A warning to students and the working class
Who are California Governor Jerry Brown’s appointments to the University of California Board of Regents?
By
Evelyn Rios
10 September 2018
Democratic California Governor Jerry Brown announced the appointment of four new members to the University of California Board of Regents last month. The four appointees—Michael Cohen, Cecilia V. Estolano, Richard Leib and Laphonza Butler—are trusted representatives of the financial oligarchy and the military-intelligence apparatus and will play an essential role in the university’s further integration into the state apparatus and corporate America.
The selections will join the 28-member Board of Regents, which dictates all aspects of life for the 238,000 students and 190,000 staff throughout the ten campuses, five medical centers, 16 health professional schools, three national laboratories and numerous satellite facilities that comprise the largest public institution of higher learning in the world.
As for their qualifications:
• Cohen has served as director of the California Department of Finance and as Brown’s top budget advisor for the past five years. Since his early August nomination to the board, he has been named the Chief Financial Officer of the California Public Employee Retirement System or CalPERS. Cohen has been the California governor’s top strategist for imposing merciless austerity measures on the working class, including years of massive cuts to CalWorks Welfare to Work program, Supplemental Security Income/State Supplemental Payment (SSI/SSP) recipients, and the axing of dental and vision coverage from Medi-Cal.
• Estolano was the senior policy advisor at the US Environmental Protection Agency from 1993 to 1995 and is a founder and chief executive at…