Notice: Trying to get property 'ID' of non-object in /code/wp-content/themes/thenation-2023/functions.php on line 3332 The Year of the Youthhttps://www.thenation.com/article/activism/youth-movements-best-journalism-2023/StudentNationDec 22, 2023

Over the last year, we’ve seen an extraordinary surge in student organizing around LGBTQ rights, climate change, labor, Palestine, and more.

]]>
Activism / StudentNation / December 22, 2023

The Year of the Youth

Over the last year, we’ve seen an extraordinary surge in student organizing around LGBTQ rights, climate change, labor, Palestine, and more.

StudentNation
2023 Student Protests

Students participate in a protest in support of Palestine and for free speech on the Columbia University campus on November 14, 2023.

(Spencer Platt / Getty)

In 2023, StudentNation published around 100 original articles by student journalists reporting on youth-oriented movements and issues across the country. Over the last year, we’ve seen an extraordinary surge in student organizing around LGBTQ rights, climate change, labor, Palestine, and more. With great difficulty, we’ve selected 16 of the year’s best articles to highlight the extraordinary writing and reporting of the next generation of writers. We’re deeply grateful to the Puffin Foundation whose great generosity to The Nation Fund for Independent Journalism made this work possible.

With Abortion Rights Under Attack, Menstrual Equity Gains Support,” by Thalia Charles (February 7)
This year saw a landmark moment for menstrual equity, according to Thalia Charles, who highlighted the work of the Texas Menstrual Equity Coalition, a youth-led collective advocating for systemic solutions to menstrual inequities. “In January alone, lawmakers in two dozen states introduced around 100 menstrual equity bills.”

Inside the Youth Campaign to Bring Climate Change to the World’s Highest Court,” by Robin Happel (April 26)
On March 29, the UN voted to request a consequential opinion on climate change from the International Court of Justice, after years of youth organizing by Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change. “The court’s opinion and the future we create together remain to be fully heard. And until then, we will continue working to ensure that everyone has a seat at the table.”

Current Issue

Cover of March 2024 Issue

Why Are So Many Young People Joining Labor Unions?,” by Paige Oamek (May 1)
A growing number of young people are joining and forming labor unions. Some call them “Generation U.” The New York Times dubbed the phenomenon the “Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class.” For May Day, we talked to young workers—in tech, retail, food service, and more—about what brought them to the labor movement.

How Scientific Publishers’ Extreme Fees Put Profit Over Progress,” by Kayla Yup (May 31 )
After the editorial team of NeuroImage resigned over the “unethical fees” charged by the journal’s publisher, Puffin student writing fellow Kayla Yup talked to these editors about the possibility of scientists ditching the for-profit system. “As the academic publishing industry balloons into a $25 billion business, its monopolization may threaten how far public money can go toward funding scientific breakthroughs.”

The Nation Weekly

Fridays. A weekly digest of the best of our coverage.
By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 and agree to receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You may unsubscribe or adjust your preferences at any time. You can read our Privacy Policy here.

How WWII-Era Radioactive Waste Fueled A New Crisis at a Missouri Elementary School,” by Walter Thomas-Patterson (July 10 )
In October 2022, the Hazelwood School District announced that Jana Elementary in Florissant, Mo., would close indefinitely, after an independent contractor reported elevated levels of radioactive lead dust on school grounds. It was only the latest blow to an area long-saddled with a slow-moving and notoriously complex environmental disaster. But competing reports left Florissant mired in confusion. “What are we supposed to do as a community?”

The Catholic Women Priests Fighting for Reproductive Justice,” by Molly Morrow (August 8)
While the Catholic church forbids women to become priests, members of Roman Catholic Women Priests–USA believes that they are aptly situated to minister on abortion and offer a new, progressive stance.“Faith communities have always been essential to political change. And I think the secular pro-choice movement has made a terrible mistake marginalizing those voices.”

Kentucky’s Anti-LGBTQ “Parental Rights” Law Is a Disaster for Families, Teachers, and Kids,” by Nadia Scharf (August 11)
After Kentucky Senate Bill 150 passed the House and the Senate, the state moved to ban gender-affirming care for trans minors, require students to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender at birth, recommend that teachers use incorrect pronouns, and limit education. “Despite the strong opposition of every major medical and mental health association, the new law prohibits parents, healthcare professionals, teachers, and clergy from working together to lovingly and privately provide support to transgender youth.”

Held v. Montana Is a Historic Victory for Climate Action—but Also Human Rights,” by Meher Bhatia (August 16)
On August 14, a Montana state court ruled in favor of the 16 youth plaintiffs who sued the state for anti-climate policies they argued were unconstitutional, violating their explicit right to a “clean and healthful environment.” Invoking this right will likely become a replicable strategy for climate lawsuits across the country. “The hope is that, within the next few years, instead of fighting to get access to our courts, we’re going to be enforcing remedies and holding the governments accountable to implement policies that actually protect these young people’s constitutional rights.”

The Queer Progressives Helping to Pull Louisiana to the Left,” by Kennith Woods (August 31)
The Pelican State might have a dearth of left-leaning political figures in office, but that didn’t stop Davante Lewis and Mel Manuel from fighting for LGBTQ advocacy and economic justice in the state’s first congressional seat, currently occupied by Republican House leader Steve Scalise. “Individual LGBTQ leaders are playing a critical role right now, especially in very conservative states/cities. Our fight is for both visibility and representation and you can’t have one without the other.”

When the Ku Klux Klan Came to Stanford,” by Isaac Lozano (September 29)
Despite its current reputation, California was once ripe for Klan activity. KKK organizing at Stanford and in Palo Alto is part of the country’s long history of racial terrorism, argues Isaac Lozano in his piece from September. “In 2020, Stanford renamed a building honoring the university’s first president, David Starr Jordan—a prominent advocate of the eugenics movement—and in 2022 issued a public apology for limiting admissions of Jewish students in the 1950s. While Stanford’s Klan was short-lived, it belongs to a past that is, indeed, national and expansive. And that history is worth confronting.”

New York City’s Climate Change Whiplash,” by Ilana Cohen (October 3)
Just months after smoke from the Canadian wildfires blanketed the sky, NYC had its wettest day on record since 1948. “The torrential downpour inundated streets, basements, and subway stations, and even forced a school evacuation,” wrote Ilana Cohen. “As the world remains on track to careen past a 1.5 degree (Celsius) warming limit within the coming decade, the lesson is clear: The United States must take meaningful climate action, both to enable as much adaptation to this new normal as is possible and to mitigate the far deadlier consequences that continued reliance on fossil fuels will lock into place.”

‘One of the Worst Weeks at Harvard I’ve Ever Experienced’: The Targeting of Campus Activists,” by Rebecca Cadenhead (October 17)
On October 7, the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee published a letter in response to Hamas’s massacre of Israeli civilians and the retaliatory Israeli attacks on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, cosigned by 33 student organizations. A few days later, it was an international news story. “On Tuesday, Amy, a member of the Palestine Solidarity Committee realized they had been doxxed,” wrote Rebecca. “Friends and family members started sending them links to websites and social media posts that shared their full name, picture, and other identifying information. Then, strangers—who have no connection to Harvard and appear to have found Amy’s information through these websites—began sending Amy threatening direct messages on their social media accounts.”

How Black Moms in Temecula Are Fighting the School Board’s Right-Wing Takeover,” by Mara Marques Cavallaro (October 31)
Last December, three school board members in Temecula, Calif., voted to ban critical race theory on the day they were sworn into office. “If this all sounds familiar, it’s because Temecula is far from alone in its struggle,” wrote Mara Marques Cavallaro. “Even in California, where Ethnic Studies will soon be a graduation requirement for public high schools. Faux-grassroots groups like Moms for Liberty have strategically taken control of school boards, attacked curricula, banned books, and harassed educators across the country for teaching about race and gender.” But a local group of Black mothers had a plan, which moved forward earlier this month, to recall members of the far-right school board.

Inside Brown University’s Sit-In for Palestine,” by Nicholas Miller (November 17)
After occupying University Hall at Brown University, 20 protesters with Jews for Ceasefire Now were arrested and charged with trespassing. The charges were eventually dropped, as Nicholas Miller wrote in an update last month, days after the attempted murder of three Palestinian students in Vermont. “The sit-in is one of the latest in an escalating series of protests on Brown’s campus about the war in Gaza, with student activists calling for the university to divest from companies that manufacture weapons and military equipment used by the Israeli military.”

In California Schools, Palestinian History Is Off-Limits,” by Shaanth Nanguneri (November 20 )
Santa Ana’s ethnic studies courses discussing Palestine were put on hold after backlash from pro-Israel organizations. “The local Jewish Federation of OC said the curricula ‘framed Jews as colonizers’ and contained inaccurate material, claiming the class violated anti-bias guardrails in the state’s ethnic studies requirement law,” wrote Shaanth Nanguneri. “What followed, after a relatively quiet summer, thrust the district onto the stage of international politics.”

Why Young People in Argentina Backed Far-Right President-Elect Javier Milei,” by Zachariah Sippy (November 30)
“Before Javier Milei won the presidency of South America’s second-largest economy in a runoff against Sergio Massa, the center-left candidate from the ruling Peronist party, Argentina was consumed by the presence of another electrifying figure: Taylor Swift,” wrote Zachariah Sippy. “In Argentina, young people flocked to Javier Milei and his far-right party. Voters under the age of 29 delivered a shocking first-place finish for Milei in the August open primaries, and then later a whopping 11-point victory in the runoff.”



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/youth-movements-best-journalism-2023/
America’s Youth Have a Problemhttps://www.thenation.com/article/politics/fourth-of-july-young-americans-gen-z-2023/StudentNation,StudentNationJul 3, 2023

n March, a poll from The Wall Street Journal and NORC found that just 23 percent of people under 30 found patriotism to be “very important” to them, compared to 60 percent of those 65 and older. But what’s the biggest issue facing the country? For young people, there isn’t a clear answer.

According to a survey from Deloitte, around half of Generation Z and millennials are living paycheck to paycheck, a plurality work multiple jobs, and over a third say that they feel stressed “all or most of the time.” America’s youth have a problem: The country is waging a war against them. Republicans are banning books, blocking gender-affirming care, and bringing back child labor. The Supreme Court has ruled against affirmative action and student loan cancellation. Since 2018, there have been over 150 school shootings across the country, and legislators have no good ideas on how to stop them.

For the Fourth of July, we asked a dozen StudentNation writers to discuss what matters to them most.

To say that the economy is the biggest issue facing the country is something of a cliché. But if you ask the average voter, it consistently ranks as their top priority.

Its endurance reflects a sharply obvious reality: The economy no longer works for most Americans, who continue to express increasing pessimism for their economic security. Since the 1980s, the ultra-wealthy have hoarded larger concentrations of wealth and now own more than the entire middle class. Corporate profits, too, have reached atmospheric levels, all during a fatal pandemic and an attendant economic shutdown.

In last year’s State of the Union address, Biden lambasted corporations and the superrich for not paying their fair share, echoing the worker-friendly vigor of his party’s official platform. But, at a moment when he could build political momentum for a bolder wealth tax policy, Biden has only publicly committed to a modest 25 percent tax on all wealth over 100 million.

Republicans are more sly. Though they share Democrats’ rhetorical sympathy for the honest, struggling worker, Republicans shroud their language with culturally traditional and religious messaging, harking back to a nostalgic and retrievable past. What’s notably missing, however, is any material support for policies that actually help the working class, including a 15 dollar federal minimum wage, the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, Medicare For All, and a wealth tax.

Understanding both parties’ failures to respond to an unjust economy means deciphering the elite interests that undergird them, from individual billionaires to corporations. If we want anything close to an economy “that works for everyone,” those interests will need to be dismantled—and that means giving back control of the economy to working people.

–Isaac Lozano

Stanford University

This year’s July Fourth celebrations come less than a month after Canadian wildfire smoke blanketed the Northeastern US skies and now wreaks havoc on the Midwest. Of course, the accelerating climate crisis isn’t an American-only issue; it’s a matter of global justice. But climate inaction remains, in many ways, a powerfully American phenomenon, propelled by the outsize influence of petro-corporate money and propaganda on US politics.

In June, a federal judge ruled that Oregon youth plaintiffs—several of whom have aged into adulthood since they first brought their case, Juliana v. United States—will finally get to lay bare the consequences of US climate delay and denial in a trial, as youth plaintiffs in a similar state-level proceeding in Montana did last week. The development comes amid an international surge in climate change-related legal momentum, from Swiss women suing their government in Europe’s top human rights court amid deathly European heat waves to the United Nations requesting an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on states’ climate obligations.

While the Biden Administration has taken critical measures to address the climate crisis, the United States has yet to reckon with the damage its singular legacy of carbon pollution has inflicted on the Global South or take sufficient steps to ensure that all Americans, including today’s youth and future generations, can realize the promise of liberty and justice for all on a healthy planet.

–Ilana Cohen

Harvard University

Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the Progressive era was the illegalization, and demonization, of child labor. For decades, children could be found toiling in American factories, mills, and mines. Pressured to work to support their families and lacking education, these children were forced into a life of manual labor, and often, an early grave. It took the work of muckraking reporters, labor rights activists, and sympathetic elected officials to bring this practice to an end, creating laws like the Keating Owen Child Labor Act to rein in corporations and criminalize their child workforce.

Except, there is a movement overtaking the United States to erase the victories that took centuries to win. Groups like the Foundation for Government Accountability have crafted bills loosening child labor protections, and the same laws are being introduced in statehouses throughout the US. The funding behind these groups is always the same: billionaires waging a multifront war against labor protections. It’s incumbent on all of us to fight against these laws. If we don’t, we’ll be abandoning America’s youth and reopening a darker chapter in American history.

–Zurie Pope

University of Cincinnati

The distribution of power–which more often than not translates to the distribution of wealth–is the biggest problem facing the US today. From health care, gun violence, climate change, civil rights, and more, the disproportionalities are rooted in America’s deepening class divide.

When a few billionaires control the market, driving the economy and the consumers themselves, how are we to believe that democracy is being upheld? When corporations control not just the aisles of grocery stores, but policy itself, how can our politics be by and for the people? When our politicians bail out monopolies and millions can’t put food on the table, we are told it’s because the people are “lazy” and “don’t work.” How does one man ethically earn a billion dollars? Does he truly work harder than those working multiple minimum wage jobs?

America’s existing social order is becoming increasingly more dire. For Americans who feel defeated, inferior, and lost in this pit of work, remember: Revolutions are made up of ‘ordinary people like you and me.

–Aina Marzia

Young Women’s STEAM Research and Preparatory Academy

The biggest issue facing our country today is the Democratic Party’s unflinching allegiance to neoliberal capitalism. Any lip service paid to progressivism is fluff. They’re not here to put up meaningful opposition to Republicans or fight for the people; instead, their place in American politics is to preserve capitalism, socioeconomic hierarchy and the status quo, to the utter detriment of the working class and minorities. While the Democrats gladly embody a progressive veneer to win votes, especially from young people, the party establishment immediately sheds the aesthetic once it’s time to fight for progressive values.

Despite their disdain for the Left and the working class, we still have to vote for Democrats, thanks to the futility of third parties and the fascism festering in the Republican Party. They know this; they will never push left or uphold progressive values because the political landscape is so hellish that progressives have no other choice but to vote for them. Until the Democrats decide to prioritize the people over their wealthy campaign donors, we will continue shuffling to the ballot box every other year, crossing our fingers that fascism won’t win the day this time.

–Kennith Woods

Southeastern Louisiana University

The country is splitting apart at its blue-and-red seams. It’s clear by now that American partisanship is becoming increasingly polarized. Not only have Republican and Democratic politicians grown more distinct from each other, but each group has also grown more internally cohesive, according to a Pew Research Center study.

At the same time, these distinctive political beliefs are becoming a backbone of Americans’ identities. Those who are in your party are like you, and those in the other party are different; worse, they’re your enemy.

Republicans and Democrats don’t want to talk politics with each other. They don’t want to date each other. They don’t even want to live near each other. And not interacting with or being around people with different beliefs, avoiding engaging with people that don’t think in the same way, all makes the divide worse.

Politicians are even more polarized than individual Americans. In recent years, we’ve seen partisan gridlock again and again, and it’s not likely to improve anytime soon. When the political differences which define us grow further apart, legislation doesn’t get passed and extremist groups have more leverage.

So how do we solve this? Focusing on policy itself, not the party attached to it. Standing against hatred and bigotry spread within one’s own party. Coming together for something bigger. Inter-party connections made outside of politics, and increased empathy.

This doesn’t mean ignoring our values in favor of compromise. We can fight for what we believe in while still acknowledging our opponents’ humanity. We’ve seen this tension, anger, and rapidly increasing propensity towards violence before, and we need to stop it sooner rather than later. After all, a house divided against itself cannot stand.

–Nadia Scharf

Indiana University

Health care spending in the United States surged to 4.3 trillion dollars in 2021. While there’s no price tag on life, that doesn’t justify skyrocketing health care prices and surging medical debt.

While it’s easy to look toward private equity and its increasing influence in health care, even the nonprofit hospital systems have been rocked by scandals. By law, nonprofit hospitals are required to offer free or discounted care to low-income patients. But that has not stopped certain players from creating barriers. Executives at Providence, one of the nation’s biggest nonprofit hospital systems, developed a program to pressure low-income patients to pay—even the ones eligible for free care. Another nonprofit, Allina Health System, rejects patients with unpaid medical debt (while accepting $266 million in tax cuts from its nonprofit status in 2020).

Nearly 20 percent of emergency department visits lead to a surprise bill. While the No Surprises Act signals progress, it still does not cover surprise billing by ground ambulances.

Meanwhile, when Minnesota tried to propose a health affordability bill, Mayo Clinic fought back by threatening to move $4 billion in new hospital investments from the state.

The United States is lucky to have some of the world’s most advanced medical technology. But you shouldn’t have to go broke trying to access it.

–Kayla Yup

Yale University

In June, the Florida government shipped 36 asylum seekers to Sacramento with the false promise that they would be provided jobs—an act that California Attorney General Rob Bonta called “state-sanctioned kidnapping.” When a boat carrying 750 refugees and migrants capsized in the Mediterranean, they were treated with less urgency than the missing 5-person sub touring the Titanic. The capsize was one of deadliest shipwrecks on the Mediterranean in years, with only 104 people rescued alive.

Approximately 11 million people live in the United States as undocumented immigrants. Additionally, over half a million people are protected under the Deferred Program for Childhood Arrivals program, a temporary stop-gap measure that gives these immigrants very minimal support—like the right to vote—without granting full citizenship. This country’s treatment of migrants and refugees is a hugely pressing issue because it allows for them to constantly be treated as second-class, and leads to the devaluing of human life—as we’ve seen multiple times in the last month alone.

If we ever want to live up to this country’s stated goal of liberty and justice for all, we must turn to those who are most vulnerable, and reckon with our country’s treatment of migrants.

–Itzel Luna

Stanford University

This April, President Joe Biden announced an executive order ensuring environmental justice to be the responsibility of “every single federal agency.” And there’s a very good reason why.

At its core, environmental injustice in the United States amplifies existing disparities. The issue has disproportionately burdened marginalized communities with exposure to toxic waste, air pollution, and the detrimental impacts of climate change for decades. In addition to leaving affected communities—predominantly made up of low-income brown and black residents—more vulnerable to the Covid-19 pandemic, many face higher rates of respiratory illnesses, cancer, and developmental disorders.

As a result of decades of redlining or racial housing discrimination, 45 million Americans breathe dirtier air, exposed to pollution particles associated with lung disease, heart disease, and premature death. Flint, Michigan residents are still suffering residual effects of the water crisis that occurred over nine years ago, with one in four children exhibiting elevated blood-lead levels—a rate three times higher than what it was 10 years ago.

Resulting health care costs that come with these outcomes create intergenerational financial burdens that exacerbate the economic instability marginalized groups face, intensifying racial and social inequities. A solution from the Biden Administration requires bold policy changes and inclusive decision-making that target the systemic barriers that perpetuate environmental injustice.

–Meher Bhatia

Cornell University

In just a few decades, the Arctic will be ice-free and one-third of plant and animal life will be facing extinction. My generation has grown up under blood red skies, but there is little care from the supposedly “pro-climate” Democrats to avert this slow apocalypse.

The pollution of the environment is inseparably linked to the domination of workers. As president, Biden has approved 6,430 oil drilling permits, crushed striking rail workers, and helped block lawsuits against the company responsible for the East Palestine disaster.

The same markets pillage ecosystems exploit labor, and will not stop climate change. Confronting climate change means reducing economic models incompatible with nature and transitioning to a more worker-friendly—and thus, inherently climate positive—paradigm.

The working class and marginalized communities that will feel the climate consequences first—and hardest—know what is best for their communities. Young people are keenly aware of these truths as we organize our workplaces and march for climate relief. Only by truly addressing climate change will we be able to live and labor with dignity.

–Porter Wheeler

University of Oregon

The political calculus of the Republican Party is clear: attack gender-affirming health care, flame the so-called “culture war,” rally the base, and consolidate power.

Republicans have doubled down on this strategy with over 400 anti-trans bills proposed in 2023. The intensification of these attacks is no accident, but follows the blueprint of their anti-abortion efforts and last year’s Dobbs decision by attempting to create a new regime of gendered surveillance.

How the United States treats its most marginalized better reflects its values than any empty statement from its politicians. Unfortunately, the country’s disregard for trans youth is not just impacting politics domestically, but is also affecting trans rights in Europe. Recently, the NHS announced it would be limiting access to gender-affirming health care for children and young adults “pending further research.” The move was widely regarded as an attempt to appease the British rightwing who share a political playbook with the United States. The Republican Party must remember the dangers of vilifying and attacking an entire class of people.

–Theia Chatelle

Yale University

On June 29, the Supreme Court released their ruling against affirmative action. At its core, affirmative action is about the pursuit of fairness in our society, helping to level the playing field for underrepresented students.

According to the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, elementary and secondary schools with large numbers of black and Hispanic students are more likely to have inexperienced teachers, low-quality instructional materials, and inadequate facilities. Still, despite being disadvantaged, Hispanic and Black students take the same admission college tests as students from other races.

Is adding more spots and eliminating admission tests enough to support the education of Black and Hispanic students? It’s a possible solution, but it’s not enough.

Poverty is one of the most challenging obstacles, and the 2021 report shows that Hispanic and Black races are the poorest in America.  Affirmative action increases the number of Black and Hispanic students at many colleges and universities. Still, even with affirmative action, Blacks and Hispanics are more underrepresented at top colleges than 35 years ago.

To make our society more just for the most vulnerable, we must continue fighting for marginalized groups’ ability to pursue higher education.

–Yamila Martinez

Hunter College

A little over a month ago, a coalition of civil rights organizations, including the largest LGBTQ+ rights organization, issued a travel advisory for my home state of Florida. The coalition—which included the Human Rights Campaign, the NAACP, the Florida Immigrant Coalition, Equality Florida, and the League of United Latin American Citizens—argued that new policies by the Republican-controlled legislature and Governor Ron DeSantis could be harmful to immigrants, marginalized individuals, and queer people visiting the state.

DeSantis has recently positioned himself as a presidential hopeful and alternative to Trump, and has attempted to woo Republican voters with a ceaseless array of legislation curtailing the rights of the state’s young people and marginalized communities. Young, trans and queer Floridians are being especially targeted by the state’s recent measures, which include sweeping restrictions on gender-affirming care, the much-criticized “Don’t Say Gay” law, and a (currently blocked) restriction on drag performances.

