In solidarity with the students facing sanctions for recent political activities within the UC system in defense of public education in California, we call for amnesty for all students and workers involved in protest actions within the UC system.
We call for the UC Irvine administration to drop all legal and academic charges and take no disciplinary actions against the 17 students and workers involved in the Aldrich Hall sit-in on February 24, 2010, and the 11 students arrested for protesting Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's speech on February 8, 2010.
Using student codes of conduct, UC administrators are attempting to silence student dissent through the intimidation and punishment of students who continue to challenge the grotesque structural injustices within the University of California system. Instead of constructively working alongside students and workers, University administration has chosen to take a vehemently antagonistic and retaliatory stance' mirroring the racist treatment of working-class communities of color by the criminal justice system it seeks to deploy against students and workers of color.
Moreover, the UC administration's power to deem political protest criminal and subject to legal and academic discipline calls into question not only the administration's integrity, but also its dubious political agenda. It is evident that the role of the UC's administrators has shifted from that of neutral representative for higher public education to the personal agent for the economic and political interests that dominate research and curriculum.
We object to the University's punitive stance in the face of student-worker dissent and demand that all disciplinary actions against these students be dropped immediately.
We call for the UC Irvine administration to drop all legal and academic charges and take no disciplinary actions against the 17 students and workers involved in the Aldrich Hall sit-in on February 24, 2010, and the 11 students arrested for protesting Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's speech on February 8, 2010.
Using student codes of conduct, UC administrators are attempting to silence student dissent through the intimidation and punishment of students who continue to challenge the grotesque structural injustices within the University of California system. Instead of constructively working alongside students and workers, University administration has chosen to take a vehemently antagonistic and retaliatory stance' mirroring the racist treatment of working-class communities of color by the criminal justice system it seeks to deploy against students and workers of color.
Moreover, the UC administration's power to deem political protest criminal and subject to legal and academic discipline calls into question not only the administration's integrity, but also its dubious political agenda. It is evident that the role of the UC's administrators has shifted from that of neutral representative for higher public education to the personal agent for the economic and political interests that dominate research and curriculum.
We object to the University's punitive stance in the face of student-worker dissent and demand that all disciplinary actions against these students be dropped immediately.
List of demands can be found at www.democratizeeducation.wordpress.com
"On Wednesday Feb. 24, 2010 at approximately 9:30 a.m., 17 members of the UC Irvine community entered the fifth floor of Aldrich Hall and held a sit-in that would last until 11:20 a.m., when the first arrests began. The group, composed of 12 undergraduate students, two graduate students, and three service workers, sat in a row along the hallway leading to the Chancellor’s office, chanting and pounding the walls. In the meantime, a coalition of roughly fifty service workers and both graduate and undergraduate students assembled outside of the administration building to hold a rally on Ring Road. Student protesters on the outside distributed a list of demands, with issues ranging from outrage against the recent wave of racist activity across the UC system, namely UCSD’s “Compton Cookout” and an article recently published in the New University, the need to in-source service workers on campus along with other worker’s rights concerns, and a demand for a reassessment of the November 2009 32 percent fee increase. After the 17 inside were arrested and moved downstairs around noon, the coalition moved to Periera Dr. and overturned dumpsters in the street in an attempt to form a blockade. The last of the 17 arrested were released at 2:30 p.m."
Source: http://www.newuniversity.org/2010/02/news/17-arrested-for-sit-in-in-aldrich-hall/