Category: Student Movement

Tallahassee, FL – On Feb. 20, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at Florida State University (FSU) held a press conference demanding “Tuition equity for undocumented students” on the school’s campus. Joining SDS was the leadership the Hispanic and Latino Student Union, Advocates for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the Center for Participant Education, and the Dream Defenders. Florida State Senator Dwight Bullard spoke about SB 300, a bill he drafted to grant in-state tuition to undocumented students in the state of Florida.

The large group decided to hold their press conference in front of what is known on campus as the Integration Statue. It is a monument dedicated to a culture of inclusion and the promise of diversity at Florida State University, a promise administrators and lawmakers need to be reminded about.

Brianna Calderon-Roman of SDS explained, “We want a Florida which embraces different heritages and cultures and ideas, not one which creates roadblocks and rejects these things; things that we consider cornerstones of our state.”

Currently in the state of Florida, if a student or a student’s parents are undocumented, regardless of how many years they attended school in Florida, they are forced to pay the higher rates of out-of-state tuition. They currently pay between three and four times as much per semester as other state residents. This forces many bright students to go out of state or drop out until they can afford it.

Since SDS adopted their national Education-for-All campaign, the state of Florida is alive with organizing focused on securing equitable tuition for undocumented students. SDS chapters at both the University of Florida in Gainesville and the University of South Florida in Tampa are pressing forward with campaigns begun last August. Students at those colleges held meetings with their Board of Trustees demanding that their schools grant undocumented students in-state tuition.

Now, FSU has picked up the gauntlet in the fight for tuition equity. Student leaders stated their demands while standing shoulder to shoulder and announced their Education-for-All Week and other plans of action.

“We have come here to announce that the united front you see before you will be hosting a week dedicated to Education-for-All. During the upcoming week of Feb. 24 through the 28, we will teach, and learn, and vote, and rally, and take direct action to achieve our collective goals and insure that the voice of the students in the state of Florida is a resounding one,” Brianna Calderon-Roman finished to a round of applause.

Los Angeles, CA – Several hundred students and community members held a protest march and rally on the campus of Cal State University of Los Angeles (CSULA), Feb. 4. The protest was in response to the Academic Senate voting down, by 20 to 29, a proposal made the previous week by the Pan-African Studies Department to incorporate ‘Ethnic Studies’ as part of the General Education requirements, starting in Fall 2016.

After being silenced and shut out last week by the undemocratic actions of the CSULA Academic Senate, students and community supporters agreed that the racist university status quo that sees Ethnic Studies as an unequal academic discipline had to be challenged.

Students, along with community supporters, began a rally at the steps of the university bookstore, then began marching through the campus and onto the Martin Luther King, Jr. Hall building chanting in one collective voice: “The students united, will never be divided” “What do we want? Ethnic Studies! When do we want it? Now!”

Eventually, the students and community supporters made their way to the Golden Eagle Ballroom where the weekly Academic Senate was to be held. In a show of unity, students and community supporters were able to shut down the meeting and instead the students held their own meeting outside the doors of the Golden Eagle Ballroom.

As the Academic Senate began arriving for their scheduled meeting, the entrance to the Golden Eagle Ballroom was blocked by students and community supporters who locked arms. When Kevin Baaske, chair of the CSULA Academic Senate, arrived, students began chanting “No clickers,” reminding him of the secret vote the week before that stopped, for now, the proposal to make Ethnic Studies a General Education requirement.

Upon encountering several hundred students locked in arms, Baaske, in a condescending tone, attempted to negotiate with students by stating that he would grant 30 minutes of speaking time to the students. Well-organized and disciplined, the students refused Baaske’s terms and instead told him that the meeting would be held on students’ terms.

Ironically, at the previous meeting, Baaske somehow found himself powerless to offer speaking time to students and instead pushed parliamentary procedural rules to block student and community input. Yet this week, he decided he had the power to allow 30 minutes of speaking time.

As more and more Academic Senators arrived, they had no choice but to listen to dozens of students and community supporters speaking about why they needed to do the right thing and reintroduce a vote in favor of making Ethnic Studies a part of the General Education requirements.

Speaker after speaker emphasized the urgent need to make Ethnic Studies part of the General Education requirements. For some, it was one positive step towards addressing a legacy of institutional racism, which acknowledges that this country was built on slavery and genocide.

