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

Thu Jan 26 12:54:59 PST 2012

My name is on here already, but I just want to thank both of you for using
your talents to raise awareness of what happened that day and I hope you
get a lot of faculty and alumni support because this affects us all.

On Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 12:34 PM, Brian Jeppesen <bjepp001 at ucr.edu> wrote:

> 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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-- 
"They claim their labors are to build a heaven… yet their heaven is
populated with horrors.
-Dr. Manhattan

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