Great Article by the New York Times on the new resurgence of Student Activism.
It briefly touches on various student protests across the nation including:
- The Morgan Stanley protests at Yale
- Occupy Pocatello at Idaho State University
- Illinois State University maintaining their occupation through winter break
- The Student Debtors pledge, not to pay back student loans.
- 2009 University of California building takeovers (However, glaringly absent is the 2011 UCSD Library take over)
- Occupy Harvard and Occupy Harvard 2.0
- Tufts and Occupy Boston
- Seattle Central Community Colleges and Occupy Seattle
- UC Davis and the officer Pike’s infamous internet meme pepper spray incident
- Occupy Colleges
- Occupy California State University Bakersfield
The article closes with this great quote:
-
But the hardest battle, she [Ericka Hoffman], believes, will be getting the political and financial masters of the universe to listen.
“People in positions of power, I think they believe nothing is going to happen,” she said. “We’re just going to yell and scream and hold up signs and nothing’s going to change. But you’ve got an entire generation of people that realize something is wrong and something has to change because the system is wrong. There’s more of us than there are of them.”
800 students from across the University of California gathered at UC Riverside on 1/19/12 to protest an educational system that systematically excludes their voices, yet continues to raise tuition. During the protest police once again responded violently to peaceful protesters.
Student protest at UC Riverside 1/19/12. So proud of my fellow UCSD activists who were there and stood up for our voices that are excluded in the structure of the University of California educational system. The board of Regents has 25 voting members, only one is given to students, the rest are political appointees by the governor, often individuals who have no vested interest in the educational system, yet benefit from a lavish living stipend ($25,000/month for UCSD Chancellor Fox) paid for by dwindling tax dollars and increasingly from student tuition. (http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/compensation/compensation_report_addendum_cy2009-0910.pdf)
Recently the board of regents voted to increase tuition 81%, then at the following meeting gave themselves a 21% raise. Can you understand why we are upset now?
( http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-09-16/news/30163576_1_uc-budget-regent-dick-blum-tuition-increases )
( http://www.change.org/petitions/uc-regents-stop-the-proposed-81-fee-increase )
MORE MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE UC RIVERSIDE 1/19/12 PROTEST:
The Daily Kos:
LA Times:
