College Park Stop: 20 Nov 2009 6pm

Friday 20 Nov

ArtSoc 1213

6pm

Folks from NYC are coming in to chat about the usefulness and recent history of student occupations . . .

Unpacking the radical transformations in higher education over the past decade, we’ll take a look at the corporatization of private universities like the New School, the privatization of public universities in Europe and the United States, and the backlash against the rising costs of tuition, the lack of employment potentials, and the ubiquitous burden of student debt.

Then we’ll talk specifically about the New School and the series of events leading up to the December and April occupations there.

Finally, we discuss occupation as a political tactic and medium of dissent, attempting to answer questions like:

Is occupation a means to an end, or is it a “pure means?”

Is it effective in the sense that it ‘gets something done,’ or is it better employed as an affective form protest?

What is affective protest? And why not lobby for reform, picket, or join the student senate?

Above all, we hope to offer what we’ve learned from our experiences at the New School to other university communities with a desire to resist and affect change.”

WHY STUDENT OCCUPATIONS?

An occupation is a break in capitalist reality that occurs when people directly take control of a space, suspending its normal functions and animating it as a site of struggle and a weapon for autonomous power.

Occupations are a common part of student struggles in France, where for example in 2006 a massive youth movement against the CPE (a new law that would allow employers to fire first-time workers who had been employed for up to 2 years without cause) occupied high schools and universities and blockaded transit routes.

In 1999, the National Autonomous University of Mexico City was occupied for close to a year to prevent tuition from being charged. Both of these struggles were successful.

In Greece and Chile, long and determined student struggles have turned campuses into cop-free zones, which has in turn led to their use as vital organizing spaces for social movement involving other groups like undocumented migrants and indigenous people.

Facebook: College Park Stop Nov 20

Facebook: DC Stop Nov 21

Facebook: Frederick Stop Nov 22

Students rally in front of the administration building on November 5th.

This presentation was used at the STARE coalition town hall meeting tonight.  Over 300 students, faculty, staff and alumni attended and made plans to continue our struggle against the growing inaccessibility and corporatization of our university.

The powerpoint includes info about STARE and our demands, as well as information compiled by CP SdS on the long term context of the alleged ‘budget crisis.’

Download the file here

A teach-in on the University in crisis: corporatization and democracy at UMD

Join us on Thursday for a student teach-in on the University in crisis!

Here’s the slide-show Provost Farvardin gave to the deans at their retreat. There’ll be more on it tomorrow as well as a link to Malcolm’s column on the issue, but look through and check out the administration’s plan for the future of our University. It doesn’t look good.

From the land of Emma Goldman, Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony:

Yesterday we drove through the rain and wind and traffic and the much larger than I remembered State of Pennsylvania. Today we are in Rochester, NY at the SDS Northeast Convention/Action Camp.

We’re here and having a super awesome time. There are two full days of workshops, trainings and hanging out with SDSers from all over the East Coast. Folks are taking notes on the workshops and talks. The notes will be posted here:

Student Liberation Action Movement

Another world is possible!

Hey hey hey . . . College Park Students for a democratic Society (CPSdS) is on the move. We are out spreading the word and asking students, faculty, and staff what they think about the University’s budget. Come check us out in front of the Stamp Mondays or Tuesdays until the middle of November.

Building student power in the corporate wasteland.

The budget isn’t working. Cuts are being planned behind closed doors, without campus input or scrutiny.

Here’s the deal:

1. Funding across campus is not fairly distributed.
2. Rising tuition undercuts the purpose of a public university by making higher education in Maryland less accessible.
   
3. The university is becoming increasingly privatized. Out tuition, as a result, funds corporate interests instead of public interests.
   
4. The budgeting process is opaque and lacks student/faculty/staff input.
5. The administration is trying to hide the impact budget cuts have behind a façade of normality.
6. The administration is choosing to sacrifice the quality of education in order to perpetuate systemic flaws in our institution.
7. A better, more just, more democratic University is possible.

Click here for more information.

Dear friends from California,

We at the University of Maryland stand with the students, faculty and staff throughout the University of California system who are rising up against corporatization and budget austerity. From the well-organized  walkouts to the courageous occupations, you serve as an example to those of us across the nation who face similar conditions. At the University of Maryland, we have faced round after round of cuts and furloughs, and a tuition hike isn’t far off. Without action, Maryland seems to be headed the same place as California.

+ The Exec Board of the UM SGA