Protesters attend a Save CCSF rally in San
Francisco to prevent the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior
Colleges from revoking the City College of San Francisco’s
accreditation. (For A Bit More Context/Flickr)
Last spring, The Nation launched its biweekly student
movement dispatch. As part of the StudentNation blog, each dispatch
hosts ten first-person updates on student and youth organizing in the
United States—from established student unions, to emerging national
networks, to ad hoc campaigns that don’t yet have a name. Check out last
year’s posts, in chronological order, here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25.
To mark the new year, this week’s theme is emerging organizing. The list is far from exhaustive.
As always, contact studentmovement@thenation.com with any questions, tips or proposals. Edited by James Cersonsky (@cersonsky).
1. In Denver, the Testing Resistance Plans Big
In 2013,
students,
parents and teachers throughout Colorado protested and petitioned to
reverse the tide of education policy. In 2014, we will see new
tests and
programs that further compromise the value of education. From January 17 to 20, a
Colorado Student Power Convergence
will assemble in opposition. We plan to create a campaign to boycott
all standardized testing. Planning will continue at a follow-up
conference in February, the
Student Power Continuum, where we will reach out to parents and students to encourage them to
boycott the TCAP test and organize actions leading to
United Opt Out’s national conference, March 28 to 30, in Denver.
—Alex Kacsh
2. In LA, the Undocuqueer Movement Grows
Queer and undocumented immigrant youth have been
at the forefront of the immigrant youth movement. Undocuqueers have developed a critical lens of the mainstream LGBTQ movement by
shifting its focus from marriage equality to issues affecting LGBTQ immigrants within education, healthcare and the immigration system. Of the
2 million deportations
carried out under the Obama administration, many are queer, and many
are trans* women placed in detention centers forced to experience
physical, sexual and psychological abuse by officials and other detainees. In February, expanding on the work of
QUIP,
undocuqueer leaders, LGBTQ immigrants, parents and allies in Los
Angeles will launch a national LGBTQ immigrant rights organization.
—Jorge Gutierrez
3. As Title IX Sits, the IX Network Spreads
Sun Devils Against Sexual Assault
is a group of current and former Arizona State University students,
staff and faculty committed to ending sexual violence on and off campus.
After losing a major Title IX
lawsuit
in 2009, ASU made a commitment to protect students from rape culture,
but students’ Title IX rights continue to be violated and the ASU
administration continues to
protect student and faculty predators. In addition to organizing Title IX and Clery Act complaints, SDASA wrote an
open letter to ASU President Michael Crow in September and subsequently
confronted him about the issue of rape culture in person last month. President Crow, like his colleague
Kevin Salcido, Chief of Human Resources,
is more concerned with protecting the University and its reputation
than with protecting students from sexual harassment and assault. SDASA
hopes to add ASU to the
growing list of colleges under investigation by the Department of Education for Title IX violations.
—Jasmine Lester
4. As NYU Unionizes, Hopkins Fights for Democracy
Graduate students at Johns Hopkins have organized against
a plan that would restructure the university.
Changes include reducing graduate student cohort sizes in social
sciences and humanities, an emphasis on junior faculty and the
centralization of decision-making power with the university
administration. This strategic plan was formulated behind closed doors
with nominal and selective input from faculty and students. More than
270 graduate students have signed a letter calling for a
one-year moratorium
on the implementation of the plan. Departmental directors of graduate
studies, the academic council and the faculty assembly also called for a
moratorium. Graduate students attempted to confront the dean in person
about the lack of response to the moratorium, but were met by vice deans
and campus security. Like
our peers
facing similar structural reforms at educational institutions across
the country, the graduate students at Johns Hopkins will continue to
fight for democratic inclusion in university governance.
—Kellan Anfinson, Derek Denman and Chris Forster-Smith
5. CCSF v. Disaccreditation and Debt
In October, student organizers at the City College of San Francisco launched the second
Student Labor Action Project chapter in California. As part of
Campus Equity Week, CCSF SLAP hosted an End the Student Debt Crisis event with a screening of
Default
and a panel highlighting the crippling effects of the student loan
industry on students and workers. Attendees were briefed on and asked to
support a CCSF SLAP campaign to
keep CCSF open and fully accredited.
As one of the largest community colleges in the nation, CCSF is an
affordable pathway to higher education for working-class people.
Nonetheless, this past July, it received notice from the Accrediting
Commission for Junior and Community Colleges that it wanted to close the
institution. A battle has waged on ever since and a judge recently
ruled that a private commission cannot revoke the accreditation of CCSF
until a trial is held to determine if the action is lawful. But the
campaign will continue until CCSF’s future is fully and permanently
secured.
—Shanell Williams
6. LAVC v. the Cuts
After
years of statewide cuts, the accumulation of a $5.5 million
deficit and the possible threat of academic probation, the Los Angeles Valley College administration
cut $606,470
from the college budget on November 8. These cuts included thirty-one
already-scheduled classes, part-time faculty, student tutoring services
and the
entire track and field team—forcing
teammates to go all the way to West LA to participate. The most drastic
impact was a district-mandated increase in the average class size to
thirty-eight students this spring and forty in the fall. On November 26,
Students Against Cuts
formed to fight against the cuts. The group’s ten demands include a
reversal of the cuts, a call for transparent budgeting, a decrease in
salary for top administrators, living wages for campus workers, the
reduction of textbook prices and an increase in the number of classes.
