The crisis was followed immediately by an outpouring of humanitarian aid from across the globe, leading to the dispatch of medical teams to the nation as well as vast sums of monetary donations. The United Nations initiated an emergency phase of relief that ended on January 22nd, along with an extensive search for survivors. Such dilemmas are not new to Haiti, which experienced 3 hurricanes in the summer of 2008 alone.

Though aid was provided from around the world, these efforts faced many obstacles. As Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, emergency services were proven to be unable to handle a disaster of this magnitude. Very few hospitals were left standing following the quake, causing the Argentine military field hospital to be the only one available the day the earthquake occurred. Doctors Without Borders, which has played a key role in relief efforts, reported that medical facilities were so flooded with the injured that many swift amputations were forced to take place. Furthermore, the limited amount of medical supplies led to crude reinforcements including cardboard splints and frequently reused latex gloves. The amount of injured citizens was such that nearly 20,000 Haitians died each day who would have been saved by surgery, had sufficient medical facilities been in place.

An unfortunate complication of relief efforts was that most of Haiti’s communication and transportation systems were destroyed by the quake, making such efforts significantly less effective. Air traffic became thoroughly congested, as were the capital’s morgues that had no choice but to bury tens of thousands of bodies in mass graves. US traffic controllers handled this by assuming control at the Toussaint L’Ouverture International Airport, making sure that planes equipped with emergency medical supplies could not leave the country. These complications were met with confusion over who was in charge, followed by violence from injured survivors who felt that aid was not properly distributed. Aid workers from the region took issue with US dispatched workers, who were accused of letting a number of relief trucks remain unused at the airport. In response to these and other disagreements, US officials as well as Haitian president Preval acknowledged that diplomatic cooperation is central to guide the nation toward recovery.

While there were many complications along the way, Haiti received a remarkable amount of international assistance. In the two days following the quake, over 20 countries dispatched military personnel to the nation to provide medical care and search for survivors. After arriving at maximum possible speed on January 15th, the USS Carl Vinson super carrier delivered 600,000 emergency food rations, 1 million liters of water, and 19 helicopters for victim recovery. These helicopters became essential in the distribution of these rations, as the damage from the quake made many areas inaccessible by land. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Haiti on January 16th to survey the damage, and announced that the U.S. had raised $48 million in relief aid. Two days before, President Obama pledged $100 million to the nation, stating that the victims of the disaster “will not be forgotten”. The European Union was another key contributor, promising $474 million in long-term aid. Recognizing that crowding was a source of much hindrance of relief efforts,

President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal allowed Haitians access to free Senegalese land. The positive response to this may lead to an entire region being allocated for this purpose. In addition to immediate fiscal contributions, corporations including Coca Cola and AT&T instated donation strategies that allowed consumers to donate digitally from around the world at the click of a button.

Though the emergency phase of relief efforts has concluded, Haiti is nowhere near the end of its ordeal. The damage of the quake was such that the economy will take years to fully recover. Trade and Industry Minister Josseline Colimon Fethiere predicted that 1 in 5 jobs would be lost, while many citizens will need continued medical care for serious injuries. As Vice President Joe Biden explained, President Obama “does not view this as a humanitarian mission with a life cycle of a month. This will still be on our radar screen long after it’s off the crawler at CNN. This is going to be a long slog.”

The UC system is one of many social organizations that have taken a hit due to the state’s $26.3 billion budget deficit, leading directly to a $813 million budget cut to take place over two years. State employees are suffering income reductions, while over $470 million worth of IOU’s are clogging government ledgers. In addition to the 30% fee hikes that are slated to occur for the spring semester, many UC students narrowly avoided having their Cal Grant awards withdrawn. Many California residents have protested that students should have high priority despite the state’s budget issues, arguing that thousands of students would be unable to continue attending their school should their tuition be raised. This was cited as a key dilemma by the Commission, who recognized that limiting the amount of college graduates is a detriment to the long-term goals of the state and would have ominous implications for the economy in upcoming years.

Yudof reflected upon the state’s funding limits, saying, “The candid truth is that the state of California has become an unreliable partner and has been an unreliable partner for years. The commission is designed to take an integrated, holistic look at all of UC’s priorities, knowing that we do not have the financial resources to maximize all of those values.”

The Commission is comprised of five working groups, each with different focuses on how to better the situation for UC students and faculty. The first is Size and Shape of UC, chaired by UC Santa Cruz Chancellor George Blumenthal and UC Santa Cruz commission member Cynthia Brown. This group’s goal is to effectively maintain ideal enrollment levels and high quality of academic programs. UC Berkeley School of Law Dean Christopher Edley and UC Davis professor Keith Williams oversee Education and Curriculum, a group that focuses on creating cost efficient alternatives for delivery models that can maintain high program quality. A third group, Access and Affordability, is chaired by UC Student Regent Jesse Bernal and UC Irvine Chancellor Michael Drake and aims to make a UC education attainable to students of all backgounds. The Funding Strategies group is chaired by UC Santa Barbara Executive Vice Chancellor Gene Lucas and UCLA Vice Chancellor Steven Olsen, and focuses on how to effectively generate revenue for the UC system. Academic Senate Immediate Past Chair Mary Croughan and UC Santa Barbara Chancellor Henry Yang chair the final group, Research Strategies, the goal of which is to examine how UC schools can recreate research practices and collaboration.

The first stop for the Commission was at UC Santa Barbara on October 22nd, where students gathered to give input on how the crisis was limiting their ability to attend their university. This meeting was followed with visits to UC Merced and UC Irvine, and by mid-December the Commission plans to have visited all 10 UC campuses.

These meetings served as an outlet for students and stakeholders to voice their frustrations. Many students who attended these meetings reflected that fee hikes will cause minorities to be even more underrepresented in the student population of UC’s, while others lamented that their tuition is planned to increase at the same time that their parents’ income is set to be reduced. A number of students also shared frustration at the lack of an effective outlet for their ideas. UC Irvine senior Sarah Thompson acknowledged her school’s lack of concern for student input during the Commission’s visit to her campus, sharing an encounter she had when she asked a financial aid counselor for advice. “I asked, ‘Where do I protest this? How do I get involved?’ And she laughed at me.”

The UC system has a long and difficult road ahead of them toward the goal of maximizing student interests while staying within financial constraints. Despite many students’ view that their voices are not being heard, Yudof has vowed to take every student into consideration. “Being president of the University of California is like being manager of a cemetery: There are many people under you, but no one is listening. I listen to them.”