Banking on corporations to fund UC Berkeley’s future

CAMPUS ISSUES: When the University Partnership program made a deal with Bank of the West, they sought to make a profit by turning student space corporate

By Senior Editorial Board

With the ongoing specter of budgetary crisis, the University of California must take innovative yet extreme measures, such as UC Berkeley’s recent deal to make Bank of the West its “official bank.” While we recognize the necessity of private partnerships to raise money that continues to fund projects on campus which may no longer receive the same public resources, we are disheartened by the news that the bank will be housed in the student-funded Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union rather than another location on campus.

As part of a new initiative to raise revenue for the campus by creating more partnerships with private businesses, the University Partnership Program brokered a deal with Bank of the West to give it exclusive rights to the campus, including a spot for a bank branch on Lower Sproul Plaza.

The initiative reflects the unfortunate reality of the UC system: growing privatization in order to find resources that will prevent fee hikes for students and cutbacks in programs and aid. If we had to choose between raising money from outside corporations and squeezing extra tuition out of students, we would certainly endorse the former.

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[Source]: The Daily Californian