Category Archives: Students

Student Strike in Puerto Rico Continues With Increasing International Support

NACLA: Student Strike in Puerto Rico Continues With Increasing International Support

Monday, May 24 marked the sixth week of a student strike at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) after protests at the main Río Piedras campus began on April 21. Students are protesting $100 million budget cuts, increases in tuition, and changes to the university program. While the student strike was intended to be only a 48 hour stoppage, the university administration was unwilling to negotiate with students, leading to an expansion and prolongation of the strike. The UPR administration shut down the university, which serves 65,000 students, after the April 21 protest at the main campus resulted in a confrontation with the police.

The UPR strike is one of several recent strikes on the island that is the result of the Puerto Rican government’s passing of Law 7 more than a year ago. The law gave the government power to make emergency financial decisions in response to the $3.2 billion state deficit. This year Governor Luis Fortuño’s government reduced the UPR’s budget in spite of the 1966 Puerto Rican law that guaranteed that 9.6 percent of the island’s general funds would be reserved for the university.

UC-Santa Cruz Hits 36 Students With $34,000 in Fines for Damage at Sit-In

Santa Cruz Sentinel: UC-Santa Cruz Hits 36 Students With $34,000 in Fines for Damage at Sit-In

SANTA CRUZ — UC Santa Cruz is charging 36 students $944 each in restitution for their involvement in November’s occupation of the main campus administration building, officials confirmed Monday.

Of the 45 students investigated, 36 were found to have played some role in the protest over student fee hikes, an incident that caused nearly $34,000 in damage, spokesman Jim Burns said. The cost of the repairs was split evenly among the students.

James Madison U. President Assails Student Rioters as an ‘Embarrassment’

Richmond Times-Dispatch: JMU president assails weekend block party

An off-campus block party that erupted into violence Saturday when police tried to disperse a crowd of about 8,000 is an embarrassment to James Madison University, the school’s president said in an e-mail to students.

Faculty-Union Allies, Hopeful About Obama’s Labor Board, Hear From Its Leader

The Chronicle: Faculty-Union Allies, Hopeful About Obama’s Labor Board, Hear From Its Leader

It’s only a matter of time before the National Labor Relations Board is faced with a challenge to a 2004 ruling that says graduate students at private institutions aren’t employees and therefore don’t have bargaining rights, its leader told attendees at a labor conference here on Monday.

“This is not an issue that we’ll bring up, but I have heard there are cases out there in the works,” said Wilma B. Liebman, the opening speaker at the conference, held at the City University of New York’s Baruch College.

British Industry Groups Criticize Government Goal of Increasing College Participation

The Chronicle: British Industry Groups Criticize Government Goal of Increasing College Participation

A leading British business industry organization has called for an “urgent review” of the government’s target of increasing university participation rates to 50 percent of the young population, the Financial Times reported. The group, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, also released survey results showing that 59 percent of recent graduates who have a job are not working in a field related to their degrees. The higher number of competing graduates, it says, is reducing the likelihood that they will be able to find suitable jobs. Another industry organization, the Association of Graduate Recruiters, has also criticized the target, calling it an artificial goal that “has driven down standards and devalued the currency of a degree.”

Trinity U students want ‘Our Lord’ phrase off diplomas

San Antonio Express-News: Students want ‘Our Lord’ phrase off diplomas

A group of students at Trinity University is lobbying trustees to drop a reference to “Our Lord” on their diplomas, arguing it does not respect the diversity of religions on campus.

York University suspends student running anti-Semitic website

National Post: York University suspends student running anti-Semitic website

TORONTO — A Toronto man has been suspended from York University after the National Post reported he was under police investigation over his controversial Internet postings.

Salman Hossain has been ordered to appear before a disciplinary panel and, in the meantime, he is not permitted to attend classes at the north Toronto university campus.

The Ontario Provincial Police said last week its hate crimes and extremism unit was investigating online writings by Mr. Hossain that make derogatory comments about Jews and call for a genocide against them.

Business Leaders Oppose Democratization of British Universities

The Guardian: Abolish Labour target of sending 50% to university, report urges
The government’s strategy has driven down standards and devalued degrees, say graduate recruiters

The national graduate recruitment exhibition at the Barbican in London last year. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

Labour’s target of getting 50% of young people to go to university has driven down standards and devalued degrees – and the next government should abolish it, leading graduate recruiters argued today.

The Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR), which represents 750 employers, many of them blue-chip companies, also called for a phased increase in top-up fees. It said its proposals would force higher education institutions to be more open about the job prospects their courses offered.

Students, teachers protest over US education cuts

AFP: Students, teachers protest over US education cuts

LOS ANGELES — Students clashed with baton-wielding police as thousands took to the streets across California in mostly peaceful protests against cuts in education spending.
Television reports showed dozens of protesters at the University of California Berkeley scuffling with police as demonstrations against fee hikes of more than 30 percent turned viole

U.S. students protest fee hikes at universities

Reuters: U.S. students protest fee hikes at universities

* Protests largely peaceful but some arrests in Oakland (Adds Oakland arrests, San Francisco rally)

SAN FRANCISCO, March 4 (Reuters) – Students and faculty at California’s public universities rallied across the state on Thursday to protest steep fee hikes they say have damaged a system of higher education long the envy of the nation.