DeSantis joins much of the Republican party elite in forwarding a dangerous fear-mongering campaign against the LGBTQ+ community. This anti-democratic political rhetoric harms queer people at the same time as it actively threatens the rights of other marginalized communities.

–Sofia Andrade

Harvard University

We cannot address any of our social problems without the ability to protest. But the average American’s willingness to protest is limited—in part because we know that if we express discontent we run the risk of being beaten, jailed, shot, or surveilled by law enforcement. Implicitly or explicitly, the militaristic power of our police is an obstacle to dissent.

This problem isn’t new—black discontent has historically been met with with lynchings, shootings, military tanks, and even bombings. Similarly, American police have a long history of suppressing the discontent of labor movements. But today, militarization is becoming even more severe. And I mean “militarization” quite literally— by 2020, 65 percent of U.S. police departments had received leftover military equipment from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

U.S. police also use “civil asset forfeiture”—essentially, money taken from people during arrests—to buy equipment with little oversight. In 2014, The Washington Post reported that from 2008 to 2014, U.S. police departments spent $2.5 billion in civil asset forfeiture to buy items including armored personnel carriers and helicopters. In 2021, WBUR and ProPublica found that the Boston Police Department had spent $627,000 of civil asset forfeiture funds on a technology that allows them to “track cell phone location” of almost anyone “down to a particular room of a hotel or house.”

Police militarization is always justified by appeals to public safety. But in reality, such militarization assumes that most of us are potential threats. This has troubling implications for the freedom to protest; after all, when a threatening person expresses discontent, that discontent itself is viewed as a threat.

–Becca Cadenhead

Harvard University

Information is a scarce resource nowadays. Compared to the podcasts that transmit misinformation to millions, the self-amplifying pockets of conspiracy theories on Twitter and Facebook, and the shouting of cable news anchors, diligent journalism that offers precise information and crucial context seems like it’s barely perceptible.

We have offered a megaphone to those who are unknowledgeable or ill-intentioned, and the power to oversee it all to profit-driven tech companies. Through tweets and television monologues, information—even when accurate—is conveyed superficially without the context to provide true understanding. At the same time, the decline of local news outlets means that one-fifth of the country lacks reliable information about their community, a tragic development that has helped allow social media hysteria to dominate the narrative on everything from school boards to affordable housing projects. On the national level, the deluge of misinformation has made the result of a presidential election subject to violent disagreement and the possibility of a unified fight against climate change difficult to imagine.

Our trail markers have been turned upside down, our maps have been crossed out and redrawn, and our directions have been torn up into misleading pieces. Information has become scattered and disfigured, leaving us lost, confused, and susceptible to going down an errant path.

–Nicholas Miller

Brown University

 



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/fourth-of-july-young-americans-gen-z-2023/
This May Day, Let’s Celebrate the Campus Labor Movementhttps://www.thenation.com/article/activism/may-day-college-university-labor-union-movement/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationMay 1, 2023

Over the last few years, workers in the United States have propelled a resurgent wave of union organizing. With the approval of organized labor at its highest among young people, it’s no surprise that colleges and universities have been a linchpin of the movement. Across the country—from resident advisers at Columbia University to dining workers at William & Mary to undergraduates at Dartmouth and beyond—workers in higher education are demanding better pay and conditions as tuition and fees continue to skyrocket. To understand what’s at stake, we asked a few young organizers and student journalists to give an update on a few of these ongoing campus campaigns.

raduate student workers at the University of Michigan have been on strike since March 29, 2023. For graduate workers organized in the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO), American Federation of Teachers Local 3550, this is our second strike in three years, part of a growing wave among graduate student workers across the country, including Columbia and Temple universities and the entire University of California system.

We know graduate school shouldn’t be a struggle. We work long hours contributing to our universities for pay that simply does not meet our material needs. We are fed up and ready to fight.

Our strike at the University of Michigan is a microcosm of what graduate workers are facing across the country. We are putting forward a vision of a University of Michigan where anyone can be a grad student—not just those who are independently wealthy. Like the vast majority of Americans, we are facing a cost-of-living squeeze. Our members have seen the gap between our salaries and the local cost of living triple in the last three years. That’s why we’re asking for a living wage of $38,500 each year and additional support for those who need them—like international students, parents, and disabled workers. We’re also demanding a dignified and safe workplace by proposing expanded protections for workers who have been harassed (especially important given UM’s embarrassing record on this issue), an unarmed non-police crisis response program, and more accessible gender-affirming care.

Our campaign has been led by members every step of the way. Over 1,200 of us participated in the process that led to our bargaining platform. Members fought hard against stiff opposition from the university to win the right to watch bargaining sessions. Over 1,000 grad workers have attended bargaining since negotiations began in November. Having bargaining open to members has allowed them to take ownership of the process, actively discussing proposals in real time and voting on how to respond. It also allowed members to hear the university’s preposterous justifications for their proposals firsthand—for example, that management did not consider the cost of living when formulating their below-inflation salary offer. The result of this is that GEO members are more engaged than ever before and our strike authorization vote passed with 95 percent support.

On April 10, Graduate Workers won a consequential victory in court, as the judge denied the university’s request for an injunction to force us back on the job. In 2020, it was fear of precisely this kind of injunction that ended our strike. The court’s decision upholds workers’ right to strike. By proving that forcing workers back on the job through an injunction is an unwarranted abuse of the legal system, it is a victory for all working people in Michigan, who now know they can strike without fear of being enjoined. Our current strike is now the second-longest in the 50-year history of our union. With this ruling, graduate workers feel the wind at our backs, and are ready to fight until we get the contract we deserve!

Amir Fleischmann, university of michigan

ince October of 2022, students at the University of Oregon have been fighting to build a union for student workers. If successful, it will be the largest union of undergraduate workers in the country; representing over 3,000 employees.

Student workers in dining and residence halls, libraries, information desks, campus cafes, and research labs will share membership in the University of Oregon Student Workers (UOSW), a new wall-to-wall union. The union campaign is surfacing common grievances held by student workers; unlivable wages, infrequent pay periods, arbitrary scheduling, no shift meals, and apathetic management. The union’s demands are higher pay, a two-week pay period, more flexible scheduling, and stronger anti-harassment policies.

The campaign is employing a card check process: If a majority of student employees sign a card approving the formation of a union, the university is legally obligated to recognize and enter negotiations with the union. On April 8, the campaign officially filed over 2,000 signed cards to certify the undergraduate union with Oregon’s Employment Relations Board. Students will know if they’ve won their union outright a maximum of 45 days after filing. If they fail to certify by a card majority, they will have an additional 45 days to hold an election.

In a press release, organizers reflected on the long struggle to attain certification: “We are standing at a pivotal point in the current labor movement,” said organizer Elizabeth White. “We’ve used our collective power to get to this point, and we will continue to use it to create tangible change on our campus and to empower others to do the same.”

The struggle does not end by winning the union; post-certification, the campaign will identify workplace specific grievances and prepare to bargain with the university for a contract that benefits all student workers. “It’s been an incredible journey with my fellow student worker organizers. None of us will ever forget this day,” said organizer Will Garrahan.

Garrahan was interviewed for previous reporting for The Nation and has since been fired from his dining hall job, which he believes was in retaliation to his public role in UOSW. The campaign has since held rallies to pressure the university to reinstate Garrahan, attracting the support of the campus.

In a statement to the Eugene Register-Guard, UO Director of Public Affairs Kay Jarvis said that the university has not taken an official stance on the unionization efforts. However, organizers do allege that unfair labor practices and union-busting occur in campus workplaces, including posters’ being taken down and supervisors’ interrupting students signing cards.

UO students, like many youth across the country, understand their position as members of the working class. As organizers have argued, unionized students raise conditions for all other workers and teach priceless solidarity that will continue into broader labor movements—which could be transformative for American politics. “When we organize, we can fight. And when we fight, we win,” said Garrahan. “Together, we are unstoppable.”

Porter Wheeler, University of Oregon

p against an administration that has taken the most hardline, anti-union stance of any peer institution in the heart of the “right-to-work” South, the Duke Graduate Student Union (DGSU) continues to move toward an election. In March, the Duke administration mounted a legal challenge that imperils the right of graduate workers at all private institutions to unionize.

This move only further energized the student body and community support. In April, the DGSU and campus and community supporters protested a keynote speech by President Vincent Price during the university’s alumni weekend, calling on alumni to pledge “No Dollars for Duke” to hold their donations until the administration changes course. Within days, 400 alumni already signed on. Protesters silently entered the auditorium holding a banner listing the 1400+ signatories of support, including faculty, three Durham state legislators, and the Durham City Council.

In March, graduate students and supporters wrote to the university’s provost and president en masse to demand an election, days after over 500 graduate workers submitted a signed letter to the provost calling on his office to allow a vote.

After the DGSU filed and requested an election by late March—a standard NLRB time frame—the Duke administration chose the nuclear option: relitigating the 2016 Columbia decision that affirms graduate workers at universities are workers. In fact, the same regional NLRB board already ruled on this exact same challenge with the exact same unit—making plain that this move by Duke is a flagrant union-busting tactic, albeit a dangerous one.

This challenge also cannot be decoupled from the state’s labor and political context. The DGSU is organizing in solidarity with the Union of Southern Service Workers in a shared struggle to support labor organizing in a state with the second-lowest concentration of union labor nationally.

Over 30 Duke graduate workers attended the first day of March regional NLRB hearing proceedings, overflowing the local hotel conference room in which it was held. In response, Duke’s lawyers agreed to end the hearing proceedings after three days and to a stipulation of facts.

As pressure continues to build from within Duke, the Durham community, and myriad supporters for the administration to change course and meet its workers at the bargaining table, the DGSU will continue to prepare for their election and towards a big-tent, pro-worker, unionized South.

Kristina Mensik & Matthew Reale-Hatem, Duke University

odern universities are beginning to bear remarkable resemblance to the exploitative company towns of old. In the past, company towns sheltered, fed, monitored, and sold goods to its entrapped workforce. Today’s universities have even more intimate control of their workers’ real and digital personhoods through surveillance and data capture. Harnessing a neatly spun web of on-campus health services, housing, policing, loan servicing, and institution-hosted digital programs allows university employers to slowly ensure that its workers can never truly escape its corporate stranglehold.

At the University of Arizona (UArizona) and Arizona State University (ASU), campus workers are facing increasing precarity due to the dystopian “enterprise university” vision, a profit-maximizing scheme disguised as disruptive innovation. Both campuses have repeatedly demonstrated their prioritization of profit over workers.

At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, UArizona administrators claimed the need for austerity cuts through worker furloughs. At the same time, they quietly bailed out the bloated athletics department to the tune of $125.5 million. Earlier in that year, UArizona actively ignored the concerns of the campus population and two US senators by acquiring a scandal-ridden, for-profit online university. The remaining workers were left to carry the unmanageable teaching and administrative loads.

All of this extravagant spending comes amid economic crises for students and workers. In fact, one in five students at UArizona and ASU has faced food insecurity in the past year. The Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR), an unelected statewide governing body, has chosen to ignore public demands to remove opaque and mandatory fee structures that overburden enrolled students and their families. This past week, ABOR announced a major fee and tuition increase. These mandatory fees amount to a staggering 5 percent of a UArizona graduate worker’s total annual salary, further exacerbating the discrepancy between workers’ income and the estimated living wage line for Tucson residents. Enterprise universities like ours find creative ways to redirect wealth away from the deserving workers and into the hands of ineffective administrators and ill-advised acquisitions. However, unionization has provided hope of gaining a seat at the shareholders’ table.

Campus workers around the country have already started organizing to fight the corporate capture of our public universities. My local, United Campus Workers, Arizona (UCWAZ-CWA), has spearheaded a unique organizing model to meet the modern labor challenges of the enterprise university, forging a new path ahead for more than 35,000 employees at UArizona and ASU combined.

As unions across the US emerge from decades of stagnation, UCWAZ-CWA has focused on building worker power from the bottom up. Among a new crop of emerging pre-majority unions, UCWAZ-CWA has cultivated formidable strength through the rank and file. By prioritizing worker-led grassroots actions, our recent efforts have succeeded in wage increases for all student workers and a historic vote of no confidence against the entire leadership team of the current UArizona administration.

UCWAZ-CWA will continue to build a contract-ready workforce, inclusive across class, race, gender, and state lines. We are prepared to seat workers at the head of the shareholders’ table.

Jeremy Bernick, University of Arizona



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/may-day-college-university-labor-union-movement/
What Biden’s State of the Union Was Missing, According to Young Peoplehttps://www.thenation.com/article/politics/biden-state-of-the-union-young-people/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationFeb 9, 2023

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden delivered the annual State of the Union address, touting his accomplishments from the past two years and laying out the rest of his priorities as he, presumably, seeks a second term to “finish the job.” But to do that, he will have to win the support of young people. According to estimates from the Center for American Progress, Gen Z and Millennials will make up 40 percent of the votes in 2024. To understand what young people thought about Biden’s speech, we asked StudentNation writers from around the country to highlight the most important parts of his agenda—as well as what was missing. From climate change and policing to labor rights and the pandemic, here’s how young people see the president’s agenda.

In this historic moment, there is a huge need for deliberate and coordinated action to address the crises our nation is facing, especially those related to our natural environment. Drawing upon themes of progress and resilience, President Biden’s SOTU remarks seem to fit the bill.

Biden has made undeniable progress on an array of environmental issues. In his remarks, the president highlighted plans to remove lead service lines from toxic lead pipes servicing 10 million homes and 400,000 schools and child care centers. He recalled the success of the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which has funded tens of thousands of meaningful environmental projects.

This is all extraordinary progress and was rightly commended. However, Biden’s recent actions on climate have contradicted this evident emphasis on progress and resilience. The Biden administration recently advanced the Willow Project, which would allow for the drilling of more than 200 wells in the 24 million-acre National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. Blocking Willow could prevent over 285,000 million metric tons of carbon from being emitted over its 30-year lifespan—roughly equal to the annual emissions of 75 coal-fired power plants. Further, the Alaska Native tribe of Nuiqsut has opposed the proposal, as it will accelerate climate change and threaten their ancestral homelands, wildlife, and their subsistence lifestyle, demonstrating that this project is a matter of racial and environmental justice.

In his speech, however, President Biden went off-script to concede that oil demand will last for at least a decade, evidently prioritizing oil costs over crucial climate action. But taking action to prevent this project from coming to fruition is crucial for addressing the increasing impacts of climate change. After all, in President Biden’s own words, “The climate crisis doesn’t care if your state is red or blue.… We have an obligation to our children and grandchildren to confront it.… there is much more to do.” For the president, the first step of this work is to start being consistent.

Hannah Reynolds

Princeton University

When President Biden declared in his State of the Union Address that “Covid no longer controls our lives,” he failed to call attention to the “tripledemic” that has affected 40 percent of American households, the one in 13 adults who suffers from long Covid, and the millions of immunocompromised Americans at high risk of infection and death. Biden was, however, correct in identifying that public opinion has shifted on the Covid-19 pandemic, with only 31 percent of Americans reporting that they are worried about getting sick from Covid-19, the flu, or RSV. However, as the Biden administration recently decided to end the Covid national emergency, removing a host of protections including free and widespread access to testing, the White House is now quite limited in its options to mitigate possible future outbreaks.

Biden, however, stressed that “we still need to monitor dozens of variants and support new vaccines and treatments.” The White House has made its position clear: A circulating virus, even one that mutates, is not as much of a concern as the economic and political ramifications of public health precautions. And yet only 28 percent of Americans have received a dose of the updated bivalent booster. It looks increasingly clear that the administration’s laissez-faire approach is leaving the most vulnerable behind, a price most of the public is willing to pay for a “return to normal.” The little time Biden spent in his address on the continuing pandemic both illustrates and informs the current political reality.

–Theia Chatelle

Yale University

There are few events in American politics more obscene than a president’s State of the Union address. Although Trump heightened its absurdity—giving the Medal of Freedom to radio xenophobe Rush Limbaugh—the SOTU has always been an exercise in spectacle. The 2023 address was especially disappointing not because of the things President Biden said but what he failed to say.

Of course, few people thought Biden would make police reform a priority in his speech. Biden’s rhetoric around race and policing is more empathetic than Trump’s—admittedly, a low bar. He quoted Tyre Nichols’s mother in saying “something good must come of this,” but then proceeded to give a standard issue response to the racist violence endemic in our society. As the militarized police apparatus only grows, with forests demolished to accelerate its expansion, this moment requires more from public figures than condolences. The murder of Tortuguita and Nichols stains our collective conscience, and we must dedicate ourselves to overturning the modern law enforcement system.

The president mentioned how he signed an executive order fiddling at the issues’ periphery, banning chokeholds, and limiting use of no-knock warrants, and called for Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. In an earlier time, those measures might be enough to placate the public, but the current moment is one defined by white supremacist violence—shown in Buffalo and Minneapolis—and any politician not advocating for a transformation of American policing isn’t acknowledging the true state of the union.

–Zurie Pope

University of Cincinnati

President Biden’s focus on workers was appropriate for a political moment when the majority of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck amid a resurgent support of labor. Naturally, this emphasis connects with young people who predominantly hold minimum-wage jobs and are involved in union organizing.

Biden referred to his presidency as a “blue-collar blueprint” to rebuild America, railing against corporate abuse of the tax system and apathy towards American workers, saying that “for too long, workers have been getting stiffed.” The president spoke about how “we are beginning to restore the dignity of work,” and highlighted a Cincinnati ironworker of the Local 44 union who attended the speech. That dignity includes guaranteeing a living wage, the right to a union, and accessible education.

Of course, these are all correct assessments. American workers deserve a far better deal. However, the lack of truly ambitious ideas made the calls feel lackluster at best and performative at worst. Biden acknowledged the struggles of the working class, but neglected to highlight concrete proposals beyond the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, instead opting to simply call for higher wages. The PRO Act would amend labor laws and the National Labor Relations Board to protect worker unionizing efforts, but the bill has languished in Congress since 2021.

If Biden really is sick of union-busting and wants to strengthen the middle class, his party needs to fight tooth and nail, seeking court injunctions against labor law-breakers such as Starbucks and going beyond $10,000 of student debt relief.

It is true that Biden is the most pro-union president in recent memory, and this State of the Union reflected that, marking a return—at least rhetorically—of politics concerned with workers’ rights. Yet there is a lot of work to be done before Biden’s rhetoric can become reality.

–Porter Wheeler

University of Oregon

In what was arguably one of the most progressive of such speeches in recent decades, President Biden expressed his commitment to making sure the US “at last” steps up to the existential threat that is the climate crisis. Simultaneously, he called out the billionaires and the “wealthiest and biggest corporations” that have for years avoided paying billions of dollars in federal taxes. Climate change, which disproportionately harms the most marginalized communities in the US and elsewhere, is indeed the most pressing existential threat of our time, and it’s true that billionaires and giant corporations, through their failure to pay taxes, are further undercutting the federal government’s ability to respond. The system, as Biden said, “is not fair.”

It is important that Biden, at least outwardly, recognizes this. The problem is his proposed path forward. There is already research showing that the fossil fuel industry is the industry most responsible for driving the climate crisis; over 70 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions since 1988 can be traced to 100 fossil fuel companies, according to a 2017 report. And yet, while experts (and activists) have shown that the best path towards a livable future is a swift, just transition away from fossil fuels, the president only called out fossil fuel companies for not investing in more fossil fuel projects, a clear misdiagnoses of the problem. “Last year, [Big Oil] made $200 billion in the midst of a global energy crisis,” he said. “They invested too little of that profit to increase domestic production…. Instead, they used the record profits to buy back their own stock.” The solution Biden laid out to raise the tax on stock buybacks only addressed half of the problem. The climate crisis is here, and calling for the expansion of and further investment in oil projects, as the president did publicly in his address, will only exacerbate it.

–Sofia Andrade

Harvard University

Biden claimed that some Republicans are proposing to cut Social Security and Medicare, but failed to explain what these plans are or reveal the culprits behind the scheme. He received jeers and boos from Republicans and a thumbs down from Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.

This move from Biden, however, had a positive effect, causing an apparent consensus to protect both Medicare and Social Security. “So folks, as we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare is off the books now,” said Biden. “They’re not to be touched? All right. We’ve got unanimity!”

This came after Biden’s opening remarks where he invited Democrats and Republicans to work together. On Biden’s part, this moment could be seen as a reprise of his earlier attempt to unite a divided House of Representatives when his term first began. Of course, this divide can be seen in various scenes of the State of the Union. At times, half the room would stand and cheer during Biden’s address, while others would stay firmly seated. Many times, Vice President Kamala Harris could be seen standing and clapping, while House Speaker Kevin McCarthy remained silent.

Although Biden was able to point to his administration’s accomplishments as gears up for reelection in 2024, he has much more work to do if he wants to unite both a divided government and public.

–Rania Soetirto

University of California, Los Angeles

With numerous studies suggesting that the world will careen past 1.5 degrees of warming within the next decade, the need for serious climate leadership from the world’s largest historically emitting nation is at an all-time high.

Certainly, as he touted in his address, President Biden has advanced such leadership. Between the $369 billion of clean energy spending in the Inflation Reduction Act, $67 billion for zero-carbon industry development and climate-related research in the CHIPS and Science Act, and further funding in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Rocky Mountain Institute found, 2020–22 saw a historic level of federal investment in climate spending. That spending also accompanied ambitious new emissions reduction goals.

Yet even while denouncing fossil fuel companies for massively profiting off the energy crisis driven by Russia’s war on Ukraine, and calling for wealthy corporations to pay their “fair share” instead of lining shareholders’ pockets, Biden failed to articulate a clear vision for holding oil and gas giants accountable. With his term half-over, a Republican House majority, and a slim Democratic Senate majority, Biden risks leaving the Oval Office a climate laggard—and frontline communities and young people deeply vulnerable—if he fails to go the distance.

From his first day on the job, climate activists have called for Biden to realize the full potential of his executive powers, including by declaring a national climate emergency to unlock new climate spending streams; investigating and prosecuting the companies pursuing “carbon bomb” projects; and rejecting new fossil fuel infrastructure in accordance with IEA findings of what a global net-zero by 2050 pathway requires. Americans don’t need—and young people won’t vote for—a president touting the industry line of a continued need for fossil fuel dependence; we need a president who sees the climate crisis as an imperative for a rapid, just energy transition and understands that we can’t afford to wait for the next mega-drought, forest fire, or storm to hit before taking every measure to stop corporate greed from burning the planet.

–Ilana Cohen

Harvard University



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/biden-state-of-the-union-young-people/
How Students Fought for Democracy in 2022https://www.thenation.com/article/society/students-fought-for-democracy-2022/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationJan 6, 2023

For more than a decade, The Nation has highlighted the work of aspiring journalists in StudentNation, an online section of the magazine written by young people. With generous support from the Puffin Foundation, StudentNation has published hundreds of talented young writers covering a wide range of issues through local reporting, firsthand accounts, interviews, and personal essays. The following material is adapted from three recent StudentNation articles. To see the original stories, go to TheNation.com/students.

What Keith Ellison’s Reelection Means for Tough-on-Crime Rhetoric

By Theia Chatelle (December 19, 2022)

If Democrats hope to fend off future Republican attacks on vulnerable representatives, they could draw on Keith Ellison’s playbook. He faced a difficult challenge to his reelection bid from Jim Schultz, who, like many other GOP candidates across the country, was looking to win the votes of suburban voters by inflaming fears of rising crime in America’s urban centers. Ultimately, Ellison beat Schultz by only 21,000 votes, enough to avoid a recount. What worked for Ellison might not work in other areas of the country, but his message on crime as a broader phenomenon that hurts consumers and communities resonated with Minnesota voters.

