fine if needs have changed and those other things make more sense for today’s students. But make it a public conversation with enough time to consider all sides. My take is that when you do things in secret, it usually means you think people will be more angry if they know the supporting facts in your decision than they will by just a straight blindsiding. Which is fine in private business but not cool when you’re doing the people’s work.

On this particular decision, I’m not sure we know the why. Could have been any of the reasons you mentioned or something else. Either way I think people have a right to know the facts and be present for the process.

My observation is that UCD no longer attracts the Freeborn and Mrak types who are dedicated to long term service and vision. Instead we get people who are always interviewing for the next job instead of doing their current one or people who recognize they’ve peaked and are looking to ride out a career of mediocrity on easy street. Both types try to sweep the unpopular decisions under the rug rather than address them head on, albeit for different reasons. I should say that athletics has appeared well run over the past few years compared to most parts of the university.

I thought the MU was just spiffed up, how did it go backwards? Are there any links to what's going on with KDVS?

Student Affairs appears loaded with layers of administrators we never had before, and probably few Aggies.

Did you meet Mrak? If so, what was he like? Chancellor May seems like a likeable person and sharp, but odds are low he retires here.

MU was recently renovated. Took space from games area to expand bookstore so they could lease space to Amazon. The bookstore used to be owned by ASUCD, but the administration took it (and the profits) over in the 80s. Not a ton of transparency for where the profits from $80 sweatshirts go.

For kdvs situation see savekdvs.org . The newspaper had to move off campus as well.

There is a new VC of student affairs. I don’t know much about him. I believe this PE thing was set in motion with Galindo before him.

Fair point, I didn’t know Emil Mrak or Stanley Freeborn personally. Maybe they were terrors, I don’t know. But people from those eras tended to be career folks and had big visions for excellence. I met Vanderhoef and really liked him. Katehi was a jerk in real life. I haven’t met May personally but I agree he seems likeable. But at the same time, I haven’t seen him take out the trash, and the buck does stop with the boss.

Fug, I know you have great interest in this subject; but you have to be able to see that times have changed. Really changed! I suspect that you were a Banda member from your post, so I feel your pain. We loved you guys! We loved the Tractor blowing steam and smoke everywhere! We some times asked: when will it blow? Never, because it was removed (university insurance would not cover it). As to the Banda, we loved them until one Homecoming we brought as a guest a former female Banda member (Flautist) attractive young attorney and your leader came up the steps in the home section at Toomey; pointing out FEMALE members only as: “SHE WAS EASY; SHE WAS GOOD AT IT! COULDN’T BLOW A TUNE IF SHE HAD TO.” My wife (who was her best friend) was appalled; and, yes a Berkeley grad; flautist said “no big deal.” That was in the early ‘90s. Fug, times have changed. No current “flautist” would ever now say “no big deal” about being singled out publicly as your leader did back in the day. Also, I checked. Berkeley still has so-called PE. Maximum 4 semester units towards graduation. Also, has significant student fees close to UCD fees. Does the current UCD proposal differ that much? Again, I feel your pain. I want the tractor back! Just buy more insurance.

indeed times are changing, in many ways for the better, though not always. Promise I’m not a ranting old man and I don’t mean to sidetrack this conversation about PE to include band politics (though happy to discuss elsewhere!). My point is that good public leaders are transparent because the people’s business shouldn’t be a secret from the people. George Pardee, the governor that signed UCD into existence, famously removed the door from his office and refused secret meetings. He might be a good role model for these troubled times.

Thank you. Another step for the University taking student space, so they can make more $$$, to pay for more administrator salaries? An ASUCD student body president signed over the bookstore for I think $10,000, and received a letter of recommendation to graduate school.

FTR, I wasn't challenging you on Mrak. I heard he was great, engaged students, held retreats with student leaders in Tahoe, etc. A food & Ag researcher. When he retired I heard he would sometimes hang out in the old Alumni center... I should have said hello. Meyer reportedly reserved, bookish, the institution supported him, rode a bike,, didn't want the campus to grow, and his second wife (?) wasn't necessarily friendly or warm.

I liked Ted Hullar, but he sure upset the status quo crowd, and I have no idea of his day-to-day effectiveness. He bought more land for the campus, pushed for growth and DI athletics.

I agree with the students on this one-to the extent that they were charged in order to provide a very specific set of benefits that are being taken away from them while the money continues to be taken. The classes themselves-I could take them or leave them-I'm most upset about the misuse of funds. Perhaps the university is doing this intentionally to prepare them for when they have real jobs and the government screws them over ? Kind of an expensive lesson.

Now, the replacement services are short-term benefits that fewer people will take advantage of. Self-defense is not like you're studying karate or some other discipline where you learn to truly neutralize your attacker. They teach you some basics and let you practice but then its over. in the end you're only being taught how to get away from inept assailants. There will also be a fair amount of short-sighted reluctance to take the courses. "Why would I need self-defense in Davis ?" "I'm a man. Why do I need to take a course on how to scream and kick guys in the testicles ?" I guess the point I'm trying to make is that while useful, self-defense courses are not promoting long-term wellness, more of the safety card in the airline seat in case you crash into a mountain wellness.

I’m not going to say it’s the primary driver, but I’m sure somebody in student affairs will put this on their annual review as a commitment to equity. Self defense classes will skew female, swim lessons will skew toward people who grew up without access to pools (read socioeconomic disadvantaged). Want to increase program representation of women and pell grant recipients? Add programs like this and delete programs that may overrepresent the other end of the spectrum. And by all means I’m not against swim lessons or self defense, but to remove or substitute amenities that people have been paying towards without notice, input or justification, its like when a tech company changes the terms of service to your disadvantage on a product you’ve already purchased.