SUNY Purchase Call to Action
February 25, 2010
Students, Faculty and Staff,
We are in a dire state.
We are currently in the throes of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. New York’s unemployment rate is at its highest level in almost seventeen years and is showing no sign of improvement. Yet in the midst of this, we’ve managed to neglect the greatest possible hope our country and our community has to offer: our institutions of public higher education.
Nationwide, tuition continues to skyrocket as federal aid stagnates under ever increasing financial pressure from public universities. Students are being priced out of higher education and privatization threatens the very existence of public education as know it. College has become out of reach for all but the most economically elite and tuition differentiation threatens to exacerbate the divide between the poor and the privileged.
We bailed out the banks. We bailed out the motor industry. Where is higher education’s reprieve? Now is not the time to abandon higher education. Now, more than ever, we need Albany to invest in SUNY and invest in our futures.
What began as an action in California to take a stand against tuition hikes of almost 32 percent has become a nationwide movement to defend public education against the risk of rising tuition, increased class size and delayed graduation time. Our colleagues at campuses across the country have put out a national appeal to protect higher education from the instabilities of unregulated tuition increases, and we, as concerned students of SUNY Purchase, have heeded the call.
This March 4, we must show Governor Patterson and President Schwarz that we will not acquiesce to the whims of shortsighted budget cuts and a privatization that goes against the character of our school and the integrity of the educational system. This March 4, we must join forces with students from across the country to protect and defend higher education. Read the rest of this entry »
New School Walkout March 4th
February 24, 2010
Yesterday the dumpsters, Tomorrow the world: UC Irvine
February 24, 2010
UCI is NOT a state of anarchy!” – UCI Political Science Department Chair Mark Petracca, to Muslim students disrupting Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren’s talk 2 weeks ago.
Well, Mr. Petracca, we’ve tried it your way, it’s time for ours!
A curious thing happened yesterday at the University of California Irvine: for several hours, the campus descended into a state of anarchy.
At 9:30am, 14 students and 3 AFSCME 3299 representatives began a sit-in outside Chancellor Michael Drake’s office. The police were caught completely flat-footed, and it was only because a police officer saw the crowd and rushed to the 5th floor to lock Drake’s door that the students didn’t get inside. A list of demands was issued, and while there has already been much debate and discussion about the demands, we have no interest in dissecting the demands–the fact that these issues are even being talked about is sufficient. Police seemed unprepared to deal with the sit-in; really, nothing like this has happened in years on our quiet Stepford-esque campus. After nearly an hour, police finally made the move to arrest the protesters. Read the rest of this entry »
More video from Copenhagen
February 22, 2010
Communique from the occupied HCC: The Evergreen State College, Coast Salish Territories
February 20, 2010
We just realized we’ve been paying money in order to follow rules. Rules that we have no say in. We also realized that soon we will be paying even more money and following even more rules that we still have no control over, and it makes us disheartened, discouraged and frustrated.
Realizing these things and feeling this way led us to the discovery that we can and should be able to commandeer the facilities that we are paying for. We realized that we can stop being subjects ruled by an administration, a bureaucracy and a campus police force. We realized that we are autonomous and free people, capable of anything.
And so, we decided to occupy the Housing Community Center (HCC).
Read the rest of this entry »
Riots over tuition hike in Nigeria
February 17, 2010
From Next:
Activities at Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma, Edo State, stopped yesterday when over 2000 students took to the streets, protesting alleged increment in their school fees. The surrounding supermarkets and filling station were set on fire, banks were raided, while the Benin-Auchi-Abuja road was impassable as the protesting students barricaded the road, forcing all vehicular movement to divert through Iruekpen-Sabon-Gida-Ora-Afuze-Auchi road.
The students were protesting the hike in school fees from N26,000 to N76,000 for full-time students, and from N30,000 to N100,000 for part-time students.
The Edo State Commissioner for Education, Ngozi Osareren, denied that there was increase in the school fees of students but confirmed that the governing council of the university met last week where issues on school fees were discussed.
Meanwhile, the Education Rights Campaign (ERC), a non-profit group, on Monday condemned the recent increase in tuition fees at the University.
In a release jointly signed by the group’s national coordinator, and national secretary, Hassan Taiwo and Chinedu Bosah, respectively, the group called the state government and the school management to revert the fees immediately.
“The fees have been provocatively and unwarrantedly increased, and we see no justification for it given the socio-economic difficulties most Nigerians are passing through,” the release reads.
According to the group, the old fees, formerly between N20,000 and N30,000, is now between N54,000 and N100,000, depending on the level and the course of study. The part-time and the fresh students are now expected to pay N100,000; pre-degree students are to pay N90,000; science students are to pay N74,000, while non-science students are to pay N54,000.
