Posted on 11/13/2015 8:04:31 AM PST by pabianice
The lobby of the University of Massachusetts Student Union shook as roughly 250 students leapt up and down in unison, shouting chant after chant Thursday afternoon as a part of a national day of action focused on higher education reform.
Nine student groups presented demands during UMass’ Million Student March. Nearly 100 campuses nationwide held similar demonstrations, according to the event’s emcee and policy and legislative director for the Center for Educational Policy and Advocacy Filipe Carvalho.
Members of each group proudly held up posters and draped banners over the Student Union’s balcony, plastered with phrases such as, “Education is a human right,†“Involve us; It’s your job,†and “We are students; not customers.â€
The national day of action centered around three demands: free universal public higher education, the cancellation of student debt and a $15 minimum wage for campus workers.
Chrissy Dasco, of CEPA’s access and affordability branch, spoke about her concern with student debt. She argued that students shouldn’t have to struggle to eat or scrape to get by just to prepare themselves for the workforce.
“A lot of people pursue higher education to learn how to live, so we will be able to live out there,†Dasco said. “We want to live out there, but we cannot do that if we’re $50,000 in the hole. We can’t do that if the money we make becomes the money they take faster than we can make dinner to feed ourselves.â€
Erika Civitarese, of CEPA’s Student Labor Action Project branch, told her story of growing up as a first generation college student and working in the fast food industry for four and a half years to pull together enough money to attend college. She argued everyone deserves a $15 minimum wage, “whether it’s the workers in the Dining Commons serving your food or the janitors cleaning up your vomit on the weekends.â€
In addition to the national demands, the student organizers included six UMass-specific demands: the creation a new seal and mascot because not steeped in the legacy of racism; the implementation of a survivor’s bill of rights for survivors of gender based violence on and off campus; a five percent increase in recruitment and retention of students of color at UMass over the next four years; the removal of all Sabra products from campus retail, publication of UMass’ list of their private investments and divestment from all “companies that profit off Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine;†divestment from the top 200 fossil fuel companies; and gender-neutral bathrooms in every building, more gender-neutral housing options, and the other demands listed in Gender Liberation UMass’ open letter.
Other student speakers focused on these campus-based demands. Multicultural Organizing Bureau representative Gillian Teng addressed racism on campus, demanding that students of color be provided resources that will help them navigate through the institution of higher education. One banner stated that, in 2013, 47.9 percent of students of color did not graduate.
Teng expressed concern over the safety of students of color on campus and the administration’s response.
“The safety of students of color at UMass is always compromised,†she said. “And the administration has shown time and time again that they do not take the concerns of students of color seriously.â€
Andrea Nyamekye, of the UMass Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign, demanded UMass invest in renewable sources of energy and abandon fossil fuels for the sake of the environment and the community.
“Everyone has the right to clean air and clean water. It is the right of all inhabitants of this Earth,†she told the audience.
Students for Justice in Palestine was represented by Mohamad Barham, who argued for the end of Israeli occupation in Palestinian territory, the end of treatment of Palestinians as third class civilians and allowing Palestinians to return to their homeland.
In regards to the removal of all Sabra products from campus, Barham described Sabra as, “a company that invests and helps fund the Israeli armed forces.â€
He also argued that students have a right to know where their money is going and what organizations their money is being invested in.
Taylor Glickman of Gender Liberation UMass advocated for gender inclusive bathrooms “that aren’t a million miles away from our class,†as well as gender neutral housing.
“(Transgender students) want to use the bathroom we want by the end of the spring semester of 2016,†Glickman said.
The Coalition to End Rape Culture’s secretary and co-treasurer Steph George and president Priya Ghosh spoke on then necessity of a survivor’s bill of rights. They also advocated for no-contact orders for survivors of sexual assault and gender based violence.
“We demand a survivor’s bill of rights because you shouldn’t have to report to get support,†George stated. “Survivors shouldn’t have to change their majors, their classes, their housing, their life.â€
“As it stands right now, one in four women will be survivors of rape and sexual assault by the time they graduate from UMass,†George said.
