Why didn't Berkeley use the Washington Monument strategy?

We noted in a prior post that UC-Berkeley, in regards to the issue of the enrollment cap, seems to have thrown away its chance to get a legislative fix by coming up with a plan to accommodate the cap by pushing the pain to out-of-state students, international students, and graduate students, people that legislators don't care much about.* If you want a legislative solution, the most obvious approach is the Washington Monument strategy. Don't know what that is? Don't be ashamed not to know. The Berkeley folks apparently don't know, either. See below:

Washington Monument strategy

The “Washington Monument strategy” is named after a tactic used by the National Park Service to threaten closure of the popular Washington Monument when lawmakers proposed serious cuts in spending on parks.

Roll Call calls it “an old legislative ploy where an agency threatens to close popular services first.”

The strategy is used at all levels of government in an attempt to get the public to rally around government services they take pride in or find useful. Closing libraries on certain days of the week or reducing days of trash pick up  appears to have the same effect.

Source: https://politicaldictionary.com/words/washington-monument-strategy/.

Now, sensing victory, the local group that successfully litigated the enrollment cap issue is goading the university with a proposal it knows the university can't accept:

1,000 more students could attend UC Berkeley next fall — if university system accepts group’s conditions

Lauren Hernández, March 5, 2022, San Francisco Chronicle

One thousand additional California high school students could attend UC Berkeley next fall under a new offer from Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods, the group that successfully challenged a growing student population amid housing concerns in court. But the offer comes with a few catches. In a statement released on Saturday, the group said that it would agree to a “temporary” and “partial” stay of a court-ordered enrollment cap forcing UC Berkeley to enroll no more than 42,237 undergraduates and graduate students during the 2022-23 school year — far less than the 45,057 students currently enrolled — if the University of California halted its effort to get out from under the cap through the courts and state Legislature.

Instead, Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods said in a statement addressed to UC President Michael Drake, UC Berkeley could enroll 1,000 more students provided that at least 90% of the new undergraduates are California residents and if the UC system “does not attempt to exceed total enrollment of 43,347 for the 2022-23 academic year by further legal action in the courts or state legislature.”

UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof told The Chronicle that enrollment decisions in the UC system are made by elected representatives in California — including the governor, the UC Board of Regents and the office of the UC president — and that university officials “will not provide a small group of litigants with the ability to tell the University of California how many students to enroll.” Mogulof also questioned the intent of Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods, which he said provided its offer to the media before sharing it with the university. “I think it speaks volumes to what’s at work here,” he said by phone. “It’s hard to accept whether or not this group’s intentions align with what it states its desires are.”

The neighborhood’s group’s conditional offer comes a day after UC Berkeley said that it would cut next fall’s in-person enrollment by 2,629 instead of the 3,050 figure that was initially estimated in order to comply with a California Supreme Court order limiting the university’s enrollment to 2020 levels. Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods representatives said on Saturday that they are “willing to enter into settlement talks based on the principle that enrollment growth can only take place with no further pressure on the City of Berkeley’s housing market.” Mogulof said city officials have made their support of the university “really clear,” pointing to the City Council’s vote to file court papers supporting UC Berkeley. Mogulof said that university officials will continue to “follow the lead” of local elected representatives and follow state leaders who “represent and serve the people of California and reflect their interests.”

Source: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/1-000-more-students-could-attend-UC-Berkeley-next-16980362.php.

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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2022/03/a-strange-political-retreat-from-uc.html.