Ellison was able to point to his substantive record of fighting profiteering and white-collar crime and protecting consumers as Minnesota’s attorney general. However, in a state scarred by division in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, Republicans were able to capitalize on voters’ fears and create a very close race for an otherwise popular Democratic incumbent.

Students Tell Their Universities: Keep Fossil Fuel Companies Out of Climate Research

By Ilana Cohen (November 22, 2022)

Bringing pizza and wearing T-shirts that read “No More Fossil Fuel Money,” they came well-prepared. On November 14, nine students at George Washington University occupied the main office of the Regulatory Studies Center for 12 hours to kick off the international days of action. The center has received at least $6 million from ExxonMobil and far-right charitable organizations heavily associated with climate denialism, including the Koch Family Foundation, the Searle Freedom Trust, and the Sarah Scaife Foundation.

For Bella Kumar, a coordinator for Sunrise GW, the 2022 midterm elections crystallized the desire to hold the center accountable. “Our government has failed to deliver on climate change and our representatives are in the pockets of the fossil fuel industry, and we know it,” said Kumar, who expressed frustration with her university’s inaction. “Universities occupy a unique space in their ability to vastly alter the social license of an industry through research. Demanding fossil-free research is not only giving us the opportunity to take back our institutions, but setting standards for our academic freedom and our futures.”

Illinois Voters Just Made Collective Bargaining a Constitutional Right

By Tomas Miriti Pacheco (November 17, 2022)

On November 8, voters in Illinois took to the polls to approve the addition of Amendment 1, also known as the Workers’ Rights Amendment, to their state Constitution. The amendment guarantees the fundamental right to organize and collectively bargain for Illinois workers. ”No law shall be passed that interferes with, negates, or diminishes the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively,” it states.

At the University of Chicago, the largest employer in the city’s low-income South Side, organizers have spent weeks reflecting on the impact that the amendment will have and the struggles that led to this moment. On November 2, the UChicago Graduate Students United–UE passed a joint endorsement of the amendment with organizers at Northwestern University during a meeting attended by more than 200 members. “This amendment is a milestone in establishing the right to organize as a fundamental right of workers,” said Joe Rathke, a member of UChicago’s GSU who studies labor history.

Rathke is not alone in his excitement over the win. The passage of the amendment is a historic achievement for organized labor, particularly in the Midwest, which had been a hostile environment for workers. Recently, the country—and Illinois specifically—has seen a dramatic resurgence of unions. In May 2022, Chicago became home to the first Starbucks in the Midwest to request a union election, and since then multiple locations in the city have followed. According to WBEZ Chicago, workers in the city filed 45 percent more NLRB petitions in 2022 than in the previous year: “Chicagoans are organizing their workplaces at a rate the city hasn’t seen in more than a decade.”

Illinois has set an example for how organizers in other states can secure meaningful labor victories. “We have the history of a labor movement that fought tooth and nail for these rights and to protect them from being undermined,” Rathke said. “This is a very Midwestern story.”



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/students-fought-for-democracy-2022/
How Young People Shaped 2022https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/studentnation-top-journalism-2022/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationDec 23, 2022From abortion rights activism to climate strikes to labor unionization, here are some of the movements that mattered most to students this year.]]>

From abortion rights activism to climate strikes to unionization to calls for debt relief to record turnout in the midterm elections, students continued to organize with exceptional clarity and focus in 2022. Throughout the year, StudentNation worked tirelessly to give voice to the emerging generation. We remain proud, as well as astonished, to be virtually alone among national news outlets in regularly publishing student perspectives. StudentNation published more than 100 original articles this year; we’ve selected 15 to highlight the extraordinary writing and reporting of this generation of student journalists. We’re deeply grateful to the Puffin Foundation whose great generosity to The Nation Fund for Independent Journalism made this work possible. —The Editors

Colleges Struggle to Address a Mental Health Crisis
by Teresa Xie—January 26

As the Covid-19 pandemic worsened around the country, expectations and resources on campuses remained largely static. In 2020, 40 percent of college students reported experiencing depression and 34 percent reported anxiety. In this article, students speak about the need to prioritize long-term, community-oriented solutions to the mental health crisis.

Graduate Workers at Indiana University Are on Strike and Fighting for Recognition
by Christopher Agostino—April 29

A first-person account of one of many graduate student unionization efforts this year from a member of the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition–United Electric union. After an overwhelming vote of 1,008 to 23 in favor of forming a labor union, the graduate workers at IU went on strike in April.

The Silenced Students in the “Free Speech” Debate
by Mira Sydow—June 3

This article highlights members of marginalized communities trying to reframe the debate around free speech often hijacked by right-wing activists. “These students don’t hate their universities—they recognize the pressing need for a cultural shift in the free speech conversation that will prioritize the voices of minority students, targeting hate speech, harassment, and misinformation in all levels of education.”

Stanford’s New School of Sustainability Is a Gift to Fossil Fuel Companies
by Celina Scott-Buechler and Ada Statler—June 21

After Stanford University announced its new, lavishly funded Doerr School of Sustainability, these graduate student scientists warned of the potential dangers of academic greenwashing. The incoming dean had previously stated that the school would still accept funding from and partner with fossil fuel companies.

The NYU Policing Project’s Dirty Money Dilemma
by Ruqaiyah Zarook—June 27

A coalition of law students at New York University condemned the NYU Policing Project for partnering with police technology, surveillance, and weaponry companies. “When universities lend their names to this kind of research they give an air of legitimacy to deeply harmful police practices because they claim to be concerned about the social impact of their institutions and to uphold ethical research standards,” said Alex Vitale.

It’s Time for Biden to Declare a Climate Emergency
by Hannah Reynolds—July 21

The day after President Biden announced new climate initiatives outside a former coal plant, StudentNation called on the president to make a formal emergency declaration and take more substantial actions to combat the crisis at hand. “By failing to directly address the root of the climate problem—the overuse of fossil fuels—the Biden administration will be unable to curb the impacts of climate change.”

Why Are Fossil Fuel Companies Funding Climate Change Research?
by Ilana Cohen—August 15

In this article, the recent winner of the Brower Youth Award, explains the goals of the Fossil Free Research coalition. “By funding university research, Big Oil helps shape the understanding of the solutions available for addressing the climate crisis to policy-makers, the media, and the world.”

Without Abortion Rights, Medical Students Face a Dangerous Choice
by Sofia Andrade—September 6

After the overturning of Roe v. Wade, current and prospective doctors began to worry about their ability to safely provide reproductive care. One nonprofit organization, Medical Students for Choice, focused on providing support to medical students caught in a rapidly shifting legal landscape. “It feels almost like you’re signing up to be a martyr.”

This Supreme Court Case Threatens the Future of Tribal Lands
by Jessica Lambert—October 5

In October, the co-president of the National Congress of American Indians Youth Commission explained how Haaland v. Brackeen challenges the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, putting the sovereignty of Indian Nations at risk. “The ICWA established protections for Native youth in the child welfare system, with the primary goal being to preserve family, tribal, and cultural ties.”

For Undergrads, the Best Extracurricular Is a Labor Union
by Radu Stochita—October 5

Though the fight to organize private university employees has historically focused on graduate workers, undergraduates are increasingly seeking out the benefits of collective bargaining as well. In this article, an organizer with Bowdoin Labor Alliance explained how the National Labor Relations Board under Biden helped grow this union resurgence this year, culminating in the first “wall-to-wall” undergraduate student employee union forming at Grinnell College.

With DACA in Jeopardy, It’s Time for Congress to Act
by Teresa Mettela—October 17

In October, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit deemed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program “unlawful,” putting hundreds of thousands of young immigrants in jeopardy. Despite three-quarters of Americans’ supporting legal status for immigrants brought to the United States as children, Congress has failed to enact permanent protections for those covered by DACA.

The Deadly Consequences of Urban Oil Drilling
by Mara Cavallaro—October 19

This profile of Nalleli Cobo, an activist fighting to end environmental racism in Los Angeles, shows the dangers of building oil or gas wells in residential areas. After living next to an oil plant that emitted carcinogenic fumes, Cobo was diagnosed with cancer at 19. “All stages of life are being impacted, beginning to end.” For Cobo and her family, the work won’t be done until the city runs on renewable energy.

Trans People’s Rights Are on the Ballot, but Many Won’t Be Able to Vote
by Theia Chatelle—October 24

As part of this year’s Puffin StudentNation Fall Writing Fellowship, this piece exposed the impact of discriminatory voter ID laws on trans voters during the 2022 midterms. “In an election that could decide the fate of gender-affirming health care, safe schooling, and even the ability to use public restrooms, the ability for trans people to cast their ballots is simultaneously at risk.”

After Dobbs, Anti-Abortion Activists Are Targeting Clinics in Blue States
by Walter Thomas-Patterson—November 2

Even in blue states, the effects of abortion bans were felt. This article highlights a Planned Parenthood clinic in southern Illinois—miles from the Missouri border—facing increased harassment and deception from emboldened anti-abortion activists. “Roe is finished, but our work is not done yet. Wherever you live, you can seize this historic moment and help end the greatest human rights crisis in history.”

Drag Queens Were Targeted by the Proud Boys. Whom Did the Police Support?
by Zurie Pope—December 16

After threats from the Proud Boys forced a Unitarian church to cancel its “Holi-Drag Storytime” event, one police officer was recorded high-fiving a member of the far-right organization. Telegram messages obtained by this StudentNation writer suggest that a member of the extremist hate group exists within the local police department. “I heard the [commanding officer] is gonna give you guys some extra wiggle room.”



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/studentnation-top-journalism-2022/
A Brower Youth Award Winner Outlines a New Fossil Free Research Campaignhttps://www.thenation.com/article/environment/ilana-cohen-brower-youth-award/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana CohenOct 21, 2022

The Brower Youth Awards annually highlight the most impactful environmental youth leaders from across North America. Award recipients undergo a rigorous application review process and represent the most creative, young environmental leaders of today. We were delighted to hear that longtime StudentNation writer Ilana Cohen was a recipient of the 2022 Brower Award.

In 2018, seeing traditional political institutions’ failure to take bold climate action, Ilana co-founded the New York City chapter of the national youth climate justice coalition Zero Hour and organized one of the nation’s first Youth Climate Marches. Shortly after, as a first-year student at Harvard University, she helped relaunch the Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard campaign, which secured a historic victory last fall when the university pledged to divest its $53 billion endowment from the fossil fuel industry. Ilana, 22, has since co-founded Fossil Free Research, an international grassroots campaign uniting students, academics, and experts against the toxic influence of Big Oil money on climate change research. The campaign aims to accelerate a just energy transition by protecting the integrity and academic freedom of researchers as their work ultimately influences the climate discourse and policy. Already, Fossil Free Research has published an open letter signed by more than 750 academics endorsing its call, staged an international direct action to hold major universities accountable, and formed a coalition to coordinate efforts across college campuses.

Ilana sent us her acceptance speech, which she delivered in-person at a ceremony in San Francisco on October 18.

I received this award for my work helping win divestment at Harvard. Last fall, when Harvard announced it would divest its $53 billion endowment, my peers and I were ecstatic. Three years after relaunching the Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard campaign, we had done everything imaginable—petitioned the administration, written searing op-eds, staged mock oil spills, even gone viral risking arrest storming the football field at half-time of the 2019 Harvard-Yale game and filed a legal complaint with the state attorney general—before Harvard capitulated and opened the divestment floodgates. In the next two months alone, a dozen major institutions followed suit. The win and its ripple effects felt like a vindication of student and grassroots activist power.

But after the celebration, we realized this first step was not enough. While Harvard was moving to make its endowment fossil free, it was also refusing to address the numerous other ways in which it leverages its prestige and resources to prop up the fossil fuel industry—most alarming and insidiously, by letting the industry sponsor and collaborate on climate research.

This isn’t just a Harvard problem; it’s true of many universities, including those pledging divestment and climate action. For instance, fossil fuel money flows into energy research at Cambridge and Oxford Universities, Columbia University’s Climate School, MIT’s Energy Institute, and Stanford’s new Doerr School of Sustainability.

There’s a long and well-documented history of powerful industries corrupting research at odds with their core business models. That’s why numerous public health institutions refuse research money from tobacco companies. The same intractable conflict of interest exists between research that aims at rapid societal decarbonization and funding from fossil fuel companies, who instead of aligning with Paris Agreement goals are making hollow net-zero pledges and engaging in climate subterfuge. The issue isn’t just that university climate research partnerships help greenwash these companies’ reputations. It’s that such partnerships threaten the integrity of public discourse and policy on climate change. When those who want to delay a real energy transition can cite fossil fuel-funded research from George Washington University’s Regulatory Studies Center suggesting a lower estimate of the social cost of carbon, the potential for false solutions to abound is immense.

How can any university claim to be a credible partner in climate action, much less a climate leader, while handing access to top climate research over to companies that have distorted public understanding of such research, weaponized pseudo-science, and sought to silence their critics? The answer is simple: a university can’t and it shouldn’t pretend otherwise. Every moment that fossil fuel companies remain entangled in climate research and academia makes our window for achieving a just transition narrower.

That’s why around the world, students, academics, and community members are demanding a ban on fossil fuel industry funding for climate research. Just weeks ago, in a testament to our growing momentum, we won a first of its kind Fossil Free Research policy at Princeton.

I’m deeply grateful to Earth Island Institute for their support of me and Fossil Free Research. But most of all, I’m grateful for the opportunity to be here today to invite you all to join me in this movement. Join me in holding Big Oil and our academic institutions accountable by calling out their deeply conflicted partnerships on climate research.



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/ilana-cohen-brower-youth-award/
What’s Next for the Student Debt Cancellation Movement?https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/student-debt-cancellation-movement/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNationAug 10, 2022

As student debt in America reaches a record-breaking $1.8 trillion among 45 million federal borrowers, the student debt cancellation movement is finally close to a win. For a decade, Natalia Abrams and Cody Hounanian at the Student Debt Crisis Center have been working to provide relief to the one in five Americans caught in the student debt crisis—through outreach, surveys, town hall meetings, and their State of Student Debt Summit.

While writing for StudentNation, the Student Debt Crisis Center has been working to uplift stories of everyday Americans who are burdened with student loan debt and provide updates on the fight to end student debt. With President Biden close to a decision on cancellation, it’s time to take a look back at the 10 years of advocacy work from the SDCC that helped bring us to this pivotal moment. StudentNation recently interviewed Natalia and Cody to learn more about their journey and find out what’s to come.

StudentNation: Federal student loan payments have been suspended since March 2020. Unless the Biden administration acts, that will end after August 31. How has this two-year payment pause helped borrowers?

Student Debt Crisis Center: The payment pause on federal student loans was one of the most impactful Covid-19 relief measures the government offered. Our last Student Debt x COVID survey found that 85 percent of people felt the payment pause offered them critical financial relief.

Unfortunately, with the payment pause set to expire on August 31, we are hearing from borrowers who are stressed out, confused, and uncertain about the future. That is why we feel that the president must come out immediately and announce a plan to not only extend the payment pause but to also deliver on his promise to provide meaningful, permanent student debt cancellation. Another piecemeal approach from one crisis to the next is not policy, and the transformative benefits of student debt relief have been undermined by these 11th-hour decisions.

We are still optimistic that the is going to take action. So—when he does—we will take a moment to celebrate and thank our supporters for fighting with us for nearly a decade. Then, the work continues.

SN: So far, President Biden has extended the federal payment pause four different times. What benefits would wide-scale debt relief have on those burdened by student loan payments, rather than simply extending it for a few months longer?

SDCC: Imagine millions of Americans saving hundreds of dollars each month because their student loans are erased—they would be financially free to purchase homes, support their families, start small businesses, save for retirement, and so much more. For many, it would be the first time they were able to breathe and relieve the stress caused by the past two years of deep uncertainty.

Debt cancellation is also about realizing a better, more fair, and more equitable society. It would be a once-in-a-generation opportunity to level the playing field for Black and brown borrowers. Today, Black women hold more student debt than any other group, and Black borrowers often owe more debt after a decade than when they started their education. It is a vicious cycle that feeds the racial wealth gap; canceling student debt is one of the most powerful tools available to President Biden to address racial inequity issues.

Wide-scale relief is also good for the economy. It would increase the GDP by billions of dollars and add jobs. It helps fix our broken higher education system and fulfills the broken promise of higher education. Americans will once again trust that education is a pathway to the American Dream, not a financial nightmare.

SN: The Biden administration has announced changes to our “broken” loan system. Why is the current approach to managing student debt insufficient?

SDCC: Higher education should have never depended on a convoluted financing system where the government—and student loan companies—get paid while American families are left holding the bag. Borrowers are educated, ambitious, and responsible individuals, and yet millions of them have been unable to navigate this messy, byzantine system. That should say a lot about how bad it has become.

The result of these failures is what University of Iowa sociologist Louise Seamster calls “predatory inclusion.” Instead of higher education benefiting those who needed it most, the costs associated with student debt left borrowers exploited, worse off financially, and completely disillusioned.

SN: In the past few years, we’ve seen the conversation around student debt cancellation shift as politicians take it more seriously. How has the fight for the elimination of student debt changed over the past decade?

SDCC: Natalia and the Student Debt Crisis Center’s story begins at the University of California–Los Angeles in the 2000s, where tuition hikes exposed the broken system that left students saddled with astronomical debt. After she graduated in 2009, the UC system raised tuition by 32 percent from one semester to the next. She saw friends and peers drop out due to the heavier burden of tuition.

Later, SDCC was a founding member of the Higher Ed, Not Debt coalition that was started by the Center for American Progress in 2013. That coalition did a phenomenal job of convincing the public that student debt is a crisis. At the time, we were joined by only a handful of groups who were fighting to prevent interest rates from increasing, holding predatory for-profit colleges accountable, and working to call attention to industry abuses. We had even fewer allies in Congress. Senator Elizabeth Warren stands out as one of the early champions.

While that work looks different from today’s movement to cancel student debt, the coalition laid the groundwork for much of what we are doing today. Collaboration with diverse groups is essential to our success. Our recent student debt initiative has grown to over 530 civil rights, veteran, student, and consumer rights groups.

Through this collaborative work, we’ve made huge strides. We are proud that today, more than 80 lawmakers, the Senate majority leader, and even the president are discussing how, not if, to cancel student debt.

SN: How does the Student Debt Crisis Center fit within the organizing landscape? What makes the organization unique?

SDCC: SDCC is only as strong as our supporters. It is our mission to echo the voices of borrowers to impact public policy and we always put their voices front and center. That is why over the past decade we have collected over 100,000 student debt stories from people impacted by this crisis. With 2 million supporters that are borrowers and allies, we have learned a lot speaking with them. They share their pitfalls, their frustrations, and what keeps them hopeful. Their voices guide our work. They earn us a seat at the table with policy-makers, and they are our most powerful tool.

SN: Can you talk more about how you organize in a coalition with other advocacy groups?

SDCC: From our inception, we have worked collaboratively with partners to amplify our collective voices. Coalition building is how the Student Debt Crisis Center ensures diverse voices and perspectives are heard, and we are happy to save space for organizations to represent their unique stakeholders and to act as trusted messengers.

These different lenses are important. Allies, like AARP, have helped strike down misconceptions about the victims of this crisis. Other groups, like the NAACP, have provided strong advocacy and racial justice voices that policy-makers cannot ignore.

Excitingly, current students, are joining the effort and organizing support for student debt cancellation on campuses. The growing number of new partners is one of the most important qualities of our movement and it is why we are on the precipice of a historic win.

SN: Student debt cancellation is a bipartisan issue for young people. How has the fight to cancel student debt become so important in the current political moment?

SDCC: President Biden promised on the campaign trail to cancel student debt. Voters elected him and mandated transformative policies that would shepherd our country out of the pandemic and into a new future. So far, he has failed to deliver on that promise, but it’s not too late. Americans are still eager for political leaders to secure a more prosperous, equitable, and certain future.

The best part? Biden can cancel student debt on his own through executive action. A gridlocked, divided Congress does not need to mean a lack of action on the student debt crisis. The president has the legal authority to cancel student debt and he can do so now.

Biden also promised to be a leader for all Americans. And, despite the misconceptions, student debt cancellation is broadly popular. Polling shows that two-thirds of all voters, and a majority of those who never went to college, support some form of student debt cancellation. Those trends continue even among young Republican voters where 56 percent are in favor of student debt cancellation. Everyone, no matter their political background or age, is impacted by student debt and wants leaders to take action.



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/student-debt-cancellation-movement/
What’s At Stake for Young Votershttps://www.thenation.com/article/politics/election-2022-youth-issues/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNationJul 26, 2022

The most pressing issue for young people in the upcoming midterm elections is student loan cancellation—not only because of the uncertainty that has surrounded the student loan debt crisis over the past two years but also because many young people will likely graduate into recessionary conditions. Student debt is an issue that impacts more than 45 million Americans, and one that carries far beyond one’s collegiate years. Expensive degrees have become more of a necessity, rather than a choice. Yet getting one holds so many people back from opportunities that their education was supposed to bring them. During Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, he made alleviating student debt a core part of his messaging, particularly as something that can be accomplished through executive power.

Student loan payments have been paused since March 2020, and the uncertainty around another extension only adds to the financial stress of potential future payments. The cries for action have been loud and clear. Students have been rallying in states like California and New Jersey, while congressional leaders such as Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Ayanna Pressley have pushed for a cancellation of $50,000 per student. Young people are tired of continually calling for the changes that they’ve been promised. President Biden’s failure to act on student debt has told young voters all they need to know, but its cancellation—at least partially—could be a key signal for young voters to turn out for Democrats in the midterms. Without it, it’s difficult for young voters to focus on anything else.

—Teresa Xie, University of Pennsylvania

On April 1, 2022, workers at an Amazon warehouse on Staten Island voted in favor of forming the first US union beneath the company’s vast corporate umbrella. This well-publicized victory followed on the heels of a successful campaign by New York Times tech workers and a nationwide Starbucks union drive. As of July 2022, workers across the United States continue to press for unionization at companies like Apple, Trader Joes, Target, and Wells Fargo.

Given that protracted bureaucratic maneuvering has slowed progress on raising the minimum wage and that inflation currently sits at a 40-year high, it is not difficult to understand the recent surge in labor organizing. The absence of a robust social safety net means that US residents are more likely to be dependent on their employer for basic needs, such as health care or retirement savings.

The Republican Party is both explicitly and insidiously anti-labor, branding unionization efforts as “woke” in a bid to inflame the cultural war outrage of its voters, and authoring an updated version of the Teamwork for Employees and Managers Act in 2022. In a press release, the bill was described as providing “workers seeking to organize with an alternative to unionization that allows both workers and managers to work together.” In actuality, the new bill eliminates protections against employer interference in union drives and permits companies to form competing company-controlled entities in unionized workplaces, with the aim of destabilizing the union.

The Democratic Party, particularly in its progressive wing, is both rhetorically and substantively more hospitable toward unions. Although, as previously noted in The Nation, the party’s recent history with labor organizing could be described as uneven, representatives have produced legislation like the 2021 Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which, if it had passed, would have strengthened the legal right to join a labor union, prevented companies from misclassifying their workers as independent contractors, and weakened “right-to-work” laws.

Despite their misleading moniker, right-to-work laws erode union influence and, according to the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, the adoption of these laws consistently coincides with a decrease in wages. The Republican Party introduced a federal right-to-work bill in 2017, which failed, but Alabama, Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia, and Wisconsin have each successfully passed right-to-work legislation in the past decade.