For others, Ethnic Studies was important because it is a tool of community empowerment and for creating a positive identity. The struggle for Ethnic Studies is part of the struggle for equality for Blacks and Chicanos.

Towards the end of the student protest meeting, a couple of professors spoke in favor of the proposal, which states in part: “At least one of the two diversity courses must be taken in one of the four Ethnic Studies/Area Studies Departments/Programs: Asian/Asian American Studies, Chicana/o Studies, Latin American Studies, or Pan African Studies.”

Unfortunately, the Chicana/o Studies Department has refused to support the proposal.

Other Academic Senators, however, weren’t even paying attention to the students and were making their opposition to requiring Ethnic Studies at CSULA conspicuously obvious. Sadly, Baaske several times laughed off students’ comments.

Keep in mind, moreover, that what is being proposed by the multi-national coalition of student, faculty and community is that out of the 40 classes a student must take in order to graduate from CSULA that one class be in Ethnic Studies.

On Feb. 11, the Ethnic Studies Coalition held a press conference to inform the public on the proposal to expand and improve Ethnic Studies. After the press conference, the over 100 students and supporters marched to the CSULA Academic Senate meeting. During the meeting the students gave moving and inspirational talks to the body regarding the benefits of Ethnic Studies and the experiences of racism they face in Los Angeles. No new vote was taken and the students and supporters will return to the CSULA Academic Senate meeting on Feb. 18 to continue pressing for the GE requirement from Ethnic Studies.

David Cid is a Los Angeles-based Chicano activist and educator. Cid is active in the anti-war and immigrant rights movements. He recently received his Masters in Chicano Studies at CSULA.

 

Los Angeles, CA – Over 100 students, community activists, faculty, staff and others jammed the Cal State University of Los Angeles (CSULA) faculty Academic Senate, Jan. 28, to demonstrate support for Ethnic Studies – Chicana/o Studies, Pan-African Studies and Asian American Studies – becoming part of the General Education program.

General Education (GE) courses contribute to a student’s bachelors graduation requirement. These courses are intended to introduce undergraduates to a broad knowledge base from a wide range of disciplines in the natural sciences, humanities and social sciences. General Education courses are important, for they help students develop basic problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

As it currently stands now at CSULA, Chicana/o Studies, Pan-African Studies and Asian American Studies are not fully supported within the GE course structure. They are primarily electives.

Dr. Melina Abdullah, professor and Chair of Pan-African Studies, proposed a remedy to the lack of institutional support of ‘Ethnic Studies’ by including language that essentially institutionalizes Chicana/o Studies, Pan-African Studies and Asian American Studies into the General Education structure. This means that all students planning to graduate from CSULA would have as part of their education an Ethnic Studies course requirement.

Dr. Abdullah’s motion states: “At least one of the two diversity courses must be taken in one of the four Ethnic Studies/Area Studies Departments/Programs: Asian/Asian American Studies, Chicana/o Studies, Latin American Studies, or Pan African Studies.”

Yet, as the Academic Senate debated, it was evident that there was strong opposition among CSULA faculty to explicitly require Ethnic Studies be part of the new General Education structure for Fall 2016.

In a most undemocratic manner, it was also made clear to all of us in attendance, that this was not a public forum, and that it would be up to the Academic Senate to vote on whether to allow public comment or not.

To add insult to injury, for the first-time ever the Academic Senate voted with clickers, ensuring that there’d be no accountability or transparency on this matter.

When Dr. Abdullah continued to press for faculty accountability and transparency by calling for a roll call vote, the Academic Senate refused and voted it down with their clickers.

As of now, we do not know which professors voted for or against Dr. Abdullah’s proposal. Chicano Studies professors remained silent during the debate. However, the final tally to include the language that would make Chicana/o Studies, Pan-African Studies and Asian American Studies part of the GE was voted down 29 to 20.

Ethnic Studies evolved out of the militancy and radicalism of the 1960s and 1970s and since then have been under assault by right-wing elements of this country. The fight for Ethic Studies is part of the struggle of Blacks and Chicanos for equality and self-determination. The oldest Chicana/o Studies Department was founded at Cal State University L.A. in 1968 as a result of the Chicano power movement.

