[CW-Grad] CWgrad-announcements Digest, Vol 76, Issue 15

[Brian Jeppesen]

Rachelle and Andrea,

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.

I appreciate your efforts,

Brian Jeppesen

On Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 12:00 PM, <
cwgrad-announcements-request at lists.ucr.edu> wrote:

>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
>   1. Revision of CWPA letter to Chancellor (Rachelle Cruz)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:30:34 -0800
> From: Rachelle Cruz <rachelle.a.cruz at gmail.com>
> Subject: [CW-Grad] Revision of CWPA letter to Chancellor
> To: Mfa Listserve <cwgrad-announcements at lists.ucr.edu>,
>        mfa_alumni at lists.ucr.edu
> Message-ID:
>        <CAESUxmoGS-uEiRKcxQ8JszvB0QpqbEfP313LGgJTVA9tYHmn2Q at mail.gmail.com
> >
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> Thanks for all your feedback and support, regarding our letter to
> Chancellor White.
>
> Please take a minute to reread it.  Please let us know if there is anything
> we should add/edit/revise.
>
> If you want your name added to the letter, let us know!...That goes for
> students, staff and faculty!
>
> Best,
> Rachelle
>
> ***
>
> 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 by the actions taken by the University this past Thursday.
>
> We participated in the campus-wide action comprised of UC students,
> 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 discussions about the
> grim future of UC Riverside; 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, protecting
> protesters as they faced the staggering number of riot police at the HUB
> exit.  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 police officers with paint pellet guns; one young
> man was knocked to the ground by the shock and force of these pellets.  We
> witnessed sheer violence by your ?co-workers,? the police who, instead of
> marching around the students to take their positions, marched directly
> through the crowd as if they wanted to incite the kind of riot they were
> brought in to quell.
>
> However, in your Friday Letter you failed to acknowledge the many injuries
> that UCPD and several outside law enforcement agencies inflicted upon your
> students, injuries that were also ignored by many major news outlets. We
> believe that UCR students deserve an explanation and an apology.
>
> The ?few individuals? who peacefully disrupted the UC Regents Meeting
> represent 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,
> such as a public forum, 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,
>
> Rachelle Cruz, CWPA graduate student
> Andrea Gutierrez, CWPA graduate student
> Angel Garcia, CWPA graduate student
> David Campos, CWPA graduate student
> Sara Borjas, CWPA graduate student
> Courtney Lund, CWPA graduate student
> Melody Kowach, CWPA graduate student
> Tanya Frank, CWPA graduate student
> Kamala Puligandla, CWPA graduate student
> Ryan Peckinpaugh, CWPA graduate student
> Joe Powers, CWPA alum
> V Zamora, CWPA alum
>
>
> *****
> Rachelle Cruz,
> Host of "The Blood-Jet Writing Hour" Radio Show
> www.thebloodjet.wordpress.com
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> End of CWgrad-announcements Digest, Vol 76, Issue 15
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