Tag Archives: Protests

Chicago State University president: Next President Wayne Watson booed by students, faculty

Chicago Tribune: Chicago State University president: Next President Wayne Watson booed by students, faculty

Retiring City Colleges chief and the other finalist have been criticized as local political insiders

As students and faculty booed, Chicago State University trustees Wednesday picked Wayne Watson, the retiring City Colleges of Chicago chancellor, as the university’s next president.

The choice came after weeks of controversy at the South Side school, with the faculty urging Gov. Pat Quinn to stop the board from picking one of the two finalists, and students holding several protests about those they described on T-shirts as “lousy candidates.”

UVM students protest again

Burlington Free Press: Students protest again
Demonstrator arraigned for trespassing

Students upset with budget cuts at the University of Vermont tried — with mixed success — to get faculty and staff workers to back them at a noontime rally Thursday, one day after a sit-in at the Waterman administrative building resulted in 31arrests.

“We demand President (Daniel) Fogel’s resignation,” Cecile Reurge, a 19-year-old freshman from Stony Brook, N.Y., said to the cheers of about 100 people gathered in front of Bailey-Howe Library. “We have no confidence in his leadership anymore.”

UCLA Scientists Plan Counterprotest in Favor of Animal Testing

The Chronicle News Blog: UCLA Scientists Plan Counterprotest in Favor of Animal Testing

A group of students and scientists at the University of California at Los Angeles will try to beat animals-rights protesters at their own game tomorrow by demonstrating in favor of using animals for research purposes, which they consider crucial to developing live-saving medical breakthroughs.

Turkey: Thousands protest arrests of academics

AP: Thousands protest arrests in coup plot

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Thousands of people marched to the mausoleum of secular Turkey’s founder on Saturday to protest the arrests of university professors and other secularists accused of involvement in an alleged plot to topple the Islamic-rooted government.

More than 5,000 people, including students and university teachers in academic robes, waved Turkish flags, carried posters of Turkey’s late leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and chanted: “Turkey is secular and will remain secular!”

Carolina Chancellor Apologizes for Speech Disruption

Inside Higher Ed: Carolina Chancellor Apologizes for Speech Disruption

Protesters disrupted a speech Tuesday at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill by former Rep. Tom Tancredo, a leader of the movement to limit benefits to those who do not have the legal right to live in the United States. Video posted on YouTube shows the incident, which led Tancredo to stop his talk. Holden Thorp, chancellor at Chapel Hill, called Tancredo to apologize for the incident Friday. Thorp issued a statement Wednesday strongly condemning the protest for blocking the talk, and vowing that the incident would be investigated. “We expect protests about controversial subjects at Carolina. That’s part of our culture,” he said. “But we also pride ourselves on being a place where all points of view can be expressed and heard. There’s a way to protest that respects free speech and allows people with opposing views to be heard. Here that’s often meant that groups protesting a speaker have displayed signs or banners, silently expressing their opinions while the speaker had his or her say. That didn’t happen last night.”

Protesters at U North Carolina stop anti-immigrant speech by US congressman

News & Observer: Protest stops Tancredo’s UNC speech

CHAPEL HILL — UNC-CH police released pepper spray and threatened to use a Taser on student protesters Tuesday evening when a crowd disrupted a speech by former Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo opposing in-state tuition benefits to unauthorized immigrants.

Hundreds of protesters converged on Bingham Hall, shouting profanities and accusations of racism while Tancredo and the student who introduced him tried to speak. Minutes into the speech, a protester pounded a window of the classroom until the glass shattered, prompting Tancredo to flee and campus police to shut down the event.

New York police attack protesting New School students

World Socialist Website: New York police attack protesting New School students

In a display of brutality, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) arrested 22 students who had occupied the premises of the New School in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village last Friday. Students were struck by police without provocation and thrown to the ground, and others were pepper-sprayed.

New School in Exile update

New School Free Press: New School in Exile update

On March 29, members of The New School in Exile and Radical Student Union met at the 6th Street Community Center. During the two and a half hour meeting, they finalized plans for shutting down the university on April 1 if New School President Bob Kerrey and Executive Vice President Jim Murtha do not resign. The groups’ April 1 plans will include, but are not limited to, various public events including roving rallies starting in front of 66 W. 12 St. at 2 p.m. and moving around to all the Village campuses. However, it’s not clear if the school will be shut down. A subset of the meeting discussed another occupation that they are planning.

New School In Exile

At New School Protest, Truth Depends on Camera Angle

The New York Times: At New School Protest, Truth Depends on Camera Angle

So much for the camera never lying.

The arrests of protesters who seized a building at the New School on Friday turned into something of a race to YouTube, as sharply contrasting videos recorded by the police and civilians conveyed vastly different impressions of what was going on — and, more specifically, just who was doing what to whom.

New School Is Rocked by Student Protests Again

The Chronicle: New School Is Rocked by Student Protests Again

The New School, in Manhattan, was rocked by protests again over the weekend, as students who are demanding Bob Kerrey’s resignation as the university’s president clashed with the police after occupying a campus building on Friday and staged a rally near the campus on Friday night.