In recent years, Chicana/o Studies has been banned, Chicana/o books censored and educators fired in the Tucson Unified School District in Arizona.

The opportunity to strengthen Ethnic Studies at CSULA by incorporating it into the General Education course structure was an opportunity lost. Yet, it is clear that the very presence of hundreds of students and community activists at the meeting demonstrated that this battle is just beginning and the community is once again ready to mobilize to stop the attacks against Chicana/o Studies, Pan-African Studies and Asian American Studies at CSULA. This event created a new spirit of unity and action among the students, faculty and community to continue to fight to expand Ethnic Studies.

On Jan. 30 scores of students marched to the office of CSULA president to demand that Ethnic Studies be included in the General Education requirements. This issue is receiving more support from students in other colleges.

“We have an opportunity to bridge divides and stand as a model if we move in the right direction. The Senate meets every Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. in Golden Eagle Ballroom 3. There is always an opportunity to right the course,” stated Dr. Abdullah.

The students, faculty, staff and surrounding community of CSULA request your support to demand that CSULA require Ethnic Studies as part of the General Education (GE) course structure by calling or writing letters to the following offices:

CSULA Academic Senate Staff

Jean Lazo-Uy, Administrative Support Coordinator

5151 State University Dr.

Los Angeles, CA 90032

Office: Administration 317

Tel: (323) 343-3750

FAX: (323) 343-6495

 

Chicana/o Studies Department

C/O Dr. Bianca Guzman, Chair

5151 State University Dr.

Los Angeles, CA 90032email: chicanostudies.csula@gmail.com

Tel: (323) 343-2190

 

Department of Pan-African Studies

C/O Dr. Melina Abdullah, Chair

5151 State University Dr. Los Angeles

King Hall C3095

Phone (323) 343-2290

Fax (323) 343-5485

 

Asian and Asian American Studies Program

C/O Ping Yao, Program Director

5151 State University Dr.

Los Angeles, CA 90032

Email: pyao@calstatela.edu

Phone: (323) 343-5775

 

David Cid is a Los Angeles-based Chicano activist and educator. Cid is active in the anti-war and immigrant rights movements. He recently received his Masters in Chicano Studies at CSULA.

 

Gainesville, FL – This week Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) announced the launch of an education rights campaign for undocumented immigrant students. SDS is calling on all chapters to build the struggle for tuition equity and financial aid for students who graduate from U.S. high schools without documentation.

Currently many states deny undocumented high school students in-state tuition, even if they meet all other residency requirements. These institutions force students into making a difficult choice: either pay exorbitant out-of-state fees, or do not attend college at all. Chrisley Carpio, an SDS organizer at the University of Florida said, “President Obama’s DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] program created this situation. It granted temporary immunity to a portion of undocumented immigrants but failed to solve any of the problems they face, including education. Now it’s up to individual states and colleges to make their own policies.”

Federal neglect, ‘States Rights’ to discriminate

Currently in two states – Alabama and South Carolina – the legislatures went so far as to ban undocumented students from attending college altogether. In Georgia, some schools ban undocumented students, but this legislation is currently under review. Even in states with tuition equity policies, where DACA students qualify for in-state fees, they remain unable to receive financial aid like the rest of their classmates.

Only five states – California, New Mexico, Minnesota, Texas and Illinois – grant these students aid. Stephanie Taylor, from the University of Minnesota says, “We want our chapters to pick up this campaign on their campuses. Where schools don’t have tuition equity we demand that they implement it. If tuition equity already exists we demand that undocumented students receive financial aid. In the states where it’s completely illegal for undocumented students to attend college, we want those laws repealed.”

The SDS National Working Committee enthusiastically accepted the proposal on the conference call. Two chapters, at the University of South Florida and the University of Florida, began organizing campaigns during the fall 2013 semester. After hearing about the success at these schools, other chapters around the country decided to take up the issue.

Gregory Lucero, from the Revolutionary Student Union in Utah said, “The struggle for education rights and legalization remains one of the most important fronts in the struggle. I’m really excited about the new direction SDS is going nationally. If we do this well, we can strike a huge blow against racial discrimination and oppression, while growing the student movement at the same time.”

If you’re interested in joining the fight for tuition equity and financial aid for undocumented students you can visit SDS at newsds.org and like the Facebook page Education for All Campaign.

