Way to hold your ground! Long live direct democracy!

You've already won in an important way -- you were the top story on the 11 pm news last night on local stations and the coverage that I saw was somewhat fair. The great part was that the interviewer actually included a student summarizing *why* TU is happening in the first place.

Which brings me to a suggestion... if you're writing a story or an update about TU, please always include the *reasons* behind it. It will get the message out to as many people as possible! :-)

Solidarity!

just because every single person present was not arrested does not mean anything was remotely successful, nor do i find any of that inspirational

Chanting, drumming, decompressing, celebrating, and worrying about their incarcerated friends, the tired crowd shared food and stories while the prisoners inside slept and the Tent State group was processed. Corporate media showed up and taped the crowd demanding "Justice! NOW!" and "LET THEM GO!"

The protestors should be covered by their first amendment right to protest. The College Admin did a terrible injustice to call the police on these students. The students have valid arguments. Tuition is too high and classes are being dramatically cut back. The administration care about the botton line -- profit not student rights. I support the students.

To listen to the report: santacruz.indymedia.org/usermedia/audio/4/0419_fsrn_tent_u.mp3

Symbolizing the displacement of higher education, and to protest misplaced budget priorities of the federal government, college students across the US have created their own, Tent Universities; a week-long, 24-hour liberated zone, for skill shares and workshops. Actions this week are taking place at the University of Missouri Kansas City, and Rutgers, in New Jersey. Last night at the University of California Santa Cruz, police violently broke up the Tent University which students erected at the school's main entrance. Vinny Lombardo reports.

Ambi: "SHAME ON YOU!"

At the behest of school officials, police in riot gear moved in on demonstrators at about 10 pm, pulling down tents, and arresting students one-by-one. In all, nineteen people were jailed on charges of trespassing and resisting arrest. Jean Marie Scott, an assistant vice chancellor, says UC officials worried that noise from the gathering would impact off-campus neighbors.

JMS: "but the biggest thing is that the campus does have a no-camping policy, and we are trying to work with the students to try and make some sort of acomodation to that policy"

Students were offered an alternate site for the demonstration, but that plan was rejected, due to lack of visibility. UCSC sophomore, Eric Edelmann says he's fed up with the closed door policies of campus officials.

EE: "Today we're trying to create a community in order to give students, workers, the community at large, the voices that have been repressed by the current system, a true say in what goes on in this institution."

Ryan Wadsworth, a fourth year student at UCSC is upset with crowded classrooms, and hikes in student fees.

RW: "They plan on increasing tuition 8-10% every year, for the next ten years. That's gonna put an education at the UC beyond the reach of millions of students here in California. That's gonna particularly hit poor students and students of color."

UC officials say the hikes are neccesary to offset state funding cuts, but Tent U. organizers point to an independent study which found the University taking in millions more than it spends. According to Gerald R. McKay's fact-finding report, in the 2003-04 school year, UC had a net income of $786 million. But, fee increases were only one reason for the protest says Tent University organizer Andre Duurvoort.

AD: "they're cutting language programs, they're cutting writing programs, humanities, they're cutting all the programs that make us positive, peaceful human beings, and they're really focussing on creating a safe place for investors rather than students, ya know."

Duurvoort maintains the University is moving away from traditional education and becoming an institute for military research and development.

AD: "The programs that profit people, like, nanotechnology, nuclear weapons research, this militarization and dehumanization of our edducation."

Still others are upset at the administration over the low-pay for campus workers. This is what moved eighteen year-old freshman Kate Del Gleish, to link arms with other students.

KDG: "That there can be people who have two jobs and still can't afford to feed their children. That's horrible. We don't pay $50,000 a year for that."

Police encircled about a hundred protesters who linked arms, inside the big tent. A standoff ensued when about 300 other protesters formed a human chain around the police. An hour later, police retreated, when UC administrators reached a deal with student organizers, who agreed to disperse for the night, if Tent University's planned activities could continue through the week. Meanwhile, a statewide student walkout is set for Wednesday, calling on California governor Arnold Schwarzenagger to restore public education funds.

Vinny Lombardo in Santa Cruz for Free Speech Radio News.

Why are they doing this?

