[CW-Grad] CWPA students react to UC Regents Protest

[Susan C Straight]

Rachelle, Andrea, and All,
I think this is an eloquent letter, and should give the Chancellor a very personal view of how it felt to be on the front line.  I like the mention of the young daughter, and the appreciation of the importance of protesting, expressing opinions.  I was proud of you all.
I attended the Regents Dinner on Wed night, at the Chancellor's house, which was kind of intimidating, but I actually talked up my students and my whole campus to Regents, and to Mark Yudof.  It was weird, walking out to his limo with him, and talking the whole time about what great writers and teachers you are.  I don't know if anyone listened, but I spoke.  As did you.  As should we all.
I'll be there with you next time.  (I was guest teaching a big CHASS Connect class of 75 on Thursday.)
(Please forward this to all CWPA students, because I'm probably not on the list.)
Susan Straight

On Jan 23, 2012, at 9:37 PM, Rachelle Cruz wrote:

Dear CWPA students, alumni, faculty and staff,

Andrea Gutierrez and I have drafted a letter to Chancellor White in response to last Thursday's UC Regents Meeting and protest on campus.

We would love your feedback, support, signature, and/or anything else to strengthen our voice and concerns regarding police presence and brutality at UCR, students' rights to assemble, and the Occupy Movement on campus.

The letter is both attached to this email and pasted below.

Thank you!

Best,
Rachelle Cruz
Andrea Gutierrez

***

January 22, 2012

Dear Chancellor White,

As graduate students and teaching assistants in the MFA Program for Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts, we are deeply disappointed and ashamed by the actions taken by the University this past Thursday.

Many of us participated in the campus-wide action of students across the UC system, faculty and staff outside of the HUB, while the UC Regents continued their meeting in privacy.  This day-long action was indeed an expression of outrage over rising tuition and depreciating quality of education.  It was also a celebration of community and solidarity.

We witnessed our students chanting or engaging in discussion about the grim future of UC Riverside and their disappearing classes; for many of them, this was their first political protest.  One of our students, a mother of two, brought her three-year-old daughter.  This student lamented forgetting to dress her daughter in her Highlander shirt.  She wanted her daughter to bear witness to the fight for her future education.

We witnessed UCR students and community members dressed in black bearing colorful, lifesize banners depicting the book covers of liberatory texts.   These books envision equality and freedom and question privilege and cultural hegemony, such as Franz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth, bell hooks’ Feminism is for Everyone, Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy for the Oppressed, among others.  The book bloc remained at the front of the line, facing the staggering number of riot police at the HUB exit and protecting protesters from police violence.  We couldn’t help but recognize the clear metaphor in all of this.

Despite what your Friday Letter states, there were more than just a “few” individuals at this action.  We witnessed hundreds of students, faculty, and staff who merely wanted to engage in an open discussion with the UC Regents.  As police helicopters circled above us, we witnessed our students (your students) pushed, shoved and humiliated by riot police because of this desire to converse and be heard by the Regents.  We witnessed members of our community shot by riot police with pellet guns; one young man was knocked to the ground by the shock and force of the pellets.  We witnessed sheer violence by your “co-workers,” the police who treated your students like the Asian Citrus Psyllids plaguing the orange groves at UCR and throughout Southern California.

The “few individuals” who peacefully disrupted the UC Regents Meeting represents more than a handful of marginal opinions.  These “few individuals” exercised an essential act of civil disobedience and represent many of us in the UC Riverside and UC community who are fed up with business as usual.

We urge you to provide opportunities for students to engage in dialogue about last Thursday’s events and the implications behind police presence as the University’s response to student assembly and protest.  We urge you to take responsibility for putting your students’ safety on the line.  We urge you to ensure their safety and right to express their discontent with the UC system by supporting future student actions.

Sincerely,

Students of the MFA Program for Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts

Rachelle Cruz
Andrea Gutierrez

*****
Rachelle Cruz,
Host of "The Blood-Jet Writing Hour" Radio Show
www.thebloodjet.wordpress.com<http://www.thebloodjet.wordpress.com/>




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