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This month is the 40th anniversary of the Paris uprisings of 1968, launched by students and quickly joined by workers and others. Here’s a pretty good short introduction to those events, and to their place in cultural history.
Two hundred students at Mississippi’s Delta State University walked out of classes yesterday morning to rally against planned budget cuts at the state’s small public colleges. Among those protesting were DSU’s Statesman and “Fighting Okra” mascots, both in full costume.
Mississippi’s public higher education trustees have announced plans to divert funding from several smaller institutions to the flagship University of Mississippi. Ole Miss will receive nearly $2 million in additional funding next year, while DSU stands to lose $175,000. “They are taking money away from a school that produces teachers and nurses,” undergraduate Samantha Styers said, “and giving it a school that produces lawyers and engineers.”
The incoming chair of the state’s College Board said the entire system is “grossly underfunded, and that’s making us have to make very painful choices.”
Nathan Duff, editor of DSU’s Daily Statesman and an organizer of the walkout, said that the protests were not over: “we’re going to keep the pressure on.”
The College Board is slated to consider tuition increases at its next meeting in May.
Eight students were arrested last month when an anti-war protest at New York’s Binghamton University ended in an off-campus confrontation with police.
The protest, which began on the BU campus, culminated in a march on an army recruiting center in a nearby strip mall. Police claim that the march was the cause of two accidents on a nearby roadway, and that one protester jumped in front of a moving patrol car.
When the first arrest was made, other marchers began yelling. Officers contend that there was shoving as well. Police used pepper spray, and ultimately arrested nine protesters, including eight students.
Protesters and members of Binghamton’s undergraduate and graduate student governments met with university administrators last week and received pledges that none of the students will face campus judiciary action as a result of the incident. Criminal charges, including obstructing governmental administration in the second degree, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct, are still pending.
The 31 protesters arrested in the Penn State admin building sit-in earlier this month will be charged with “defiant criminal trespass,” police announced Friday. The charge is a third-degree misdemeanor, and carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $2,500 fine.
Penn State United Students Against Sweatshops plans a rally for the arrested students at 2 pm this Thursday, May 1.
An online petition in support of the students and contact information for the president of PSU can be found here.
The Columbia University takeover of 1968 began forty years ago this week. The anniversary has been commemorated in the pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post, as well as on Democracy Now.
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