Student Strike. UMASS.

[druidity33]

from my friend Mishi:

<snip>

There is this idea that organizing is almost automatic for students.
It isn't simply that there is more time available. Many students have
workweeks that would make sensible people quit their jobs if they had
to adhere to the same insane hours. The difference is the social
cohesiveness of the campus vs the rigidly segmented professional world
I've come to know. And even in that heightened environment of social
interaction, meaningful organizing is a specialized activity. Most
students do not fall into social action. They volunteer. They build
houses and work in soup kitchens. But to take any kind of risk and
speak out for change requires a very special frame of mind and a deep
inner strength.

I'd like to call attention to a group of students doing just that.

At my alma mater, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, some old
friends are organizing and taking part in a massive student strike.
Their aim is to protest the rising cost and receding value of public
higher education. While most outsiders consider Massachusetts a leader
in higher education, if you strip away the private institutions and
leave the accessible ones, you'll find the stark result of a highly
stratified approach.

Essential and enriching courses cut, whole majors gutted. All while
the price of admission rises enormously.

That only begins to describe the problems with the school.

<snip>

http://fitnessfortheoccasion.wordpress.com/2007/11/09/student-power/

from WMass Jobs With Justice:

THREE CONCRETE WAYS FOR NON-STUDENTS TO SUPPORT THE UMASS AMHERST STUDENT
STRIKE

1. Come to the rally at Noon on Thursday November 15 at the Student Union.
2. Publicize the strike.
3. Contact President Wilson (617-287-7000) in support of the demands (below
& at http://umassgss.org/#demands).


and from the Graduate Student Senate:

The leadership of the graduate and undergraduate student bodies (including
GSS), along with many individual students, has declared that next Thursday
and Friday (November 15 and 16) there will be a General Student Strike. We
are calling for all students - graduate and undergraduate - to refrain from
both attending and teaching classes, and instead join together for a series
of teach-ins, a rally, and other activities throughout the two days. We ask
that graduate teachers relocate their classes to the Student Union and
Campus Center, where events will be going on throughout the day that pertain
to the demands we have issued. This is not a labor strike, however: this is
a call for all students - workers or not - to join.

We make this call for a general strike, not only after more than 11 months
without a GEO contract, but after years of inaction and an overall lack of
respect for chronic issues facing students. From these issues that both
undergraduate and graduate students have agreed to be of mutual importance,
the following demands are being put forth:

- A rollback of student fees
- Funding and accountability for diversity
- Removing police patrols from within dormitories
- Student control over student spaces

The Executive Board of the Massachusetts Society of Professors (MSP, the
faculty union) voted overwhelmingly today to urge faculty to sign a pledge
of non-retaliation for graduate and undergraduate students who participate
in the action. An email will be shortly sent to all professors by MSP, and
as we get a longer list of participating professors, they will be posted on
the website.

<more>

more info here...
http://UMASSGSS.org/



This is a wake up call as it is coming from UMASS Amherst, the "jewel" of the UMASS system.

[Breeze54]

1. A couple of my sons friends go there....

I wouldn't doubt they're participating! ;)

Good! Lower the tuition!!