Though the impetus for unionization can only come from workers themselves, the legislature can nonetheless curtail or bolster workers’ ability to organize. In this light, the midterms represent one opportunity—of many—for young people to express their collective support of the country’s renewed labor movement as incoming members of the labor force.

—Kendra Mills, George Washington University

For myself and many other young people, the most pressing issue of the election is the climate crisis. One of the most common questions students get is, “What are you going to do once you’re done with school?” Once you’re out of school, financial advisers will tell you that the smartest thing to do is to start putting money away as early as possible for your retirement. If you are in a long-term relationship or getting married, people never stop asking you, “When are you going to have kids?” Young people are constantly being asked to decide our futures as individuals, even though we aren’t given enough power to be able to make change on an institutional level.

When climate scientists are telling us that our fate is already sealed for the next few decades, how are we supposed to think about any of these decisions? Why would I bother saving for retirement if the world may be uninhabitable by that time anyway? Why would I even consider bringing a child into this world if they’re not even going to have the chance to fix the mistakes of prior generations? Why would I go to the polls when my only options are between climate change deniers or the party in power that constantly makes promises it doesn’t fulfill?

We need politicians who are brave enough to commit to climate action now. Not in 2050, 2040, or even 2030. We need young politicians who have skin in the game—people who are going to be around for more than another decade or two—and who have a plan for climate action that starts right now. Politicians who are ready to take on big corporations and fundamentally change the way they operate. That way, young people can plan for their future without worrying that it may all be just a waste of their time.

—Georgia Dalke, Red River College Polytechnic

A funded and legislatively supported clean energy transition will address, on a large scale, the biggest existential threat to the United States—climate change. In 2020, fossil fuel combustion for energy accounted for 73 percent of total US greenhouse gas emissions. The US has the technology and means to make huge strides toward decarbonizing energy production by investing in green infrastructure, but lacks the political will to move a clean energy transition forward, as seen with the failure of Build Back Better.

As of 2022, the US is still able to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the most devastating effects of climate change. Every year and even every election cycle, the window to avoid the worst that climate change has to offer gets smaller and the task of mitigating disaster becomes more daunting.

The 2022 midterms need a champion of the clean energy transition, and that should be someone who recognizes the multifaceted benefits that would come from a renewable energy rollout. The energy blackmail of Europe subsequent on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has highlighted how reliant Western Europe is on Russian fossil fuels. Energy-importing countries are hamstrung into doing business with authoritarian regimes in states like Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela because their infrastructure is built around fossil fuels. The United States needs to be a global leader in showing that investment in and implementation of renewable energy are possible and beneficial in industrialized nations, and that clean energy is an important part of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

—Paul Gordon, DePaul University

In 2020, young people tirelessly campaigned and turned out in record numbers to elect President Biden alongside a democratic majority in Congress. Since then, we’ve organized, marched, and put our bodies on the line to hold Biden accountable, knowing that the past two years were our best shot at passing meaningful federal climate policy before the worst impacts of climate change become irreversible.

The intensity of our efforts has taken its toll. We’ve devoted countless—mostly unpaid—hours to climate organizing and suffered persistent climate anxiety, all while juggling school, work, and social life. Too many times, I’ve watched as this impossible burden leaves deeply talented activists burnt out and left with no choice but to step back from organizing.

As November 8 approaches, we have little to show for our sacrifices. Congress failed to act on climate; President Biden continues to expand oil drilling on public lands; and the West Virginia v. EPA decision severely restricts the EPA’s capacity to regulate emissions. Exhausted, and disillusioned by the slim results of our efforts to create change, many young people are ready to give up. Unlike prior generations, however, we don’t have the luxury of kicking the can farther down the road—things have to change now. We cannot afford to lose another organizer to burnout.

I urge my fellow organizers to use the midterms as an opportunity to recharge. Relax today so you can organize tomorrow. Do something that takes your mind off the climate crisis. Check in on your fellow organizers. As we turn to the next chapter of the youth climate movement, consider what you have learned. How will you center the well-being of yourself and others to prevent future burnout? Remain optimistic. Find empowerment in the victories we have won along the way. Remember that, as activist Mariame Kaba teaches us, hope is a discipline. Choose to believe in a better world even in times like these.

The midterms will not be the last setback we face. If we really are going to be the generation that does something about the climate crisis, it will only be because we remained hopeful and took care of ourselves and each other.

—Jake Lowe, George Washington University

Young people know that climate change amplifies every form of social injustice, making our rights harder to exercise and protect. From heightening the dangers of pregnancy—causing us to rethink our potential desires to have children—to fueling environmental instabilities like heat stress that make it harder to protest, and even vote, we already see that climate change has impacted our daily lives, not just our newsfeeds.

Congress is struggling to pass increasingly limited climate mitigation measures, which cannot stall the cataclysmic consequences of the oil and gas giants’ deadly core business models. What’s more, the White House is advancing oil and gas drilling, after we played a pivotal role in putting President Biden in the Oval Office for the express purpose of tackling the climate crisis and advancing climate justice.

Who we elect—and just as importantly, who we don’t—could make the difference in whether lawmakers can pass any climate policy. Already, states from California and Washington to Maryland and Massachusetts are showing their potential to lead the way in climate action, despite frustrating federal politics.

Ultimately, the ubiquity of climate change means that our votes and advocacy matter at every level. Our support should be for candidates who fight for all life by being pro-climate and pro-choice, recognizing that the former entails the latter. When access to the ballot box is under threat from concerted right-wing campaigns seeking to limit and distort the democratic process, young people must continue building a movement that focuses on the grassroots and alternative pathways to change, like forcing major cultural and economic institutions to step up through concerted direct action campaigns, or supporting local efforts to make oil and gas giants pay climate damages.

“We can’t afford anything less than a full-blown resistance to climate denial and delay” is not a tagline. It’s our reality.

—Ilana Cohen, Harvard University

When I talk to my peers about the future, we never discuss places to go after graduation, or what cities have the best job markets for people in their 20s. The central topic is always this: How much time do we have left? The more optimistic among us say 20 to 30 years. Others suggest 10 to five. None imagine that the United States will live to survive another century. Some already have escape routes, intending to use their degrees in Canada or overseas. I’ll never forget the response given to me by a woman when I asked her where she saw America in a decade: “I can’t see it in a decade.” This inescapable dread has defined my generation, polluting the dreams of everyone I know.

Roe v. Wade’s reversal and the enforcement of anti-abortion laws has only made such fatalism more common. The increase in physical and legislative attacks against the marginalized communities—including banning books and censoring discussions on race, sexuality, and gender in schools nationwide—didn’t alleviate our fears. Right-wing authoritarianism is clearly on the rise. Election deniers are winning their party primaries and fascists march in the streets of American cities. Worse, the governing party’s response has ranged from insulting to hypocritical, and any good will it may have garnered in 2020 among youth has since evaporated. We are the most progressive generation in living memory, and more of us identity as LGBTQ than any that came before. Nothing can stop the rising reactionary tide other than a complete political and economic transformation—one led by youth and those most impacted by far-right policies. We will accept nothing less.

—Zurie Pope, University of Cincinnati

Climate change is undeniably here, and it will only get worse. Instead of responding accordingly, the United States is moving backward: The Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia v. EPA severely constricts the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. With Senator Joe Manchin playing interference, President Biden has seemingly forfeited most plans to reduce emissions plans that were already insufficient to begin with. Make no mistake: Tackling the climate crisis can’t be divorced from tackling racism or socioeconomic injustice. Redlined communities are already harmed by proximity to extractive industries; poor communities are already exposed to the worst air pollution. Climate justice is social justice.

Climate change is, in my mind, the most important issue in this election, because it stands to impact billions worldwide, extending beyond the United States’ geographical borders and affecting virtually every other issue facing American society. In the absence of real action against the climate crisis, we need to be able to hold our legislative officials accountable for their willful neglect of our and future generations. As the world quite literally burns, we need to replace the state and congressional officials who represent the fossil fuel industry. It will undoubtedly be challenging, but it is indeed possible. The midterm elections are an opportunity for us to bring real representation to the centers of decision-making power across the country.

—Leehi Yona, Stanford University

The most pressing issue of this election is the fact that most Republicans still falsely believe Donald Trump’s claims of a stolen election. A recent Politico survey shows that roughly 70 percent of Republicans don’t believe Biden legitimately won in 2020. Furthermore, Republican politicians who embraced Trump’s false claims are appearing on ballots across the country this November. That such a large portion of our electorate doubt the legitimacy of our elections poses a great threat to our country’s democratic foundation. The January 6 insurrection can serve as a glimpse of what may come if this widespread government distrust continues.

So, what is the solution? Because there is no single cause of this distrust, it is impossible to formulate one single answer. However, I believe the key to convincing these voters that our elections are legitimate lies in, first, convincing them that the Democratic Party is not a malicious enemy out to destroy their rights and freedoms. To do this, more post-college-aged, young, liberal people (like myself) need to stop moving to ultra-liberal cities and start relocating to the more Republican-populated areas of our country.

One main reason most Republicans remain unconvinced of the legitimacy of the 2020 election is because most of them did not know a single person who voted for Joe Biden. A Biden victory goes against the social reality they experience every day. Maps of the 2020 election results show that many Republican voters live in communities that are almost entirely red. Ideologically diversifying these areas would force interparty interaction among members of the electorate, and ideally decrease feelings of antipathy between members of both parties. Even if this antipathy were to remain, at least these voters would be exposed to opposing viewpoints outside their extremist echo chambers.

If our democratic foundation is to remain intact, we all must exit our comfort zones, and truly embrace political diversity.

—Cassidy Morales, City University of New York

Last August, I stepped back from a wooden podium overlooking the members of my county school board and my heart sank. I’d spent months organizing with other Georgia public school students to present a diversity proposal to our school board, only to be met with tense smiles and empty words.

Earlier that summer, Georgia school boards began banning diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in order to combat “critical race theory,” often without understanding what those terms meant. In my county, parents (and some students) showed up en masse to protest race and sex education. It felt like the-chicken-or-the-egg dilemma; parents and school board members were scared of queer literature and historically accurate education because they were never exposed to diverse perspectives growing up. This disconnect fueled bigotry, shame, and disgust in their own children and their children’s classmates.

In the 2022 general election, education is on the ballot. In states like Georgia, my home, and Pennsylvania, where I attend college, whom we elect to serve in statewide and local office severely impacts the quality of education our children receive. Many education organizers are tired of hearing “just vote” when their state representatives and school board officials repeatedly carve a path for bigotry and discrimination into our schools.

The 2022 election is one step toward introducing historically accurate education, respectful culture-specific coursework, queer literature, and medically sound sex education, but organizers who aren’t yet old enough to vote wage this battle every day. In the months leading up to the 2022 elections, community members can be vocal at their school board meetings. Parents tell me that the last person board members expect to step up to the podium is a student. In our communities, it only takes small steps to begin educating our neighbors.

The fight for equitable public education is so much greater than diverse course offerings and redistribution of resources, and it occurs every day in our classrooms, libraries, and community centers. Public education is the bedrock of thought in America—thought that transforms the world. We need to treat it as such every day.

—Mira Sydow, University of Pennsylvania

The repeal of Roe v. Wade is a threat that feels immediate. My friends and I have grown up in overwhelmingly pro-choice New York City and in a country where abortion was protected all our lives. While we have watched the Supreme Court chip away at that protection over the past several years, this is still a stunning decision. We’re now hearing about horrifying cases, such as 10-year-old rape victims being denied abortions in their home states. Some of my friends will attend college in states where abortion is now illegal. Many now consider vast regions of America unsafe and are worried that their lives could be upended in an instant.

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization affects everyone—whether or not they have a uterus or need an abortion. Studies have shown that abortion bans lead to decreased workforce participation, negative effects on the financial well-being of children, and increased gender and racial inequality, all of which affect the US economy. On the other hand, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, if statewide abortion restrictions were waived, not only would around 505,000 more women in the 15-to-44 age range be in the labor force; they would also earn over $3 billion annually. Women who are already employed would earn $101.8 billion more. These gains would obviously fuel state economies.

More fundamentally, acknowledging the right to an abortion is an acknowledgment that humans have a right to privacy and bodily autonomy. I think young people are going to be voting for those who pass legislation to protect abortion.

—Aruna Das, Columbia University

Gubernatorial races have become more important than ever. In Maine, the November election will decide whether the state returns to the years of government budget cutting and tax breaks for the rich. The incumbent Democratic governor, Janet Mills, will go against the Republican candidate, Paul LePage, who held the title for two consecutive terms. LePage successfully gutted pensions for state employees and teachers in order to finance tax cuts for the highest brackets, while also pushing anti-labor legislation. He cut workers’ compensation for severely injured people, prohibited project labor agreements on public works construction projects, and in 2011 fought to decrease the minimum wage for people under 20 to $5.25 from $7.50.

Electing LePage at a time where an anti-labor sentiment is growing among right-wingers could be a fatal blow to the progress that organized labor and activists have scored in Maine. Inflation is on everyone’s lips, and conservatives like LePage love to blame financial stimulus measures—such as the pandemic relief or Maine’s $850 relief checks—as being the cause for a surge in prices. The narrative is popular among conservatives, completely ignoring the supply chain issues, the hike in energy prices, and the soaring profits that gas companies scored.

Maine is still healing from eight years of LePage’s government, trying to fund child protective services and mental health facilities and to offer aid to the elderly. If LePage wins the election, he will pave the way for Big Capital to use Maine as its playground.

—Radu Stochita, Bowdoin College

Establishment Democrats have spent the summer warning prospective donors that everything is “on the ballot.” The politics of ill-timed donation-soliciting e-mails aside, the statement rings true. Basic rights to bodily autonomy, privacy, and a habitable planet are all on the chopping block, if not already gone. As of this June, millions of young people across the country are growing up with fewer rights than their parents and grandparents had. Time and time again, elected officials across party lines have proven they won’t protect their constituents in schools, grocery stores, or parades.

As I write this, I’m living at home in Miami during what could be one of the city’s hottest summers ever. The incessant threats to our future are palpable, as is our current government’s paralyzing inaction in the face of Republican minority’s capture of our political institutions. It is nearly impossible to pin down a single most pressing issue in an election that is sure to represent a turning point in our national politics. A still-ongoing pandemic, a planet on fire, increasing gun violence, deep-rooted systemic racism, and a widespread attack on LGBTQ+ rights are all problems that must be addressed boldly and immediately. But just as it is impossible to pick a single topic to prioritize in this year’s elections—without overlooking the ways in which these problems are interconnected under structures of racism, patriarchy, and capitalism and thus must be addressed simultaneously—the first two years of the Biden presidency have shown that it is also impossible to address any issue at all without rectifying undemocratic Senate rules. That is, abolishing the filibuster.

This fall will see races for 35 empty or contested US Senate seats across as many states; 13 of those running are Democrats up for reelection. Voters should focus not on “voting blue no matter who” but on aiding candidates who will commit to ending the filibuster and, consequently, the grip of minority rule on our purportedly democratic institutions. Historically, the filibuster was used as a racist tool to protect white supremacy. That history is ever present as the arcane Senate norm is being used to prevent widely popular legislation that would benefit all Americans from ever reaching the president’s desk. The filibuster must go if our government is ever going to be accountable to the needs and demands of the people. The candidates young people vote for should not only understand that but should also be committed to doing the work of passing the critical legislation that the filibuster has stopped—like this year’s critical voting rights bill—as quickly as possible.

—Sofia Andrade, Harvard University

As a young person, I am unconvinced that elections are avenues to solving the most pressing social issues. In June, millions of acres were auctioned off for private oil and gas extraction, despite President Biden’s campaign trail promise to end leasing of federal lands for fossil fuels. On Independence Day, residents of my hometown of Highland Park were massacred by a man who, in the months prior, gloated online about his desire to commit a mass shooting. This slaughter came as we were still drying our tears from the losses in Uvalde, Buffalo, and other American cities. Children at the border are still in cages and hundreds of people boil alive in sweltering conditions after attempting to cross the Rio Grande as the Biden administration maintains a border policy of “Prevention Through Deterrence.” Brown and Black communities are still over-incarcerated and harassed or killed by police. Women and the LGBT+ community watch as hard-fought rights dissolve before our eyes. Developers are permitted to build overpriced housing, while millions have nowhere to lay their heads at night, on a planet that will soon be uninhabitable anyway.

I grew up watching politicians—both Republican and Democrat—failing to live up to their promises and bluntly rebuffing the wishes of constituents in favor of corporate lobbyists who pay top dollar to keep their harmful industries running. I have a hard time believing that elections can lead to the scale of change needed to solve the avoidable social crises that haunt us. Politicians consistently make legislative decisions that do not reflect the interests of the American people. From what I’ve seen in the two-and-a-half decades I’ve lived on this earth, it is not elections but the political mobilization of millions of people—in the streets and strengthening mutual aid networks—that will address the world’s most pressing issues in the long term.

—Miranda Dotson, Northeastern University



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/election-2022-youth-issues/
How the Student Debt Crisis Hurts Womenhttps://www.thenation.com/article/politics/student-debt-crisis-women/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNationMar 30, 2022

Today, women hold over two-thirds of America’s trillion-dollar student debt. Each holds, on average, $31,000 in student debt before their career even begins, and because of the persistent gender wage pay gap, it takes years longer for women to pay their debt back. All of these obstacles are growing at a time when women, for the first time, seek higher-level degrees more often than men. Despite hard-work and aspirations, it is fundamentally harder for women borrowers to afford their monthly payments and rise above this debt, no matter how educated or experienced they are. 

Thanks to a moratorium on payments implemented during the Covid pandemic, most student loan borrowers haven’t had to make a payment for over two years. But pandemic relief is only a temporary fix. On May 1, payments are set to restart for millions of people. Many are experiencing anxiety and fear, as they face the possibility of financial ruin, of drowning under their debt. 

Pandemic relief allowed people to put food on the table, pay rent, and afford health care and medicine during the crisis. Others were able to get ahead for the first time; they started small businesses, purchased homes, and saved for retirement. A world without student debt changed their lives for the better, and there is now an unprecedented movement to permanently cancel student debt. 

Following is a series of stories from communities impacted by debt, produced in collaboration with the Student Debt Crisis Center to bring the voices of everyday people into the spotlight and highlight calls for our government to cancel student debt by presidential executive action.

My student loan payments are higher than any of my other bills. Read that again. My loan payments are higher than what I pay for my rent, car, insurance, credit cards, and everything else. I’m 27 and I feel like I can’t even start my life. I want kids right now but I know I can’t have them because I would go bankrupt trying to afford everything. I can’t buy a house because my debt-to-income ratio is too high. I have had countless medical bills go into collection because I had to make a choice between that or defaulting on my student loans. Education should not be a money-making industry. 

—Alexandria Myers
In debt since 2012

The job that I was promised would be available by the time I graduated was not there. I could only work for minimum wage, where I had no way of saving for retirement because I had to pay for my student loans. This debt has prevented me from trying to pursue a masters degree, in fear of racking up even more debt. Canceling student debt would mean that I could afford to pay my medical bills, as I am currently struggling with the long-term effects of chemotherapy.

—Lynnette Wilcox
In debt since 2006

I work two jobs just to survive. I cannot own a house and can’t even afford my rent, car payment, and car insurance. My daughter has suffered because of my student loan debt. I can’t afford to buy new clothes when we need them. Even with my dental insurance, we can’t afford to get our teeth fixed. I can only buy $50 worth of groceries per week, but sometimes not even that much.

Melanie Lisciandro
In debt since 1994

Student loans were created so everyone could have an education. Today, that is not possible. I had no debt from undergrad and had a significant scholarship for law school, but I still came out with $70,000 in debt. After five years of payments, I now owe $110,000. Without student loan cancellation, the debt that students gain will be impossible to pay off because of the compounding interest. 

—Jessica Gill
In debt since 2015

I pursued higher education because I believed that having a college degree made a huge difference in one’s future success in the job market. Instead, my student loan debt has impacted every aspect of my life. I am in no position to take out any parental loans to help cover my daughter’s college education, and I will never allow her to take out her own loan for college. I still believe in the benefits of higher education, but they should be equitably accessible to every American citizen. 

—Darlene Schniewind
In debt since 1991



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/student-debt-crisis-women/
The Voices Silenced by Student Debthttps://www.thenation.com/article/politics/voices-silenced-student-debt/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNationMar 11, 2022

Thanks to a moratorium on payments in effect during the Covid pandemic, most student loan borrowers haven’t had to make a payment for over two years. But pandemic relief is only a temporary fix. On May 1, payments are set to restart for millions of people who are still struggling to recover from the pandemic. Many are facing anxiety, fear, and financial ruin at the possibility of drowning under student loan debt.

Pandemic relief allowed people to put food on the table, pay rent, and afford health care and medicine during the health crisis. Others were able to get ahead for the first time; they started small businesses, purchased homes, and saved for retirement. A world without student debt changed their lives for the better, and there is now an unprecedented movement to permanently cancel student debt.

Among a world of pain, Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities have disproportionately felt the pressures that student borrowers feel for years after they incur debt. Research has shown that BIPOC students are more likely to incur student debt than their white peers and to have more trouble paying it back. There is no question that the student debt crisis is a racial equity issue. Following is a series of stories from communities impacted by debt in collaboration with the Student Debt Crisis Center, bringing the voices of everyday people into the spotlight and highlighting their calls for our government to cancel student debt by presidential executive action.

am a 57-year-old woman who has never been able to purchase a home. The consolidated student loan debt that I acquired from my deceased ex-husband has negatively impacted my debt-to-income ratio and prevented me from qualifying for a mortgage. I also have aging parents on a fixed income, and I would like to assist them more financially to cope with the constant increase in living cost, medications, and overall medical care, but my student loan debt has hindered me from giving back to them.

People like me have gone to school to try to positively impact this world with our specialities and skills, only to be burdened by overwhelming and constantly increasing student debt. I earned an MA in early childhood special education, having pursued higher education because I wanted to give back to the students and families who needed me the most. I have been in the field of special education for over 18 years and have dedicated my efforts, passion, hope, nurturing, and love to the students and families I have served.

My purpose is to positively impact the youngest learners through early intervention, but my philosophy is that of an architect. If the foundation is laid appropriately for the student, when the storms and possible difficulties for learning arise, it will require fewer repairs than a structure whose foundation was laid on uneven ground. I would hope that my longevity and commitment to the field would be honored as a form of giving back to society and humanity overall, and would warrant consideration and cancellation of my student loan debt.

—Tara French
In debt since 2006

cannot start a family. I have given up completely on that. I lost my individual housing and had to move back in with my mother. I cannot even consider marriage, and cannot purchase a home and never will. I have lost everything because of my student loans.

At 31, I shouldn’t be on my fifth college degree simply because I cannot afford the payments and need to defer. My physical health and mental health has suffered. I have experienced depression, and now, due to Covid, I am laid off and unable to find work. In my last several interviews, I was called overqualified. One recruiter told me my education made them feel inadequate, but I was also denied that job. I am stuck in an endless cycle of not just debt but also school. I have never had a year “off” from school because of student loan debt. How do you handle roughly $376,000 in student loan debt when 90 percent of that debt is from a bachelor’s degree?

–Althea Nicole McBride
In debt since 2012

I pursued higher education because I wanted to become an artist, and got a bachelor’s degree in my 40s. I am now in my 60s. My original loans were for less than $20K. I have been struggling to pay, to defer, to pay again since the early 2000s. I am pretty sure I have paid at least the original amount of debt. What is shocking to me now, in hindsight, is how predatory the entire student loan business is.