Great job guys!!! O.K., let's see what we've accomplished here. You've pissed off 90% of the local community, you've made UCSC seem even more flakey and off the wall than you already are, 19 of you will likely get expelled (Mommy and Daddy who are footing the bill will REALLY appreciate that!), you've caused the university system to spend thousands on overtime for police and other staff to deal with the protesters, and NO ONE understands or even cares about what you are protesting. What the community thinks is that UCSC students have run out of REAL issues so they've come up with this idiotic cause (If you can call this a cause). What happened to going away to college to get something really novel.... Like an education!!!

^ "What happened to going away to college to get something really novel.... Like an education!!!"

-That's the whole point: education. The way things are going, fewer and fewer people can afford it. Education should not be a class privelage.

To those who say the actions of Tent U are out of hand: Have you read the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America. It specifically ensures the freedom of peaceful assembly. Given that UCSC is a public university, peaceful assembly on its campus is 100% protected by the FIRST AMENDMENT.

Even if you care nothing about equal access to education or funding priorities, the repression of free speech by the administration and police is something that undermines the most important principles our country stands for. FREEDOM.

I for one am pleased that students at UCSC finally are getting up off their knees and starting to demand some accountability. It isn't so much that the UC is run like a big corporation, it is that it is being run like Enron, with the upper administrative ranks looting the coffers while classes get huge, quality goes down, staff and junior-level faculty are paid 20% less than their counterparts at Cabrillo college, etc.

Someone high up the chain of command has decided to turn UCSC into Cal State Santa Cruz, create an education factory, and drive away the best and most productive faculty while destroying what little currently remains of quality education.

The fact that it is left up to a handful of idealistic 20 year olds to call attention to this in a way that might be less than perfect is hardly the point. The main issue is that the system is being looted, the administration is composed of utterly unqualified individuals whose sole function appears to be dismantling higher education in the same way that K-12 education in California has been decimated, and the students are paying more and more for less and less.

Sure, you can say these students were spoiling for a confrontation. But the fact is that the administration was spoiling for it too, and they gleefully brought in extra police from UC Berkeley to crack heads with impunity.

Personally I have a lot more objection to the behavior of the police who work for me and every other taxpayer than I do for the perhaps misguided attempts by some students to try to bring it to the public's attention.

The first priority is that this has to get noticed. The looting of the public education system continues only as long as they can do it in secrecy and with impunity.

The students have now raised the cost to these pirates. Bravo to them!

Hopefully people will actually lose repect for their own "nonviolent" ideals. Then people like "an observer," "chuck," "a real student," and "someone with a brain" would feel even more threatened than they do by the very low level of resistance that actually took place. Did the people who resisted tell "an observer" that they were "peaceful people"? No. The reason he/she labels them as such is to make it look like everyone involved must submit to some perceived ideology, or must agree with self-apointed "negotiators" or "leaders." The reactionaries and the reformists both want the same thing: a platform, an issue, anything that will contain revolt and get everyone herded along. Certain aspects of Tent U (the right to sleep, tires slashed, hostility to the media, resistance to cops) looked a little too much like class war for these regular submissive students to be comfortable.

Greetings Cherished Friends!

I am at my wits end. Has all good reason gone out the window??

I am calling on you, Chancellor Denton, to disclose the complete names and contact information of the UC management persons who were responsible for authorizing the act of inhumanity on UCSC students, Monday, 18, 2005.

I was present at Tent U Monday night and I was so appalled at what I saw that I began an extended fast to clear my mind.

I have now decided to continue my fast as a public hunger strike. I will continue this hunger strike until the names of those who were responsible for authorizing this horrible act are made public.


What happened at UCSC Monday night, April 18, 2005??

Peaceful student protesters where cited as ‘trespassing’ for camping overnight at the main entrance of California University, Santa Cruz. At about 9 pm on Monday evening, a squad of 'riot police' announced that they would begin arresting people. But instead of issuing citations, the police began a bizarre, hideous act: the students were PUT UNCONSCIOUS using knockout pressure points in the neck, in the process of arresting them.

Below is a link to a video of this act on several UCSC students. You cannot watch this video without being enraged!!

There is NO justification for this kind of brutality at a peaceful civil disobedience action.

Who authorized bringing this ‘riot squad’??

Who authorized PUTTING STUDENTS UNCONSCIOUS??

The responsible persons must be held accountable. I await this information and will be making it public.

