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CUNY students mobilizing events

Lots of IMPORTANT CUNY events are coming up. I will attend all of them, so if you're crushing then this would be a good opportunity to stop by.

Upcoming Events Feburary 10th Hearing  at 11am at BC in the Tanger Auditorium. The City University Board of Trustees is launching a search for a new President of Brooklyn College.  As part of the process, the CUNY Trustees appointed to the Presidential Search Committee will visit the College. They have asked to meet with various constituent groups, including students, faculty, staff, alumni, local community partners and stakeholders. This is an opportunity to learn about the search process and ask questions, and also a chance for the Trustees to hear what the College community wants in a new president.

February 17th Meeting Brooklyn College Coalition Against the Budget Cuts and Tuition Hikes (location to be announced).

February 18 CUNY wide meeting at Hunter, with the primary purpose of planning a CUNY-wide budget cut and tuition hike event for April.

Feburary 26th Public Hearing on the budget cuts and tuition hikes in the Wood Tanger Auditorium of Brooklyn College at 4:00pmwith a collection of city and state legislators including Senator Parker and Senator Jacobs.

March 5 rally against the budget cuts at BMCC followed by a march to City Hall to join the protest called by the UFT and other unions against the budget cuts.

For more info, click here.

Last Night's Protest at NYU

Last night hundreds of people from different backgrounds, universities, and age groups, crowded around the occupied Kimmel Center  mostly in support of, though a fair few in opposition to the NYU student protest of administrative financial mishaps, secrecy, disturbing salary multiplications, and exploitation of workers abroad. The rally was not peaceful, there were a few fist fights and the polic maced some of the demonstrators. The NYPD also attended a few tactics which included attempting to separate the crowd by brining (all the kings?) horses and trucks through the crowd, but the demonstrators quickly mobilized and created a human wall wherever they turned. Sweet. Throughout the night adminisrative promises were broken and some of the student protesters in Kimmel were forcibly evicted from their NYU housing (wtf @ making someone homeless for protesting?).

The occupation ended at 2pm today, but the movement continues in many ways. You can check out more on Take Back NYU here.

Enjoy some pics I took. CUNY support made me smile.

Join rally in solidarity with Take Back NYU

As I posted earlier, students at NYU have taken over a university building in protest of financial mismanagement, diminished/suppressed voice of students, and some other shameful acts by NYU administration.  They're calling all folks to stand with them in solidarity tonight.

From the Website:
The NYU Admin has told us we need to leave by 1am or we will be officially tresspassing. We are expecting a confrontation with security and/or police.
We really need you now, more than ever - please get everyone outside for a giant rally at 12 midnight tonight. The more people there are outside, the less likely it is that NYU will call in the police to drag us out.

WHEN: Tonight
WHERE: Outside the occupied Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square South.

NYU Students Take Over Kimmel Center in Protest

In the wake of NYU's loss of $24 million due to fiscally irresponsible investments with Bernie Madoff, some not so clear connections between NYU and the war in Gaza,  as well as the revelation that NYU administrators' salaries quite literally multiplied in recent years, NYU students have followed the New School in demanding autonomous space among some other things. VIVA!

From their website:

