Sunday, May 4, 2008

Please participate - Mass email campaign

We need to flood the email boxes of those people (listed below) who make up the chain of command relative to EALC's budget cuts. They are the ones who interpreted Schwarzenegger's budget cuts to mean that the ax would fall particularly heavily on EALC (and other departments that rely heavily on Temporary Academic Staff funding to carry their teaching load). Let's use the power of mass-email to alert them to the folly of their decision. The individual contact information for these people is as follows (group email, for the sake of convenience, provided below):

Chancellor Robert Birgeneau (Why contact him? He's the top dog.)
Phone 642-7464
Email: chancellor@berkeley.edu

Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer (Why? He's directly below Birgeneau and a crucial link in the chain of command.)
Phone 642-1961
Email: bresl@berkeley.edu

Prof. Mark A. Richards, Executive Dean of Letters and Science (Why? EALC language courses are restricted, as of Fall 2008, to L and S students; further restrictions to just majors and minors are foreseeable in the near future.)
Phone: 642-8560
Email: Mark_Richards@berkeley.edu

Janet S. Broughton, Dean of Arts and Humanities (Why? She interpreted the cuts she received from Breslauer and assigned great damage to EALC.)
Phone: 642-5396
Email: broughton@berkeley.edu

Christina Maslach, Vice Provost, Undergraduate Division (Why? Most of you are undergraduates and she's your go-to person.)
Phone: 642-9594
Email: maslach@berkeley.edu

Andrew J. SZERI, Graduate Dean (Why? Graduate students in comp. lit. and related fields won't be able to complete their degrees in a timely fashion without access to EALC classes.)
Phone: 642-5472
Email: graddean@berkeley.edu

Jon Gjerde, Dean of Social Sciences (Why? Although EALC is not housed under "Social
Sciences," students in social sciences rely on EALC language courses.)
Phone: 642-2609
Email: gjerde@berkeley.edu

For the sake of convenience, here's a group email list for the above administrators:
chancellor@berkeley.edu, bresl@berkeley.edu, Mark_Richards@berkeley.edu,
broughton@berkeley.edu, maslach@berkeley.edu, graddean@berkeley.edu,
gjerde@berkeley.edu

The scripts that you can use (and modify) follow:

Short Email:

Dear Chancellor Birgeneau, Executive Dean Breslauer, Executive Dean Richards, Dean Broughton, Vice Provost Maslach, Dean Szeri, and Dean Gjerde:

My name is _____. I am a __ year [undergraduate/graduate student] studying _____. I am writing to protest the proposed budget cuts to Berkeley’s East Asian Languages and Cultures department, which threatens the very existence of Korean language studies and severely impacts the Chinese and Japanese programs. I chose to come to UC Berkeley for my education with the strength and prestige of the EALC department in mind. The strength of a Berkeley liberal arts education lies in the broad variety of courses offered by the university and made accessible to its student body. With the proposed cuts in funding to the EALC department, thousands of students will be deprived of the opportunity to study the languages and cultures of a region that are of increasing importance and relevance to the future of California and the United States. I strongly urge you to not go forward with the proposed cuts to EALC and to find an immediate alternative that allows for the continued growth and thriving development of Korean Studies and East Asian Languages and Cultures at UC Berkeley. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
[Student name here]



Phone Call:

Dear [Administrator],

My name is _____. I am a __ year undergraduate studying _____. I am calling to protest the proposed budget cuts to Berkeley’s East Asian Languages and Cultures department, which would cripple the Korean Studies program and severely limit the Chinese and Japanese programs. I chose to come to Berkeley for my undergraduate education with the understanding that I would have access to these languages and the courses offered by these departments. I urge you to maintain the high level of education offered by the university by not going forward with the proposed cuts to the EALC department. Thank you for your time.

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