Student Journalist Arrested at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee At Education Rights Rally

[midnight]

Run time: 03:56 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzq2g9tY0II   Posted on YouTube: March 05, 2010 By YouTube Member: joelvanharen Views on YouTube: 1116   Posted on DU: March 08, 2010 By DU Member: midnight Views on DU: 1424

 
At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a student journalist was arrested among 15 others. Hosts of the event, Students for a Democratic Society at UW-MIlwaukee had this to say;
"The demonstration peacefully marched to the Chancellor's office to deliver petitions and make a statement that students and workers will fight cuts to education. Instead of acknowledging the protest, the Chancellor and university administration locked their office doors and called the police, watching from the windows of Chapman Hall as students were maced and beat up by campus police."
"The events that occurred reveal the administration’s refusal to acknowledge the struggles being faced by students and workers. Chancellor Santiago still will not address the demands of the Education Rights Campaign. The administration’s legitimization of violence used against the protesters and the lies that were constructed to place the blame on the students and workers is unacceptable."
"We demand:
1. A public hearing with Chancellor Santiago to hear the demands of the UWM Education Rights Campaign and to discuss the effects of the economic crisis upon this university.
2. All charges be dropped against those arrested and charged
3. An apology from the UW-Milwaukee Police Chief Michael Marzion for excessive use of force"
"Education is a right!
Drop all charges against the Milwaukee 16!"
-http://www.sdsmke.com/

[Grand Taurean]

1. Remember this!

Remember these times when
the Police Benevolent Associations call you for money.
You know what to do, HANG UP!
The one union that needs to be busted up!

[gadjitfreek]

9. Maybe they should take the word

"benevolent" out of their name.

[LiberalFighter]

2. Was wondering what a student journalist would be attesting.

[Grand Taurean]

4. Law "enforcement" (if that is what they do) is NOT your friend.

[midnight]

7. Hey the r and t are so close, but so far apart to spelling arrested. Thanks.

[truedelphi]

3. Have I mentioned yet today how much I hate these people?

At least back in the sixties, many of the faculty protested with us.

[midnight]

5. There are other clips. One shows a faculty member from the teachers union who is with these

students in their commons area. She speaks about the increase in this Chancelor's salary and the rise of tuition, but that her salary is cut.

[Grand Taurean]

6. Interesting. Which would explain

the cops defending the Chancellor. Cops are paid by the palace, not the people.

[wial]

8. I'm trying to get my head around why this is happened in Milwaukee not Madison

Part of the reason is Madison has become much more of an economic elite school since its heyday thanks to tuition hikes over many years. Also the Catholic cafe on campus "The Catecombs" where the activists all had offices was shut down a few years ago because the Catholics didn't want to support things like human rights anymore. Still, a sad sign of the times in this new neoliberal gilded age. Unless Obama somehow gets something to rise from the ashes of the bonfire of Reaganism, China is so going to kick our collective butts.

Would someone please go over to the GOP and just tell them they are risking everything with their idiotic posturing?

[smoogatz]

10. I teach in the UW system, and I can tell you for a fact

the students are angry at the wrong people. No UW system chancellor WANTS to increase tuition; it's a direct response to draconian cuts in state funding, and the steady, systematic de-funding of the UW system by the state legislature over the last generation. If students are angry, and they should be, they should direct that anger at the state legislature and Governors Thompson and Doyle, and the people who elected them. As a percentage of their operating budgets, state support for the UW system schools has declined steadily since the late 1970s; in 1979 UW Madison received 40% of its budget from the state; that number is now under 20%. The other system schools have been similarly defunded. In contrast, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections has seen its budget grow 71% in the last ten years, with another big increase coming in the 2009-2011 budget. It tells you a lot about the political priorities in your state when incarceration is a growth industry, but education is considered a luxury. It's fine to make life uncomfortable for university administrators--I'm all for it--as long as you understand that the people who are actually to blame are the Republican dickheads in Madison, and the people who put them in office.

[midnight]

11. Can you explain how during this economic crisis the Chancellor can take a 5% increase.

I believe that was the last straw for these students...

[smoogatz]

12. I won't defend it.

But it was probably contractual--these guys come in with big contracts that guarantee fixed raises in specific increments, plus bonuses if things go well. The CEO model, basically. He should have turned it down, obviously, or taken the money and donated it to the university's general fund; clearly he mis-read the mood on campus. In any case, it's a drop in the bucket compared to the real problem, which is the rightwing's systematic de-funding of public education at all levels. It's not surprising that students might pick the closer/easier target, especially given the fact that they've been raised on the tax-cutting mantra and probably (if they're anything like my students here in western WI) don't really get the connection between state taxes and the UW system's ability to educate students of modest means. Everybody wants a cheap college education, but there's really no such thing. One way or another, you get what you pay for. The question is, does the state have an interest in educating its citizens? Do taxpayers benefit?

Not that the UW system's perfect, by any means--too many schools doing too much redundant stuff, too many administrators pulling down big paychecks, too many ridiculous initiatives, too much self-perpetuating make-work, too many un-needed building projects, too much hand-holding of students, etc., at the same time most system professors are teaching bigger loads and earning way less than their out-of-state peers. It could all use some serious common-sense reform, but that's a huge task that would probably end up eliminating a bunch of jobs--not what you want in bad economic times.

[kenfrequed]

13. The CEO model should be abandoned

It actually seems to increase costs and does not create any social benefit. Additionally it creates a school system that seems more interested in perpetuating management and inventing VP positions than than improving education.

Simply put educators should be in charge of schools.

[smoogatz]

14. Well...

Being chancellor of a public university in times like these isn't exactly my dream job. Talk about winning first prize in a shit-eating contest. But it's also clear that the skill-set probably isn't sufficiently rare to warrant the kinds of salaries these guys pull down: all you have to do is look around, and you realize pretty quickly that you don't have to be a genius to end up as a high-level college administrator. In my experience, though, you're right--the home-grown admins who've worked their way up from the classroom to administration have a much better grasp of and feel for the actual local conditions, while the big-money transplants brought in from other institutions for the top jobs (chancellor, provost, etc.) are usually looking to burnish their CV's on the way to the next gig. It's those one-foot-out-the-door types that can get you in a whole lot of trouble.

[midnight]

15. Do you know where this Chancellor came from?