 

Jacksonville, FL – With more than 50 activists and community members present, the Duval County School Board voted unanimously, Dec. 16, to change the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest High School. The historic vote by the school board comes at the end of a six-month campaign by the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition (JPC) and other forces to drop the local high school’s racist namesake.

“We have to change the name of this school because this city can no longer honor a slave trader, war criminal and grand wizard of the KKK,” said Richard Blake, a Teamster and member of the JPC who spoke at the school board meeting before the vote. “The heritage of Nathan B. Forrest is not our heritage – it is that of the oppressor.”

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti began the school board meeting by sharing the board’s findings in polling the community about the name change. A poll conducted last week by the school board at Forrest High School found that about 64% of the student body favored changing the name. He then made a recommendation to the board to change the school’s name, which was approved by every board member.

Paula D. Wright, one of the school board members who spoke out in support of the name change, said, “We talk about what’s in a name. A name does matter because it can service the foundation of how we think of ourselves and how we move beyond the particular place we’re in at the time.” She shared with the board and the audience her own story of attending school and receiving second-class treatment as an African American student. “This moves our entire city towards equality and justice.”

The campaign to rename Forrest High School drew hundreds of community activists together, who attended forums, gathered petitions and protested the school’s racist name. More than 160,000 people signed an online petition at change.org started by Jacksonville community activist Omotayo Richmond. The JPC spent months gathering more than 2000 hand-written community surveys, which overwhelmingly showed support for changing the name. Supporters of the name change also brought their energy and arguments to several town hall forums called by the school board, which pressured the board into changing the name.

Forrest High School, named after the infamously racist slave trader and Confederate general Nathan B. Forrest, received its name in 1959. The United Daughters of the Confederacy chose the name as a stunt to protest the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, which desegregated all-white schools throughout the country. To advance their racist agenda, they ignored the students’ vote to keep the school named Valhalla High School.

The name Nathan Bedford Forrest is a blunt reminder of racist hatred, violence and terror. Forrest was a brutal slave trader, ordered the infamous Fort Pillow Massacre, and led the KKK. At Fort Pillow, Forrest’s troops executed hundreds of captured and surrendering Union soldiers, most of whom were African American, which Forrest bragged about in his military dispatches. The Daughters of the Confederacy chose the name to intimidate courageous African American civil rights activists, many of them teenagers, struggling for freedom.

“Tonight was a historic blow to the racism of the Deep South,” said Fernando Figueroa, an activist with the JPC. “The neo-confederates who spoke in favor of Forrest saw the writing on the wall. We’re building the freedom struggle in Jacksonville star by star.”

When Forrest High School opened in 1959, it was an all-white, segregated school. Today, 54% of the school’s approximately 1800 students are African-American.

Jason Fischer, another school board member, concluded his remarks in support of the name change, saying, “We need to make today about honoring the future, which is our children.”

Minneapolis, MN – In early November, Shannon Gibney, an English Professor at Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC), was given an official letter of reprimand by the college’s Vice President of Academic Affairs Lois Bollman after two white male students interrupted a discussion on structural racism in her Intro to Mass Communication class. The two white students said they felt uncomfortable and “singled out” for being white. After class they, along with another white male student, issued a formal complaint of racial discrimination with MCTC’s Office of Legal Affairs.

The Vice President of Academic Affairs Bollman responded to their complaints by issuing a formal disciplinary letter accusing Gibney of creating a “hostile learning environment” and mandating she attend two one-on-one sessions with the Executive Director of Diversity. While 53% of MCTC students are non-white, Gibney is one of the few Black female professors there. MCTC is already embroiled in controversy, which includes several MCTC faculty and staff of color leaving in recent years, as well as complaints filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging workplace discrimination.

According to Matt Boynton, a member of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at the University of Minnesota, “SDS stands with Professor Gibney and against structural racism in Minnesota’s colleges and universities. MCTC’s talk of ‘diversity’ and other buzzwords is meaningless if Black professors are the ones being disciplined and forced to attend ‘diversity sessions’ because a few white students feel uncomfortable discussing structural racism. MCTC should move towards genuine ‘diversity’ by hiring more faculty of color and recognizing also that ‘diversity’ is not enough. To address the root causes of racial and national oppression in the U.S. today, there needs to be dramatic changes made to the political, economic and social structures of our society.”

