It's Still the 60s in California

This from the New York Times:

26 Students Arrested in Protest Over Tuition Increases

Twenty-six students were arrested at San Francisco State University before dawn on Thursday after some students barricaded themselves inside a building to protest budget cuts and tuition increases across the state’s public university system.

“The doors were locked with chains from the inside so police broke through a window to get in,” a university spokeswoman, Ellen Griffin, said. “We’re approaching final exams and the end of the semester, and as many as 3,200 students have classes in that building.”

On Wednesday, classes in the building were canceled after the occupation began.

Along with indignation over budget cuts, a blog listing the protesters’ demands included forgiveness of all student loans and ending the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. With demands far beyond the purview of school administrators, negotiations with the students was nearly impossible, Ms. Griffin said...

UofL Law Students protest Sen. Mitch McConnell's presence at their graduation

Mitch, "you do not speak for us!"

Some University of Louisville Law students were not pleased with Sen. Mitch McConnell and protested during graduation exercises.

This from the Hillbilly Report:


And this from the Kentucky Law Review:

Dear Sen. McConnell,

As a few of the members of the Brandeis School of Law Class of 2009, we welcome you to our commencement. We know you don’t get to Louisville often, and certainly it is quite a feather in the cap of our school to secure the speaking services of one of the most powerful political leaders in the country. We have spent the past three years discussing at length, among other things, the civil rights and liberties granted by our Constitution. It is on those subjects we feel secure in telling you that when you are speaking at our graduation, you do not speak for us.

There is a phrase we hear often in law school when a professor wants to move on from a classroom debate: “Reasonable people can disagree.” But the fact is, there are some things that are absolutely unreasonable. The idea that some of us can be fired from a job because of who they love? That is unreasonable. Tapping the phones of U.S. citizens without judicial oversight is unreasonable. That immigrants are demonized for our nation’s problems is unreasonable. Your position on such basic issues is unreasonable.

The fact that you have vehemently and repeatedly opposed equality in any way shape or form for many of our citizens is unacceptable in this nation. It has nothing to do with partisanship, and everything to do with our rights as citizens and as human beings. There are Republicans who believe in civil rights, and quite a few Democrats who do not. Were it, for example, our current lieutenant governor speaking at graduation, we would be just as upset. There are things about which it is time for people to stop agreeing to disagree and to start calling what it is: prejudice.

Graduation day is going to be a day of celebration for our classmates, our families, and our friends. We have all worked hard, and regardless of our political persuasion, we deserve to have this day to enjoy free of disruption and disorder. However, we will not sit silently on a stage listening to someone who has time and again acted to prevent some of our classmates, and indeed community members, from achieving equality under the eyes of the law. We will each be wearing a button on our graduation robes to register our dissent. You may speak for a bare majority of Kentuckians right now, but you do not speak for us, nor do you speak for the future of where our state or country is headed.

The sign outside the school says Brandeis School of Law, not School of Justice or School of Fair. Certainly the law is not always just or fair. Still, it seems to us that justice is what the country has been moving toward in the law since our humble beginnings. On the day of our law school convocation, as law students and future attorneys, it is up to us to stand for justice and equality. Every time a law has been challenged to bring justice for someone who was previously not allowed full participation in society, it made us a better country. Sen. McConnell, you are on the wrong side of history here, for LGBT people, for women, for immigrants, for the poor, and for people who honor peace and civil liberties.

Our school’s namesake, Justice Louis D. Brandeis, said, “America has believed that in differentiation, not in uniformity, lies the path of progress. It acted on this belief; it has advanced human happiness, and it has prospered.” The day is coming, sooner than you can imagine, when it will be unthinkable for a school to invite someone who does not believe in equality to speak at a commencement. When that day comes, it will also be unimaginable that someone who works against the full rights and liberties of all Americans could ever speak for the citizens of the Commonwealth. Until that day comes, know that you do not speak for us.

Christopher McDavid
Rebecca O’Neill
Lucie Small
University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law
Class of 2009

After Occupation Ends, Tensions Flare Again at New School University

This from the New York Times, photo by Yana Paskova.

