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

Thu Jan 26 13:04:47 PST 2012

Add my name pls.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 26, 2012, at 1:00 PM, David Lopez <dlope015 at ucr.edu> wrote:

> 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
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> ________________________________
>>>> 
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> 
>>>> 
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>>> 
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