—L.B. Sawahata
In debt since 2001

y school’s recruiter claimed I should be able to be more marketable with a master’s degree, but I still can’t seem to make what I deserve. I support free college and canceling student debt because the current system is beyond broken. When other countries subsidize their students, why can’t ours?

—Michael Merginio
In debt since 2014

We spent years unable to purchase a home because our debt-to-income ratio was too high. I worked in education for 12 years and paid my loans for 10. I made the payments to qualify for loan forgiveness, but, because I wasn’t enrolled in the right repayment plan, several of my payments didn’t count toward forgiveness.

I had to leave that job, partially because of the pandemic. I am now unemployed, with a $100k+ debt hanging over my head. Equity is critical. As a first-generation Black woman, I know I am in a situation that my privileged counterparts don’t have to experience. Making college more affordable and canceling student debt would be a step in the right direction as we attempt to create a level playing field in an already inequitable world.

—Bridgett Beene
In debt since 2010



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/voices-silenced-student-debt/
How Students Seized The Yearhttps://www.thenation.com/article/activism/students-2021/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNationDec 22, 2021

It’s been another tumultuous, traumatic year, and students have seen some of the worst of it. With Covid-19 came abrupt campus closures, online-only education, and the disintegration of student life as we had come to know it. But through it all, young people continued to organize. They not only kept their pre-pandemic priorities alive amid the chaos; they fought for fair treatment for their fellow students and educators, for human rights abroad and voting rights at home, for racial justice, against sexual violence, for an end to student debt, for a rational approach to mitigating climate change and for a future free of intolerance and fear. Student Nation was able to chronicle some of this upheaval in more than sixty articles in 2021 written by students. We’ve selected 10 pieces from the past year to highlight their extraordinary writing and reporting. We’re deeply grateful to the Puffin Foundation, whose enormous generosity made this work possible.

MARCH 16: Protecting Pro-Palestine Activists Can Feel Almost Impossible—but These Students Succeeded

This article details how student organizers successfully fought a demand that UCLA release the names of anonymous speakers at a National Students for Justice in Palestine conference.

APRIL 22: Platforms Like Canvas Play Fast and Loose With Students’ Data

Very few universities have yet to reckon with the enormously consequential data justice implications of remote learning technologies, argued our authors.

JUNE 9: No Generation Without Representation

There exist few meaningful levers of representation for young Americans—that is, people under the age of 40—in policy-making. This systemic lack of sustained, youth-specific roles across the federal government limits young people’s agency and makes them feel undervalued, even, or maybe especially, when Democrats are in power. 

JUNE 29: How the Pandemic Made It Harder to Become a Doctor

Covid-19 limited class sizes and made medical schools more competitive, while also giving students less experience as clerkships at training hospitals were paused. This article explores the long-lasting impact of the pandemic on future physicians and their patients.

AUGUST 2: Graduate Workers at UT Austin Are Undervalued, Underpaid, and Demanding Answers

After the first year of precarious pandemic protocols, graduate workers at the University of Texas at Austin raised concerns when their health benefits were reduced. A graduate student organization, Underpaid@UT, spent months applying continuous pressure to get answers and redress.

AUGUST 27: Joe Biden Can Cancel Your Student Loan Debt

Legal experts, the Senate majority leader, and borrowers all agree that the president has the authority to cancel student loan debt. But after almost a year of Biden in office, nothing has changed. With payments scheduled to resume soon and student debt at an all-time high, this article is, sadly, more relevant than ever.

SEPTEMBER 14: How Students Pressured Harvard to Divest From Fossil Fuels—and Won

Following a decade of sustained student organizing, Harvard University agreed in 2021 to fully divest its roughly 41 billion dollar endowment of any fossil-fuel companies and to bar any future investments in coal, oil, and gas. This historic triumph was a testament to the power of persistence, patience, and tenacity, as a leader of Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard explained. (Two years ago, the group helped bring their divestment campaign into the national spotlight with a much-noticed protest at a 2019 Harvard-Yale football game.)

NOVEMBER 17: If You Care About the Climate, Pay Attention to Koch Cash

This article demonstrates how the Regulatory Studies Center at George Washington University has received millions in Koch and ExxonMobil funding and consequently used its academic credibility to undermine environmental protections through blatantly biased journal articles and public comments.

DECEMBER 2: How Climate Change Threatens Colleges Across the Country

The pandemic illuminated how poorly our institutions are prepared for a global disaster, whether it be from a virus or extreme weather events. To better understand these ongoing risks, we asked students from around the country to tell us how climate change has been impacting their campus, college experience, and communities.

DECEMBER 7: My Parents Collect Cans for a Living

This essay, produced in partnership with Youth Communication, movingly recounts the personal journey of one student whose parents work to bring cans and bottles to a recycling center. After keeping their job a secret from her peers for over a decade, she now sees honor in the work that helped her to go to college. “When people ask about my family now, I tell them not with embarrassment or shame but with pride.”



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/students-2021/
How Climate Change Threatens Colleges Across the Countryhttps://www.thenation.com/article/environment/college-campus-climate-forum/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationDec 2, 2021

From coast to coast, many colleges and universities are taking a close look at sustainability on their campuses. They are recycling, cutting emissions and reconsidering their purchases. But fewer institutions are choosing to prepare for the real oncoming effects of climate change, even though climate impacts are at this point irreversible. To better understand these risks, we asked students from around the country to tell us how climate change is impacting their campus, college experience, and communities.

wenty-one months. After 21 months of our relentless organizing, Princeton University continues to invest in and partner with the fossil fuel industry. Despite over 2,560 Princeton affiliates’ pledging not to donate until divestment happens, the university has done little for the climate beyond create committees that will consider Princeton’s divestment—eventually.

Princeton loves to tout its leadership on climate change. In 2019, the university released a Sustainability Action Plan, which details ambitions for a net-zero campus by the year 2046. While the sentiments are admirable, these targets are by no means leadership on climate change. As world-renowned climate scientists with the Climate Crisis Advisory Group argued this past August, net-zero emissions by mid-century will not be enough. Net-zero by 2046 is too little, too late.

At the same time, Princeton’s campus finds itself facing frequent flash floods, and even a tornado tied to Tropical Storm Ida—all associated with climate change. This in Central New Jersey, hardly the front lines of climate change. Back home, many Princeton students face far more severe impacts of climate change, which can take a real mental toll.

Young people like myself are faced with the reality that it might be too late to clean up the mess we have inherited. Though our lack of life experience is often used by the Princeton administration as a reason to dismiss the merits of our work, the failure of world “leaders” to lead on climate leaves us fighting for our lives. That reality can be paralyzing, but for many, it is the very reason we organize.

While decarbonizing campus may take decades, Princeton has the opportunity to put its money where its mouth is, end ties with a destructive industry, and quickly affect real change. We don’t need any more committee to “review” our divestment proposal. We cannot afford to wait another 21 months, or we just might end up underwater.

Hannah Reynolds,

Princeton University

limate change remains a stealthy but terrifying specter for college students. I’m a junior at Indiana University and, other than unseasonable temperature snaps, my college experience remains untouched by direct effects of climate change.

When examining the totality of the climate crisis, many fail to realize that the most drastic effects are often focused on the Western, Easten and Southern coasts of the country. As rain remains scarce and fires sweep through the West and water levels creep closer to the east, the middle of the country has kept chugging along relatively unbothered.

But if there’s anything many of my peers are concerned about, it’s climate change. Many times in discussions about our future, from careers to family plans, someone considers how many life goals are feasible in a world in which climate change becomes a dominant force in daily life. We have moved past the questioning stage, and we’ve started to lose a blindly hopeful outlook.

This isn’t to generalize the opinions of all college students, a select portion remain dangerously complacent and unanxious. But the changes we are seeing to our environment are irreversible. Our future is going to be fundamentally altered because of climate change; there’s no debating that. Unfortunately, in many cases climate change can unnecessarily steal attention from other movements in the fight for equity. How could we devote all of our time to fight other issues when there might not be a sustainable future long enough to see the full fruition of societal change?

But to me this misses the point. All of the fights to further justice, whether they be concerned with racial, gendered, or climate justice, march together. The fight against racism is not complete without properly addressing climate racism. The fight to end poverty cannot happen without properly addressing global warming. Climate change is inherently linked to every kind of activism, and has to be part of the conversation across the board.

Chris Sciortino,

Indiana University

y college just released a new strategic plan for 2022–26. This includes a name change/rebrand and new mission, vision, and values. It also includes commitments to reconciliation with Indigenous communities, diversity, flexible learning models, and industry partnerships. What it does not include is any mention of sustainability.

The word “climate” appears only two times in this comprehensive strategy about what the college is prioritizing over the next five years. Both of those times, it’s used in an introduction to a section about another topic. The college uses “climate” as a buzzword, something to boost its word count. Climate is used as a reference to broad societal issues, before focusing on the other issues the school is dealing with.

This isn’t to say the school doesn’t do anything to offset the effects of climate change. We do have a sustainability office on campus that pilots programs like conscious purchasing, campus gardens, composting, and recycling. Almost every new building the college has added in the past 20 years has been a “green” building.

But, at its core, my college doesn’t make space for sustainability on campus or in its overall direction as an institution. There is currently no option for a student U-Pass, an affordable transit pass for students. But it offers ample parking at its flagship campuses and makes good money off those parking passes.

The only good thing about my college’s lack of movement on climate action is that its inaction leaves room for students to hold it accountable. If the leadership published empty promises and meaningless initiatives, it might be harder to hold them accountable. But since they’ve promised nothing, students have an opportunity to organize and make their voices heard about sustainable practices right now and in the future.

Georgia Dalke,

Red River College

rom the physical threats it poses to Harvard’s campus—with the Boston area facing from 2.5 to 7.4 feet of sea level rise by 2100—to its impacts on students’ homes, families, and futures, climate change looms large over my university. It challenges my peers and me to think critically about how we can leverage the unique resources and knowledge available to us to advance climate action. And in doing so, it reveals the immense need to hold our universities accountable for serious climate action. That means moving them beyond rhetoric. It means bringing their institutional capacity and clout to bear against a fundamentally unsustainable and unjust status quo; that includes pushing them to disclose and dismantle fossil fuel ties beyond their endowment which pervade, among other aspects of campus life, key climate and energy policy research.

Facing an unprecedented crisis, we’re organizing in unprecedented ways—and it’s working. Here at Harvard, we won a major victory when the university finally committed to divest from fossil fuels after a decade of tireless activism. That victory is an incredible testament to the power of student organizing. But we need Harvard and all of its peer institutions to move further and faster. The failure of the latest international climate conference, COP26, to yield a framework that can mitigate dangerous levels of planetary warming along with the crumbling of desperately needed US climate policy proposals in Congress and the sluggishness of the Biden administration on climate only affirm that we need strategies for advancing climate action, equity, and justice that operate outside of conventional politics and diplomacy. Throughout history, college students have played an invaluable role in bringing systems of exploitation to an end by using such strategies, like divestment; the current moment is no different. As climate change casts a growing shadow over campus life, students will continue to demonstrate the climate leadership our futures demand; we will continue to challenge the actors blocking a just and sustainable world, and seek to build that world ourselves from the ground up.

Ilana Cohen,

Harvard University

o far, classes have been canceled on two separate occasions this semester because of flash flood warnings caused by heavy rain in New York. While my friends and I relished the extra time added to our weeks, the knowledge that this is one of the many irreversible effects of climate change loomed large. The rains this fall were described as rare and “record-breaking.” In other words, the weather changes reminded us that we are in a climate crisis and that our city is not prepared for it. Several times this year, subway stations were filled with water, preventing students scattered around the five boroughs from getting to campus. Even part of Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus flooded in September.

Honestly, as college students, we aren’t sure what we can do anymore. On the one hand, most of us try to be environmentally conscious, but will vegan tacos and tote bags really help save our city from going underwater? Even though we seem to be trying, we cannot escape the terrible hold that Amazon has over us. Multiple times a week, I see trucks unloading hundreds of Amazon packages, and I will be the first to admit guilt. It’s just cheaper and faster when I don’t have the time nor patience to shop around elsewhere. Clearly, a lot of my peers feel the same.

How much does individual action matter when institutional changes, from corporations to universities alike, are barely implemented and with little transparency? Take recycling, for example. We’re not even sure how much we’re recycling, as our school’s website simply claims to “recycle as much material as possible” while quoting only one statistic from 2015. And even if we are recycling, is it enough when consumerism has us addicted? While a lot of us know we are responsible on an individual level, it is incredibly discouraging to feel like we are not in control of climate change, its effects, and the efforts to slow it down.

Jessica Shuran Yu,

Fordham University

he most vivid memory of my first semester in California, in 2018, is the bonfire-like smell of building hallways. The air was hazy from massive wildfires ravaging the West Coast, a smokiness that paled in comparison to the crimson skies of 2020.

As I remained on campus throughout the following summer to conduct research, the university curtailed its cooling system multiple times because it couldn’t cope with unusual heat. Cold air, we were told, needed to be conserved for high-priority areas, such as the hospital. Some students lost research projects that needed to be temperature-controlled. Stanford has since announced it would expand its system “to keep pace with a growing campus and a warming climate.” As a graduate student studying climate change, I see this crisis bleed out of my dissertation and into my daily life.

In 2020, Stanford announced a new school focused on climate and sustainability. You would think that a university that says it prioritizes climate research and action would have divested from fossil fuels, or at least refused fossil fuel industry money for its environmental research. Neither is the case. Stanford refuses to follow its peers—including Harvard and Dartmouth—in divesting its $37.8 billion endowment. To the contrary, it seems the university is as cozy as ever with the fossil fuel industry: just a few weeks ago, I was encouraged to apply for a “Chevron Fellowship in Energy,” a $115,000, 18-month fellowship for Stanford PhD students who are selected “with input from Chevron” to fund energy research.

The hypocrisy is everywhere: Chevron sponsors our Energy Seminars. This, despite studies by Stanford researchers on the historic, ongoing, deliberate efforts by the fossil fuel industry to misinform the public on climate change.

Why Stanford hasn’t divested—and why the university continues to take fossil fuel money to fund its environmental research—absolutely baffles me. What good does our climate research do if our university refuses to take a stand against the very industry perpetuating this crisis?

Unless Stanford’s new sustainability school is free of fossil fuel funding—a commitment the current administration refuses to make, despite pressure from students, faculty, and alumni—the university’s words will be seen for what they are: no more than hot air.

Leehi Yona,

Stanford University

cademia has a hard time putting its money where its mouth is. While institutions of higher education fund research, faculty, and initiatives that embody the values of environmental stewardship, justice, and anti-oppression, many of their endowments remain invested in the industries most responsible for this climate crisis and accompanying human rights violations. Fortunately, this is starting to change as many big-name institutions with deep pockets are publicly committing to full divestment from the fossil fuel industry. Yet these changes aren’t brought about because a wealthy, gray-haired trustee has a sudden change of heart—it’s thanks to student activism across generations that maintains pressure on campuses for years that the subject of fossil fuel divestment has been brought to the table and seen to its end. However, as many universities are still refusing to budge (like my institution, Northeastern University, which refuses to disentangle its indirect investments from fossil fuels), campuses will remain a hub for students to develop into activists and community organizers as they seek to hold their institutions truly accountable to their “sustainability” claims. The student-led divestment movement will also, I hope, become increasingly intersectional, as young activists draw connections between the violent economies of fossil fuel extraction and putting people in cages; both violent endeavors that are profitable under racial capitalism. At institutions that claim to be in the business of brightening students’ futures, nothing is more hypocritical than investing in the polluting and violent systems that make our futures so uncertain.

Miranda Dotson,

Northeastern University

limate change has thrust environmental activism to a central position in student life and that can be seen every day in the cafeteria. Meat is no longer served on Mondays, and vegetarian options make up the majority of the food prepared by the university. It can be difficult to be vegetarian and vegan when those options are in the minority, but the cafeteria at Freie Universität has turned this model on its head. Meat and fish make up 4 percent of the entire menu, and meals center seasonal ingredients to minimize the CO2 impact of acquiring the produce. This move not only makes it easier to be more vegetarian, but it also makes the point that students are more conscious about the food they are eating and are positioned to think about their environmental impact.

Freie Universität Berlin was the first university in Germany to declare a climate emergency, and that decision was led by student activists. The university has an ambitious goal of becoming climate neutral by 2025 and is currently working to weave climate protection into the curricula of all academic studies. On top of that, students at Freie are synthesizing the climate crisis with the everyday operations of the university, from food preparation to heating to paper use. The cafeteria serves as an everyday reminder of our impact on climate change and produces a sense of urgency to act, while also demonstrating that change can be implemented effectively on a large scale.

Paul Gordon,

Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/college-campus-climate-forum/
As the Pandemic Continues, College Students Return to a Different Campushttps://www.thenation.com/article/politics/covid-campus-student-forum/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationSep 21, 2021

Colleges and universities nationwide have reopened for in-person learning and students are grappling with an environment very different from the one they left. The administrative response to Covid has varied coast to coast, with some institutions mandating vaccinations, others requiring masks indoors, and still others simply offering recommendations. All students are dealing with new classroom guidelines and procedures, while many are experiencing on-campus life for the first time. To better understand the changes, we asked a range of students to tell us how Covid is impacting their college experience, including student organizing efforts for equity and justice.

n May of 2020, I submitted the last final exam of my undergraduate education from my childhood bedroom. I graduated in my parent’s kitchen, watching my school’s president congratulate my class through Zoom. That fall I began a PhD program in political science at CUNY Graduate Center. I have now started my second year and all my classes are online. After a full year in the program, I have still only seen my professors and the members of my cohort through a screen.

While participating in virtual classes I often find myself craving socialization and peer interaction. I think about how, before Covid, I took this aspect of education for granted. I’ve been lucky to have professors who put in the extra effort to make my learning experience seem as “normal” as possible, scheduling time before and after class meetings for students to talk and try to get to know each other. Although this has helped slightly, I still find the conversations forced and uncomfortable.

Despite these misgivings, Covid has helped improve my academic experience in a few ways. It is much easier to attend class if I’m sick or not feeling well, and I can take or teach classes from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. More importantly, Covid has highlighted important preexisting disparities within our society. The virus has sparked meaningful conversations about equity and justice in numerous sectors of public life, such as education, housing, health care, and workers’ rights. More people are starting to see how our government systems can often ignore our nation’s most vulnerable populations, even amid a pandemic. I hope that these discussions continue, and eventually lead to positive change.

–​​Cassidy Morales, City University of New York

year and a half after the Covid pandemic first forced us to leave campus, the separation from my friends and fellow fossil fuel divestment organizers still feels like an expectation. Even as I embrace the long-awaited opportunity to share physical space with my peers on returning to campus—made possible by my university community’s high rate of vaccination and level of access—I remain keenly aware that we may have to adapt our plans for strategy meetings, information sessions, and public demonstrations at any moment. The reality of the ever-spreading Delta variant and general uncertainty around what this pandemic holds for the future loom in the background of the “normal” pre-pandemic life on campus many of us want so desperately to reclaim.

But if the last year and a half has taught me anything as a student organizer, it’s that the possibilities for creative intervention and disruption of the status quo are boundless. When we couldn’t occupy an administrative building or storm a football field to call for climate justice, for instance, Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard channeled its energies into hosting a virtual Earth Day comedy show, filing a historic legal complaint, and securing a pro-divestment bill in the state legislature. As the circumstances of the pandemic evolve, so will the tactics we bring to bear—likely, a hybrid of complementary online and in person activism. No matter the mode of communication, it seems clear that the vast inequalities and structural injustices visible on the societal microcosms of our campuses—ones only exacerbated by Covid-19—will continue driving students to take action. The appetite for institutional accountability on the defining issues of our day, from climate change and systemic racism to labor rights and migrant justice, has never felt stronger. This academic year will test our resolve as students in many new and unexpected ways—but more than ever, it will test our willingness and ability to leverage the privileges and resources available to us in order to further a vision of equity and justice within and beyond campus walls.

–Ilana Cohen, Harvard University

s I approach my senior year of college, the prospect of having a “normal” last hurrah seems increasingly unlikely. For a brief time during the summer, it looked like we would be returning to a fall semester similar to my sophomore year—unmasked lectures, in-person club events, and a social life unhindered by health and safety regulations. Needless to say, we were excited, if not slightly overwhelmed. And although we remain hopeful for avoiding future tight-knit pods or lengthy quarantines, the uncertainty of the continuing Covid pandemic ensures that we all remain at the edge of our seats.

Will we end up transitioning to virtual learning? Can I plan for my friend’s birthday party in mid-October? Should my club be hosting in-person events? How seriously are other people taking the Delta variant? It’s the uncertainty of the pandemic’s future direction that affects every aspect of college life—putting a damper on what we can and can’t plan for. Am I allowed to look forward to things, or will I raise my hopes just to end up disappointed?

Constantly adjusting expectations for what is normal is not only tiring logistically but also pulls on our emotional strings, and takes up space that would otherwise be reserved for focusing on our studies. If there were a future date intended to mark the sure-fire end of the pandemic, perhaps the upcoming challenges would not be so frustrating—but it’s the continued uncertainty surrounding the next few months and the lack of clarity for what we should expect that has the greatest hold on our anticipatory fall semester.

–Teresa Xie, University of Pennsylvania

graduated in May 2021, so nearly 40 percent of my college career was marked by the pandemic. I’m also a qualitative researcher on a nationwide longitudinal study that has been surveying college students’ experiences during Covid since April 2020. A lot has emerged from our data since then—particularly regarding the on-campus social networks (with peers, professors, mentors, etc.) that were paramount to the college experience, that provide a wealth of social capital post-graduation, and that were severely disrupted by Covid.

This has a lot of implications. How can students, especially first-years and sophomores, organize to improve their institutions without having a lived, collective experience on campus? Students’ educations were reshaped by their shelter-in-place environments, many of which were structurally inhibitive to engaging in life and work as a college student. Students were left to fend for themselves, and pre-existing inequities were further exacerbated. Women, for example, reported taking on increased social responsibilities while sheltering-in-place with their family. Many Queer students had to leave the safe spaces they found on campuses to return to home environments that were more hostile to their identities. Students suddenly went from being independent emerging adults to being breadwinners and essential workers, caretakers, and ‘children’ again in their parents’ homes. College was never an equal experience, but Covid has made that more visible and deepened the inequities.

–Miranda Dotson, Northeastern University

orkers at Harvard University are facing a historic landmark in their fight for labor rights during the first fully in-person semester since the onset of Covid. Every major union on Harvard’s campus—including the Harvard Graduate Students Union and the dining hall workers’ UNITE HERE Local 26—is bargaining for a new contract this fall. That’s over 12,000 workers who are currently demanding fair pay, strengthened labor rights, and necessary protection from a university that has routinely chosen to push their needs to the sidelines, even amid the pandemic.

Despite its $40 billion endowment increasing by 7.3 percent in 2020, the university has weaponized the pandemic as an excuse to further reduce dining hall workers’ hours and avoid hiring new staff as a way to cut costs. This even when existing staff is being overworked to accommodate the demands of safe in-person dining for all students. So far, Harvard’s actions have meant dramatic cuts to food options and an increase in the use of disposable plates and silverware to account for the labor shortage. This is just one example of many—the gyms, for instance, are also understaffed.

Now, for the sake of both its students and its workers amid this pandemic, the university must make a commitment to respect the demands of those 12,000 workers, especially when many of them have been risking their lives from the beginning of the pandemic to keep the university running. We were told time and time again that we are in “unprecedented times.” In response, Harvard should now act with an unprecedented commitment to justice and fairness.