The group also argued that it would be inconsiderate to ask citizens earning N7,500 as minimum wage to pay N100,000 for their wards’ university education.
Commenting on the issue, Information and Orientation Commissioner, Abdul Oroh, condemned the action of the students which he said was hijacked by hoodlums, adding that the police would be allowed to do its work and bring those responsible for the destruction of properties to book.
Riot 2010 Begins
February 15, 2010
400 protesters raged through the streets of Vancouver on the “2010 Heart Attack” march on Saturday, February 13, 2010. Thirteen people were arrested, and dozens more were detained. More videos, pictures, and detailed analysis of the action from Beneath the Snow:
University of Sussex OCCUPIED
February 9, 2010
We have occupied the top floor of Bramber House, University of Sussex, Brighton. There are 106 of us.
The decision to occupy has been taken after weeks of concerted campaigning during which the university management have repeatedly failed to take away the threat of compulsory redundancies and course cuts.
We recognise that an attack on education workers is an attack on us.
The room we have occupied is not a lecture theatre but a conference centre. As such, we are not disrupting the education of our fellow students; rather, we are disrupting a key part of management’s strategy to run the university as a profitable business.
They’re occupying everywhere in waves across California, New York, Greece, Croatia, Germany and Austria and elsewhere – and not only in the universities. We send greetings of solidarity and cheerful grins to all those occupation movements and everyone else fighting the pay cuts, cuts in services and jobs which will multiply everywhere as bosses and states try and pull out of the crisis.
But we are the crisis.
Profitability mean nothing against the livelihoods destroyed, lost homes, austerity measures, green or otherwise. We just heard we’ve increased ‘operational costs’ – they’d set out the building for a meeting and now they’ll have to do it again
We’ll show them “operational costs.”
Occupy again and again and again.
NO CUTS ANYWHERE.
THE UNIVERSITY IS A FACTORY. STRIKE. OCCUPY.
-All the occupiers of the 8th of February.
Panel for Education Policy (PEP) meeting, Brooklyn Tech High School, January 26th 2010
We Won’t Pay, F*ck the MTA part 2
January 30, 2010
On Monday at 12:30pm another rally against the MTA’s attempts to terminate student metrocards, be there!!!
JOIN US for the STUDENT RALLY IN FRONT OF THE MTA HEADQUARTERS on FEB1ST!
Location: 437 ave between 44th st and 45th st
Time: 12.30 pm
Train Directions: 4.5.6.. line to 42ND St Grand Central
B.D.F.V to 47-50th st Rockefeller Center
******************************************************************************
“Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world, indeed its the only thing that ever has”- Margaret Mead
WE ARE STANDING UP AND SAYING WE WONT TAKE IT ANY MORE !
A COALITION OF ORGANIZATIONS/ STUDENTS/ PARENTS/ MTA WORKERS/ TEACHERS & FACULTY MEMBERS /CONCERNED CITIZENS
ARE JOINING TO FIGHT AGAINST THE MTA CUT OF STUDENT METRO CARDS.
Let them hear you like they never had before!
Protest School Closings – Tues, Jan 26th, 4pm, Brooklyn Tech
January 25, 2010
Shut Down City (Hall) Not Our Schools!
We say:
-Fix Public Schools, Don’t Close Them!
-Public School Buildings for Public Schools Not Charter Schools!
-We want a People’s Board of Education Not Mayoral Control!
Protest at the Panel for Educational Policy
Show UP and Speak Out
*****WEAR RED!****
Tuesday January 26, 2010
Starting at 4PM
@ Brooklyn Tech High School
29 Ft Greene Place
Directions: B,M,Q,R to Dekalb Ave.; C to Lafayette Ave.; G to Fulton St (B,klyn); or 2,3,4,5 to Nevins Street. For detailed directions visit hopstop.com.
For more information contact
harlem120@msn.com
Coalition for Public Education/
Occupation at Hibernia Bank, San Francisco
January 21, 2010
From Occupy CA:
Today, several students from Universities across the state attempted to occupy the Hibernia National Bank building in San Francisco. This building which has remained empty for years was recently sold for almost 3 million dollars in a neighborhood where thousands live without homes and hundreds die each year while lacking shelter. This space has been left empty because of the profit motive – placing the surplus value that could be acquired over the possible human needs that space could and should have fulfilled. We had planned on taking this space and holding it until later in the afternoon, when a march against homelessness and affordable housing would end in a rally nearby. We wished to take an action that would bridge the various movements that are taking shape from the growing discontent in this country and found it logical that the tactic of occupation be used to illustrate the nonsensical logic that dictates how and who uses space.
