The co-ops emailed us an open letter to Vice Chancellor Watson concerning the ongoing rent negotiations that are quickly sliding from the public consciousness. You should read it.

To members of the UCSD Community:

You may have received e-mail from Vice Chancellor Watson on October 15 entitled "Controversy Regarding UCSD's Student-Run Co-ops". While we appreciate Watson's acknowledgment of our value and his expression of support for our continued presence on campus, we take issue with a few of his statements.

Watson writes:

UCSD Student Affairs representatives presented proposed revisions to the existing agreement as early as Fall 2003, in order to have a new agreement in place before the agreement expired ...

We maintain that the Memorandum of Understanding is still in effect, but Student Affairs claims it expired in 1998 (in an August 17 letter from Student Policies and Judicial Affairs Director Nick Aguilar). In light of this, to claim that revisions proposed in the past year were to be in place before the agreement expired is inconsistent and deceptive.

Watson:

... because of health and safety issues and concerns regarding compliance with procedures governing student activities.

The Memorandum of Understanding prescribes a straightforward procedure for addressing such concerns in paragraph II:

... the Administration shall oversee:
1. Health and safety regulations
2. UCSD Policies and Procedures
... in the event the UCSD Administration believes that a Co-op has violated one of the items ... above, it will provide the AS and GSA and the respective Co-op with written notice specifying the violations and an opportunity for the Co-op to remedy the alleged violation(s).

We believe these provisions are adequate, we are aware of no outstanding allegations, and we assert that citing "health and safety issues" is misrepresentative and defamatory. The co-ops pass quarterly inspections by the UCSD Environment, Health, and Safety department (EH&S), just like every other vendor on campus. Bearing that out, when a Fox News reporter asked Assistant Vice Chancellor Carmen Vazquez on camera what health and safety issues the administration has with the co-ops, she responded: "Uh, we don't really have any."

Watson:

The current and planned negotiations are solely for the purpose of addressing these concerns. They are of a technical and legal nature and will not affect the viability of the co-ops.

Watson has threatened to evict us, acknowledged to student government representatives that it was in fact a threat, and refused to withdraw it. Even if we aren't evicted, the resources it takes for us to respond to this aggression certainly affects our viability. Unlike UCSD Student Affairs, as non-profit student organizations we don't have lawyers on payroll or budgets full of students' fees to spend on legal expenses.

Watson:

In fact, under the proposed new agreement, the University would continue to provide the co-ops with substantially discounted rental rates as well as long term leases.

The proposed new agreement would also allow the UCSD administration to terminate it unilaterally without cause, abolish the AS and GSA oversight in which students (not administrators) decide whether we are acting in their best interest, and eliminate informal dispute resolution procedures that have forestalled potentially expensive lawsuits.

Unfortunately, Student Affairs has refused to participate in informal resolution on the current disputes, which is why we filed the formal non-academic grievance on October 4. That and other relevant documents are available at the following URL:

http://libertad.ucsd.edu/documents/

We call upon the UCSD administration to recognize the voices of students in the co-ops and student government alike, who have clearly expressed a desire to continue under the current contractual terms of the MOU and MSA. We honestly hope Student Affairs will stop throwing red herrings, and instead bring real issues to the table and negotiate in good faith.

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