–Sofia Andrade, Harvard University

ovid-19 has transformed my college experience. Many students, including myself, use all of their energy just trying to stay engaged in online class. Being on the computer for nearly eight hours every day drains my motivation, but, somehow, I must keep working at the same pace of a normal school year.

Because of how much effort it takes, many students are getting burnt out. This leaves little opportunity to fight for the causes that matter on their campuses especially considering the demands of part-time jobs, unpaid internships and school leadership positions. Most of the services for students’ associations and advocates have moved online, making them harder to meaningfully access and limiting how quickly students can organize. And while petitions and online movements can reach further, it’s hard to make any noise in the ears of people who are either unable to access technology or not occupying the same digital spaces. If students are completely drained by online classes, it is much harder to hold their administration accountable, or even to get the proper education for which they paid.

–Georgia Dalke, Red River College

’m part of HCHS4Diversity, a student-led school integration campaign at my high school that started in June 2020, while my home city, New York, was being ravaged by Covid and the country was reeling from systemic racism. It was an incredibly stressful time—but Zoom helped our campaign in many ways. We were able to meet with students, parents, activists, and integration experts we ordinarily never could have accessed. We were able to host online forums and call-your-council-member sessions. Organizing safe protests was much more difficult, but HCHS4Diversity held two: one in September 2020 and one in May 2021.

We don’t, however, know what our campaign will look like this upcoming school year. High school classes will be in person, five days a week, but, at least at the beginning of the school year, students will have less flexibility to meet up at school. Commutes and extracurriculars previously canceled due to Covid will take up a significant portion of our day. However, we can still use Zoom as a way to meet. Though our campaign was born online, we are ready to embrace the advantages of in-person learning. We can talk to people face-to-face in more spontaneous ways and build the relationships that can sustain us through hard times..
Covid is a catastrophe, but it also helpfully exposed existing structural inequities in a way that is impossible to ignore. There is an increased awareness of the need to improve access to quality education, and that makes our mission easier.

–Aruna Das, Hunter College High School, NYC

n a sense, everyone is starting over. When the pandemic began, I was a freshman who had been in college for barely five months. Now, I am a rising junior who has been taking online classes at home three times longer than I was ever on campus. That is a big deficit to make up.

I’m sure others would agree that the prevailing feelings going into reopening are a combination of excitement and anxiety: excitement that we will get the chance to be in college rather than just “in college” again, but anxiety over the virus as it continues to persist, and the uncertainty that causes for the rest of our time in school.

–Joaquin Romero, University of California, Riverside

ntering a university building after a year and a half of isolated activities like board games with my parents and isolated New York City park walks was overwhelming. With my ID card and green “campus access granted” badge ready on my phone, I stepped into my first class of the semester. The other 15 students trickled in before class started and we stumbled through the return to small talk and first-day icebreakers. Our (doubly masked) professor began class and I spent most of the session straining to hear my classmates over a portable air filter and through three layers of cotton masks. Although I was overjoyed to be back on campus, and impressed by my university’s dedication to strong health policies like mandatory vaccination and universal masking, the accessibility concerns that student activists have shared since the announcement of returning to in-person education became immediately apparent and pressing. How do we keep everyone safe in class while ensuring all students have their needs met for an accessible education?

I’m encouraged by the care of my professors and fellow students to speak loudly, create solutions in the moment and organize for built-in accessibility policies. I’m also inspired by the work of the National Center for College Students with Disabilities and DREAM, which stands for Disability Rights, Education, Activism, and Mentoring. They both, often in conjunction, organize virtual events for students, offer mentorship, and host chapters across the country to support student-led accessibility efforts. As the pandemic has continually renewed our knowledge of deepening disparities in our country’s systems, this semester gives me hope that more students will become organizers for accessibility on their own campuses.

–Madeleine Janz, The New School

s a first-year PhD student, I am already observing how the Covid pandemic has damaged our pursuit of equity and justice at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Part of our campus ministry program gives students like me the opportunity to help some of those most in need in the nation’s capital. Services include tutoring middle school children, assisting the elderly, working with homeless persons, and helping veterans. Many of these programs have been canceled altogether because it is considered too unsafe to be in contact with some of these populations, while others have become virtual, which has truly lessened their impact.

Hence, those communities that need the most assistance, especially now during a pandemic, are the ones most negatively affected. This has an outsize impact on efforts for equity and justice.

Moreover, this does not apply only to communities outside of the student population. It also applies to university staff and students who are not financially secure. Many of the janitorial staff are working harder and saving less, which can be quantified through the increase in visits to the campus food pantry. Students who are more reliant on grants and scholarships must take on multiple jobs amid a full course load to make up for the decrease in available funding.

As can be seen in all aspects of American life, those who were more fortunate before the pandemic are even better off today, and those that needed assistance before the pandemic need even more now. This is true of those who work and study on campus, and of those who the campus can no longer assist due to health and safety reasons.

–Sam Fouad, The Catholic University of America

have never struggled to understand university administrators as much as I have in the last year. In the first few months of the pandemic, it felt like there was some compassion reflected in flexible academic accommodations—but that flexibility vanished when the 2020–21 school year began. As someone whose personal circumstances require me to limit contacts, I struggled to obtain permission to attend classes remotely at the time, being told instead to defer my law school admission. Imagine my sense of relief when, three weeks before orientation, incoming students were told that classes would be held online. Remote learning was incredibly challenging, but at least I was able to stay safe.

As we begin a second academic year during a pandemic, I’m even more frustrated. Stanford insists on in-person instruction, without much regard for students’ medical conditions or personal circumstances. It seems increasingly likely that the Delta variant will cause another surge significant enough to force a return to remote learning as the fall quarter progresses. Indeed, many Stanford students have already been infected with Covid, even though only a fraction of students are even yet on campus. Why put students through the financial and emotional strain of moving with such a forecast? Why force them to attend indoor classes when many have medical conditions that, even if vaccinated, could lead to severe complications? The anxiety and worry my classmates and I are experiencing could have been avoided with an option to learn remotely. Instead, schools have been rigidly enforcing rules that leave their students asking: Whose well-being do they actually care about?

–Leehi Yona, Stanford University

ver the past 18 months, NYU graduate students have faced myriad barriers to continuing—and in some cases, providing—an education. From taking care of their own children while teaching shaken undergraduates, to participating in seminars from across the world remotely because of draconian visa restrictions, PhD and master’s students have surmounted nearly insurmountable feats. After trudging through an unsettling few semesters, graduate students fed up with high tuitions and prohibitive university policies fought hard for a new contract. As a direct result of these physical and virtual union efforts, graduate students of all stripes will reap benefits like 30 percent higher hourly wages, expanded leaves of absence, and a considerable child care fund, to name the most important. For all the disastrous things Covid has done to the student experience, it has shone a light on disparities that could simply no longer be ignored. I’m entering my last semester of school in a year when the pandemic remains unpredictable, but I’m heartened to know I will be completing my degree, aiding faculty, and mentoring eager college students with the support of an organized graduate community.

–Alana Pockros, New York University

raduate students occupy a strange, liminal place in the university. Both worker and student, we are endowed with authority but subject to restrictions, protected by some university policies yet expected to maintain a degree of independence. Over the past year and a half, we have borne the brunt of our universities’ failures: teaching on Zoom with little training or support, grappling with lowered stipends and departmental funding, and coordinating between overstressed undergraduates and underpaid administrators (while being underpaid, or unfunded, ourselves). We labor intensely but invisibly, balancing research with endless administrative tasks and teaching duties. It’s an engrossing life, but a chaotic, precarious one; often it seems on the brink of extinction. What we need from the university, in this time of dwindling job prospects and continued Covid risk, is recognition of the important work we do—how we hold up universities like pillars; how much easier it would be for us to do our jobs with more protections in place. Unions are agitating for these, and have succeeded in some cases. The benefits these new graduate contracts provide will be a boon for everyone teaching, learning, and building a life at a university—not just its graduate workers. On campus this fall, where we are still masked in class, I won’t see more than a quarter of my fellow graduate students’ faces. But I know there is strength, resilience, and temerity there.

–Sara Krolewski, New York University

his semester I will be studying at Freie Universitat in Berlin. Germany has seen its notably bureaucratic systems move quickly because of the pandemic, and students are demanding that the environmental crisis be taken with the same urgency. This September, Germany is set to have a national election and university students are playing a central role in pushing environmental policies forward. The Green Party and the Fridays for Future movement have thrust the climate change discussion into Parliament and they have staged protests, largely organized by students, that resonate around the world. The pandemic has shown what reactive, reeling politics looks like, and climate change is getting worse by the minute. Earlier this summer, Germany was hit with a historic flood that took at least 117 lives, and students are feeling the pressure to do something. Students at my university are organizing for and supporting climate friendly politicians, but they are doing it with an awareness that the clock is ticking. The sense of emergency in regards to climate change has been heightened by the pandemic, and my classmates have something to say about it.

–Paul Gordon, Freie University, Berlin

he pandemic has made campus life difficult for many reasons. Where before I could spend hours slinking around libraries or residence hall common areas, the atmosphere has now completely changed. People want you to be on campus as little as possible, for obvious reasons, but something significant has been lost from the college experience as a result.

Wearing masks in classrooms is hard—so much of what a person is saying is portrayed through body language, predominantly through facial expressions. This means that classroom discussions, student socializing and even office hours are hampered. It definitely takes some getting used to, and is a stark contrast to what in-person classes were before, but is just a small sacrifice in comparison to having to do Zoom classes again.

But the biggest change that the lasting pandemic has caused for my college experience has been with travel. I am an international student, and although I have been able to get into the US through a visa exception rule passed by the government, traveling home if there were an emergency, or even just to spend a holiday with family, has become extremely challenging. The culture shock, being away from family and the impracticalities of going home have made my college experience a much more lonely and confined one, especially at the beginning. Hopefully, for everyone’s sake, the situation improves, but for now it is only possible to make the best of it.

–Kate Graham-Shaw, New York University

s a first-year student, I approached the semester with apprehension. Although I knew I would be able to live and learn on campus, the steady spread of the Delta variant made me worry that I would start college the same way I ended high school: stuck in my room, mostly isolated from my peers. And indeed, there are new requirements for masked gatherings, Covid testing, and the like. But my fears about a subdued, limited atmosphere were wholly unjustified. Despite the public health restrictions, the air of excitement is palpable.

That excitement might be our greatest asset. Although I’ve only been here a few weeks, I’ve already witnessed the dedication and vigor my classmates bring to everything they do, from cross-campus scavenger hunts to orientation workshops. And I can already see how that enthusiasm will translate into activism and organizing. After more than a year of online learning, my class is determined to make the most of college in every way possible. And after witnessing (and participating in) the movements for justice over the past year, we’re determined to direct that enthusiasm towards positive change.

My first-year class is one of the biggest and most diverse in my university’s history. It’s full of students fresh off of a gap year, who bring their recent experiences with community service and advocacy to bear in the classroom. But most of all, it’s full of students eager to do all they can, in spite of—and because of—all the challenges of the past year.

–Sadie Bograd, Yale University

hen New York City experienced catastrophic flooding at the start of the school year, my education closely resembled the beginning of the pandemic, with classes canceled or moved to Zoom. The effects of the flood only lasted a few days, but by now we are painfully aware that this will not be the last time we meet virtually.

Uncertainty is now a given. It is difficult, if not impossible, to make plans for next month, much less commitments to internships and study abroad opportunities, when nothing is guaranteed in an ongoing pandemic. This uncertainty, then, has only amplified the sense of isolation brought on by virtual meetings.

As a club leader on campus, remote student organizing efforts were extremely challenging. With people scattered all over the country—and the globe—last year, activity engagement decreased dramatically. Without being able to gather in protest, interact face-to-face with those that we want to help, and be inspired by the energy of our peers in-person, the motivation to participate in anything more than an online discussion was low.

At the same time, the pandemic provided many of us a unique chance to learn about ourselves, the injustices in the world around us, and the role we would like to play. Weaknesses in the university systems were highlighted through their failure to take care of students’ physical, mental, and financial well-being. There is hope that after more than a year of reflecting and observing, returning students will have a combination of anger, determination, and craving for social interactions that will help clubs on campus enact meaningful change at our school and the city around us.

–Jessica Shuran Yu, Fordham University



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/covid-campus-student-forum/
What the Cops Off Campus Movement Looks Like Across the Countryhttps://www.thenation.com/article/activism/campus-police/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationApr 12, 2021

As protests surged across the country to condemn George Floyd’s death by Minneapolis police in the summer of 2020, police divestment became a serious and pressing demand that has reaped rewards: Many cities have recently taken steps to divert police department money to fund community resources that, protesters argue, would better serve the people and resolve many of the issues cops have historically turned into opportunities for violence.

Students have been making these demands for years now, and not just for local police. Students have to deal with both municipal and campus cops, and so do the people who live around university grounds. And campus have only become more professionalized and militarized in the paste decade. They are frequently armed, equally as violent as regular cops, and—especially at private universities— not burdened with the same expectation of transparency. These are complaints shared by students across the country. To this end, we asked students at universities that have led the way in campus police abolition movements to tell us about what they’ve been doing to hold their universities’ police departments accountable.

hile many colleges and universities have only recently started to contend with policing on college campuses in the wake of this summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, the University of Chicago’s reckoning with its private police force began in early 2018. Following the shooting of a university undergraduate by an officer of the University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD), students were galvanized to create a #CareNotCops (CNC) chapter on campus and demand reform.

The UCPD has a history of policing Black and brown people on campus, questioning their purpose in buildings, once even forcefully arresting a Black student in the library for making too much noise. Their presence is even more pervasive for the South Side residents within the force’s three-mile jurisdiction, which extends roughly 14 blocks north past the campus. As such, reform efforts have brought together various student groups and faculty members with local residents seeking greater transparency of budget and practice, disarmament, and a defunding that redistributes resources to the surrounding neighborhood, which is largely Black and historically underserved.

At the end of the academic year, the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor lit new fire under these existing demands, spurring protests around Hyde Park and the deployment of more radical tactics by student organizers, which has led to a number of contentious confrontations between the university administration and activists in the past year. At the beginning of the summer, student organizers from a number of campus activist groups staged a sit-in at UCPD headquarters that included, at points, over 100 participants and lasted through the night. In September, the week before the start of the new school year, CNC staged a controversial, week-long occupation in front of Provost Ka Yee Lee’s, calling for her to agree to a recorded public meeting and address their demands. This October, CNC collaborated with the youth activist group Good Kids Mad City to organize a Halloween-night demonstration advocating for the defunding of the UCPD and reduced Chicago Police Department (CPD) presence on the South Side.

In June of 2020, the Chicago Maroon published an editorial endorsing the organizing efforts of students and community members to disband and abolish the UCPD. Instead of an armed force, the Maroon advocated for an unarmed emergency response force trained in seeking to “better trained and equipped to handle particular, commonly occurring University-related situations.” In the editorial, we point particularly to not just the past horrifying actions of the UCPD, but how policing is not an adequate response for students going through a mental health crisis. Student organizing is crucial—the surrounding community can and will be safer without a private militarized force.

The editorial was published following the 19-hour occupation of UCPD headquarters, where student organizers demanded that the university hold a public town hall that fielded comments from students and community members. The university has refused to meet this demand, nor has it offered to consider the broader, abolitionist demands of student organizers. We wrote our editorial with the firm belief that, given the university’s past actions and its claimed interests in serving both its students and the greater community needs, a Hyde Park free of the UCPD will help keep students and the community safer. The student organizing group UChicago United, which is affiliated with #CareNotCops, has been facilitating mutual aid in Hyde Park and now tables weekly by Jewel-Osco, a grocery store near campus.

Amid the gentrification taking place in Hyde Park, student organizing has helped increase students engagement with and support of mutual aid projects. Defunding UCPD as a step toward its abolition would be a direct means of putting resources into the hands of community members and directing funds toward those who need them the most. Abolition is not just a process about taking down systems that may be inequitable; abolition is about creating new possibilities and new ways of helping us all live more fulfilling lives.

Kate Mabus and Noah Tesfaye, University of Chicago

n the midst of last summer’s nationwide uprising for Black lives, Phoenix students escalated their #CopsOuttaCampus protests, demanding the removal of School Resource Officers (SROs) from Phoenix schools. The students were from Puente, a human rights group organizing to improve the lives of Arizona’s most marginalized communities. After three months of intensive lobbying and action, they won a resounding victory: the district superintendent announced the dissolution of its police contract and the removal of SROs.

Phoenix followed a number of other cities—most prominently Minneapolis, where George Floyd was murdered, as well as Portland and Denver. For years, youth and community organizations across the country had raised the alarm on SROs. According to the Dignity in Schools Campaign, Black students are nearly three and a half times more likely to be taken into police custody than white students; Latinx students are one and a half times more likely.

Phoenix in particular has a long history of targeting and discriminating against students of color. In the early 1900s, African American students were segregated in a basement known as the “Department for Colored Students,” where all of their classes were held. In 1969, a group of students formed Chicanos Por La Causa in response to racial inequities. At first, they lobbied the district; after the district refused to listen, they organized a month of walkouts.

Puente’s campaign launched in 2017. Students had already been organizing in response to then-President Trump’s new immigration policies as well as SB 1070, Arizona’s landmark “show me your papers” law. In 2019, an SRO pepper-sprayed a group of middle school students at Isaac School District, ramping up the urgency. Then, last summer, with growing school shootings and Black Lives Matter protests alike, the campaign took off. “There were so many stories of undocumented people coming out,” said Michelle Ruiz, a Puente youth organizer. “Our community was already being targeted, and so we felt like our schools were going to be the next target.”

From the start, the campaign employed a range of tactics—using social media to educate peers, attending board meetings, and holding protests outside district headquarters. In early 2018, following the Parkland, Fla., school shooting, students marched downtown demanding that SROs leave their campuses. “We wanted to remove SROs from schools to make a point of safety and security,” said Puente’s development and financial director Isis Gil. “But there’s always an ask for other resources for our youth, such as more counselors, more nurses, and social services to improve their lives.”

In June 2020, Abia Khan, a North High senior who was part of Puente Youth and is now a Harvard freshman, started a petition to reignite the call for SRO removal. Phoenix PD had become one of the deadliest police forces in America, and Khan felt that there was no reason for a force like that to be present on school campuses. The petition went on to amass 4,000 signatures, putting pressure on the district while helping to build Puente’s base.

“The Black Lives Matter protests were the first time I had heard the phrase, ‘defund the police,’” Khan said. “If I’m being completely honest, it caught me a little off guard because I couldn’t understand the demand. After doing more research, I realized the merits of the demand.”

One of the board members, Stephanie Parra, felt the urgency. “I appreciate when students use their voice,” she said. “What they did last summer wasn’t just personal. They were demanding more from an institution that has a long history of oppression and racism.”

The board’s initial vote was split: three in support of termination, three against, and one abstention. Those who were against it had security concerns for the students. The final decision was announced on July 7, following internal dissension.

Now, students are working to hold PUHSD accountable for the $1.2 million that the district recouped from the terminated contract. In September, the district launched a participatory budgeting process, recruiting student, parent, and staff input. Puente Youth members are trying to figure out the best way to reinvest the funds. They’re also expanding the campaign to other schools in Arizona, starting with Glendale and Mesa, where they plan to launch student programs, like in Phoenix, anchored by training on leadership and grassroots organizing.

“I hope that other people that I know or people who see me on social media will see the work I am doing,” Ruiz reflected. “I hope they will want to go out there and do it themselves, so they are part of a huge community and a larger project.”

Anna Deogratias, Arizona State University class of 2020

n the 2021 Maryland state legislative session, SB0276 was introduced to repeal the ability of Johns Hopkins University to form a private police force. After nearly four years of fighting, student organizers and community members in Baltimore had finally brought opposition to the private police to the state Senate floor.

Our organizing began in 2018, when the university wrote and lobbied for a bill that would authorize the creation of a private police force to patrol not just campus but the surrounding communities. The bill, called the “Community Safety and Strengthening Act,” was introduced to the Senate in 2019; the General Assembly passed the bill, despite significant opposition from Hopkins affiliates and community members who reside in the areas surrounding Hopkins campuses.

That April, student and community activists staged a 35-day sit-in at Garland Hall, the administrative building. At least seven protesters, both students and local residents, were dragged from the building and arrested. Rather than address the concerns being raised by these activists, university President Ron Daniels called the Baltimore Police Department.

The Coalition Against Policing by Hopkins formed during the 2020 nationwide protests. The university also acted in the wake of a global reckoning with police brutality: it announced a “two-year pause” on the creation of their police force to “reevaluate” the role of policing in public safety. The “pause” included disbanding the student advisory board, the police accountability board, and the school has stopped holding meetings with community members.

Then, despite the two-year pause, earlier this year Hopkins sent administrators to testify at the SB0276 bill hearings. They spoke against the bill, saying that a police force is necessary for the safety of Hopkins affiliates. Organizers here noted that this position flagrantly contradicted their previous claim that during the so-called pause, the university would “reevaluate” the role of policing. Every person who testified spoke about the police force as an entity that will absolutely exist after their “pause.”

While the university disbanded its advisory boards, we with the Coalition Against Policing by Hopkins—made up of student organizers and Baltimore community activists from over a dozen groups like the Baltimore Redevelopment Action Coalition for Empowerment, Greater Baltimore Democratic Socialists of America, Teachers and Researchers United, and the Hopkins graduate student union—escalated the opposition to the Hopkins private police force.

CAPH and concerned faculty circulated a petition calling for the full abandonment of the JHUPD that received over 6,000 individual signatures from Hopkins affiliates, alumni, and Baltimore community members, which we delivered to university president Ron Daniels’s house at the end of a protest march across campus.

Though our pressure led to significant movement of this bill, it failed to pass committee. Now, CAPH is organizing communities to make clear its opposition both on the campus and among the surrounding residents who would be directly impacted by their neighborhoods being patrolled by Hopkins police officers.

Immediately after the failure of SB0276 to pass from committee, Hopkins announced that it is renewing the search for a vice president of security and public safety, thus solidifying plans to create JHPD.

This work is far from over. CAPH is ready to continue this fight as long as Hopkins plans to force police on Baltimore City. We’ve slowed them down by four years—and we’re not going anywhere.

Andrew Eneim, Johns Hopkins University

mid a global pandemic and calls for defunding the police around the country, the University of California system maintained and even increased the UC Police Department (UCPD) budget. The UCLA police budget, for example, was projected to increase from $21,663,372 to $22,182,739 in the next year—a 2.4-percent increase.

This money goes toward initiatives like predictive policing technologies, surveillance softwares, and community policing partnerships. These harmful carceral alliances not only inflict violence; they also extract money from the students and communities without keeping them safe.

It is clear that the UC system has prioritized its allegiances to policing, upholding policing logics and colonial structures of violence.

The exorbitant amount of money spent at UCPD is only one example of the university’s inability to prioritize community over state violence. This is coupled with several inevitably failed attempts to “hold police accountable” for instances of state violence, including the harm to student protesters.

Cops Off Campus is a coalition of graduate students, undergraduate students, faculty, staff, and community members who have come together to organize around the abolition of police at UCLA and beyond.

We are demanding the removal of the physical manifestations of the police, as well as a disbanding and refusal of all police partnerships and technologies within academic spaces and other university supported spaces. These spaces include student housing and community hospitals owned or managed by the university.

We acknowledge that UCLA, and academia more generally, is a space of complicity. Our school has been the site of extensive state violence and has created various forms of policing technologies, producing research that inflicts harm on campus and within communities.

We are not calling for attempts to reform the police or attempting to hold them accountable.

