domingo, dezembro 06, 2009

A statement in support of the Faculty, students and staff of the University of California from the University of Southern Maine Faculty Senate

We, members of the University of Southern Maine (USM) Faculty Senate, cannot remain indifferent in front of the repression by the police of the protest which the students of the University of California (UC) have organized against the decision by the UC administration to layoff many faculty and staff and raise tuition fees by 32%. It is unacceptable that a mass mobilization in defense of the California system of education be addressed with batons.

Equally important, the de-funding of the California education system is a defeat also for teachers, staff and students in Maine and across the country, given the important role that UC has played in the history of public higher education in North America, and the example this policy sets for other university administrators.

Already, in state after state, in the name of the economic crisis, university budgets are slashed, jobs are terminated, and rising tuition fees are forcing students out of the universities, which are thereby becoming accessible only to the well-to-do. It may be only a matter of time until many of us face the same cuts the UC students, staff and faculty are now protesting and have to choose between capitulation to an unjust policy or brutalization.

Consequently, we, members of the USM Faculty Senate, express our support of the resistance which the UC faculty, staff and students have organized against lay-offs, furloughs, and tuition increases, and call upon the California legislature, the governor, and the UC governing board to rescind such a disastrous policy. We also condemn the violent suppression of the non-violent protest of the UC faculty, staff and students and call for the release of all students arrested and the dropping of the charges against them.

1 comentário:

No Budget Cuts at UW disse...

The ABC coalition is a broad based coalition of students, workers and community members. We see the issue of budget cuts at UW as not simply one of financial policy, but one of CIVIL RIGHTS and access of the university to students of color, working class folks, women and queers.

It is also about LABOR JUSTICE: For all its talk of being a stronghold of diversity and multiculturalism, the UW administration is targetting workers of color and immigrant workers. The administration is using Olympia's budget cuts as an excuse to restructure the university. This includes lowering the quality of education, cutting off access to working class students and imposing layoffs and speedups on people of color and immigrant workers.

Our goal is to build untiy and solidarity among the UW student body, the predominantly people of color workforce of UW campus and the broader Seattle community.

Our demands:

- Mark Emmert PUBLICLY rejects the 25% cuts from the state!
- Cut from the top, not from us!
- No Layoffs on staff and workers!
- No Tuition Hikes!
- Democratic decision making process around the budget!