—Albert Sarian and Dominico Vega
7. Student Unionism in Rhode Island
This spring, students at Rhode Island College are launching the
Rhode Island Student Union Project
with the goal of establishing a vehicle to fight for our interests and
build the power of students across the state. This past semester, the
embryonic RISUP tested combative politics by
resisting the administration’s attempt to arm campus police. Disrupting the “what-if” narrative triggered by a false-alarm shooting at URI last year, our efforts spurred
critical dialogue
across the campus and successfully led administrative officials to hold
off on what we saw was a very negative policy, at least “
at this point in time.”
—Servio Gomez
8. Socialism in Tennessee
In the fall, the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, witnessed the birth of its first socialist organization, the
Sewanee Young Democratic Socialists. Since then, along with
HOLA, which promotes Latino/a cultural awareness, we have cosponsored talks by movement photographer
Pocho-one
and facilitated workshops to help undocumented students navigate the
college application process. We also participated in the inaugural
meeting of the
Tennessee Student Union Project,
which seeks to give students and campus workers across the state a
voice against the corporate assault on higher education. Although we
press forward in a historically conservative institution and region, we
have found no shortage of allies.
—Brandon Kemp
9. A Working Class Union
The
Working Class Student Union was
founded by students
at the University of Wisconsin–Madison when one student was told that
kids like her could only get more financial aid if she got pregnant. The
group works to bring social class into diversity discussions, connect
working-class and first-generation students with others who share their
background and provide ready access to campus resources. This spring,
WCSU is working to publish a series of narrative videos from students
and staff on campus with working class,
low-income and
first-generation
backgrounds, providing support and validation of student experiences on
campus. With this project, we hope to reach students grappling with
social class issues as well as develop support services for these
students.
—Marissa Hatlen
10. The Wisconsin Idea, Revisited
Wisconsin is unique in that students have a
constitutional right to shared governance
in the University of Wisconsin system. Still, a culture of fear and
apologetic racism infiltrates the work that students across the system
are trying to accomplish. Aiming to change this culture,
Sankofa Squad,
the statewide student association for students of color and allies
across the system, is researching systematic bias and how it is harming
students across the system in order to gauge the types of resources and
skills required to offer equity and justice to those impacted
communities.
—Lamonte Moore
11. Dignity in School
This year, the
Missouri GSA Network, with the help of the
Dignity in Schools Campaign,
started organizing around socioeconomic justice, with a focus on
student “push-out” and the school-to-prison pipeline. Homophobia and
transphobia are among the primary reasons why students are pushed out of
the institutions that were meant for them. In St. Louis, several
schools have implemented
violent and secretive practices
that exacerbate youth criminalization. Our socioeconomic committee,
GSAs for Justice, hosted a rally to start off the school year and will
be marching in St. Louis’s annual MLK day parade. At the end of January,
we will further our understanding of the school-to-prison pipeline by
visiting
BreakOUT! in New Orleans. On March 5, we will have our annual
Queer Youth & Ally Day at the capital, which is completely run by student leaders.
—Sterling Waldman
12. Democracy at Work
The
SEIU Millennials
chapter in Los Angeles emerged from a conference this fall, with young
worker representation from Oregon to Florida. Our work focuses on two
questions: First, why are we, as a
younger generation
of healthcare workers, choosing the healthcare industry? Second, what
issues are important to us? I got involved because I want a say in what
happens in my union. I cohosted the last conference call of the year for
the program in which we organized our first interlocal video conference
call, scheduled for January 21. Our goals for 2014 include
strengthening political action, supporting
Walmart workers and winning greater income for
fast-food workers
—Manny Hernandez Jr.
13. As New Jersey Signs the DREAM Act, Arkansas Pushes Tuition Equality
In the fall,
Arkansas Natural Dreamers targeted Congressman Steve Womack and our ICE office in Fayetteville
as part of United We Dream’s
thirty days of action.
On January 26, AND is organizing an event for Arkansas leaders to
dicuss how to improve the atmosphere in the state for the undocumented
community. Dreamers will talk about the importance of
in-state tuition and the importance of working with our national network,
United We Dream. As the movement grows, we will continue working to synchronize our actions nationwide.
—Irvin Camacho
14. As Congress Sits, Roanoke Pressures Goodlatte
In 2014,
Roanoke United Families for Immigration Reform will continue pressuring Representative Bob Goodlatte,
urging him to move
on immigration reform this year, an issue he claims will be a top
priority this year. Our organization has come a long way since our first
meeting in October 2013. We held
twenty days of sustained action
outside of Goodlatte’s office with more than 100 people showing up
throughout the month and at least thirty participating every night. This
spring, we’ll continue working on reform on a national level, while
also fighting to make Roanoke a sanctuary city, stopping the detention
and deportation of members of our community and fighting for tuition
equality and driver’s licenses for all undocumented Virginians.
—Paulina Hernandez
15. How to Document a Generation?
This spring, two online spaces,
Undocumenting.com and
Youngist.org,
are working together to highlight the multidimensional nature of the
millennial identity and to reinforce our ability to tell our own
stories. Our projects have grown out of disillusionment with mainstream
media’s overwhelming focus on the narratives of millennials—as in
Girls or
Gossip Girl—and seek to challenge the
outsourcing
of our stories. Our upcoming collaboration explores the dichotomy of
art and journalistic writing created by young people. Future
collaborations between our projects have the potential to carve out
space for undocu-youth, queer kids, women of color and youth of color to
exist beyond that single narrative. In the long term, we envision a
mediascape that is rooted in social justice and leaves no pieces of
ourselves behind.
—Sonia Guiñansaca and Isabelle Nastasia
No comments:
Post a Comment