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Higher Education

Latin American Academics Endorse Boycott Of Complicit Israeli Academic Institutions

December 16, 2020 Latin American BDS Coordination, BDS Movement. , , ,
In their statement, the signatories commit not to participate in any type of academic exchange or cooperation with or accept funding from complicit Israeli institutions or the State of Israel. In addition, they call on Latin American universities to suspend cooperation with complicit Israeli institutions, until Israel respects the UN- sanctioned political and human rights of the Palestinian people. The boycott of complicit Israeli academic institutions was initiated in 2004 and later became a key part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel's occupation and apartheid regime. It was launched in response to the institutional support of all Israeli universities...

Columbia University Students Are Preparing To Launch A Tuition Strike

December 10, 2020 Indigo Olivier, In These Times. , , ,
At the end of Novem­ber, mem­bers of the Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty-Barnard Col­lege chap­ter of Young Demo­c­ra­t­ic Social­ists of Amer­i­ca (YDSA) launched a tuition strike cam­paign against ​“exor­bi­tant tuition rates” which, they say, ​“con­sti­tute a sig­nif­i­cant source of finan­cial hard­ship” dur­ing the pan­dem­ic. Stu­dent demands are wide-rang­ing and include a 10% reduc­tion in the cost of atten­dance, 10% increase in finan­cial aid, and an amal­ga­ma­tion of demands from dis­parate stu­dent cam­paigns, many of which were set in motion long before the pan­dem­ic began.

Lecturers Show Solidarity With Students Following ‘Racial Profiling’

November 18, 2020 Damon Wilkinson, Manchester Evening News. , , ,
University of Manchester, UK - Teaching staff held a show of solidarity with their students following a 'racial profiling' row at the University of Manchester. Lecturers also voiced their support for students protesting at the university's handling of the coronavirus crisis. A group of staff read out a statement at the Fallowfield Campus on Tuesday afternoon telling students: 'We are with you. We are here for you'. And they told black students and students of colour 'who may be feeling particularly hurt and excluded from the university at the moment' that 'you do belong here'.

Manchester’s Student Revolt

November 15, 2020 Sarah Cundy, Tribune Magazine. , , ,
Students ‌at University of Manchester ‌have‌ ‌been‌ ‌treated‌ ‌with‌ ‌contempt‌ ‌by‌ ‌management.‌ ‌Like‌ ‌those ‌across‌ ‌the‌ ‌country,‌ ‌we‌ ‌were‌ ‌lured‌ ‌back‌ ‌to‌ campus ‌on‌ ‌the‌ ‌promise‌ ‌of‌ ‌normality‌ ‌– a‌ ‌promise‌ that the ‌lecturers’ union, the UCU‌, ‌as well as ‌SAGE‌ ‌warned‌ ‌was‌ ‌inconceivable. We have been used as scapegoats for government failings, and forced to pay rents that 74% of us cannot meet – since students usually work to make ends meet. All this while Nancy Rothwell, our Vice-Chancellor who chairs the Russell Group, championed the use of chartered flights to coax international students into an environment that she must know is unsafe.

Students Push To Remove Police

November 9, 2020 Claudio Rivera, Stephanie Knezz and Shawn Smith, Truthout. , , ,
Student movements have always raised our current conception of justice and equity. From the civil rights movement and Vietnam War protests, to the anti-apartheid movement and calls to abolish the police, student protests on college campuses have a context and history linked to substantial change in U.S. policies and practices. This is a rite of passage from which we all benefit. So, it is perplexing that Northwestern University (NU) President Morton Schapiro fails to recognize this as NU students demand a different and better sense of campus safety in their demand to abolish the police...

Graduate Workers Condemn Saturday Police Escalation

November 4, 2020 Isabelle Sarraf, The Daily Northwestern. , , ,
In a Sunday statement, Northwestern University Graduate Workers condemned the police escalation — including the pepper-spraying and shoving student protestors — at Saturday’s NU Community Not Cops protest. At least two participating NUGW members were pepper-sprayed, the group wrote, during the 20th straight day of demonstrations demanding that NU divest from law enforcement. “Last night proved once again that it is heavily armed, militarized police who create and escalate violence,” NUGW wrote.

UK Universities Reject Israel Lobby’s Anti-Semitism Definition

October 28, 2020 Asa Winstanley, Electronic Intifada. , , ,
Only a minority of UK universities have adopted the misleading and politically motivated definition of anti-Semitism promoted by Israel and its lobby. Despite repeated British government threats, fewer than 22 percent of higher education establishments have adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s “working definition” of anti-Semitism. The IHRA definition has been repeatedly condemned by free speech defenders, Palestinians, Jewish activists, Palestine solidarity, Black and Asian groups.

