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

Thu Jan 26 13:00:20 PST 2012

Rachelle and Andrea--

By all means, please include my name on the letter.  Thank you for
being proactive on this matter.

David Lopez

On 1/24/12, Tanya Frank <tanfrank at me.com> wrote:
> Mine too comrades!
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Jan 24, 2012, at 12:23 PM, David Campos <dcamp009 at ucr.edu> wrote:
>
>> Please add my name to the letter.
>>
>> Instead of marching around the students to take their positions, the
>> officers marched directly through the crowd as if they wanted to
>> incite violence. I was there, afraid, as I saw them using their batons
>> to push students out of the way. One Sheriff, the name tag read
>> Martinez, stabbed one student in the chest with his baton just to get
>> him out of the way. I was further terrified when, six to seven feet
>> away from me, the police started firing paint balls. At that moment I
>> ran away unsure what other methods they were willing to employ. I do
>> not believe these tactics were necessary.
>>
>> Add my name to the letter,
>>
>> David Campos
>>
>> On Tue, Jan 24, 2012 at 11:30 AM, Joe Powers <Joe.Powers at sbcglobal.net>
>> wrote:
>>> Sounds like a movie about Kent State . . .
>>>
>>> bottom line it is not okay . . .
>>>
>>> you have my full support . . .
>>>
>>> good letter . . .
>>>
>>> all for now . . .
>>>
>>> Joe Powers
>>>
>>> Personal sites:
>>> http://web.mac.com/codypowers/joepowers
>>> http://www.linkedin.com/pub/joe-powers/12/73a/392
>>>
>>> Cody Powers Films:  http://www.codypowersfilms.com/
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: Rachelle Cruz
>>> To: Mfa Listserve
>>> Sent: Monday, January 23, 2012 9:37 PM
>>> Subject: [CW-Grad] CWPA students react to UC Regents Protest
>>>
>>> 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
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ________________________________
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> CWgrad-announcements mailing list
>>> CWgrad-announcements at lists.ucr.edu
>>> http://lists.ucr.edu/mailman/listinfo/cwgrad-announcements
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> CWgrad-announcements at lists.ucr.edu
>>> http://lists.ucr.edu/mailman/listinfo/cwgrad-announcements
>>>
>>
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