More than 20 people occupied a building on the New School campus in Greenwich Village on Friday, demanding that the school’s embattled president, Bob Kerrey, be ousted. But unlike a similar protest in December that was peacefully negotiated to an end after 30 hours, Friday’s ordeal was concluded in a few hours after the school asked the police to remove the protesters.

Tensions flared again at 10 p.m. when about 200 protesters rallied in Union Square against Mr. Kerrey’s leadership of the school. The rally turned into an impromptu march south toward Mr. Kerrey’s house. The police blocked the protesters at about 11th Street and prevented the marchers from getting close to the house.

After being turned away, the marchers headed north and then east to Fifth Avenue...
By the end of the operation, 22 people were arrested, 19 of them on burglary, riot and criminal mischief charges. Two of the 19 were also charged with assault, and one with assault and grand larceny. The police had removed banners hung by the students at the building, at 65 Fifth Avenue, near Union Square...



While the protesters were being arrested, sympathizers on the street yelled at the police. A video shot on the street by a Brooklyn videographer appeared to show one officer pushing a man in the face and knocking him to the ground before he was arrested. A police spokesman, Paul J. Browne, would not characterize the officer’s actions, saying only, “He pushed him and he fell down.” ...

Mr. Kerrey’s leadership has come under attack in recent months, with some faculty members and students accusing him of being too secretive and failing to consult with them as he sought to shake up the school. Mr. Kerrey’s lack of a Ph.D. and early support of the Iraq war has also drawn criticism.

In December, shortly after Mr. Kerrey, a Vietnam war veteran and former Nebraska governor and senator, announced that he would also take on the role of provost after losing his fourth provost in seven years, professors gave him an overwhelming vote of no-confidence...

Seattle parents, NAACP cry racism over school closures

This from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Local parents and a civil rights organization are calling for a federal investigation into school closures announced by the Seattle School Board earlier this year.

The parents and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People claim the school board's decisions had racist roots.

One month ago, the school board voted to close five schools and end or change eight programs to help close a $24-million funding gap in next year's budget. The school board said it chose to close underutilized schools and schools with academic problems.
The news crushed the hopes of many students and parents who had been struggling to keep alive their hope while campaigning to keep their schools open.

A month has passed since the decision was announced, but that anger hasn't diminished. And on Thursday, it hit the streets.

Some 50 people marched to the Federal Office Building in downtown Seattle, chanting ,"Our School Board is racist. Closures are racist." ...

...And the protesters" anger went beyond their march. Some 200 people have signed complaints alleging that the school board's decision is not just unfair but also illegal. Those complaints alleging discrimination are now in the hands of the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Education as a part of the NAACP's request for a federal investigation.

Ill Senator launches protest against inequitable school funding

This from the Chicago Sun Times:

New Trier vs. CPS: Meeks plans protest

State Sen. James Meeks is urging parents to keep their children out of Chicago Public Schools the first day of class and instead board buses to the New Trier school district.

The plan is an attempt to bring attention to the "ever growing school funding inequalities between rich, white and poor, minority school districts in the state," said Meeks, pastor of Salem Baptist Church, on Sunday.

Meeks, joined by a coalition of minority clergy, will also attempt to enroll the children Sept. 2 into the "wealthy, white New Trier suburban school district."

"He's tried everything," said Tasha Harris, a church spokeswoman. "But when does change occur? Change occurs when we fight for it, especially for our children."

Harris said Meeks received a letter last week from an Illinois State Board of Education official assuring that "schools will not be penalized" financially because of the planned absences.

New Trier High School Interim Principal Tim Dohrer said: "Whatever plan he has, he has to make sure that the individuals live in the district."

Hat tip to Alexander Russo:

Several hundred U of L students protest higher tuition

This from the Courier-Journal: Photo by Michael Clevenger.

They also call on state to fund higher education

Chanting "listen to us, we matter," several hundred University of Louisville students rallied yesterday against anticipated tuition increases and state cuts to higher education.

Some of the students walked out of class to take part in the demonstration, which included calls for U of L not to raise tuition more than 5 percent for the coming academic year and to include more students in tuition-setting decisions.