After a few hours of being in the building, a motion sensor alarm alerted the building owner who then called the police. As we sat in a room deciding how we should proceed the lights in the building suddenly switched on. We began to hear footsteps and voices travelling up from the stairs and initially attempted to hide in one of the rooms. After we realized that there would be no escape and no possibility of adequately hiding we revealed ourselves to the police. We were met with six loaded guns, yelling at us to put our hands up. Even after we had surrendered ourselves pistols were still aimed and ready to fire. The police questioned us and berated us for our “stupidity”, one officer even scolded another for not shooting us on the spot. This threat of violence shown against those who were seemingly attempting find refuge from a winter storm is ridiculous and displays the criminalization of poverty that exists in our society. Furthermore, it shows the backward values of our community which place the protection of private property above the safety and well-being of people. It is doubtful that SFPD’s response to a report of violence or sex slavery in the Tenderloin would be nearly as robust or timely. Read the rest of this entry »
Banner Drop at University of New Orleans
January 14, 2010
from: http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20100113201615185
Students are being forced to pay more for less. Government bureaucrats have slashed the higher education budget for the second straight year. And the cuts are only getting worse. Our tuition has ratcheted up 10% and the Post-Secondary Education Review Commission is discussing as much as a 30% increase next Fall. They have already cut classes and majors, jammed every class to bursting, layed off whole crews of UNO workers, and restricted access to labs and buildings. Dirt is piling up in the buildings and students are watching the classes they need to graduate evaporate.
The economic crisis has come home. This is a crisis created by policymakers in bed with Wall Street, not by the students, faculty, or workers at UNO, and WE WON’T PAY FOR THEIR CRISIS.
De-funding higher education is a sure way to keep Louisiana at the bottom of the heap and destroy any hope of a better future for our state.
This situation is untenable.
We urge faculty to discuss the budget cuts in their classes, the staff to organize strikes as the layoffs continue, and for students to take action against tuition increases and class cuts. Faculty, workers, students: stand together and halt the looting of public higher education in Louisiana!
20 of the 25 highest paid government employees in Louisiana are Louisiana university administrators. LSU System President John Lombardi makes $600,000 a year. What Lombardi hopes for is our silence as he dismantles the university with one hand and stuffs his pocket with the other. That is business as usual, for now, but it rests on our complacency in allowing it to function in this time of crisis.
We are the university, we can shut it down.
-A few fed up UNO students
neworleansstudents@gmail.com
Modesto Anarcho: Miwok Tribe occupies tribal property
January 2, 2010
From Modesto Anarcho:
In mid-2009, Modesto Anarcho Crew (MAC – about our biznas) became aware of the decision of the California Valley Miwok Tribe to occupy their foreclosed home in Stockton, located in the Californian Central Valley about 20 north of Modesto. We contacted them the same day and the next day three of us drove out to meet them. We found their house, which is the only thing that the tribe owns, to have its gates welded shut, guard dogs on patrol, and those inside the house firmly situated inside. Although we couldn’t get onto the property due to the occupation, we talked to a tribal member about their struggle and offered some food and copies of our magazine. We traded emails and soon after this interview was conducted.
OCCUPY EVERYTHING!: California Valley Miwok Tribe Occupies Foreclosed House in Stockton Read the rest of this entry »
Students save campus childcare center at CUNY Hunter
December 23, 2009
On Tuesday the New York State Supreme Court granted an injunction preventing Hunter from turning the childcare center into an administrative office. The decision was in the midst of an escalating student struggle to prevent the center’s closing that would result in education becoming unaffordable for many current students who are already struggling to pay CUNY’s rising tuition.
On Monday, students from throughout the CUNY system, NYU, and New School attended a rally outside of Hunter, one of several so far, to demand the center stay open. At one point, the rally attempted to march inside the well-policed building to bring their demands directly to the administrators. One student was arrested in the demonstration and is being charged with incite to riot.
Administrators are beginning to learn it is no longer so easy to disenfranchise a single faction of students as solidarity between students at New York City rapidly strengthens.
A Torchlit Evening with Birgeneau
December 13, 2009
“Everybody throw your lighters up, tell me y’all finna fight or what?” -The Coup
It is no secret that the kids are pissed. Since September, we’ve carried out over a dozen building takeovers of varying scale and intensity on California campuses, and during the Days of Action against Cuts and Hikes in November, students in Berkeley and LA actually fought police. In the past few days, evictions of occupied spaces at SFSU and Berkeley by the armed agents of the state and academy can only represent the future of this form of education. Last night, we marched to war and for once didn’t wait for the enemy to strike the first blow.