Video:
submediatv.com/movies/To%20Protect%20and%20Serve%20Broad.mov

Addition info in recent Santa Cruz Sentinel articles and at Santa Cruz Indymedia:
www.santacruzsentinel.com/
www.santacruz.indymedia.org/


Truth will prevail!!
Caring and Sharing to Heal the World!! Pat ; )

Patrick (time4respect) True
ptrue (at) ipmts.ucsc.edu
phone: 831-459-5799

DO NOT SETTLE FOR LESS THAN A TRULY BETTER WORLD!

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has his foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality."
Archbishop Desmond Tutu

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin, one of the few Founding Fathers who neither owned slaves nor condoned slavery.

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* Life is Amazing! : )
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* One Family - One World
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* Live Long, Be Happy, Prosper
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* Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
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* Harm no child and there will be Peace on Earth
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* Caring and Sharing to Heal the World
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* Universal Health Care/Education/Energy Independence/Environmental Renewal.
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I have mixed feelings on this whole issue. I have heard some of the students talking about their issues, and some do have their merit. Unfortunately, this whole Tent U thing was clouded with confusion. Many people that I talked to, in town and on campus, basically had no idea what it was really about.

Police: I think the whole conflict could have been avoided, and I think both sides played into how things worked out monday.

Media: I checked this comments page one before, and there were more comments by people who disagreed, which I think is healthy for any media source. I would be very concerned if opposing views were removed.

Luis: You seem to be making some vague threat toward people, about how they should be in fear of some class uprising. Personally, I dont see how that is in any way productive.

Students: A cohesive message would really help people understand what you are trying to do. Casting anyone who doesnt understand (or even who initially disagrees with you) as an enemy limits your audience. The impression that you create, on all sides, is what makes or breaks you. Remember that you are trying to win people over, to convince them, not conquer them.

Ian: I agree that the deleted posts should stay up. I think they make my point much clearer. I was certainly not making a "vague threat." I was merely stating that I felt like what made those conservative posters angry was the element of conflict with police and administrators visible the first night of Tent U and that they would be much more comfortable with a tame protest march or something with specific demands of the authorities. So, I do not think that people SHOULD fear some sort of uprising. I think some people want that sort of thing, and some people ARE fearful of it, for very obvious reasons. So, I was using the fact that this fear exists to make my point. Perhaps not the best way I could have put it, but you certainly mischaracterized what I was saying. As far as where you are coming from, it is obvious that what I say is not "productive" for you!

Way to go UCSC... from our Tent City in Austin, Texas. We've packed it up due to total exhaustion and the nitpicking enforcement of stupid regulations on behalf our PD and administration. Fortunately, we got some decent media coverage and did a shitload of outreach to students.

Hope everyone is unbruised and happy in Cali.

Luis:

Hmmm. It sounds like you're in favor of protests that tend toward violence, or am I mischaracterizing you again. A nonviolent protest, with specific aims and goal need not be "tame", as you say. It's generally good to have a point to what you're doing, it provides more impact in my opinion.

"As far as where you are coming from, it is obvious that what I say is not "productive" for you!"

Ah, so you have me all figured out. Where do you think I'm coming from?

Okay brainiac...here's some news for you...local neighbors to UCSC already hate UCSC. No not because of tentU but because local neighbors often have no place to park their cars at their own homes because the university REFUSES to deal with it's parking problem so it forces the city and the citizens of santa cruz to deal with it. Santa cruz neighbors are fed up with UCSC because it keeps growing, using more water, and local resources and because it increases local traffic through residential neighborhoods. TENT U has nothing to do with it. catch a clue. secondly, lots of us neighbors are already dealing with UCSC in terms of trying to get a handle on it's long range development plans, which will make the current problems of UCSC impacting neighbors seem like a joke. hearing about UCSC admins like jms worried about tent U noise impacting neighbors is a joke. It would be a first that UCSC cares about impact of neighbors. so brainiac, quit sniping at students because they actually care about something and want to do something active in opposition to it. Unlike armchair cynics who have long since lost any passion for an empowered life.

Some years ago an intelligent student activist in Cardiff Wales was battered about the head and left unable to absorb books as he had previously.

We think that was a warning.

The pictures I have just seen make me think that the Police are intent on brain damaging protestors so thay are unable to continue their academic courses. It is only a matter of timing the blood supply cut off right, so that the damage done is not grossly obvious right away.

The hunger striker will probably be dead before the people responsible for this are named by the authorities.