Letter to the Editor of the Daily Tar Heel about Budget Cuts Crisis

The university is finally taking a step in the right direction by “chopping from the top" and cutting 900 administrative positions across the UNC system. However, these cuts came only after job and benefit cuts for many workers, including housekeepers and groundspeople, for years.

The university should not raise tuition for anyone in this period. While in-state tuition rates are limited by law, out-of-state rates have risen close to $20,000 a year.

We believe that education is a right, just like it is asserted in the UN International Declaration of Human Rights. With the proposed tuition increases, UNC shuts the door to higher education for hundreds of current and potential students who will no longer be able to afford attending this university. These tuition hikes will hit those of us who depend on financial aid and those who work to pay for school the hardest. The university should find the money it would raise from these tuition hikes from the salaries of its richest administrative staff.

We are seeing skyrocketing tuition and dramatically fewer class sections needed to graduate, and at the same time the U.S. continues to spend hundreds of billions of failed wars and occupations, rather than fund education. On top of that the state government refuses to tax corporations, even though there is little real evidence that low tax rates keep jobs.To make things worse, there are fewer jobs for young workers to pay off their debt.

It is time for our generation to take back our education and declare loud and clear, "Education is our right!" But as history has shown, only those who struggle to defend their rights have any hope of attaining them in reality. We must organize to secure our right to an education and to a future.

What: SDS Summer School--Media Training for Campus Activists
When: Wednesday, June 3, 5:30pm
Where: Internationalist Books (405 W Franklin Street)

Ever wanted to learn how to write a press release? Holding an event or action and want to get lots of media coverage? How do you get your message out when speaking to the media?

Come out this Wednesday to a workshop hosted by UNC Chapel Hill SDS for any campus activist who wants to learn the answers to these and many more questions about how to do effective media work. We'll be having an hour long workshop facilitated by Independent Voices producer Elena Everett, who will share what she knows about doing activist media work and answer any questions you may have!

Please spread the word to other folks and organizations you think may be interested!

This will be the first in what will be a series of skillshares and workshops for campus activists that will take place throughout the summer. Other workshops that we're planning to hold include a facilitation and consensus building training, flier making 101, and anti-oppression trainings, among other things. Keep an eye out for these and other workshops throughout the summer!

Please RSVP on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=83390690678

UNC SDS stands in full solidarity with the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action coalition (MIRAc) and its allies who committed civil disobedience at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Bloomington, MN on May 6, 2009. Exposing and condemning the terror-tactics used by ICE to arrest and deport undocumented workers and rip apart families in the process is becoming more important than ever. The radical right is using the economic crisis as an opportunity to promote xenophobia and attack immigrants and multiculturalism. Actions like the one undertaken by MIRAc last week are an essential part of any strategy to counteract ICE’s secret raids and the racist anti-immigrant hate speech of the radical right that promotes them.

Having recently come under attack from the press and the police here in Chapel Hill for our role in a protest against racist former-Congressman Tom Tancredo, members of UNC SDS have had a taste of the kind of police harassment faced by nonviolent protesters in Bloomington. We condemn police harassment and brutality everywhere and stand together with MIRAc activists who are fighting to make our society safer and more accepting for immigrants and to stop the ICE raids that poison our communities and destroy families.

The daring action undertaken by MIRAc activists on May 6 inspires us to continue in the struggle to make our society more open to immigrants and to counteract the radical terror-tactics of ICE and the hate speech of its right wing supporters.

In solidarity,

UNC SDS
May 14, 2009

See attached.

We the chapter of Students for a Democratic Society of the University of Central Florida would like to declare our support for and solidarity with all of those who protested the speaking event of former Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo.

We are in solidarity with all those who stand against racism, bigotry, and hate. We applaud those who work for justice, inclusiveness and diversity. We extend our deepest condolences to any of the protesters that were harmed.

We do regret that the lack of coordination between the tactics of the different groups that lead to the dissent of some being silenced and we appreciate the honesty and frankness of the Chapel Hill chapter of SDS for admitting this in their statement.

However, it seems clear that it was the violent tactics of UNC Police and Tancredo’s group that lead to the escalation and to the event being shut down. It was the Police who fired pepper spray at the demonstrator’s faces and it was UNC Police and Tancredo’s group who violently assaulted demonstrators without provocation. As near as we can tell neither Tancredo’s entourage nor the police suffered any injuries or were assaulted physically.

Given these and other events we are puzzled as to why UNC official’s apologized to Tancredo, suggesting that his free speech rights were violated. Events would suggest that it was not Tancredo, who was forced to leave but left of his own accord after giving a short speech.  It was the protesters who had their free speech rights violated.

LUCHA at Columbia University stands in solidarity with the brave protesters of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We commend all of the students who stood up to the racist politics of Tom Tancredo and sent a clear, public message that there is no space for hate on their college campus. Just as many of our members faced great hostility in the aftermath of the minutemen protest where we confronted the bigoted vigilante group of the Minutemen, so too the UNC protesters are the object of much criticism.  Instead of delving into the sociopolitical causes of illegal immigration and exploring America's role and/or responsibility in the matter, critics would rather shift the focus away from the issue at hand and assign blame to the protesters.

Those opposing the protesters will surely attempt to turn this incident into a debate on free speech, distracting others from the real implications of allowing hateful rhetoric to be spewed on their campus. They will call upon the First Amendment to make a victim out of racist Tom Tancredo who seizes every opportunity he has to demonize undocumented immigrants. However, in looking to the law, they fail to bring up Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This recognizes the impermissibility of allowing racism and discrimination in an educational institution that receives any kind of federal funding from creating a hostile learning environment. Not only is Tom Tancredo's presence at UNC alienating for a number of students, it gives his xenophobic platform legitimacy.

STUDENTS CONDEMN POLICE HARASSMENT AND ARREST OF UNC STUDENT PROTESTER
HALEY KOCH; DEMAND AN IMMEDIATE INVESTIGATION

***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***
Thursday, April 23, 2009

UNC PROTESTERS DEFENSE COMMITTEE DENOUNCE POLICE INTIMIDATION, ARREST
OF STUDENT ACTIVIST

Students to hold a press conference condemning Chapel Hill and UNC
police harassment and targeting of activist at South Building tomorrow
at 12pm.

Chapel Hill, NC - Student organizers involved in the protests of
speeches hosted by Youth for Western Civilization featuring Tom
Tancredo and Virgil Goode denounce attempts by UNC and Chapel Hill
police to intimidate and harass activists. The students will hold a
press conference tomorrow at noon to demand that the UNC
administration cease their harassment and conduct an immediate
independent investigation into police activities.
At 10:30 this morning, UNC Morehead Scholar and honors student Haley
Koch found police officers waiting for her outside her class. She was
questioned at the UNC police station, and released on a $1,000 bond.

“Another student and I were having a conversation after class with