Rachelle and Andrea,<div><br></div><div>Thank you for drafting this magnificent letter. I don't have much to add, since you have said it well, but I would be happy to add my name to the list.</div><div><br></div><div>
I appreciate your efforts,</div><div><br></div><div>Brian Jeppesen<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 12:00 PM, <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:cwgrad-announcements-request@lists.ucr.edu">cwgrad-announcements-request@lists.ucr.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><br>
<br>
Today's Topics:<br>
<br>
1. Revision of CWPA letter to Chancellor (Rachelle Cruz)<br>
<br>
<br>
----------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
Message: 1<br>
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:30:34 -0800<br>
From: Rachelle Cruz <<a href="mailto:rachelle.a.cruz@gmail.com">rachelle.a.cruz@gmail.com</a>><br>
Subject: [CW-Grad] Revision of CWPA letter to Chancellor<br>
To: Mfa Listserve <<a href="mailto:cwgrad-announcements@lists.ucr.edu">cwgrad-announcements@lists.ucr.edu</a>>,<br>
<a href="mailto:mfa_alumni@lists.ucr.edu">mfa_alumni@lists.ucr.edu</a><br>
Message-ID:<br>
<<a href="mailto:CAESUxmoGS-uEiRKcxQ8JszvB0QpqbEfP313LGgJTVA9tYHmn2Q@mail.gmail.com">CAESUxmoGS-uEiRKcxQ8JszvB0QpqbEfP313LGgJTVA9tYHmn2Q@mail.gmail.com</a>><br>
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<br>
Hi everyone,<br>
<br>
Thanks for all your feedback and support, regarding our letter to<br>
Chancellor White.<br>
<br>
Please take a minute to reread it. Please let us know if there is anything<br>
we should add/edit/revise.<br>
<br>
If you want your name added to the letter, let us know!...That goes for<br>
students, staff and faculty!<br>
<br>
Best,<br>
Rachelle<br>
<br>
***<br>
<br>
January 22, 2012<br>
<br>
Dear Chancellor White,<br>
<br>
As graduate students and teaching assistants in the MFA Program for<br>
Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts, we are deeply<br>
disappointed by the actions taken by the University this past Thursday.<br>
<br>
We participated in the campus-wide action comprised of UC students,<br>
faculty, and staff outside of the HUB, while the UC Regents continued their<br>
meeting in privacy. This day-long action was indeed an expression of<br>
outrage over rising tuition and depreciating quality of education. It was<br>
also a celebration of community and solidarity.<br>
<br>
We witnessed our students chanting or engaging in discussions about the<br>
grim future of UC Riverside; for many of them, this was their first<br>
political protest. One of our students, a mother of two, brought her<br>
three-year-old daughter. This student lamented forgetting to dress her<br>
daughter in her Highlander shirt. She wanted her daughter to bear witness<br>
to the fight for her future education.<br>
<br>
We witnessed UCR students and community members dressed in black, bearing<br>
colorful, lifesize banners depicting the book covers of liberatory texts.<br>
These books envision equality and freedom and question privilege and<br>
cultural hegemony, such as Franz Fanon?s The Wretched of the Earth, bell<br>
hooks? Feminism is for Everyone, Paolo Freire?s Pedagogy for the<br>
Oppressed, among<br>
others. The book bloc remained at the front of the line, protecting<br>
protesters as they faced the staggering number of riot police at the HUB<br>
exit. We couldn?t help but recognize the clear metaphor in all of this.<br>
<br>
Despite what your Friday Letter states, there were more than just a ?few?<br>
individuals at this action. We witnessed hundreds of students, faculty,<br>
and staff who merely wanted to engage in an open discussion with the UC<br>
Regents. As police helicopters circled above us, we witnessed our students<br>
(your students) pushed, shoved and humiliated by riot police because of<br>
this desire to converse and be heard by the Regents. We witnessed members<br>
of our community shot by police officers with paint pellet guns; one young<br>
man was knocked to the ground by the shock and force of these pellets. We<br>
witnessed sheer violence by your ?co-workers,? the police who, instead of<br>
marching around the students to take their positions, marched directly<br>
through the crowd as if they wanted to incite the kind of riot they were<br>
brought in to quell.<br>
<br>
However, in your Friday Letter you failed to acknowledge the many injuries<br>
that UCPD and several outside law enforcement agencies inflicted upon your<br>
students, injuries that were also ignored by many major news outlets. We<br>
believe that UCR students deserve an explanation and an apology.<br>
<br>
The ?few individuals? who peacefully disrupted the UC Regents Meeting<br>
represent more than a handful of marginal opinions. These ?few<br>
individuals? exercised an essential act of civil disobedience and represent<br>
many of us in the UC Riverside and UC community who are fed up with<br>
business as usual.<br>
<br>
We urge you to provide opportunities for students to engage in dialogue,<br>
such as a public forum, about last Thursday?s events and the implications<br>
behind police presence as the University?s response to student assembly and<br>
protest. We urge you to take responsibility for putting your students?<br>
safety on the line. We urge you to ensure their safety and right to<br>
express their discontent with the UC system by supporting future student<br>
actions.<br>
<br>
Sincerely,<br>
<br>
Rachelle Cruz, CWPA graduate student<br>
Andrea Gutierrez, CWPA graduate student<br>
Angel Garcia, CWPA graduate student<br>
David Campos, CWPA graduate student<br>
Sara Borjas, CWPA graduate student<br>
Courtney Lund, CWPA graduate student<br>
Melody Kowach, CWPA graduate student<br>
Tanya Frank, CWPA graduate student<br>
Kamala Puligandla, CWPA graduate student<br>
Ryan Peckinpaugh, CWPA graduate student<br>
Joe Powers, CWPA alum<br>
V Zamora, CWPA alum<br>
<br>
<br>
*****<br>
Rachelle Cruz,<br>
Host of "The Blood-Jet Writing Hour" Radio Show<br>
<a href="http://www.thebloodjet.wordpress.com" target="_blank">www.thebloodjet.wordpress.com</a><br>
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End of CWgrad-announcements Digest, Vol 76, Issue 15<br>
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</blockquote></div><br></div>