Occupation!

"The university action group of Tampere, Finland, has occupied the university of Tampere for the night. This is the first time that this university has been occupied for decades. We are protesting the coming university law that will enact the Bologna Process in Finnish universities, as well as the current policies of our university - the space of universities does not belong to us, it belongs to the corporations, and we wish to change that.

Solidarity to student movements all across Europe and the world, especially our comrades occupying the university in Zagreb!"

Occupation!+ "global flashmob"

"The students have succesfully occupied the central administration of Copenhagen University!!
Furthermore we did the flashmob with extraordinary energi :-)!!! and we are now in the process of putting it together! what about the rest of the flashmobs??? any update??

We used the flashmob as a means to enter the administration buildings, with massive press representation!!!!!
We are currently in most of the big newspapers, and have launched our own portal.

From where we publish the newest initiatives and our concrete propositions for a new university reform!
I will post link for both relevant media and for our own portal soon!!

Unite worldwide!

RyE-denmark"

"global flashmob"

We also had our "global flashmob" today. Considering that nobody inside our group ever joined a flashmob, not to mention organized one, I believe it went pretty well :P
All together maybe 50 people participated.

(pictures and clips are coming up)

After the flashmob an open meeting was arranged where activists and "newcomers" chatted about the education system and how it is being effected by the commercialization process.

Sit-in + arrests

"In a bold, last ditch attempt to halt these budget cuts and layoffs at the University of Vermont (UVM) once and for all members of Students Stand Up! occupied the president's wing of the Waterman Building and sat-in in the hallway outside of it. Negotiations were started with the administration, but Fogel (the university's president) abruptly left before the negotiations even had a chance to start saying that they would not agree to any of it. Those students sitting in the president's wing were than promptly arrested on their own campus.
Now those 100+ students, staff and faculty who have stayed occupied the hallways of Waterman have been told that if they don't leave their administration building by 10pm they will be arrested.

Up next:
RALLY IN FRONT OF THE WATERMAN BUILDING AT 9:30PM TONIGHT IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE NON-VIOLENT PROTESTERS!!!"

Source: Message on facebook + video

Regular updates can be accessed here.

Regarding our occupation of the Copenhagen University, we have recieved massive media-coverage. We are working on extensive documentation, but for now we have uploaded some picture + a short description on archive.org. The info can be found searching for:
University of Copenhagen - Occupied!
or directly at:
http://www.archive.org/details/UniversityOfCopenhagen-Occupied
Furthermore we post some links for the different media, including our own: Hippocampus - the independent university magazine from University of Roskilde. Here we are currently publishing the newest activities concerning the occupation! Allthough it's all in danish - it'll hopefully give you an idea of how we work to document the happenings!
Some of it will be translated om english! :-)!
Good Luck! Unite Worldwide -RyE-Denmark
Hippocampus:
http://hippocampus.ruc.dk/
Modkraft.dk: A leftwing net-magazine:
http://modkraft.dk/
Politiken: The biggest Daily newpaper in Denmark!
http://politiken.dk/uddannelse/article695461.ece
http://politiken.dk/uddannelse/article695484.ece
thats it for now!

We have also uploaded some pictures on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36709664@N02/

occupation (update)

"There was a meeting today where we agreed to continue our occupation. Our minister of education still hasn't spoken to the press. Other cities like Rijeka and Split are also planning to start a occupation and we're all hoping that they will succeed."

Source: Message on facebook

(not co-ordinated as part of the GWA)

occupation

"At about 7am parents struggled past security to occupy the roof of Lewisham Bridge Primary School in protest at Lewisham Council's absurd decision to decant all the children and pupils 1.5 miles away. They are still on the roof, despite an enormous police presence. As I understand it, Lewisham Council has effectively been thwarted in its attempts to knock down the primary school that has been at the heart of the community for decades, after the school building recently received a Grade II listing. But this has not stopped the council going ahead with a plan that has made parents extremely angry.
In preparation for the move to another building, children have already been forced to take a four week Easter break, rather than the usual two. As you can imagine, this places an enormous extra burden on the shoulders of working families who are forced to pay childcare for the extra two weeks.
If you're in the Lewisham area, come and show solidarity with the occupiers! If you can't do that, please join the facebook group "Hands Off Lewisham Bridge Primary School" and invite your friends."

Source: E-Mail

In Oldenburg about 100 pupils joined the Global Flashmob! All went well (somehow it did, dont ask how=P), we had a lot of media coverage. Pictures and films really look impressive!

But as the provincial media seems to work with both eyes closed, the broader backround of the action and the global movement was simply ignored in the newspaper article( like so often)...

Greetings of solidarity to all activist world-wide!!

Oldenburg,Germany

This year Wroclaw (POLAND) took part in the Globar Week of Action for emancipating education.
We set up two info points we called “Cities for Critical Education” – one on the campus of the Faculty of Social Sciences and the other on the Market Square, the very centre of the city. Some of us dressed up as restless butchers who shiv education and some in mourning, dressed all in black for the funeral we handed out lots of leaflets presenting our postulates and talked with people that passed by our booths.
We were also agitating to sign up petition letters to the authorities of the University of Wroclaw and Technical University. Most important issues we highlighted were:

• very low public expenditures for education (0,3% GDP !!!);
  
• difficult social situation of students: high maintenance costs, lack of dormitories;
• unsatisfying work conditions and wages of the university employees, academics as well as librarians, technical and administrative staff;
• abolition of any kinds of fees and charges at the university (neither for studies, nor for administrative operations);
  
• independence of universities from state’s policy and economical pressures.
  

