This occasional roundup of student and youth movement stories is put together by Isabelle Nastasia, a CUNY undergrad, New York Students Rising organizer, and friend of this site. 

Viral Meme of the Day:

Important perspectives on educational justice:

This occasional roundup of student and youth movement stories is put together by Isabelle Nastasia, a CUNY undergrad, New York Students Rising organizer, and friend of this site. 

Person of the week: Kimani “Kiki” Gray  and the residents of East Flatbush, Brooklyn

Kimani “Kiki” Gray was a 16 year old who was shot 11 times by 2 undercover NYPD officers in his neighborhood of Flatbush, Brooklyn this week. Since the killing of this young person, East Flatbush residents have organized nightly marches and vigils and have been met with further violence by the NYPD.

 

Teen Fatally Shot by the NYPD – NY Daily News

NYPD Kills Teen – Colorlines

#BrooklynRiot Vs. #BrooklynProtest – Aljazeera

East Flatbush Rebellion, Not Outside Agitators – Fire Next Time Network

Arrests at Third Day of Kimani Gray Protest – Huffpo

Protesters Clash with the Police at Rally for Teen Shot by NYPD – NBC  News

Video of 2nd Day March for Kimani Gray – filmed by Julieta Salgado, undergraduate at CUNY

Important updates on the student movement:

Police Issue – McGill Daily

OSU Graduate Student Research Assistance Unionize – NWA Labor Press  

UMASS Resident Assistance are the Only Undergrad Union in the Country – Daily Collegian

Columbia Students in Solidarity with Workers – Columbia Spectator

Anti-Zionist Discourse Silenced on Campus – McGill Daily

No Strip Malls, No Wrecking Balls – Wesleying

Student Groups Protest in the Name of Clean Energy – Technician

#HikeMeansWalk West Connecticut Tuition Rally – Video

Philadelphia SRC Shutters Schools Amid Public Outcry  – Video

California MOOCs – Chronicle for Higher Education

UWM to Implement UW’s First Inclusive Housing Policy – UWM

Army Tuition Assistance Loses Funding to Sequestration – HuffPo

Climate Change Bad Deal Gets Worse for Global South – The Nation

University Leaders in Asia and the Pacific Consider Challenges of Globalization – Chronicle for Higher Education

Activists Bring Palestinian Evictions to the Harvard Dorms – Aljazeera

Students for Climate Justice: Not a Single-Issues Movement – Portside

Private Prison Exec Not Telling the Truth about GEOs Record of Juvenile Abuse – Think Progress 

Deaf President Now (DPN) was a student protest in March 1988 at Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C. The university, established by an act of Congress in 1864 to serve the Deaf, had always been led by a hearing president. The protest began on March 6, 1988, when the Board of Trustees announced its decision to appoint a hearing person as its seventh president.

Gallaudet students, backed by a number of alumni, staff, and faculty, shut down the campus. Protesters barricaded gates, burned effigies, and gave interviews to the press demanding four specific concessions from the Board. The protest ended on March 13, 1988, with the appointment of I. King Jordan, a Deaf person, as university president.

In honor of the anniversary of Gallaudet, one of my favorite TV shows featuring many actors who are deaf and hard of hearing, portrayed deaf students rallying around the school board’s proposal to close of their school and displace their student body to various hearing schools. They strategize, organize and execute an occupation of their school building: Occupy Carleton. You can watch it here.

Featured organization of the day: Dream Defenders

The Dream Defenders were formed in the aftermath of the murder of Trayvon Martin. They are black, brown, and allied youth working to end systemic inequalities in incarceration, education, voting, and immigration.

Dream Defenders Protest for Repeal of Discrimination Bills – Orlando Entinel

Students Lobby for Immigrant Rights – Miami Herald
Dream Defenders Deliver a Different State of the State – WCTV

Video of the Dream Defenders press conference

Important perspectives on educational injustice:

• School Closings Protesters Go to City Hall – Philly.com
• Lawmakers Prepare for Student Loan Fight – WSJ
• Youth Answer the Question ‘Do Police Make Schools Safer?’ – Colorlines
• For 20-somethings Ambition at a Cost – NY Times
• Randi Weingarten Arrested For Protesting Philadelphia School Closure Hearing – HuffPo
• Rape and Other Crimes: Sexist Policy and Campus Safety – Society Pages [Trigger warning: discussion of sexual assault]
• Students Allege Bias-Related Exchange With Professor – The Student Life
• Maple Spring Part Deux? – Waging Nonviolence

This occasional roundup of student movement stories is put together by Isabelle Nastasia, a CUNY undergrad, New York Students Rising organizer, and friend of this site. 