More than 100 such events in more than 30 states were scheduled for a “Day of Action” in support of public education, prompted by tuition hikes and program cuts that reflect financial problems affecting nearly every U.S. state.

Students Across California and the US Protest Budget Cuts During Day of Action to Defend Public Education

Now Public: Students Across California and the US Protest Budget Cuts During Day of Action to Defend Public Education

Students across California and other parts of the US took part in a national day of protest against higher tuition fees and budget cuts at post-secondary institutions.

Protest organizers state that they hope to raise awareness about how the recession is affecting universities, calling Thursday a Day of Action to Defend Public Education. Students caused disruptions at the University of California at Santa Cruz UC Berkeley, and other universities across California. Protests also took place at the University of Maryland.

South Africa: Student protests erupt at university

Student protests erupt at South African university

Water cannons, rocks, burning tyres and running battles between rioting students and the police occurred on Thursday at the University of Johannesburg’s Bunting Road campus.

The protest was instigated by Sasco members after the student body called for the closure of nine universities across the country to demand free tertiary education.

Dozens of students gathered at the university’s campus, demanding free education.

New York: Students Protest on Various Fronts as Cuts Loom

The Epoch Times: Students Protest on Various Fronts as Cuts Loom

New York City NEW YORK—Looming education-related cuts lead to student protests on four fronts in the city on Thursday, tying into a national day of student protest over similar cuts.

Protests in New York City targeted the planned elimination of free Student MetroCards, the closure of 19 public schools that were broken up into smaller charter schools, the education cuts looming from the city and state budgets, and the overall mayoral control of the city’s school system.

Students, Teachers Take Part in Nationwide Protests Against Education Cuts

Democracy Now!: Students, Teachers Take Part in Nationwide Protests Against Education Cuts

Hundreds of thousands of students and teachers took part in protests Thursday as part of the National Day of Action to Defend Public Education. Much of the day’s focus was on the university and state college campuses of California, where students face a 32 percent tuition hike. Thousands of California students staged a one-day strike and took part in rallies from San Diego to Sacramento to Humboldt County. Actions were held in at least thirty other states, including here in New York, where protesters rallied outside the offices of Governor David Paterson. It was the largest day of coordinated student protest in years.

Millions Protest Education Cuts

Ala. Statehouse rally held for higher ed funding

AP: Ala. Statehouse rally held for higher ed funding

MONTGOMERY, ALA.

A throng of college students and administrators waved signs and shouted slogans as bands played fight songs Thursday during a rally to push for more state funds for higher education in Alabama.

Students also joined higher education officials in urging legislators to reach a fair solution to the crisis facing the state’s prepaid college tuition program, known as PACT, without putting caps on tuition for PACT participants.

Washington: In Senate, students sing of displeasure over education cuts

News Tribune: In Senate, students sing of displeasure over education cuts

Students from The Evergreen State College dressed in black funeral garb and sang a parody of “Amazing Grace” in the Senate gallery today to criticize state budget cuts.

After several warnings to not interrupt proceedings, Lt. Gov. Brad Owen tried to gavel down the group. The lyrics to the parody included the words, “The bright young minds of our country, Now wake to meet their doom; So why should we apply to school, When close ahead lies gloom?”

Pepper spray used to break up UWM protest

Journal-Sentinel: Pepper spray used to break up UWM protest

15 people arrested at rally criticizing rising cost of education

Related Link
UWM Post | Video: Protesters throwing snowballs at Chapman Hall

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee officials said they had to use pepper spray Thursday to help break up a rally at the campus after some protesters became violent while trying to enter the building that contains the chancellor’s office.

Sixteen people were detained and 15 were arrested during the afternoon rally, university spokesman Tom Luljak said. The rally coincided with rallies at colleges nationwide that criticized the rising cost of higher education.

March on Everywhere!

Inside Higher Ed: March on Everywhere!

BERKELEY, CALIF. — In an unprecedented day of national protest across all sectors of education, the epicenter proved to be this college town where the seeds of student activism were sown more than 40 years ago.

With the smell of burning sage and the occasional hint of weed in the air, an impassioned throng of students from the University of California’s Berkeley campus marched to Oakland (where the university system’s headquarters are located) in opposition of budget cuts and tuition hikes they say are crippling one of the nation’s premier public institutions.

In a Day of Campus Protests, California Marchers Take to the Freeways

The Chronicle: In a Day of Campus Protests, California Marchers Take to the Freeways

Students and faculty members in California staged dozens of protests on Thursday, marching in major cities and attempting to blockade freeways in the broadest demonstration yet of anger against state budget cuts to the nation’s largest public-university system.

Groups of more than 1,000 people marched in and around the University of California campuses in Berkeley, Los Angeles, Davis, and Riverside. A larger group descended on the Capitol, in Sacramento, where university faculty members called on lawmakers to find a way to restore funds for higher education.