Moreover, in May we plan to invite professors and other scholars to discuss current situation and possible ways of avoiding the dangerous consequences of performed policy.

More details to come!

Dozens of students protest against tuition hikes at New York University (NYU).

Source: facebook + pictures

On Wednesday a debate took place at University of Gdańsk (Social Science Department). The debate was dedicated to the government's reform plan for the higher education system. People concerned about the future of education in Poland were discussing alarming trends presented in the document (commodification of knowledge, eliminating autonomy of the university etc.). The participants decided to take a stand on the reform plan during community consultations with prof. Barbara Kudrycka - Minister of Science and Higher Education (Thursday, 23.04.2009).

More

S i t - i n   +   a r r e s t s

33 UVM students were arrested in the President's Wing of the Waterman building protesting budget cuts, layoffs, tuition hikes, administrative mismanagement, and rising student to teacher ratios.
This protest came on the heels of many actions against the cuts including a walk-out last week that gathered as many as 2000 students, faculty, and staff.
Seven students locked down at 3:00pm in the President's Suite out side of his office and requested negations on the 13 demands issued prior to last week's walk-out. President Daniel Fogel spoke to the occupiers for around 20 minutes, at which point the students wished to discuss amongst themselves on how to proceed.
During this time, Fogel scurried away to a dinner party--But not before ordering those locked down to be arrested. Meanwhile, between 70 to 100 protesters had gathered in the hall outside the President's Suite prepared to sit in for as long as the administration refused negotiations.
They effectively rejected all demands and began to arrest the student occupiers; but at this time the police covered the large window leading into the hallway with sheets and UPS packages in order to prevent those sitting in solidarity from witnessing and documenting the arrests.(We managed to find a hole in the sheets to capture the moment
though!)
After being cited and released on the spot, they rejoined the some 100 people sitting on the other side of the doors where they were greeted with massive applause. The sit-inners decided unanimously to occupy the halls overnight and risk arrest. But before this could happen we wanted to recruit the entire campus community to come and become an immovable occupying force before the 10pm trespassing deadline.
Sadly, when some of us returned from gathering hundreds of students, the President had ordered the building closed for the night and police were posted at every door, refusing anyone entrance. "President's orders."
27 students locked inside were willing to risk arrest and the others prepared to leave when the police came to deliver the ultimatum. They tried to wait us out but close to 400 people had converged outside the doors of the building rallying and chanting as news crews broadcasted live.
The officers proceeded to arrest 27 people linking arms and even dragged one of the previous occupiers back into the arrest zone where he was cited for a second time. He was attempting to leave with the non-arrestable supporters.
All except the unfortunate fellow mentioned above were processed and released to
cheering crowds at 11:30 that night. The student who was wrongfully arrested was taken to jail where he was released at 2:30am on $250 bail.
All of the arrestees were cited for criminal trespassing and banned from the building (which also houses classes) for 30 days amidst review sessions and finals. We also now have security guards posted at every entrance.
Although the action didn't go as planned, we showed a massive display of impromptu force and numbers as well as garnering many folks outside who would have been comfortable risking arrest had they joined their friends in time.
The administration's decision to arrest 33 of our peers is cowardly and offensive and highlights the incompetence of our University's leader. Therefore we have issued a press release to local media officially calling for Fogel's resignation. The faculty union, United Academics (UA), has joined us in that call as well as demanding that all charges
be dropped.
There is a Student Gov't meeting on Tuesday where we expect a vote of no confidence in the president to be passed and are encouraging the Faculty Senate to do the same. We are hesitant to plan another direct action during finals that could involve more police confrontation but we are trying to spread the news of this absurdity as widely as possible as well as stand in solidarity with those participating in the Global Week of Action Against the Commercialization of Education.
That being said, we thought this may be of interest to SDSers and the national student community in general. Any show of support would be greatly appreciated and we hope to be another catalyst for the campus movement that is brewing overseas and at home.
We will continue to call for Fogel's resignation along with our revised and refined list of demands. They are:
1. The immediate resignation of president Fogel.
2. The reversal of proposed layoffs and non-reappointments.
3. Make a substantial reduction in the administrative salary pool to save as
many jobs as possible.
3. Create a democratic decision-making process whereby students, staff andfaculty play a decisive role in the selection of a new president and the negotiations of future budget decisions.
We move our presence tomorrow to admitted students day where we will eat a protest oatmeal breakfast outside of the welcoming assembly and hand out literature on the budget cuts to future UVMers and their parents. What will come after that, we aren't quite sure, but with any luck it will involve the resignation of Fogel and the restoration of teachers and academic programs that make this school the fine institution that it is.

Website: uvmssft.blogspot.com

More details: vtflatlander.blogspot.com

Facebook: I + II

At least 100 students joined the "global flashmob".

The Menéndez y Pelayo college was occupied on the night of the 22nd April by dozens of students.

Source: interuni-bcn.blogspot.com