FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
UW-Milwaukee to Protest Budget Cuts as Part of the National Day of Action for Education Rights
The UWM Education Rights Campaign consists of two dozen professor, teacher assistant, and student organizations and expects a large turn out for a rally and march in protest of the budget cuts at UW-Milwaukee.
Milwaukee, WI, March 3, 2010 -- Outraged over the budget cuts at UW-Milwaukee, two dozen professor, teacher assistant, and student organizations have formed the UWM Education Rights Campaign and are putting together a large demonstration on March 4th at 12:00pm in the UW-Milwaukee Union Concourse (2200 E. Kenwood Blvd.) as part of a nation day of action to defend education.
While students and workers at university systems from California to New York will be on strike and holding all-day demonstrations, the UWM Education Rights Campaign will be hosting a speak-out at 12:00pm that will feature students who can no longer afford to go to school, professors and teacher assistants who are struggling to meet high educational standards, and workers who are facing lay-offs and furloughs. The speak-out will then turn into a march onto the Chancellor’s office to deliver a petition of over 1,000 signatures calling on the Chancellor to take a pay cut, to stop meddling in the affairs of the professor and teacher assistant unions, and to provide more transparency over the budget cuts taking place on campus.
“My fellow students did not create this economic crisis, yet we‘re asked to foot the bill with higher tuition and cuts to our education while the bankers get bailed out. I worked hard to make it to college and I am not getting pushed out without a fight,” stated Natasha Morgan, a native of Monroe, WI and student organizer at UW-Milwaukee.
The March 4th National Day of Action to Defend Education can be read more about at http://www.defendeducation.org. The ad hoc coalition consists of hundreds of endorsers, and states that:
As people throughout the country struggle under the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, public education from pre-K to higher and adult education is threatened by budget cuts, layoffs, privatization, tuition and fee increases, and other attacks. Budget cuts degrade the quality of public education by decreasing student services and increasing class size, while tuition hikes and layoffs force the cost of the recession onto students and teachers and off of the financial institutions that caused the recession in the first place.
The UWM Education Rights Campaign (www.educationrightscampaign.com) includes: Milwaukee Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Milwaukee Graduate Assistants Association (MGAA), The Association of University of Wisconsin Professionals (TAUWP), Students Equalizing Rights Forever (SERF), Students United for Immigrant Rights at UWM (SURFRIR), Progressive Students of Milwaukee (PSM), UWM Association of South American Students (ASAS), Black Student Union (BSU), Jews for Justice, Systematic Peace Project, Colombia Action Network at UWM, Latin America Solidarity Committee, Latino Student Union (LSU), Black Graduate Student Alliance, National Society of Black Engineers at UWM (NSBE), and UWM English Education Association.
Contact:
Michael Raspanti
UWM Education Rights Campaign
Milwaukee Students fro a Democratic Society
414-364-1660
mraspanti39 at yahoo dot com
http://www.educationrightscampaign.com
3/3/10
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2 comments:
Protesters are being arrested; this has been happening for the past hour or so. I'm watching all of this go down from Enderis Hall, across the parking lot from Chapman, with periodic reposts from others who are coming in fro outside. It's unclear what the justification is, though with a "Disorderly Conduct" statute that uses the phrase to define itself, there isn't really a reason needed. It appears that the Milwaukee City Police were called in - the UWM Campus Police seem to be staying out of things (whether this is a calculated PR move is unclear), though no confirmation on who called them. The group was marching around Chapman Hall, chanting when squad cars and police vans pulled up and officers started arresting protesters. The group moved across Kenwood Blvd. at this point, but officers continued to arrest students, chasing and tackling some. officers were also apparently confiscating still and video cameras from both students and local press agents. Several eyewitnesses have informed me that the students being cuffed are not being Mirandized. There are a couple of local news stations that are casting this as police taking action after students "got out of control" - of course they never state WHOSE control; this is patently false with respect to the arrests after the group moved across the street, and from what I've heard so far, the only potentially illegal activities undertaken by protesters were several snowballs thrown at the building (not people). I've also been told that several students may have tried to enter Chapman Hall, though as students at the university, they are well within their rights to do so and request meetings with the university administration. All of this should be treated as speculative at this point as I'm getting second-hand information, except for the arrests of completely peaceful students after the group had crossed the street, which I witnessed.
I would like some clarification.
The war is a federal government thing... Agreed..? Not the Chancellor. The budget cuts, a state government thing... So if I understand this correctly, we should be protesting DC and Madison... Why are you punishing the Chancellor? I'm sure the Chancellor has made hard decisions that have affected people we care about, but seriously. The effect of our passion (because the rising tuition is shitty) will not be properly appreciated. We look like a bunch of idiots shitting in our backyard! Do you think the Chancellor did jumping jacks when discovered that the state would be providing 20% less funding..? Let's get our shit together. This is looking like a joke. This is not a joke, it's serious.
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