Beijing professor’s remarks spark angry protests

AP: Beijing professor’s remarks spark angry protests

BEIJING (AP) — Protesters tried to storm their way into one of China’s top universities Friday to confront a professor who said nearly all petitioners — people who come to Beijing to ask the central government for help — are mentally ill and should be put away.

Law professor Sun Dongdong’s comments, published in a March issue of China Newsweek magazine, triggered outrage among petitioners who routinely flock to Beijing by the thousands to air complaints after their local governments ignore them.

Moldova Says Universities Will Pay for Protesters’ Damage to Government Buildings

mosnews.com: Students to pay for the mess in Chisinau, president says

Money to rebuild the pillaged parliament and presidential office buildings in Chisinau will come from funds earmarked for institutions of higher education, Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin has stated. A student protest against the Communist victory in Sunday’s parliamentary elections spilled over into violence and the sacking of those facilities. More than 270 injuries also resulted from the unrest.

French students hold university president

Press Association: Students hold university president

Students protesting proposed reforms have stormed the offices of a university in the French city of Rennes and are holding its president.

Officials said dozens of people stormed the office of the president of Rennes 2 University on Monday afternoon.

French Student Protesters Disrupt Paris’s Academic Core and Seize Presidents’ Offices Elsewhere

The Chronicle News Blog: French Student Protesters Disrupt Paris’s Academic Core and Seize Presidents’ Offices Elsewhere

On the eve of the two-week Easter holiday, French university students and academic staff members staged another mass demonstration in Paris today, blocking a major boulevard in the Latin Quarter, the historic core of academic life in the city, and shouting slogans evoking the mass protests that convulsed the country in May 1968, the news agency Reuters reported. Elsewhere in France, protesters this week appeared to step up their tactics, occupying administrative offices at two universities and “sequestering” their presidents.

Vermont: UVM faculty plan budget-cut protest

Fox 44: UVM faculty plan budget-cut protest

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) – University of Vermont faculty members who say a starvation diet is being imposed on the school’s academic programs are planning a “Let Them Eat Gruel?” budget-cut protest.

United Academics, the union representing most UVM faculty, says President Daniel Fogel’s plan to reduce staffing will result in an English department without courses on Charles Dickens, a Political Science department without courses in international politics and a civil and environmental engineering program at risk of losing accreditation.

Greece: Youth, anarchists occupy Aristotle U

World University News: GREECE: Under attack from within

For more than two weeks, the administration headquarters of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the largest in the country, has been occupied by youths, members of non-parliamentary leftwing organisations and sundry other anarchist groups. They have prevented staff from carrying out their duties and are causing serious disruption in the management of the institution.

KENYA: Violent protests close Kenyatta indefinitely

World University News: KENYA: Violent protests close Kenyatta indefinitely

Kenyatta University in Kenya was closed indefinitely last Monday after students went on the rampage, destroying property worth millions of shillings hardly three days after its re-opening. One student died and several were injured after riot police were called in.

Maryland: UM students to screen porn film

Baltimore Sun: UM students to screen porn film
Canceled movie leads protesters to plan own showings on campuses

Students at state universities, upset that a screening of a pornographic movie at the University of Maryland, College Park, was canceled, are fighting back: They are organizing their own screenings of the hard-core film as a gesture of protest.

Employees Revolt Over Layoffs at U. of New Mexico Press

The Chronicle News Blog: Employees Revolt Over Layoffs at U. of New Mexico Press

Employees at the University of New Mexico Press learned yesterday that three of their colleagues would be let go at the end of April and that nine more positions — in order fulfillment and customer service — might soon be outsourced. That kind of news is all too common these days. More unusual is what happened next: This afternoon, the employees issued their own press release, alleging that the press’s director, Luther Wilson, was partly to blame for the situation. They also questioned whether outsourcing could solve the press’s financial woes.

Iraqi teachers’ struggle

Unionbook.org: Update on Iraqi teachers’ struggle

The Iraqi teachers Union (ITU) held its second national protest on 28 March 2009 with over 500 protesters. The ITU protest attracted Iraqi media, and support from Iraqi trade unions and civil society organisations such as the Association of Political Prisoners (victims of former regime).

The ITU protest carried the following slogans:

*Respect the Iraqi constitution.

*The ITU reject the Iraqi government interference in the internal affairs of the union and call on it to cease its undemocratic attempts to take control of the ITU.

*The union shall hold elections only under its internal rules and in the presence of judge

*Support civil society organisations. Allow them to do their job to strength democracy.

The ITU (please see statement below) is struggling along side the people of Iraq and other Iraqi sister unions to consolidate the principles foundation of democratic culture and thus is working to galvanizing and shape Iraqi public opinion against any breach or deviation from the Iraqi constitution and the rule of law. The union will stand firm against all attempts to turn the unions into tools in the hands of the executive and the ruling political power which are inspired from the culture of authoritarian regime that is still rooted in the heart and mind of the ‘champions’ of the current crisis facing the ITU.