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November 22, 2011
Community colleges and the 99%: Join OccupyCCSF and AFT 2121 for discussion and planning this Wednesday, noon
After a successful week of actions from 11/09 - 11/16, many questions still abound regarding the student movement and the movement to defend public higher education. Where do our community colleges fit in? Many students are not aware of the Student Success Task Force recommendations while others are not aware that we face new fee increases next year. CCSF faces a continued budget crisis that has already impacted students and those who work at the college.
We are calling faculty and students in particular to come together to discuss how CCSF might proceed, especially since there is not currently sufficient attention at #OccupySF about student issues and our community colleges. The 11/09 - 11/16 week of action in defense of public higher education centered on the plight of UCs and CSUs, but how do we rally together to highlight community colleges, the colleges of the 99%? What are the most pressing issues we face? How should the student movement and the labor movement work in conjunction with the Occupy movement to augment each other? With such a disverse campus, how might we connect to anti-racist struggles, like immigrants' rights, anti- police brutality, and anti-foreclosure campaign to strengthen the fight for the 99%? Please join us in discussing these issues.
Occupy! A discussion for CCSF students, faculty, and staff
Why: Community colleges are all about the 99%
When: This Wednesday, Nov. 23, noon - 2:00pm
Where: Science Building, room 111
A little background:
#OccupyCCSF had its first general assembly on 10/13 to show solidarity with #OccupyColleges and to build student support for #OccupySF. Since then, the group has sustained weekly discussions about the Occupy movement on campus, mobilized contingents of CCSF students for marches and rallies, and built the #OccupySF Student Working Group Committee that draws students from campuses all over the city and across the Bay. The goal is to reinvigorate the student movement, which is now showing signs of resurgence due to the boost of energy and confidence that the Occupy movement has supplied.
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Online petition: Don't let the 1% shut us out at UC and CSU
The corporate and financial elite that sit on the University of California Board of Regents just announced that they will close their doors to the public when they vote on new cuts to education in their 2012 budget request. The public can only “participate” through a sham teleconference. This comes on the heels of Chancellor Reed's announcement that the California State University Board of Trustees will not engage in a public discussion or revote on the illegitimate tuition increase they passed last Wednesday. The leadership of both the UC and CSU systems refuse to face thousands of outraged students, faculty, and staff who demand they stop treating the 99% like an ATM.
Click here to demand the UC Regents and CSU Trustees open their doors to the public!
On November 16th, the Trustees expelled hundreds of students and workers from their meeting before voting behind closed doors to increase tuition by 9%. A move that may be illegal. California's public education system, a promise of the past to the future and the only way to assure our state's economic growth, has been decimated by $17 billion in budget cuts and tuition increases since 2009. $2.5 billion in additional cuts are coming in December, and the 1% on the boards of CSU and UC are again trying to pass them on to students, teachers, and the working class. Now is a time where they should be seeking to break from the status quo and support the concrete solutions for banks and millionaires to pay for refunding education. Instead, they are doing the opposite.
Sign the ReFund California petition demanding both the UC and CSU Boards open their doors and allow FULL PUBLIC PARTICIPATION in their upcoming meetings, and that the CSU Board revote on its illegitimate 9% fee increase.
The Regents and the Trustees are made up of corporate elites such as Bank of America Director Monica Lozano. It’s time for them to stand with the 99% and support making Wall Street and the 1% pay to refund education.
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No on Prop. H victory! Measure fails to pass after strong final surge
It's official - Prop. H has lost in a photo finish! Though the final results were close, our side carried election-day voters by a margin over 11%. This shows that the more people learned about Prop. H, the less they liked it.
Thanks to everyone who got involved to help educate voters of San Francisco about the dangers of this measure. Had it passed, the misguided and poorly worded initiative would have meant the city of San Francisco was officially on record standing against parent choice and diversity in our schools.
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