Students brought noise to a public hearing with the board of trustees of CUNY on CUNY's budget and tuition today. Many of the testifiers were faculty, many of who supported the proposed 5% tuition hike for the sake of the quality of the education. Testifiers could hardly take this stance without much vocal opposition, such as chanting during the hearing in the filled room of some seventy people.
Patrick Krug, chairperson of NYPIRG and student at BC, won over the support of the vocal crowd by opposing the tuition hike, but also fought to keep TAP and PELL (financial aid) as well, which he said are unlikely to remain secure.
A representative of the Internationalist Club went further to demand no tuition at all and an abolition of the Board of Trustees.
Chancellor Goldstein, who has been a very controversial figure amongst student activists in the Education Movement, left the hearing before all the students could be allowed in, which was towards the end of the hearing. The students pointed this out to the board as the meeting ended in a vocal attack from students at the board, which generally left without comment.
Showing posts with label city college activist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label city college activist. Show all posts
Monday, November 15, 2010
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
LGBTQA Vigil
LGBTQA Alliance of City College, the Office of Student Life and other allies held a vigil in response to the recent suicide of Rutgers University student, Tyler Clementi as well as, Asher Brown (age 13), Seth Walsh (age 13), Billy Lucas (age 15), and Raymond Chase (age 19). It may seem curious as to why so many LGBTQ related suicides occurred recently, but according to Hector Martinez, "LGBTQ youth are four times more likely to commit suicide than their strait peers" and that "twenty to forty percent of the homeless population in New York City is identified as LGBTQ." The story that brought these other other similar tragedies into such a light was unique in itself. The story is that Tyler Clementi's roommate secretly filmed him on a webcam being sexually active with another man, leading to the event in which Tyler jumped off the George Washington Bridge.
Vigils in solidarity with the LGBTQ community and youth, occurred all across the country. At CCNY, it was emphasized by the representatives of Student Life, Student Government, The Wellness Center, the affirmative action office, the office of the campus minister, and the study abroad office that these are all places where students can to talk about various such issues. The staff member of the study abroad office, who did not appear to be too much older than the average student, shared that he would be a good person to talk to, that he came out while in college, and that it was not easy. It was noted that there is a Coming Out Group for LGBQ People forming, Tuesdays from six to seven-thirty PM at the Psychology Center in the NAC 8-101.
There were two perspectives given to look at the oppression of LGBTQ peoples and solutions to it, at the vigil. One was that the problem is systemic, that homophobia is encouraged by the larger context of our society. The recent legislative actions taken that don't allow gays to marry, to be openly gay in the military and other forms of discrimination feed homophobia into domestic settings. A political movement to change these things would then be an answer. The other perspective was that we can reverse the tide by simple acts of kindness, by making sure people know that we care about them. Actions of neither sort may include going to a vigil, or by going to a meeting of the LGBTQA Alliance.
Vigils in solidarity with the LGBTQ community and youth, occurred all across the country. At CCNY, it was emphasized by the representatives of Student Life, Student Government, The Wellness Center, the affirmative action office, the office of the campus minister, and the study abroad office that these are all places where students can to talk about various such issues. The staff member of the study abroad office, who did not appear to be too much older than the average student, shared that he would be a good person to talk to, that he came out while in college, and that it was not easy. It was noted that there is a Coming Out Group for LGBQ People forming, Tuesdays from six to seven-thirty PM at the Psychology Center in the NAC 8-101.
There were two perspectives given to look at the oppression of LGBTQ peoples and solutions to it, at the vigil. One was that the problem is systemic, that homophobia is encouraged by the larger context of our society. The recent legislative actions taken that don't allow gays to marry, to be openly gay in the military and other forms of discrimination feed homophobia into domestic settings. A political movement to change these things would then be an answer. The other perspective was that we can reverse the tide by simple acts of kindness, by making sure people know that we care about them. Actions of neither sort may include going to a vigil, or by going to a meeting of the LGBTQA Alliance.
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