Israel Lobby Spreads More Lies About Palestine Groups At NYU

October 24, 2020 Nora Barrows-Friedman, Electronic Intifada. , , ,
New York University has agreed to settle with the US Department of Education over allegations that the university had not appropriately responded to claims of anti-Semitism. Two attorneys filed the complaint last year on behalf of a student who alleged that she faced “two years of extreme anti-Semitism on the NYU campus which has created an intolerable and unlawful hostile atmosphere for Jewish students.” Echoing previous attempts by Israel advocates to silence Palestinian rights activists on campuses, the complaint accused Students for Justice in Palestine of creating the “hostile” climate due to the group’s criticism of Israel and its state ideology Zionism.

Land Grab Universities

October 14, 2020 Robert Lee and Tristan Ahtone, High Country News. , , ,
On August 29, 1911, a Yahi man known as Ishi came out of hiding near Oroville, California. He had spent decades evading settlers after the massacre of his community in the 1860s and had recently lost the last of his family. Whisked off to the University of California’s anthropology museum, he was described by the press as the “last wild Indian.” Ishi spent his final years living at the museum. When he wasn’t explaining his language to researchers or making arrow points for visitors, he swept the floors with a straw broom as a janitor’s assistant.

The Way Forward For NYU Graduate Students

October 7, 2020 International Youth and Students for Social Equality at New York University, WSWS.org. , , ,
Since July, the Graduate Student Organizing Committee (GSOC), which is affiliated with the United Auto Workers (UAW) union and has over 2,000 graduate workers as members at New York University, has been involved in contract negotiations with the university administration. The previous contract, negotiated by GSOC and the university in 2015, expired on Aug. 31. GSOC has agreed to a second extension of the contract, which includes a no-strike clause, until Oct. 13. GSOC is affiliated with the UAW Local 2110, an amalgamated union that has repeatedly negotiated concessionary contracts for workers throughout New York City.

Six Reflections On The Abolitionist Strike At The University Of Michigan

October 1, 2020 Black Ink. , , ,
Both within and outside of the frameworks of “permissive” bargaining, the desire and urgency to create a world centered around care cannot be granted by a university or union bureaucracy. Throughout the GEO strike, GEO’s demands, and especially the anti-policing demands, were criticized for their “impossibility.” It was impossible for a graduate workers union to demand cuts to a campus police budget, it was impossible to negotiate over campus police’s role in making workplaces unsafe, it was impossible to ask a university to cut ties with local police and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

Meet Students Organizing The First Campus-Wide Undergraduate Union

September 16, 2020 Indigo Olivier, In These Times. , , ,
On August 31, stu­dents at Keny­on Col­lege, a pri­vate lib­er­al arts col­lege in Gam­bier, Ohio, announced their intent to union­ize with the Unit­ed Elec­tri­cal, Radio and Machine Work­ers of Amer­i­ca (UE) in an open let­ter to the school’s pres­i­dent and board of trustees. Stu­dents have request­ed vol­un­tary recog­ni­tion through a card-check neu­tral­i­ty agree­ment with the school’s admin­is­tra­tion. If suc­cess­ful, the Keny­on Stu­dent Work­er Orga­niz­ing Com­mit­tee (K‑SWOC) will become the first union to orga­nize its entire under­grad­u­ate work­force, which will include all 800 stu­dent work­er posi­tions avail­able on campus.

University Of Michigan Asks Court To Halt Graduate Student Strike

September 15, 2020 Leah Graham, Barbara Collins, Emma Stein and Liat Weinsten, Michigan Daily. , , , ,
A day after the Graduate Employees’ Organization voted to extend its strike, University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel is seeking an injunction to get graduate students off the picket lines and back to teaching. Schlissel is asking Washtenaw County Circuit Court to require GEO members to return to work by issuing a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction. In a video released Monday afternoon, he described the request as a necessary step.  “Following the announcement that GEO will continue to strike and not teach for at least five more days, I made the very difficult decision to seek help from the courts so we can resume all of our remote and in-person classes,” Schlissel said in the video.

University Of Michigan Residential Staff On Strike

September 10, 2020 Residential Staff, Popular Resistance. , , ,
The bottom line is our health can’t wait. Our communities can’t wait. The University's inaction in the face of  ResStaff’s explicit concerns and action items over the last few weeks has made it clear that public health is not the priority. The University has repeatedly referred to the Wolverine Culture of Care, but has not extended this same care to us. If U of M administrators do not want to live up to the Michigan Difference, we will be the difference ourselves. Health comes first. ResStaff will not stand for anything less than policies and adequate resources that reflect this priority. 

This Public US University Has Seen Grades Soar Despite COVID-19

September 3, 2020 Andrew Gumbel, The Guardian. , , ,
If anywhere was going to take a pummeling from the coronavirus, you’d think it would be a place like Georgia State University in downtown Atlanta. Georgia State is not a glamorous flagship university – that would be the University of Georgia in Athens, the spiritual home of the Bulldogs, REM and the B-52s. It’s more of a workhorse public institution, with a large population of students who come from low-income households and have to work at least one paying job outside their studies to make ends meet.
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