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Higher Education

Administrators Are Trying To Strip Decision-Making Power From Faculty

April 27, 2024 By Bertin M. Louis Jr. and Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt , Truthout. , , , ,
The 2023-2024 academic year has already been very challenging for institutions of higher learning. In the midst of college closures, the firing of tenured faculty members, politically motivated bans of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices and programs, academic program cuts at public universities, attacks on faculty and students protesting the war on Gaza, and attacks on Black faculty members for anonymous claims of plagiarism and research misconduct, there is an additional trend which is contributing to the erosion of higher education as we know it: reducing or eliminating shared governance.

Revolt In The Universities

April 26, 2024 Chris Hedges, Consortium News. , , , ,
Achinthya Sivalingam, a graduate student in Public Affairs at Princeton University did not know when she woke up this morning that shortly after 7 a.m. she would join hundreds of students across the country who have been arrested, evicted and banned from campus for protesting the genocide in Gaza. She wears a blue sweatshirt, sometimes fighting back tears, when I speak to her. We are seated at a small table in the Small World Coffee shop on Witherspoon Street, half a block away from the university she can no longer enter, from the apartment she can no longer live in and from the campus where in a few weeks she was scheduled to graduate.

Colleges And Universities Collaborate With The State To Silence Protests

April 25, 2024 Jacqueline Luqman, Black Agenda Report. , , , ,
As we have seen over the past few months, colleges and universities across the United States have shown a dangerous willingness to punish their students for speaking out for Justice for Palestine on their campuses. The very institutions that claim to be the centers of intellectual rigor, freedom of thought and expression, and developers of critical thinking skills for America’s post-secondary school development, even claiming to be the groomers and shapers of America’s future generations of leaders, are today the institutions that call the police on student protesters.

Texas State Troopers In Riot Gear Crack Down On University Students

April 25, 2024 Julia Conley, Common Dreams. , , , , ,
Civil rights advocates on Wednesday expressed alarm at a rapid escalation by Texas state troopers who descended on a student-led protest at University of Texas at Austin, which was organized in solidarity with Gaza and other U.S. college students taking part in a growing anti-war movement. UT students gathered on campus at midday and were promptly given two minutes to disperse by state troopers, who had already been called to the scene. The troopers were equipped with riot gear, with some carrying assault rifles and several stationed on horses.

Faculty At University Of Texas Austin Strike In Solidarity With Students

April 25, 2024 Olivia Wood, Left Voice. , , , , , ,
Faculty from universities across the country have begun to mobilize in solidarity with the student movement for Palestine. From NYU, where faculty linked arms to protect students from police; to Columbia University, where faculty engaged in a solidarity walkout with the Gaza Solidarity Encampment; to Barnard College, where faculty planned a sick-out in defense of their students — faculty are rising up in defense of their students. At the University of Texas Austin, faculty have announced a 24-hour work stoppage as part of the fight against student repression.

Argentine Student Movement Erupts Against Milei’s Adjustment

April 25, 2024 People's Dispatch. , , , , , ,
“We do not want them to take away our dreams. Our future does not belong to them,” said the president of the Argentine University Federation (FUA), Piera Fernández de Piccolini, to an overflowing Plaza de Mayo during the march in defense of public universities on April 23. The protest organized by student groups and educators unions was also supported by labor unions and left parties. At the Plaza, hundreds of thousands chanted: “The country is not for sale!” “Education is a fundamental human right because it reduces inequality,” added Piccolini, who read the closing declaration of the mobilization.

Students Launch Encampments In Solidarity With Gaza Across The US

April 23, 2024 People's Dispatch. , , , , , , , , , ,
Almost a week after Columbia students launched their Gaza Solidarity Encampment, students across the country have taken from their example and began encampments in public spaces in their own universities in solidarity with Palestine. In the early hours of the morning of April 22, students at New York University began an encampment on Gould Plaza, joining their New York City counterparts at the New School, which had launched an encampment the previous day. In the Greater Boston Area students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Emerson College, and Tufts University set up encampments at their own universities.

Protest Sends Anti-Genocide Message To Biden Campaign

April 23, 2024 Drake Myers, Fight Back News!. , , , , ,
Minneapolis, Minnesota – On Friday, April 15, the Free Palestine Coalition led a protest of around 100 people outside of Education Minnesota’s Representative Convention. Education Minnesota (EDMN) is a large state-level educators union that announced only the day before that they would be delaying their entire program to host the opening event of First Lady Dr .Jill Biden’s “Educators for Biden-Harris” national tour. Protesters outside the convention drew attention to the issues of recent attacks on academic freedom, with speakers like Dr Sima Shaksari from Educators for Justice in Palestine – UMN...

