Friday, November 16, 2007

Too Late, Kids

Nice idea, and I love the inspiration, but it's too late in fascista AmeriKa.

Look at how the college administration treats them
.

Take a look at the
good kids, and then read how the Globe minimizes their action.

"UMass students call 2-day strike; Hundreds in Amherst rally over fees, diversity" by Peter Schworm and Katie Huston/Boston Globe November 16, 2007

AMHERST - Hundreds of students at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst yesterday briefly shut down the administration building and marched in the streets as part of a planned two-day strike to protest escalating fees and what they describe as a lackluster effort to recruit minorities.

Students also boycotted classes in a show of defiance against the administration, which they accuse of consistently ignoring their concerns. Student leaders are also calling for more control of the Campus Center and Student Union and a reduced police presence in residence halls.

Jeffrey Napolitano, Graduate Student Senate president, said the boycott, which is expected to continue today, demonstrated the extent of student frustration:

"People are willing to walk through the rain and then sit down in a building for an hour and a half, demanding that these issues get addressed. There's no way the administration can ignore this."

But university officials played down the scope of the strike, saying the protesters represented a small fraction of the 25,000 students at the state's flagship public university.

Ed Blaguszewski, university spokesman, did not provide estimates of how many students skipped classes but said some classes had been canceled:

"I don't think the place came to a halt."

Student government leaders had called for students and graduate student teaching assistants to skip classes yesterday and today to draw attention to such student concerns.

After a noon rally at the Student Union, students marched to the administration building, playing drums, trumpets, and cowbells and chanting: "Whose university? Our university!"

Students then surged into the main administration building, where they occupied the top two floors and camped outside the chancellor's office for more than an hour.

The kids "surged," huh?


They departed when police, who had locked down the building after the students arrived, ordered them to evacuate. They flooded into a street, where they halted traffic for roughly 30 minutes. Students then marched to the Campus Center, where they continued the rally.

University officials said there were no incidents or arrests.

In an e-mail sent to students and parents, Thomas Cole, interim chancellor, tried to reassure parents that the "flagship campus is safe and secure."

Some professors said they supported the students' cause. In an e-mail to college administrators, Max Page - president of the Massachusetts Society of Professors, a faculty and staff union - said the union board had urged its members not to retaliate against students who missed class to "participate in this principled strike."

Page wrote: We believe in the principles the students are fighting for and have endorsed their right to take this significant action in order to bring attention to major problems that have persisted and grown for years."

Senior Danielle Warchol, an English and anthropology major, said she was planning to skip all six of her classes yesterday and today to protest years of student fee increases:

"The administration doesn't have a good history of listening to students."

Junior Jordan Morris called student fees exorbitant and said several of her teachers had canceled classes.

Fees for undergraduates from Massachusetts have risen from $4,768 to $8,207 in the past five years. Graduate student fees have climbed from $4,113 to $7,455 in the same period.

Nicole Cormer, a junior English major, took her test as scheduled:

"I figure it's probably better to go to class than to have that money wasted."

Kyle Dean, a junior and a business major, said he supports the strike but went to class, a 500-student lecture that was only half-full, just the same:

"School hasn't been going too well for me lately, so I felt like skipping a class wouldn't be good."

So they couldn't find one of the protesters to talk to, huh?

I'm sick of shit media that MISREPRESENTS EVERY FUCKING STORY!

Thanks for dissing the brave kids, even as this shit society exhorts them to be active!