Thursday is the first day of classes at the University of California, Davis, and it will be anything but business as usual. As at most of the 10-campus system, many unionized employees are striking over what they claim as unfair labor practices, many faculty will participate in a one-day walkout in defense of public education, and the University of California Student Association, which represents more than 200,000 students, unanimously endorsed the walkout.

What these actions should make clear is that California's public higher education system is in crisis. What is less clear is what are the causes and what are the solutions. While some inside and outside the university have focused criticism on the ways in which the system's leadership has responded to the current bleak budget conditions, we argue that the roots of the crisis do not lie only within the UC system, and they were not short-term in the making. We have an immediate need to think and act in the long term.

What we face – as a result of three decades of declining funding to public education – is the imminent threat to the status of the University of California as a public institution. The University of California has a social contract with the people of the state. In return for public funding, we pledge to provide a world-class education for everyone in the state, especially its youth, and to conduct research to improve the lives of all residents of the state. It was this mission that drew the three of us to work in the University of California.

Today's drastic budget cuts are the results of decisions by taxpayers and their representatives. A generation ago, in the midst of another recession, California spent today's equivalent of $327 per California resident on our higher education system, including the UC, California State University and community college systems. This level of commitment was adequate for sustaining a system that allowed any family in the state, no matter their financial means, to send their children to one of the highest-quality higher education systems in the world. This spending, in turn, drove the innovation that powered the economy of the state. This expenditure was 3.2 times as much as we spent on the entire criminal justice system, reflecting a clear priority of schools over prisons.

By 2008-09, spending on higher education had declined to $263 per California resident, down 20 percent from a generation ago. Among other reasons, this has meant that UC Davis receives only about a quarter of its revenues from the state.

Meanwhile, spending on the criminal justice system has skyrocketed – up more than 220 percent on spending per resident since 1984-85. California now spends nearly 25 percent more on our systems for arresting and locking up people than we do on providing quality education opportunities for our youth and students of all ages.

In line with these trends, in the last decade, fees for students to attend the University of California have nearly tripled, with another 32 percent increase being proposed. This puts a University of California education further out of reach for poor and middle-class California families.

We believe the real value of union, student and faculty mobilizations is their highlighting that the status quo is unacceptable. If we continue on the current path of simply managing successive rounds of budget cuts, we will undercut the higher education system beyond recognition. Rather than serving all of society, the people's university will serve only the wealthy. We need a political system that prioritizes spending to support a schools-to-college and career pipeline. Providing accessible, high quality public education is an essential part of helping our youth to meet their full potential and, in turn, to drive the state's economy and civic life.

We need to renew the social contract that binds the University of California with the people of the state. We need California residents to reconnect with the university as their own, and for the UC leadership to make more convincing cases as to why increased public support is warranted.

The University of California belongs to all of us. Let's come together to make it, and the rest of the state's education system, as great as the public it serves.

Chris Benner, Ryan Galt, and Jonathan London are faculty members in the Department of Human and Community Development at UC Davis.