Over the last year we have organized protests, held reflection spaces, and launched a map of carceral violence on our campus. Throughout May, we are joining a national alliance of faculty, staff, and students to call for the complete removal of cops from all academic spaces and to educate and activate members to collectively imagine a community without police through the creation of spaces for protest, reflection, healing and mutual aid. But it’s not just that. We are also demanding a cost-of-living adjustment for equitable pay for all workers at the university. We are demanding a reinvestment to community healing, mental health, and student support. We are demanding land back. We are demanding an end to all forms of policing violence and harm through the university and beyond.

Victoria Copeland and Dominique Mikell, University of California, Los Angeles Cops Off Campus



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/campus-police/
Here’s What Students Think Biden Needs to Do in His First 100 Dayshttps://www.thenation.com/article/activism/students-biden/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationJan 20, 2021

Today, we might be breathing a collective sigh of relief—but the work has only begun. President Joe Biden faces a wildly daunting first 100 days in office. On the heels of major vaccine developments, Biden committed to getting “at least 100 million Covid-19 vaccine shots into the arms of the American people in the first 100 days.” Beyond this obviously critical effort, there is only so much the new administration can focus on in his first three months. We asked students across the country what they see as the most pressing issue the Biden White House should devote its time and political capital to addressing. We received a wide range of responses, taking in a number of pressing issues affecting young people today.

fter a tumultuous four years under the Trump administration, it is hard to pinpoint just one pressing issue the Biden administration needs to tackle. As a Black woman, I’d been aware of the racial divide within our country from a young age. I still remember the reaction to Trayvon Martin’s death exploding across the country.

Fast-forward a few years, and it almost seems as though we’ve been held at a standstill. Black and brown people have continually been targeted, and President Trump’s rhetoric fueled the flame. For our country to feel confident in where we’re headed, we need to make active steps toward defunding the police. The untimely deaths of so many Black women and men led to an uprising of protesters across the world united by a truth that is so frequently unacknowledged: that Black lives matter. In response, police officers attacked and harassed people simply fighting for our right to stay alive.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris can no longer hide behind palatability. Biden says that in order to “make progress, we must stop treating our opponents as enemies.” Their push for “A Presidency for All Americans” is only skin-deep if there is no real work done to address white supremacy in this country and within our law enforcement.

There is a double standard in this country. We cannot move forward “united” when there is a clear mistreatment of Black and brown lives. Black people are murdered for simply existing, but white Trump supporters are escorted out after raiding the Capitol. Black people aren’t afforded words. We’re sentenced death.

As Tye Winters said, “We’re not asking for you to shoot them like you shoot us. We’re asking you to not shoot us like you don’t shoot them.” The Biden administration must condemn the behavior of white supremacists and armed officers. We need less investment in our police department and more investment in the communities being drastically harmed by racial profiling and police brutality. There needs to be real consideration for the minority voices in this country, who nevertheless stand at the front lines and fight for a better world.

Biden often claims that African Americans have his back, and that in return he will “always have theirs.” He says, again and again, that his goal in running for president of the United States was to “restore the soul of America.”

On the contrary, America’s soul doesn’t need restoring. America’s soul needs reconstruction.

—AIYANA ISHMAEL, Florida A&M University

lack women are dying at a higher rate from childbirth complications in Washington, D.C.—where I go to school—than anywhere else in the country. If white women were dying at the same rate, resources or policies would have been focused on doing something about it. The Biden White House needs to raise our collective consciousness around racism that is deeply ingrained in our society’s institutions.

When those in power maintain racist ideologies to divide the public, everyone is in danger of losing their humanity. But we can break this cycle with transparency. The addition of diversity and inclusion training throughout the education system is one form of this. We can best work against institutional racism when the White House does not stereotype communities of people or attribute to them corrupt motives—like Trump did with Mexican immigrants, yes, but also like Hilary Clinton did by painting a picture of “super predators.”

It is up to the Biden White House to acknowledge and dismantle the role racism plays in positions of power. Hopefully one day Black mothers and their infants will be afforded the same chance to live that white women and children currently have—without having to fight to survive under the ingrained racism that works against them.

—ALEXANDRA SHARAT, American University

here’s no vaccine for scorching temperatures, diminishing crop yields, or climate disasters. There’s only the urgent need to rethink our energy and economic systems in fundamental ways.

If Biden is really committed to choosing truth and realizing the electoral mandate given to him by over 81 million Americans—especially the young people and people of color who helped propel him into office—then he needs to act on climate from day one in the White House.

7bk 

If Biden doesn’t devote his time and political capital toward a just and sustainable future during his first 100 days, he risks becoming yet another elected rhetorician condemning young Americans and people worldwide to climate catastrophe and geopolitical conflict on an unprecedented scale. With climate change already estimated to cause more than 150,000 deaths annually—a number projected to grow in the coming decades—its ultimate body count will likely well exceed any known in our recorded history, including the record-setting result of World War II. Biden has a unique chance to impact that count’s trajectory, to save and improve countless lives by deploying presidential powers; nothing matters more than whether he’ll seize it.

—ILANA COHEN, Harvard University

remember when my kindergarten teacher handed me a pencil for the first time. It was spring semester, and after months of only being trusted to color with crayons and supervision, that mechanical pencil seemed almost magical. Now, I think about all the kindergarteners who won’t have that moment.

Most articles about Biden’s first 100 days center on his promises about the pandemic. This is extremely important, but even in the midst of mass vaccinations and mask mandates, the Biden White House needs to prioritize bridging gaps in educational equity. Safely reopening schools is a start, but in a country where 50 percent of teachers surveyed have considered leaving the profession altogether because of poor pay and working conditions, simply moving classes offline is not enough.

Education inequality is not a pandemic-era phenomenon. Covid-19 has only brought these issues to the forefront by exacerbating existing disparities. And in the aftermath of the pandemic, our children’s education will only continue to suffer. The impacts of distance learning are not equally distributed. According to research by McKinsey, the negative educational effects of learning loss and dropping out will disproportionately impact low-income and minority students. More than 22 percent of students in the United States speak no English at home, and others have parents who are essential workers or are otherwise unable to assist with online learning.

When we allow these inequalities to persist, we are undermining not only these students’ individual futures but also our country’s future economic, social, and political success.

Around the time Biden will be sworn in, the kindergarteners at my old elementary school will celebrate their first 100 days of school. I hope the president will do something worth celebrating.

—SERENA PUANG, Yale University

raudulent conspiracy theories grounded in discrimination divide a dangerously polarized nation. A gridlocked legislature cannot agree on anything. Masses of people struggle to make ends meet, while a select few hoard wealth that never seems to stop growing. A cultural fissure forms between rural and urban areas. Support for democracy slips. Nazis storm government buildings.

I am, of course, describing Weimar Germany. Although the same could apply to the United States in 2021. While there are a variety of profound differences between Weimar Germany and the current United States, we cannot ignore the frightening parallels, especially in the aftermath of the January 6 storming of what President-elect Biden called “the citadel of liberty, the Capitol.”

As someone whose family was in Germany during the rise of totalitarianism and immigrated to the United States after the war, that Wednesday afternoon shook me. I believe that after an action that has stunning historical parallels to Germany shortly before the Nazis took power, Biden’s top priority must be to strengthen American democracy to prevent the development of a Weimar America.

What January 6 represented was the culmination of four years of right-wing politicians around the country coddling Trump’s authoritarian impulses and white supremacy. Taking office in the aftermath, Biden must aggressively work to counter the digital dispersal of misinformation and right-wing conspiracy theories by regulating Big Tech. He must enact radical reform to an American criminal justice system in which police officers shoot Black Americans when they protest but take selfies with white terrorists when they invade the Capitol. He must pass new laws to protect us against domestic terrorism. He must work to restore faith in democracy in a country where 45 percent of Republicans just supported a coup attempy. Biden’s top priority must be to protect our democratic system, because it is under assault.

—ANDREW LORENZEN, Cornell University

he state of economic inequality in the United States is dire. The groups that spearheaded President Biden’s win—namely people of color, young people, single women, and low-income people—need policies that put economic justice at the forefront. For decades, people of color have been more likely than white people to be paid wages that leave them below the federal poverty level. In the United States, this level is set at about $12.60 per hour, full-time, for a family of four.

The federal minimum wage, however, is only $7.25 per hour. In 2019, about 1.6 million Americans earned wages at or below that minimum, with students and young people representing two-fifths of that number—despite being only one-fifth of the hourly paid workforce. Women, too, are three times more likely to be paid at or below the federal minimum than men are. In both cases, these are demographics that voted largely for Biden.

In his first 100 days, in addition to enacting swift climate action and a robust coronavirus-relief plan, President Biden must immediately raise the federal minimum wage to at least $15 per hour. This is the bare minimum; a living wage in the United States is $16.54 the hour. Alongside this, Biden must also raise the federal poverty level, taking into account the different needs of Americans based on race and ethnicity as the country undergoes an economic crisis.

To write off such a policy as too progressive is to ignore the demands of voters. Even in Florida, a state that voted red in 2020, a ballot initiative to move toward a $15 minimum wage passed with a 61 percent vote. It is time the Democratic establishment met Americans where they are.

—SOFIA ANDRADE, Harvard University

rump’s mishandling of Covid-19 alone was terribly detrimental to the disability community. However, his attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and increase regulation of Social Security Disability Insurance were viewed as an outright attack.

For the disabled, Biden has a plan for the full participation of and equality for people with disabilities in America. It’s a plan that reinforces the Affordable Care Act and addresses the intersections of disability and mass incarceration, disability and immigration, disability and domestic abuse, and more. Significantly, the plan promises to work with the disability community in developing new policies and also promises to appoint a director of disability policy.

Instituting this plan should be a top priority for the Biden administration. As the largest minority group in America, it is critical that people with disabilities are brought to the forefront of American politics.

Americans with disabilities will be watching out for who he selects to be the director of disability policy, and even how he interacts with other leaders within the disability community. By prioritizing the disability community and fulfilling his commitment to them, Biden will be able to do what our last president did not: treat all Americans with the dignity they deserve.

—EMMI DECKARD, University of California, Los Angeles

he US Postal Service offers an opportunity for the administration to garner support across America. Biden has frequently emphasized his commitment to uniting the country—what better way than by strengthening a beloved and crucial American institution?

Even more than that, reorienting the decline of the Postal Service can help reframe a larger discussion around issues in need of widespread reform. With thousands of locations, and as an institution already cemented in people’s minds as a place to go to conduct your personal affairs with the federal government, like applying for a passport, why can’t we expand the role of the USPS?

Could post offices become vaccine distribution sites? Pantry or donation centers in food deserts? Or, as Kirsten Gillibrand proposed in 2018, banking services to those with limited financial resources?

Improvements like electrifying the postal fleet would save money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Further, it would require improving charging infrastructure at each USPS location and nationwide, creating greater availability for everyday Americans and normalizing a switch that would make a major impact on people in need.

These reforms would lead to the creation of quality jobs and in every single community, rural to urban. And, of course, an improved, cheaper, more reliable post office is crucial for future elections, where voting by mail will likely be common even after the pandemic.

The locations all exist. It is up to President Biden to decide whether to add services and create efficiencies, or to allow the system to continue to wane, beloved or not.

—KYLE ROSENTHAL, Boston College

spent nearly all of December 12, 2015, sobbing along the streets of Paris. I was part of a youth delegation to the COP21 United Nations climate negotiations, and that was the day the Paris Agreement on climate change was born. But young people were not celebrating. We were mourning the loss of an opportunity to save our generation from crisis. We were grieving an agreement that was hardly enough to avert some of the most egregious pain and suffering. The Paris Agreement still sets the world on a warming path of 3 or 4 degrees Celsius, and we need to be at 1.5 degrees to keep coastal and vulnerable communities alive.

President Joe Biden plans to rejoin the Paris Agreement in his first 100 days in office (in fact, on his very first day). But the Paris Agreement was inadequate to begin with. Simply returning to the pre-Trump era will not be enough.

We need a Green New Deal. And we need it now. We need a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, a just transition to renewable energy, and policies that center indigenous rights. We need President Biden to commit to the deep, systemic changes that the climate crisis demands. We need bold action. The United States’ Nationally Determined Contribution to the Paris Agreement, the Clean Power Plan, was not enough in 2015. And it most certainly won’t be enough in 2021.

President Biden needs to commit to ambitious climate action on the first, hundredth, and, frankly, every day of his administration to give my generation a fighting chance.

LEEHI YONA, PhD student in climate science at Stanford University

ovid-19 has had an undoubtedly devastating impact on our nation’s educational system. But the pandemic only further weakened an already struggling school system. Students in the United States perform at lower levels than their peers in other countries, experience massive achievement gaps and de facto segregation, and often lack access to the technology and resources integral to an adequate education. These deficiencies exacerbate racial inequity, deprive thousands of children of their chance at a successful future, and preclude national progress altogether.

The Trump administration, unsurprisingly, failed to fix any of this. Under the supposed leadership of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, the department rolled back protections for marginalized students and backed for-profit colleges rather than supporting debt-ridden students. Even during national outcries over systemic racism—including in our education system, where schools often have more police officers than counselors and Black students are disciplined at disproportionate rates—DeVos did little to respond to students’ and families’ demands for action.

This means it’s up to the Biden White House to radically transform the education system. Incoming Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and his department need to invest in universal meals and early childhood education, prioritize equitable school funding, and  advocate a national, decolonized curriculum. Better yet, they can work to institutionalize authentic student voices in internal processes by prioritizing students as stakeholders and including them in roundtable discussions, working groups, and other decision-making bodies.

Students are the direct recipients of most education policy and the most aware of what needs to change. Encouraging students to contribute their opinions and lived experience to the policy-making process is guaranteed to improve equity and outcomes.

—SADIE BOGRAD, Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, Lexington, Ky.

he latest coronavirus relief bill, the effects of which will take shape during the first months of Joe Biden’s presidency, is going to provide some direct assistance to Americans in dire straits. But a gap in the bill’s provisions still urgently needs addressing.

Congressional Democrats and Republicans compromised to exclude a proposed $160 billion in direct state aid, posing a potential crisis to struggling states. President Biden has pledged to address budget shortfalls in state and local governments, but Republican intransigence may complicate these efforts. Meanwhile, the vast economic disparities between states and cities—present before the pandemic, but exacerbated by the effects of Covid-era closures, especially in regions reliant on income from tourism—will continue to grow.

President Biden’s first priority should be to ensure that such obvious deficiencies in the relief bill do not go unacknowledged, and that congressional dithering over direct payments and government spending does not continue unchecked.

Hope may indeed be on the way, in the form of mass vaccinations. But economic devastation in the country’s poorest states—and for scores of Americans on the brink of homelessness and hunger—is far from over. As the incoming administration looks to improve and amplify pandemic response measures, it should consider one of America’s most enduring problems: inequities among states and localities, which have shored up deep political divisions.

The United States has never been a united, unfragmented country, as this crisis has made all too clear. President Biden must act quickly, and dexterously, to move us toward the parity and stability we need to survive.

—SARA KROLEWSKI, New York University

he Biden-Harris administration has a busy three months ahead. It is going to rightfully prioritize the deadly virus. In addition to this, it should prioritize racial equity. 

The reckoning that began this past summer should not stop once Democrats move into the White House. The roots of racial tension Donald Trump helped to boil over in the past four years needs to be addressed.  

On January 6, insurrectionist Trump supporters stormed the United States Capitol Building and occupied it for hours. They did so the day after no charges were filed against the officer who shot Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man in Wisconsin, seven times in the back. They did so shortly after the first Black Senator was elected to Congress from Georgia with the help of Black voters. 

The response from law enforcement was markedly different from what we’ve seen at Black Lives Matter marches. The same forces who allowed this mob to put their boots on lawmakers’ desks used tear gas, rubber bullets, military gear, and barricades against protestors fighting for racial justice. The difference in treatment could not be more obvious.

Racism is woven into nearly every issue in America, including police treatment and the COVID-19 pandemic. It is time for the highest offices in the land to continue the fight for justice. 

The Biden-Harris administration should devote time to fully address the ways racism factors into healthcare, education, law enforcement, and employment. They said they want to “restore the soul of the Nation.” To do this there needs to be bold, loud condemnation against acts of racism, holding people accountable, appointing fair judges, charging police officers from the Justice Department, and reforming the systems in place that oppress marginalized communities. 

—KRISTEN JOHNSON, American University

e the people” is a phrase lauded by our country’s Constitution and leaders, past and present. We the American people: standing united and strong against the enemies of democracy and equality. We the American people, roaming on appropriated land. The United States of America, a country built by shackled hands and people deemed three-fifths human.

President Biden’s administration already stands for several historical milestones: the first female, Black, and Asian American vice president and the first Native American cabinet secretary. They embody the full scope of our country.

The tumult of the last year has served to teach us that “We the American people” means virtually nothing. We’ve witnessed American people gunned down, choked, and chained while peacefully demonstrating their inalienable right to free speech. These are the American people who are expendable.

This new administration has an intrinsic stake in reconciling the biases and prejudices built into the stone and dirt of this nation. We as a people can never be an American people without a reckoning. A national upheaval is already underway, as communities of color continue to speak and act loudly and clearly to demand equality and safety, but the Biden administration must continue harnessing the strength of a people who have had enough.

We need to divert government spending from the military and the police, and direct it instead toward the institutions that nurture our county, like education, health care, welfare, and debt forgiveness. The most vulnerable have been under attack for decades—the pandemic only exacerbated the precariousness these communities are forced to contend with daily.

We can’t expect the Biden White House to solve a country’s worth of systemic racism and poverty—but that’s not what we’re demanding. We’re asking for the administration to take real, measurable strides in the right direction. We have hope already; we now need to act.

—NAJWA JAMAL, Bard College

he Biden-Harris administration needs to be held accountable for their promises to students in historically black colleges and universities. America’s estimated 107 HBCUs account for 3 percent of the country’s colleges and institutions. HBCUs, which tend to enroll students of color who are first-generation or from lower-income backgrounds, receive a paltry amount of financial support.

President Biden promises to invest $70 billion into HBCUs—including $20 billion toward revamping labs and $10 billion on research incubators for underrepresented talent. His plan also states that it will double Pell Grant amounts, refine the income-based repayment percentage to 5 percent of income, and provide free tuition to students at community colleges. Not only are these benefits projected to help HBCU students, but they will also help other minority-zerving institutions.

Young people of color—specifically college students of color—have played a key role in his election, and they deserve recognition. Biden’s plan claims to “recognize the critical role low-endowment private colleges and universities play in providing educational opportunities and jobs in many rural communities.” If that’s true, then make it a priority. Taking on Kamala Harris, a graduate of Howard University, as vice president is not enough. Prioritize the education of the young, Black constituents that got you into power.

—NOELLA WILLIAMS, Florida A&M University

hough many in the halls of power in Washington are insulated from it, millions of Americans are in desperate economic straits.

The country is currently in the middle of a shoplifting “epidemic”—with numbers spiking most dramatically in areas where unemployment is high. This should not come as a surprise. With more than one in eight Americans reporting that they didn’t have enough to eat in November, it’s remarkable that this isn’t happening even more. People are stealing to survive.

At the same time, violent crime has exploded in cities across the country, with mass shootings nationwide up 50 percent over last year. Experts suggest this has nothing to do with movements reimagining public safety and everything to do with the economic crisis triggered by Covid-19. Homelessness is increasing steadily and will only skyrocket when eviction moratoriums that are currently protecting millions of renters across the country expire.

These trends are, of course, disproportionately impacting Black, Indigenous, and other POC communities—further widening and hardening racial wealth gaps in a year when so many people have risen up against systemic racism and racial violence.

From the lowest moments of his campaign to the most triumphant, Joe Biden ran on a promise to restore the soul of America. Beating Donald Trump was a start. But surely that promise cannot be anywhere near fulfilled if tens of millions of Americans are without basic necessities like food and shelter.

Biden has the congressional majorities he needs to act swiftly and decisively to protect Americans for the duration of the pandemic. If he does not, it will only show that his administration, like the one that preceded him, neither understands nor cares about the realities of life in this country for those who have been disregarded and left behind.

—ABE ASHER, Macalester College

few days ago, I couldn’t have narrowed down the myriad issues facing our nation and identified just one as the most critical. Between the pandemic, persistent racial injustice, the dire need for immigration, education, and health care reform, and so many other wide-reaching concerns, it seemed daunting to nominate one as the most pressing.

However, after the events that unfolded on January 6, I feel confident asserting that Biden’s success in addressing any of the aforementioned issues will be impeded by the division, hatred, and conspiracies fueled by Donald Trump.

While it is unprecedented, discouraging, and frankly embarrassing for an incoming administration to have to focus its efforts on undoing the damage of the previous administration, our country has been fractured to the point where—until the misinformation is unequivocally rebuked and the source of the hatred on both sides is appropriately addressed—the risk of violence and threat to democracy will thwart any efforts the Biden administration makes elsewhere.

This is not to say that we should all come together and hold hands, pretending that the president’s actions over the last four years—from putting a rapist on the Supreme Court, pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement, locking children in cages, starting a trade war with China, and turning a blind eye to (and in many cases, championing) white supremacy, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, ableism, collusion with Russia, tax fraud and the proliferation of a fatal virus, not to mention the attack on the Capitol—did not happen. They did, and they were fervently defended by his supporters. Rather, this is to say that to move toward a more equitable, just, and progressive nation, the Biden administration must focus on healing these divisions and rebuilding trust in the so-called greatest democracy in the world.

—KITRI SUNDARAM, Brown University

he Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) is a little-known corner of the executive branch tasked with coordinating regulations across federal agencies. However, in practice, the office regularly delays and kills vital regulations, impeding everything from environmental protections to labor laws to consumer product requirements.

One example is a rule requiring all new vehicles to have a rearview camera, created by the US Department of Transportation (DOT) and sent to OIRA for approval in 2010. That began a years-long process of OIRA delaying the measure, asking for unnecessary added testing and extra public comment periods where industry groups could air their grievances, all while over 200 people died annually from backover accidents.

The office also uses a cost-benefit analysis, which is often unable to account for the public value of regulation. In one meeting regarding the cameras, Cass Sunstein, President Obama’s first OIRA director (and long-term friend from law school), inquired into whether they could quantify, in dollars, the amount of grief parents have after backing over their own child, according to Jim Simons, a former DOT official.

For these reasons, the office has long been despised by progressives. Kalen Pruss of the American Economic Liberties Project argues that between OIRA’s cost-benefit analysis and its openness to the demands of industry, the office must be dismantled immediately. Others, such as scholars at the Roosevelt Institute, contend that by modifying the office’s procedures—like adding an internal department dedicated to finding unregulated areas and overhauling their cost-benefit methods—OIRA can facilitate bigger, more ambitious regulatory projects in the future.

What’s certain is that if Biden is really committed to using the government to fix systemic issues, he needs to fix the office at the heart of the regulatory state, and he needs to do it fast.

—JAMES SMATHERS, George Washington University



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/students-biden/
Give the Students a Round of Applausehttps://www.thenation.com/article/activism/students-2020/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationDec 31, 2020

It’s been a tumultuous, traumatic year, and students have seen some of the worst of it. With Covid-19 came abrupt campus closures, transitioning to online-only education, and the dissolution of student life as we’ve come to know it. But through it all, young people continued to organize. They not only kept their pre-pandemic priorities alive amid the chaos; they fought for fair treatment for their fellow students and educators in the face of a worldwide slow-motion catastrophe: reduced tuition, better access to resources, some assurance of stability. Some of these students wrote about it for Student Nation. We’ve selected a few articles from the past year to highlight their extraordinary work. We’re deeply grateful to the Puffin Foundation, whose enormous generosity made this work possible.