"Student tuition makes up about 40 percent of the university's revenues, and we want a voice equal to that," said Jennifer Wallin, a psychology and sociology major who helped organize the rally. "And we hope Frankfort sees this and thinks twice about the budget."

During the rally -- which was outside Grawemeyer Hall, the school's main administration building -- students talked about the rising cost of getting a degree, burgeoning student debt and the state's low national ranking -- 47th -- when it comes to adults with bachelor's degrees.

Mike Sewell, 50, a student from Bullitt County, said he related to a lot of the contentions raised during the protest.

I've been here since 2003, and every year I have been here there has been a tuition hike," he said....

UK Students protest Kentucky Kernel cartoon

The Kentucky Kernel reports:

More than 100 students gathered outside the Grehan Journalism Building on Friday afternoon to protest a Kernel editorial cartoon that likened UK's Greek system to a slave auction.

The cartoon, which ran on Friday and was drawn by staff cartoonist Brad Fletcher, depicts a black man in chains on an auction block being bid on by three fraternities, "Aryan Omega," "Alpha Caucasian" and "Kappa Kappa Kappa."

The caption reads "UK Greeks lead the way on integration with this year's new bids."

"I didn't care about the 'purpose' - I cared about this man in chains, I cared about the KKK," said broadcast journalism senior Chaka Buraimoh. "I felt disrespected as a black woman."More than disrespected, I felt hurt," she said.

Editor in Chief Keith Smiley said an apology will run as the top story in Monday's Kernel and that editors failed to discuss the cartoon before it was published. The column was posted to the Kernel's Web site on Friday."I support my staff totally, and we make mistakes, but this should not have gone to print," Smiley said.

"Sometimes it's necessary to offend to get your point across. This wasn't one of those cases. I think in this case any message was lost because of the cartoon's offensiveness."

Fletcher apologized in a column that will appear in Monday's Kernel. It was posted to the Kernel's Web site on Friday."It was never my intent to garner this reaction or to convey the message that I have," he said in the column."In hindsight, it seems obvious to me why the cartoon has upset so many people," he said. "The images are harsh, dramatic and unnecessary."

Outside the Grehan building, students held up copies of the paper with the cartoon circled in marker with phrases like "Why this?" written beside it. Students passed out copies of the paper to passers-by. Reporters from the Lexington Herald-Leader and local television stations interviewed protesters. The TV stations recorded video of the cartoon, and the Herald-Leader requested permission to reprint it. The Kernel declined, saying it didn't want to allow the republishing of a cartoon that it had decided was inappropriate to publish initially.

A group of about 10 to 15 students went to the Kernel office to speak with Smiley and requested that the Kernel print a front-page apology.

Smiley said that the cartoon should not have run and that the Kernel would examine its editing process."Obviously, it's not rigorous enough right now," Smiley said in an interview later."We're going to get the whole staff involved in a discussion over the weekend, and in the coming weeks and months," he said.

Smiley said he doesn't expect personnel changes at the Kernel, and that "there's no one person at fault here." He said he wants the staff to discuss diversity and to encourage dialogue with other campus groups.

After the meeting with Smiley, agricultural economics sophomore Josh Watkins addressed the crowd outside.

"We will not let this situation go away, because action without longevity is not action," Watkins said. "We expect not only an apology and to admit that you were wrong, but we want to shed light on the issue of what has been created by this. We want people to know certain things, want people to think before they talk or before they publish."

After the protest at the Grehan building, students, faculty and staff spoke in an open forum in the Free Speech Area outside the Student Center.

"Not being taken seriously (in the Kernel office) really hurt me most of all," said Phi Beta Sigma President Ramon Juanso in the Free Speech Area. "I'm let down by this university, and I'm let down by the Kernel."

At their regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, UK's Panhellenic Council and Interfraternity Council will draft a letter to the Kernel addressing the cartoon, said Panhellenic Council President Brooke Perrin.Perrin declined to comment until the council has met and the letter has been written.

James Harris, one of the students who organized the protest, said students upset about the cartoon will continue discussing how they'll respond."We'll have everyone think of ideas over the weekend, and we'll have a meeting on Monday," Harris said. "We'll have a definite plan of action then."