Featured Campus of the Day – Occidental College

[Trigger warning: contains discussion on sexual assault and campus policy]

Sexual Assault Reported Near Occidental College – NBC Los Angeles

A California College Hopes to Model Best Sexual Assault Policies – Ms. Magazine

Information on the student groups responsible for this organizing can be found here: Oxy Sexual Assault Coalition

A Tumblr that students and other community members are using to speak out: Dear Oxy

A good friend doing similar organizing at Cornell University responded to this news from Oxy by saying:

“This is tricky issue, because sometimes these alerts can endanger the survivor and the survivor might prefer not to have the police report released. we have these “crime alerts” sent to all the Cornell student body regularly concerning “forcible touching” (they don’t use the term rape), and the reports have manifested in problematic ways. (i.e., because they are so sterile in their writing, i.e. “woman forcible touched on her buttocks,” people have reduced them to jokes). I’m not saying that this is a reason to not have crime alert systems – there are clear benefits – but I think there should be a discussion with a survivor-dominated group about what would best empower Oxy students.”

Very important to keep these ideas in mind moving forward doing this kind of student organizing on all of our campuses.

Important perspectives on combating educational injustice:

Amnesty Now – Jacobin (My personal favorite piece of the week)

Emory Groups Rally Against Racism – Emory Wheel

Student Debt Nearly Tripled in 8 Years – HuffPo

Quebec Tuition Hike Draws 10,000 Back to the Streets – Rabble

 Dispatches from the Student Movement (March 1st) – The Nation

L’Appel De Lasse a Manifester A Ete Entendu – Le Devoir

Cross Class Coalition at Columbia University – Waging Nonviolence

Why We are Occupying Sussex University – Guardian

Vanderbilt University Divests for Land Grab in Africa – Oakland Institute

This occasional roundup of student movement stories is put together by Isabelle Nastasia, a CUNY undergrad, New York Students Rising organizer, and friend of this site. 

Rest in Power, Trayvon Martin:

The Acts of Courage and Kindness that Came After Trayvon Martin’s Death – Colorlines

Marching to Sanford  (a short documentary featuring the Dream Defenders, a coalition of black and brown youth fighting for immigration reform and an end to the school to prison pipeline and the prison industrial complex.)

Updates on educational injustice:

[Trigger warning: racist costumes and racial exploitation] USC Frat Planned a ‘Racist Rager’ Until a Mexican-American Students Put Them on Blast – Colorlines

Batraville and Lew Dod are Shortsighted, Unethical – Yale Daily News (Sneak peek: “As early as this April, Yale plans to welcome a training center for interrogators to its campus.”)

The Latest Education Craze Could Very Well Worsen the Achievement Gap – Colorlines (Good analysis of whats wrong with MOOCs)

[Trigger warning: discussion of sexual assault and sexist university policy] UNC Sexual Assault Survivor Faces Honor Code Violation after Speaking publicly about Abuse – HuffPo (Think Progress wrote more about this, too)

Harvard Helps the Less Fortunate – Socialist Worker (Do not be deceived by the title…)

The Next Hate Fest  – NY Post (Alan Dershowitz sets his sights yet again on CUNY as he targets an upcoming Queer conference on “Homonationalism and Pinkwashing”)

Day Laborers Group Respond to Syracuse University Immigration Analysis – Syracuse

Don’t Be Misled by Tuition Equity – Daily Tangrum

Examples of radical student movement-building, tactics and strategy: 

Oregon House Passes Tuition Equity  – Oregon Live

Whither a Russian Student Movement? – The Nation

Quebec Students Protest Fee Hike – HuffPo

Les Bureaux De Leo Bureau Blouin et de Pierre Duchesne Vandalises – La Presse (In French but can be easily translated via google translation)

Les Medias Et la Hausse des Frais de Scolarite de 2005 a 2010 – IRIS (In French but can be easily translated via google translation)

Students Occupy University President’s Office to Protest Naming University Stadium After Private Prison Company – Think Progress

Games of Theories – Inside Higher Ed

A Protest Resignation – Inside Higher Ed

N.C. Students Sieze Power – Technician

Too Radical or Too Ineffective? Lets Just Tackle Apathy  – Technician

Building an Inclusive Climate Movement – The Nation (Report from the divestment and climate conference at Swarthmore this past weekend)