At approximately 10pm tonight (Feb. 18), students of Take Back NYU! took over the Kimmel Marketplace. They have blockaded the doors and declared an occupation! They presented their demands to the NYU administration. They read as follows: DEMANDSWe, the students of NYU, declare an occupation of this space. This occupation is the culmination of a two-year campaign by the Take Back NYU! coalition, and of campaigns from years past, in whose footsteps we follow. In order to create a more accountable, democratic and socially responsible university, we demand the following:1.    Full legal and disciplinary amnesty for all parties involved in the occupation.2.    Full compensation for all employees whose jobs were disrupted during the course of the occupation. 3.    Public release of NYU's annual operating budget, including a full list of university expenditures, salaries for all employees compensated on a semester or annual basis, funds allocated for staff wages, contracts to non-university organizations for university construction and services, financial aid data for each college, and money allocated to each college, department, and administrative unit of the university. Furthermore, this should include a full disclosure of the amount and sources of the university's funding. 4.    Disclosure of NYU's endowment holdings, investment strategy, projected endowment growth, and persons, corporations and firms involved in the investment of the university's endowment funds. Additionally, we demand an endowment oversight body of students, faculty and staff who exercise shareholder proxy voting power for the university's investments. 5.    That the NYU Administration agrees to resume negotiations with GSOC/UAW Local 2110 – the union for NYU graduate assistants, teaching assistants, and research assistants. That NYU publically affirm its commitment to respect all its workers, including student employees, by recognizing their right to form unions and to bargain collectively. That NYU publically affirm that it will recognize workers' unions through majority card verification. 6.    That NYU signs a contract guaranteeing fair labor practices for all NYU employees at home and abroad. This contract will extend to subcontracted workers, including bus drivers, food service employees and anyone involved in the construction, operation and maintenance at any of NYU's non-U.S. sites. 7.    The establishment of a student elected Socially Responsible Finance Committee. This Committee will have full power to vote on proxies, draft shareholder resolutions, screen all university investments, establish new programs that encourage social and environmental responsibility and override all financial decisions the committee deems socially irresponsible, including investment decisions. The committee will be composed of two subcommittees: one to assess the operating budget and one to assess the endowment holdings. Each committee will be composed of ten students democratically elected from the graduate and under-graduate student bodies. All committee decisions will be made a strict majority vote, and will be upheld by the university. All members of the Socially Responsible Finance Committee will sit on the board of trustees, and will have equal voting rights. All Socially Responsible Finance Committee and Trustee meetings shall be open to the public, and their minutes made accessible electronically through NYU's website. Elections will be held the second Tuesday of every March beginning March 10th 2009, and meetings will be held biweekly beginning the week of March 30th 2009. 8.    That the first two orders of business of the Socially Responsible Finance committee will be:a) An in depth investigation of all investments in war and genocide profiteers, as well as companies profiting from the occupation of Palestinian territories. b) A reassessment of the recently lifted of the ban on Coca Cola products.9.    That annual scholarships be provided for thirteen Palestinian students, starting with the 2009/2010 academic year. These scholarships will include funding for books, housing, meals and travel expenses. 10.    That the university donate all excess supplies and materials in an effort to rebuild the University of Gaza.11.    Tuition stabilization for all students, beginning with the class of 2012. All students will pay their initial tuition rate throughout the course of their education at New York University.  Tuition rates for each successive year will not exceed the rate of inflation, nor shall they exceed one percent. The university shall meet 100% of government-calculated student financial need. 12.    That student groups have priority when reserving space in the buildings owned or leased by New York University, including, and especially, the Kimmel Center.13.    That the general public have access to Bobst Library. Along with this, students have issued aSOLIDARITY STATEMENTWe, the students of Take Back NYU! declare our solidarity with the student [sleepovers] in Greece,Italy, and the United Kingdom, as well as those of the University of
Rochester, the New School for Social Research, and with future[sleepovers] to come in the name of democracy and student power. We standin solidarity with the University of Gaza, and with the people ofPalestine.

Hundreds of German students protesting against the introduction of tuition fees in Bannmeile, Germany

Students protest worldwide against the commercialisation of education (2008)

Contrary to what you learning from the wonderful McCain/Palin camp, we are, along with the rest of the world, in a recession. Most government official have used the recession to legitimize cutting funding to private educational institutions. I've posted about it here, and here. The move wouldn't look so fishy if they had not also been cutting funding to private educational institutions throughout the last 8 years of doom, or, you know, while we were in an economic "boom." i.e. back when people's houses were worth more than dust.
So, behold! Day(s) of Protest. Fo' Shizzle, we need to get on this shit.

!Attention please!:

Constitutive on the
"International Day of Action against the Commercialization of Education"
on Nov.5th 2008,
the "International Students Movement" is calling for a


G l o b a l   W e e k   o f   A c t i o n


in April 2009 (20/04 – 27/04):

Get involved and Organized NOW - Join the discussions in the forum here - and Get organized!

For more info send a mail to: international.students.movement@gmail.com

Or: Join the Facebook Group

If you go to Brooklyn College, we're planning a meeting this week to organize for a protest:
Event InfoHost:Brooklyn College Against the Budget CutsType:Meetings - Club/Group MeetingNetwork:GlobalTime and PlaceDate:Tuesday, February 3, 2009Time:12:15pm - 2:15pmLocation:State Lounge, SUBO

Celebrate the inauguration with the Brecht Forum

The Brecht Forum is a social networking and activism site for young people, approved by Naomi Klein, by the by, which focuses on change through art, writing, independent politics, and supporting the development of free thought. A kick ass group indeed.
If you have nothing better to do, or even if you think you have something better to do :cough:online shopping and internet pornography:cough: then you should come check them out at their inauguration event.
Info is below, and on their website, an on the facebook invite. Best part, I'll be there so be square.

Tuesday, January 20
7:00 pm

Hello-o-o Barack! Bye-Bye Bush Ball!!

Performers TBA

Couldn't make it to DC for the Inauguration? Want to watch the highlights in the company of some progressive activists? & strategize & party too?

Join us at the Brecht Forum's Bye-Bye Bush Ball!

Drinks & Potluck
Bring food & your ideas about how to make that "CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN"

Admission: $6/$10/$15
or $5 with a Food Contribution
No One Turned Away