 

Tampa, FL – The Student Government Senate at the University of South Florida (USF) passed a resolution supporting in-state tuition for undocumented immigrant students from Florida, Nov. 12. Out-of-state tuition is three times more than in-state tuition. Currently, undocumented immigrant students who graduate from Florida high schools have to pay the higher, out-of-state tuition.

Tampa Bay SDS came out in full force to support the resolution along with a host of representatives from other organizations also sympathetic to the cause. The Student Government Senate was largely supportive of the measure, but there were student senators who sought to prevent the vote from happening.

Cindy Ibarra, a Chicana student at USF said, “In-state tuition for students at the University of South Florida needs to pass. Student government is concerning itself with the details when this is simply a resolution of general support. The details can be done by us, the students.”

The in-state tuition proposition is part of a larger struggle by undocumented students to gain access to the educational facilities that they help fund through paying taxes. Florida students are leading the way in building a national movement for equality on campus.

The USF Board of Trustees will be meeting Dec. 5 and discussing this student motion. Tampa Bay SDS plans to pack the meeting, showing public support for this reform.

New York, NY – On Oct. 20, the City College of New York (CCNY) administration shut down the Guillermo Morales/Assata Shakur Student and Community Center in the North Academic Center (NAC) building. The Morales/Shakur Center is a hub of political and social activism at CCNY and the surrounding Harlem and Washington Heights communities.

As of early Sunday morning Oct. 20, the NAC building, which houses the Morales/Shakur Center and the library, were both closed during the day. Though the library has since reopened, the Morales/Shakur Center remains closed, despite a policy for all CCNY buildings to be open 24 hours during midterms week to allow students to study.

Police, CUNY security and administrators have been refusing to let students into the Morales/Shakur Center. Police arrested David Suker, a former CCNY student who sat in front of the door of the Center, as can be seen in this video.

Student and community activists are inviting everyone to come to an emergency press conference and protest in defense of the Morales/Shakur Center on Monday, Oct. 21 outside City College at 138th Street and Amsterdam.

The administration has placed a new sign in front of the Morales/Shakur Center that reads “Center for Professional Development.” A university representative informed students in a press release that the Morales/Shakur center has been closed and they intend to convert it into a Career Resource center. Books, documents and personal belongings of students were removed from the center and are being held and “examined.”

Students won use of the Morales/Shakur Center space in North Academic Center room 3/201 as a result of the 1989 CUNY student strike against a proposed tuition increase. The purpose of the space was for students to engage in activism and build links with the surrounding Harlem and Washington Heights communities. The administration tried to retake the space from student activists several times and also got caught engaging in video surveillance of the activist space in 1998. However, students and community members repeatedly fended off administrative attacks.

During one of those attempts to get rid of the Morales/Shakur Center in 2006, Ydanis Rodriguez, a leader in the 1989 student strike and a longtime leader of the Center’s community projects, stated, “In 1989 when we ended our organizing movement against the tuition increase proposed by Governor Mario Cuomo, we were able to persuade the governor not to increase tuition. At the end of that movement, as part of the negotiation, we got that space to use as a student and community center. The center has been a very important place at City College because this is a real link between the university and the surrounding community, especially Harlem, Washington Heights and El Barrio.”

A press release from Students for Education Rights (SER), one of the groups housed in the Morales-Shakur Center, says, “The Morales/Shakur Center is a space for community groups to meet on campus, for students to connect with their political elders and for movement histories to be retained and shared in Harlem. The Center has provided a space for students to organize around a number of issues recently, including the addition of gender identity into the school’s anti-discrimination policy and the combating of rape culture at City College. The closure of this space is a serious assault on our right as students to organize and cultivate community. This follows the Sept. 17 arrest of six CUNY students peacefully protesting David Petraeus’s teaching appointment. Furthermore, the CUNY Board of Trustees plans to impose a policy broadly curtailing our right to political assembly on CUNY campuses at its next Nov. 25 business meeting. Please join us Monday, Oct. 21 at 12:30 pm outside the North Academic Center to hold CUNY accountable for its stifling of student voices and disempowerment of community organizing.”