Edhat Staff
By edhat staff
A UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) student group is demanding $900 checks from the university’s federal funding.
The UCSB chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) is promoting a “COVID Justice Campaign” and is demanding the university disperse its remaining federal funds to students as direct relief checks valuing $900 each.
“Chancellor Yang’s UCSB administration is sitting on approximately $22 Million in federal relief funding that he refuses to share his plans to spend. The UCSB student body and our allies believe that the money should go directly to students who have paid exorbitant prices for subpar Zoom classes,” said YDSA Secretary Patrick Fairbanks in a press release.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act distributed $25,204,196 to UCSB at the end of March 2020 and the same amount in December 2020 due to the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act. In total, the university received $50,408,392 in aid.
“By law half of these funds were mandated to be paid directly to students – UCSB did this, providing stimulus to a measly 56% of the student body. They spent $2 million on sanitation of a mostly empty campus last year, leaving $22 million remaining. We have asked repeatedly for documentation of how those funds will be spent, but the university refuses to respond to us,” said Fairbanks.
Fairbanks argued that students have not had their tuition lowered or on-campus fees waived for services there weren’t allowed to access.
The group plans to hold a rally on Saturday, May 8th at 2:00 p.m. They’ll gather at Storke Plaza on UCSB’s campus and around 2:30 will march through campus towards Chancellor Yang’s on-campus home located next to the dormitories. From there they plan to protest with speeches from the group’s leadership and fellow organizations.
That moment of irony when avowed anti-capitalist socialists/anarchist comrades are fighting to get their “deserved” capitalist money from the very institution that groomed them to be good socialist comrades.
Leave it to the Bonfire Collective crowd to show the hypocrisy behind the cause. How many people will march, 10 or 20? Well, that’d be a hell of a lot more than participated in Bonfire Collective’s “Mayday caravan” last Saturdy, May 1st.
Edhat, thank you for this story, I needed some amusement on a cloudy, dreary day, you came through with flying colors!
This is simply sad. What a waste of money that has already been spent to not educate these kids.
@ RYPERT J….. Thank you, well said!
A-1620332083, with all due respect, it’s not a question of “not educating these kids” as you state. It’s a classic case and example of indoctrination, brought to us compliments of the leadership in certain majors and those who instruct in such majors within the institution.
There’s agendas to fill and by creating what’s referred to as “useful idiots” you can satisfy those agendas easily.
They are “educated” by all means, but with an agenda in mind and it’s not for the betterment of society.
These YDSA individuals, they’ll grow to be budding beurocrats or politicos and attempt to pass their agenda onto communities disguised as betterment.
But the truth behind their “cause” is that it’s selective and fits the “do as I say, not as I do” approach. Classic Animal Farm scenario playing itself out as we watch with popcorn in hand.
COASTWATCH, you’re welcome. If you want some amusement, go to the facebook or instagram pages for Bonfire Collective or Food Not Bombs Isla Vista and you’ll see what they’re about firsthand. Get ready for some laughs while you’re at it!
UCSB brought in a lot less money this year (dorms being mostly shuttered) and kept pretty much everyone on the payroll (plus added expenses such as testing in the Fall and Winter). As per the post, they provided stimulus to 56% of students and are (presumably) using much of the remaining money to configure/coordinate classrooms for in person teaching. I guess it’s something different to protest then their weekly “COFFEE NOT COPS” table across from the Amazon pickup…so that’s fun…
DUKEMUNSON, looks like you’re onto these budding Leninists! Or they might be Stalinists? Whatever, they do have that “coffe not cops” thing and it’s basically in front of Isla Vista Theatre, usually put together on a last minute basis to avoid being ID’d by “The Man” (whose station happens to be right down the street, LOL!).
Not sure if you remember, this is the crew that led that “huge” protest (20 people, maybe 25) to remove cops from the campus.
Now, remember, UCSB is patrolled by UCPD, the official law enforcement organization designed to patrol and protect UC campuses across the state.
Alright, so you’d think they’d go protest in front of the UCPD station on Mesa Road by Harder Stadium, right? No, they ended up in front of the Isla Vista Foot Patrol Station, which is run by… SBSO (Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office). and guess what? SBSO has ZERO jurisdiction on UC property, that’s UCPD jurisdiction. LOLOLOL! The SBSO deputies came out, just kind of chuckled and went about their business, as usual.
Typical “social justice warriors” of today, a lot of loud voices who say nothing, possess zero common sense and don’t do their research.
Cool-more money for alcohol, drugs and tatts. Party on!
BUMBLEBEE, LOL! You forgot nose rings and assorted other piercings!
So, UCSB got $50,000,000 bucks from the feds (eg, taxpayers), to do what, exactly? Multiply this by the number of large universities in the US and I guess we’re talking serious money. I’m not sure of the merits of the student’s protest, but it does beg the question of where the spent money went when the school was essentially shut down for a year, as well as where the remaining $22,000,000 will go. I have a hunch UCSB won’t be sending it back to the tax payers.
JB86 – Goleta union school district took 12 million in federal reopening funds in may and June of 2020… and they’ve only got 3000 students. Forget the Ivan students… people paying property tax should be protesting for the shuttered schools and wasted millions!
As much as I dislike the socialist agenda, students almost everywhere were ripped off and robbed. Air those grievances.
Here’s an idea… Send it back to the Federal Government as it wasn’t needed for its intended purposes… Students of entitlement socialists can go suck an egg.
And they deserve it. Way to go kids
Why support elite university types that are ripping off the common citizen? Your blind hatred has your priorities out of balance. what a shame.
Perhaps they do deserve it. After all they and their children will be paying down the debt long after the likes of me are dead and buried.
I’m guessing that because they are avowed socialists, they consider this money to be already “theirs”, and NOT belonging to a capitalist institution like UCSB. You know “money belongs to the people, not the corporations.” But like I said, I’m just guessing.
LETMEGO, I believe that practice is called “reappropriation” and was very popular with a guy named Josef Stalin, just ask anyone of Ukrainian origins.
As for UCSB being a “capitalist institution” as you say, well, not exactly. UCSB, being a public California institution and therefore supported by taxpayer money, that is not capitalist, in fact, it’s the truest form of socialist policy, to have eeducation funded by the taxpayer.
Their practices “might” be “capitalist” in plain sight, but their structure in terms of financial and fiscal support, all taxpayer and attendee paid.
But back to “reappropriation” and such. That’s just one of the key words to watch out for with these budding Stalinists. Other words they love to throw out there are “solidairity”, “collectivism”, “sustainability” and a slew of others in an attempt to gift wrap the pile of crap known as communism.
They’re good words, when applied to things that work, but to use them to promote a system that only lasted a total of 72 years… Just not correct.
If you want some insights into what these folks are about, as well as some amusement, Google “Post-Capitalism Conference” and check it out, but don’t laugh too hard… Well, actually, go right ahead, I did!
Progressives ruin everything they touch. UCSB and universities all over this country are laughingstocks. Intolerant totalitarian Progressives who’ve never done anything, never gone anywhere, never worked for anything. Spoiled little brats.
JB86, all that moolah aside, which IS a LOT of cash, is the focus, but it’s only a select group of individuals focused on it. The question here is “why?”
The answer to that lies in the strategy used to gain acceptance of their agenda, socialism/communism, using means that favor capitalism-minded individuals.
These are budding politicos looking for an in with the public, which is not of their political ilk.