George and Ghosh expressed concern that there is only one Title IX coordinator for all the students at UMass.
UMass for Bernie Sanders, MASSPIRG, Student Bridges and the Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts UMass Amherst Chapter were also represented.
Danny Cordova can be reached at dcordova@umass.edu. Shelby Ashline can be reached at sashline@umass.edu and followed on Twitter @shelby_ashline.
And as Dennis Prager has concluded (quite correctly): Even when they're wrong and even when their policies and actions result (as they do so often) in harming decent, innocent people, "Being on the Left means never having to say 'I'm sorry.'"
Useful idiots.
250 “students” out of a student population of over 28,000 at U Mass. These “events” shouldn’t even be reported. They should be ignored...
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I was just thinking the same .... what if the protests were ignored? Not a peep out of the school ‘administration’ including statements to the press, no special ‘safe’ areas, no school ‘security’ ... nothing, nada - let ‘em scream, shout or whatever. If they destroy property, arrest them. If someone gets hurt, they can file a police report & let the ‘real’ law handle it. No special breaks on exams (I don’t feel safe today ... when can I make up my exam?) ... show up or get a “0”, etc. Life is hard ... suck it up, fascist babies.
Thats right. A small minority is making all this racket while the majority of students that have sense just shake their heads and go about their daily routines. Those are the ones that will be successful.
These whiners will be ‘victims’ the rest of their life for something, sometime, somewhere, for some incident they pulled out of the clear blue sky.
All the other students ignore them, the adults should ignore them too. Unfortunately the press will not ignore them and make the issues and the protest seem bigger than they really are.
How about the media report on the other 90% of the college kids that get along just fine, just like college kids have been doing for 200 years.
One of the things about the draft, which I’m sure you are fully aware of, is that whether you’re drafted or enlist, once you sign the papers, there’s no telling exactly where you’ll end up. Thanks for your service.
See tagline
WHY ARE THERE NO BELT-FED WEAPONS SPEWING LEAD DOWNRANGE????
I sense a Watt’s moment coming on - I say let it burn.
I disagree. Unless they were forced into their selected major, they chose to take on the debt load and a curriculum that doesn't prepare one for a job.
Their self-inflicted wound is not my problem.
“”””Folks, this is a culture war for the soul of our country.”””””
I don’t know about that.
This is 200+ students out of a student body of 28,000. The other 90% get along just fine.
Its a very small minority making a bunch of racket in front of media cameras. The cameras should span out and show the other 27,000 students that don’t seem to be having too much difficulty.
Or, I should say, they have the same difficulty as the millions of other students that have come and gone through college in the past 200 years.
They are brats with their “look at me, I’m socially involved” t-shirts on. Ignore them.
“Taylor Glickman of Gender Liberation UMass advocated for gender inclusive bathrooms....”
Is the crapper the new safe space they all crave?
Has there been a single incident of actual violence that hasn't been investigated?
They’re going to march 4,000 times, I suppose...
20+ years ago at the school I attended here in NJ they had the same problem; while a few could get through the easy freshmen-level classes, almost none could do the work for the higher-level classes. Affirmative action robs these students of honest evaluations that places them with peers; they are ALWAYS beyond their capabilities (and are robbed of meaningful futures in the process).
Leaves them angry, with a horrible inferiority complex...
$15 an hour, they are just trying to protect their future employment opportunities.
Back at ‘ya.
IOW a doctorate in indoctrination.
“safe places” for being offended by a halloween costume?
Weeks of therapy for the oppression of not having a gender neutral bathroom?
Develop a time machine and put them back a few generations to the Great Depression or any other REAL struggles Americans had.
If they don’t die within a week, they will come back and praise all mighty God for only giving them the trivial little ‘problems’ they have.
Whiny little brats, every one, that have never had a real problem in their life.
See P.J. O’Rourke’s paragraph about how Liberals are just spoiled brats.
VERY ugly campus!
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