Long Live The Student Resistance

April 22, 2024 Nushrat Nur, Mondoweiss. , , , , ,
As Palestinians brave the occupation in Gaza, students everywhere continue to light the torch of Palestinian liberation on their college campuses. Institutionalized academia has long stood against the radical struggle of student activists, and the last 7 months have proven no different. Activism on college campuses has always been a stronghold for social justice and anti-war movements, but even more than that, it is a study of hope as a discipline. As despair eats at us and threatens hopelessness, students remind us that together, freedom is not only attainable, it is inevitable.

Hundreds Of Students Occupy Columbia University In Solidarity With Gaza

April 18, 2024 People's Dispatch. , , , , , , , , ,
At 4 am on April 17, hundreds of Columbia University students began to set up a “Gaza solidarity encampment” on the main lawn of campus, pledging to stay until the University divests from Israel. This historic occupation was coordinated by various student organizations such as the coalition Columbia University Apartheid Divest, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, and Columbia Jewish Voice for Peace. The action was inspired by the historic 1968 occupation of Columbia’s Hamilton Hall by students in protest against racism and the Vietnam War.

Canceling The Valedictorian

April 17, 2024 Max Jones, Scheer Post. , , ,
The University of Southern California’s (USC) cancellation of its 2024 valedictorian, Asna Tabassum’s, commencement speech on Monday garnered attention from national and international media. Andrew T. Guzman, the provost, announced the university’s decision to cancel the speech on April 15, citing security reasons. Guzman stated: “Unfortunately, over the past several days, discussion relating to the selection of our valedictorian has taken on an alarming tenor. The intensity of feelings, fueled by both social media and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, has grown to include many voices outside of USC and has escalated to the point of creating substantial risks relating to security and disruption at commencement. We cannot ignore the fact that similar risks have led to harassment and even violence at other campuses.”

Inside The Historic Student Protests For Palestine

March 1, 2024 Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network. , , , , ,
Every day, Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza continues to erase whole families, communities, and neighborhoods off the face of the earth. We are recording this on Thursday, February 22nd, and just three days ago, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported that Israel has killed more than 29,000 Palestinians since October 7th, around two thirds of them, women and children. More than 69,000 Palestinians have been wounded in that time. As a full scale ethnic cleansing unfolds before our eyes, as the slaughter continues, as Israel’s government vows to continue the slaughter until quote, “total victory is achieved,” and as the US continues to be the number one supporter of this humanitarian calamity, people of conscience around the world continue to take direct action, with increased urgency.

US Higher Education Is Being Gutted, But We Can Fight Back

February 29, 2024 Olivia Wood, Left Voice. , , , ,
In January 2023, Governor Ron DeSantis overhauled the Board of Trustees of the New College of Florida, replacing several members with conservative activists, including Christopher Rufo. New College of Florida was known as a hippie college, a queer college, but Rufo aimed to change all that, saying, “We will be shutting down low-performing, ideologically-captured academic departments and hiring new faculty.” He added, “The student body will be recomposed over time: some current students will self-select out, others will graduate; we’ll recruit new students who are mission-aligned.”

Johns Hopkins Graduate Student-Workers Picket, Negotiations Stall

February 28, 2024 Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network. , , , , ,
One year ago, graduate student-workers at Johns Hopkins University overwhelmingly voted to unionize under the banner of Teachers and Researchers United (TRU-UE), which is affiliated with United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers. While workers had much to celebrate with their historic union election victory, bargaining a first contract with the university administration has been another story. On February 20, fed up with what workers say have been disrespectful and insufficient offers from the university administration, TRU-UE members held practice pickets on campus to show the administration what’s in store if more progress is not made at the bargaining table soon.

Palestine Solidarity Wins At UC Davis

February 24, 2024 Martha Grevatt, Workers World. , , , , ,
University campuses have become a major battlefield for the Palestine solidarity movement in the U.S. Students and faculty who support Palestinian liberation have been subjected to doxxing, university discipline, arrest, firings and more. School administrators, even if they are not anti-Zionist, have been removed simply for not being strong enough in backing Israel. But solidarity groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine have persevered and have scored some victories. “From McDonald’s to Sabra to Chevron, none of our student fees that fund ASUCD (Associated Students, University of California, Davis) operations will be used to financially support 30+ companies that are complicit in Zionist violence,” the University of California Davis SJP chapter said on Instagram.
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