Day of Action at UMass Boston on Thursday: Rally, Speak-Out & Teach-In!
Epic day of action, education and solidarity with public education attacks nationwide on Thursday the 4th at UMass Boston! Come join students, staff and workers as we protest and speak-out against budget cuts, tuition and fee hikes, layoffs, crumbling infastructure, gross pay-raises for UMass president Jack Wilson, and unions’ contracts being re-negotiated.
Rally and speak-out from 12pm-2pm outside Campus Center, join the excitement as we stir things up on campus!
Teach-In from 4-7pm in McCormack 3rd floor old cafeteria. Come hear students staff and faculty address issues such as public education funding in Massachusetts, democracy in the educational system, accessibility and affordability of public education in MA, and more. We will be having a video conference with organizers of the University of California, speaking with them about the radical statewide responses to the same issues we are facing in MA! The last half of the teach-in will be small group discussions for attendees to discuss how we are going to join together in solidarity and fight the injustices at UMass and how we can build a better system from the grassroots up.
The Teach-In agenda is thus:
Thursday, March 4, 4-7 pm
McCormack Hall, 3rd floor, room 0301
4:00 WELCOME (Moderator = Anneta Argyres)
4:05 A BRIEF HISTORY OF PUBLIC HIGHER ED FUNDING IN MA: Dave Danning
Topics:
– Where does funding for Public Higher Ed in MA come from (fed, state, etc.)?
– How has funding changed over time (total amount and distribution of sources)?
– How does this compare to other states? Nationally?
– Why have these changes happened?
4:25 PANEL DISCUSSION (4 speakers, each doing a 5 minute presentation)
– ACCESSIBILITY & AFFORDABILITY OF PUBLIC HIGHER ED IN MA: Ed Hunt (UMB graduate student)
– QUALITY OF EDUCATION: Heike Schotten (UMB Faculty)
– DEMOCRACY IN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM: Deirdre Lally (UMB undergrad student)
– EDUCATION AS A PUBLIC GOOD: Geneveive Morse (UMB Union Staff)
4:45 Q&A with presenter and panelists on open mics
5:00 TAKING ACTION
– RESPONSE IN CA: Intro by Ed Hunt; Skype with CA activists
– MTA’s REVENUE COMMITTEE: Randy Albelda
– PHENOM’S “A BETTER STATE OF MIND” CAMPAIGN: Alex Kulenovic
5:20 SMALL TABLE DISCUSSIONS: facilitated by March 4th planning committee members
Introductions: What struck you about the presentations?
How should we respond to this situation?
What can each of us do – as individuals or in any campus groups?
5:40 SPEAK OUT AT MICS: share your thoughts/commitments for action
6:00 CLOSING:
Eat some free pizza(!); announce a follow-up meeting to discuss the response to the Teach-In and actions coming out of March 4th
Occupy Boston 