January 24: These Students Are Bringing Transformative Justice to Their Campus

This article detailed how a group of students brought about Brown’s first-ever transformative-justice center, with the first formal transformative-justice practitioner to be employed on a college campus. It combines deep reporting with the personal stories of students.

February 5: Students Shouldn’t Have to Choose Between Groceries and Therapy

This reported piece looks into mental health care access at Stanford University to highlight a nationwide issue on college campus: Despite skyrocketing debt, uncertain job markets, and higher pressure for achievement than ever, schools are not doing nearly enough to make sure their students have the mental health care they need.

February 13: The Reproductive Justice Gap at HBCUs

This article describes how HBCUs have become a desert of reproductive health resources. In the personal stories detailed within, young black women explain how they have felt shamed and pressured in a system that feels “like an experience preserved from decades ago.” Only 12 of the 101 HBCUs across the country have officially recognized their Planned Parenthood campus chapters—and young HBCU students are working to change that.

February 10: We’re California Graduate Students, and We’re Not Taking Poverty Wages Anymore, (and a follow-up, April 6: The University of California Strike Enters Its 4th Month)

We were the first to break the news that the University of California–Santa Cruz was going on strike for better conditions and wages—grad students were sleeping in cars, and the situation had become intolerable. By the fourth month of the strike, when we published an update, the strike had turned into a full-fledged, month-long picket and had spread to several other schools within the UC system.

March 16: Campuses Across the Country Are Closing—Here Are the Students Impacted

As campuses began to close in March, we sent out a question to our previous contributors: How are you being affected by campus shutdowns? We received many heartbreaking responses showing that, although universities were doing the right thing to curtail the virus, they were not reckoning with the fallout among their students, who rely on them not only for an education but also in their day-to-day lives.

April 1: Campuses Are Closed, But Student Journalists Are Still Working

Early in the pandemic, Rebecca Duke Weisenberg reported on student newspapers and magazines across the country, and how they were doing extremely important work, despite losing their physical offices and the ability to talk to sources in person.

April 13: These Students Took Care of Each Other When Their Universities Didn’t

When campuses across the country were shut down during the first wave of Covid-19, many students were cut off from crucial resources: housing, food, a paycheck from campus jobs. Schools were so slow to correct this that students and professors rose to the occasion, developing mutual aid networks to support their peers when the institution they relied on did not.

April 16: Fossil Fuel Companies Are Suffering Under the Coronavirus. Good.

One of the few positive outcomes of the pandemic: Fossil fuel companies suffered.

May 13: The Coronavirus Is Hitting Tribal Schools Hard

Frequent contributor Mary Retta reported from Native schools across the country, and how the closures were uniquely impacting them. Online-only classes are difficult on reservations with poor Internet connection. Native students, who are more likely than other students to experience food and housing insecurity, have had to make do without their dorms, food provided by the university, or even campus jobs. (Mary has also gone on to become a columnist with Teen Vogue!)

June 15: What About the International Students?

A reported essay from Jimin Kang, a student at Harvard from South Korea, about the difficulties fellow international students experienced alongside Trump’s fluctuating, unpredictable immigration policies while the pandemic unfolded.

August 25: The Children of Incarcerated People Vote, Too

Students have been active in the “Defund the Police” movement, in many cases because they have firsthand experience: Police are a constant present in public schools across the country. About 200 Chicago students, in a protest to remove police presence from their campuses, proved their own point by getting beaten and pepper-sprayed by police who kettled them in the streets.

September 21: Want the Youth Vote? Prioritize Climate Change

In the run-up to the election, Student Nation published a series in partnership with American University, called Vision 2020, that asked student journalists to report on the electoral concerns of their peers. This Vision 2020 piece focused on the demands of young climate activists and their efforts to turn climate into a defining electoral issue.

September 25: The Children of Incarcerated People Vote, Too

This Vision 2020 piece looks at a frequently overlooked population: the young children of incarcerated men and women. Criminal justice, for them, is not only personal—it’s shaped the course of their lives. And their demands, both for changes in policy and perception of their loved ones, will have a lasting hold on their votes into the future.

October 2: This Election, Young Muslim Voters Aren’t Staying Silent

This Vision 2020 piece looks at how the United States’ history of Islamophobia has influenced an entire generation of young voters.

October 30: For DeVos, the Pandemic Is Just Another Opportunity for Profit

A severe critique of Betsy DeVos’s leadership during the pandemic.



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/students-2020/
Campuses Across the Country Are Closing—These Are the Students Impactedhttps://www.thenation.com/article/society/campuses-across-the-country-are-closing-these-are-the-students-impacted/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationMar 16, 2020

So far, over 85 colleges and universities across the country have announced campus closures for the past two weeks, in a bid to limit the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. In some cases this has meant transitioning all classes into online learning. In other cases, it has meant a hard deadline for students to move out of their dorms. In many cases, forced evacuations are happening at the same time as finals. Students have had to deal with the chaos, sometimes with limited support from their administrators. We asked students from campuses across the country to weigh in on their experiences as the country shifts to accommodate what has been officially declared a national emergency.

ver the past two weeks at MIT, days have blurred together. It’s hard to remember a moment when I didn’t feel like I was constantly gasping for air. The university is sending a mass emergency text to all students every day, causing me to dread opening my phone. Will it just be a perfunctory reminder to stay off campus? Or will the pit in my stomach drop even further?

MIT’s response to COVID-19 started with a notice on March 5 that suspended international travel and canceled all events over 150 people in size. Some undergraduates tried to convince themselves that there was some wiggle room to this announcement, but it was clear that in the interest of public health, drastic action was needed, especially when we heard that the Cambridge-based biotech company Biogen had held a meeting that prompted an infection breakout. Biogen’s headquarters is just a few blocks from MIT’s campus. We all knew that it was only a matter of time before the coronavirus came to MIT.

On March 10, we woke up to the news that Harvard had closed and was kicking out all of its students. Combined with the discovery that a visitor to MIT’s business school had tested positive, everyone knew that it was inevitable that MIT would follow suit, and rumors spread. By 11 am, leaked conference calls and e-mails confirmed the closure. It was just a matter of waiting. In one conversation with a friend, she told me, “What am I supposed to do in that case? Move back to China?”

No one did any work in my lab. Instead, we tried to anticipate what would happen. If undergraduate dorms were evacuated, would graduate dorms? Would we still be allowed to do research? My undergraduate researcher came by to try and work because, she said, “It was better to freak out here than with the other undergrads right now.” Students, desperate for any sort of outlet for their fear and confusion, started an impromptu party on the main courtyard of campus. Meanwhile, we watched in horror as Massachusetts declared a state of emergency as the number of cases spiked, mostly from the Biogen meeting.

Finally, at 5 pm., the tension broke. I learned that MIT had sent its official e-mail out from the sounds of people in an undergraduate dorm yelling loud enough to be heard from my lab building. Undergrads must leave MIT by Tuesday, March 17. Classes were still on for the week. No one was happy, but, given the state of emergency, everyone understood that this was necessary. After all, the most vulnerable people would be allowed to stay on campus, right?

However, the next day, as I helped my friend move out, I saw that wasn’t the case. At the dorm, I saw chaos. Students were given only two boxes to pack their entire room, leaving them to scavenge boxes from janitorial closets or beg alumni to help buy more. The entire hallway was filled with clutter as people sadly passed rolls of packing tape between rooms. When I was leaving, a friend told me that her exemption had been denied—and she had told the administration that all of her family lived in China. I compiled more denied exemptions into a spreadsheet. Some people received exemptions for being from China or Hong Kong, but many more had not and didn’t know why. Others were denied, despite having immunocompromised or homophobic family members. The administrative response was also particularly cruel, telling people to “think creatively” or to hire a locksmith to break into their house with no gas or electricity.

In response, students planned a sit-in protest the next morning. Organizers cut 6-foot-long pieces of string to ensure CDC-recommended distancing between protesters. Masks and individually wrapped sandwiches were distributed, and many reporters came by to talk to us. Over the course of the eight-hour protest, 12 departments reached out to me, expressing their support for the students and assuring us that they would push back. Thanks to everyone’s combined efforts, we were able to convince the administration to go from a 50 percent denial rate to a 6 percent denial rate of exemptions.

Although the exemption situation is now mostly resolved, with many students’ now having moved out by the accelerated deadline, a distinct bitterness lingers in the air. MIT kept up its donation campaign throughout the moving-out process, claiming to be taking donations to support students, while literally evicting the most disadvantaged students. The chair of the Committee on Student Life claimed that the protest was “the first time we’ve heard about students being unhappy or having challenges” with the moving-out process, to which the entire crowd of protesters responded by laughing. As more colleges follow MIT’s lead, I and other MIT students desperately hope that those administrators show a greater amount of care and compassion than they did here.

—Lilly Chin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

When I was a child, I dreamed of going to Harvard. Every poor kid did. It was such an unobtainable thing, like going to the moon, or becoming the president, that it seemed right to mix it in with the overly ambitious dreams that all children have. But then suddenly it wasn’t a dream anymore. I got the letter. I would be going to Harvard in the fall. Did it matter to me that the average Harvard student was depressed? No. Did it matter to me that I would be surrounded by kids of wealth and privilege, an outsider in a place that I was supposed to belong? No. Did it matter to me that the university notoriously doesn’t care for their undergraduate students? No. But it should have.

On Tuesday, March 10, at 8:29 am, Harvard students received an e-mail stating that we would soon be transitioning to online classes, and that students who leave for spring break would not be allowed to come back. Students who wanted to stay should be prepared for limited interactions. This was not shocking. Princeton and Columbia had made this same decision a few days before. Twenty-one minutes later, at 8:50 am, we received another e-mail, this one contradicting the first: now all students would be required to move out of the dorms by Sunday at 5 pm. There would be no subsidies for flights, shipping, or storage. Only students from countries with level-3 travel bans would be allowed to stay. No other exceptions would be made. On top of this, classes would continue as usual. Exams were still on.

If it sounds dramatic, that’s because it is. It is totally reasonable for Harvard to tell their students to leave. It might even be a good thing: As of March 11, two students have been quarantined and tested for coronavirus. If done in another way, it might even seem compassionate to send students home in such a time of fear. But this felt anything but compassionate.

I was in the center of campus when the announcement hit our inboxes. Everyone suddenly started walking very slowly, absorbed by the message on their phone. A girl to my left burst out in tears. Students started looking around at each other in disbelief. Had we been pranked? Why would they send an e-mail twenty minutes after another one with a different plan? Did we still have to go to class? Who would pay for all of this? I have never seen such hopeless panic on so many faces at once.

The e-mail said to call the financial aid office for assistance, but I received an automated message saying the office was on winter break. When they finally started answering, they told students that assistance with their flight would come out of next year’s financial aid. I had just enough money left from my stipend earlier in the year to pay for my ticket, which was more than $500. That hurt worse than the news that I would have to move out. On top of that, I’m losing my campus job. I won’t be making that money back for a while. I asked my mother if she could drive and come get me, but she lives so far away—there wasn’t enough time.

Not everyone at Harvard is rich. My mother lives in a homeless shelter. Never mind not knowing where to go, I now had a new question: How do I get there with all my stuff? Compared to most students, I don’t have a lot. I came with two suitcases and a box, but my possessions have gradually increased since then. You see, we were promised as incoming freshman that once we were sorted into upperclassmen housing, there would be storage for the summer. Instead, now we were being told that no one, not even among the upperclassmen, was allowed to use the storage. The only way to get to the nearest storage facility is by car, something that freshmen aren’t allowed to have. The nearest post office is more than half a mile away, which doesn’t seem like a lot until you have to walk it with a box carrying the weight of all your possessions. Even if you did want to store or ship something, every store near campus was sold out of boxes. The only students who would be able to take everything they owned had parents who could drive or fly up.

Maybe worst of all is that we still have classes this week. Not even just normal classes: it’s midterms week. Homework is still due on time. Classes are still to be attended. Not only are we supposed to go to class as normal, do our homework as usual; we’re also supposed to pack up everything we own—in five days.

Wednesday night, a new e-mail was sent out. Storage would now be available. Students on financial aid would receive $200 to either mail their items or leave them packed in boxes in their rooms, where they would be put in storage by a company that will pick them up from our dorms. For storage, $200 is about three boxes worth. This was the biggest relief yet. Three boxes doesn’t sound like a lot, but most of us were planning to just throw away everything we didn’t absolutely need.

They say that your true colors get displayed in times of crisis. Harvard really showed how little they care for their students that don’t have resources of their own, and it’s something we won’t forget soon.

—A student from Harvard University
who would prefer to remain anonymous,
fearing repercussions from administrators.

I’m originally from Turkey and have been studying in New York City since 2016. When the coronavirus first came about, I was worried about what the school was going to do. Every morning the number of cases rose, but every time I looked at the CUNY site it would say, “Don’t panic, the risk of New Yorkers getting the virus is very low.” This did not make me feel more comfortable. I e-mailed my professors, asking about their plans if classes were canceled. All of my professors responded quickly and effectively; they all had their plan set up and they were ready. I e-mailed them my concerns about having a grandma with health issues at home, and coming from Westchester County, which has one of the largest hot spots for the coronavirus in the country.

Meanwhile, CUNY advised us not to take the subway or public transportation. However, CUNY includes some the biggest commuter schools in the country, and it’s impossible not to take public transportation to schools. My daily train takes 40 minutes to the city then another 15-minute subway ride.

Waiting to get news from the school was frustrating. On a day I had class, the town next to me, New Rochelle, was declared a “contaminated zone.” Yet class attendance was mandatory. Though the school had yet to put out a unified statement, my professors individually were helpful, some telling me that if didn’t feel safe, then I shouldn’t have to come in. It wouldn’t affect my grade. My political science professor canceled two of his classes before CUNY did so for the whole campus. During this time, our professors really helped us by being transparent and communicative.

When we didn’t get any news from CUNY, we decided to take action on Twitter. This felt important—simply knowing our voices were being heard mattered a lot to us. So when private colleges started switching to online classes and the only response from CUNY was, more or less, that we should wash out hands, we students became angry. So we started to tweet the CUNY president. It went on for two days, until Governor Cuomo announced that we would be switching to online classes starting March 19 until the end of the spring semester. A lot of the students were worried when they heard “end of the spring semester.” As a student, I wanted it to be only until April 10, and then after spring break we would be able to return to school.

It’s unfortunate because I have many great professors in the school. I was learning so much from them. Switching to online classes is a big adjustment for us and for the professors as well. And while switching to online classes was necessary, the time it took to clearly communicate to students what was happening was was disappointing. We aren’t disappointed by the decision. But we do miss getting to see our professors and our classmates. This is my last semester at Hunter College, and I wouldn’t have wanted it to be this way. But we have no choice but to adjust. I’m sure our professors will do their best to make these online classes feel like a real class environment.

Kaan Basyurt, CUNY Hunter College

On the night of Tuesday, March 10, Tufts University sent an e-mail to the student body saying that we would need to pack up and leave in six days due to the coronavirus. Panic ensued across campus. How were we supposed to continue classes, pack, process emotions and leave on such short notice? Even now, students petitioning to remain on campus won’t know their fates until two days before we are expected to leave.

I was shocked for the first day and unable to make decisions. I spent a lot of time crying. Although Tufts hasn’t officially cancelled commencement, I have tried to make all my decisions with the idea that I might not be back here in May. Every option felt like the wrong one. Storage units are pricey, shipping things home is pricier. I have a whole life here, and while friends are kind to offer storage, it’s too much to leave everything with one person but too hard to split my belongings up. I don’t even have a car on campus to move things with. Unlike many of my Northeastern peers, I cannot call my mom and dad to help me move out because they live in Florida.

Tufts students have really come together in this time of need. In the first few hours after the announcement, students set up a mutual aid spreadsheet so students and alumni could offer money, food and services to those in need. But everything is moving so quickly, and it’s easy to feel alone and paralyzed.

Tufts switched to online classes without thinking about differences in accessing them. Many of my friends, many of us low-income and first generation, are returning to homes that aren’t built for our university studies. Many of us are going back to small homes with too many people living in them, where we share rooms or sleep on couches. Our busy kitchens and living rooms aren’t ideal to listen to a lecture or take an exam, that’s why we went away to university. This campus is home for many of us. It gives us independence and stability.

As a senior, I am devastated. My goodbyes have been cut short and I’m not sure I’ll get to walk across the stage and collect my degree like I’ve always dreamed. I’ve spent four years building a life here; I didn’t expect it to end so soon.

Kelsey Narvaez, Tufts University class of 2020

It feels like there are two big health concerns as a result of COVID-19: the coronavirus infection itself, and its impact on mental health and well-being.

Of course, social distancing and staying home are critical, especially for my generation. It is up to all young people to be responsible citizens and limit spreading the infection as much as possible. As such, Stanford’s decision to shift all classes and effectively move all of its work (including research) to be done remotely is wise and responsible. That being said, there are repercussions of this social isolation on our mental health.

Social distancing is harmful when the physical isolation leads to social isolation. Undergraduate students were advised not to come back to campus until further notice. Grad students, on the other hand? No one really knows. For now, we are told to remain on campus; for most of us, our campus residences are our only home. A lot of us have become socially isolated; those of us who live alone might be limited to small studio apartments where we don’t have much interaction with anyone else. The expectation that we would be able to work remotely at the same level of productivity is a big ask. Many of us find our mental health declining, our anxiety and depression exacerbated by the overwhelming news cycle and our own isolation. I wish that universities everywhere, in their efforts to limit the physical harm of COVID-19’s spread, also took students’ mental health just as seriously.

To make up for this lack of support, students on university campuses are self-organizing. At Stanford, a group of graduate students created a community mutual aid spreadsheet, where students offer (and request) financial, housing, health, academic, and emotional support.

Another concern is what will happen to the many Stanford employees—custodial staff, dining hall staff, and others—who are now unable to work. How will Stanford be supporting them, knowing that many of these employees are the main financial supporters of their families?

I am grateful that academic institutions have been stepping up and taking action when the federal government has not; and also, we still have a long way to go. I hope universities continue to rise to the challenge, by providing more support to students as well as staff.

Leehi Yona, Stanford University

We are feeling overwhelmed and under-resourced. Brown’s administration has left the labor of supporting marginalized students to a small group of professional staff and student leaders. Because of this, it has been difficult to mobilize quickly and effectively around student needs. Immediately after students were given notice about the university shutting down, student leaders mobilized to create support networks and begin providing mutual aid.

For example, Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere (HOPE) created a database where students are inputting housing, storage, and transportation availabilities that peers can take advantage of. One student is transforming their off-campus home into a soup kitchen and others are donating money, food, and cooking supplies to aid in lessening food insecurity as students make their new transitions. Currently, Project LETS (Let’s Erase the Stigma), a grassroots organization built by and for mentally ill, disabled, and/or neurodivergent students is facilitating a number of trauma-informed mutual aid efforts to ensure that vulnerable students are getting the resources and support that they need.

As of now, we are hosting daily open hours for students to identify needs and create safety plans, staffing a crisis response hotline to support folks who need urgent attention, and facilitating a webinar to discuss harm reduction in shared communities beyond Brown. Folks working within a disability justice framework have been doing this work for years and want to emphasize how important it is that we learn how to care for each other. We strongly believe that our communities can engage in meaningful and compassionate mutual aid in this time by listening to and learning from disability justice folks who have historically been isolated from state-sanctioned services and resources yet already have pathways forward. We would appreciate any and all of the support that you can give and so we encourage folks to donate to Project LETS at this link!

Shivani Nishar, Xochi Cartland,
and Noell Cousin
, Brown University

While universities across the nation scramble to move online, return their students from abroad, and keep their communities steadily informed about the coronavirus outbreak, international students remain dazed and confused.

International students from across the globe, who’ve left their worlds behind to reap the benefits of a US education, are often sidelined into obscurity when madness envelopes this nation—now, with the highly contagious and fatal COVID-19, obscurity is coupled with real-life danger.

I’ve been a Kuwaiti international student since December 16, 2012, with almost seven years in Colorado and now closing into my eighth in Washington, DC. I’ve seen what political, social and economic distress can do to this country and my counterparts alike.

From March 5 to March 12, I was visiting old friends still studying at my alma mater, the University of Colorado at Boulder. My first night there, over a hearty Lebanese dinner, we shared jokes, memes, and typical cynicism on what our universities would do if the outbreak ensued.

A few days later, on March 10, American University, where I’m a few months short of completing my master’s in journalism and public affairs, released a note by Sylvia M. Burwell, the university’s president: classes to move online after spring break for three weeks.

The next day, the three weeks were pushed until the end of the semester.

That same day, March 11, the International Student and Scholar Services, a university branch handling the community’s international members, which assumedly is a building block in every US university and college, released a special e-mail to us international students:

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is temporarily allowing international students under the circumstances to pursue on-line education while the university’s mode of delivery is online.

I read it aloud to my friends who were waiting on their school to send something similar. Sighs of relief were followed by phone calls to parents back home. Phone calls were followed by confusion; international students are mandated by the F-1 Visa and US immigration to maintain full enrollment—a full online enrollment is a violation worthy of a canceled visa and deportation.

Moreover, the e-mail also read, “The president also strongly encourages enrolled students to return to their homes (or stay if already there) for this period.”

This, in particular, was met with a medley of disappointment, laughter and several flying middle fingers aimed at my laptop where the e-mail was displayed.

“Yeah, sure thing. Just give me a few minutes while I casually cancel my apartment lease, sell my car and pack 6 years’ worth of life,” a friend said, scoffing at the suggestion to leave and calling it “insultingly simple.”

Whether they were my undergraduate Venezuelan friends, having their bank accounts frozen as Maduro and US sanctions made their country’s finances run amok in 2017, or my Muslim Arab kinfolk, who had to vacate their states and transfer when the 2016 presidential election inspired local hostility, international students are a severely neglected demographic.

To international students, the coronavirus is a special kind of ugly. The outbreak muddies the waters of our academic status and throws us off the cliffs of school-related uncertainty onto more dubious terrain: the immigration system.

One friend pointed to the recent deportation of Iranian students with valid student visas, adding, “They could do it to us all if they wanted to.”

“Imagine being sent back when you’re a semester away from graduating,” he said. “In that case, I might as well face this corona hell rather than the depression of spending all these years for nothing.”

Yousef Alshammar, American University



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/campuses-across-the-country-are-closing-these-are-the-students-impacted/
What Do Young People Think About Impeaching Trump?https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-do-young-people-think-about-impeaching-trump/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationDec 11, 2019

ouse Democratic leaders yesterday formally called for President Donald Trump’s removal from office, arguing that he “ignored and injured the interests of the nation” in two articles of impeachment that accused him of abusing his power and obstructing Congress. But what do young people—for most, the first impeachment in their lifetime—think about it? We asked Student Nation contributors to share their thoughts, answering the question: How does the current effort to impeach President Trump affect your day-to-day life? How does it inform your view of the future?

My home district in Tennessee hasn’t elected a Democrat to Congress since before the light bulb was invented. Yet, since 2016, many of my neighbors have been inspired like never before. I see them, rain or shine, grinning and holding signs that say, “Honk for impeachment.” Since protest signs were mostly banned in our state legislature, they instead stand on street corners or by stop signs. Many are standing alone.

As shocking as are the accusations of election tampering, or digging up dirt on political rivals, or the countless other times Trump seems to have his finger on the scale, more surprising to me is the fact that so many of us are finally speaking up.

Election tampering is endemic in the South, and much of it is arguably worse than anything of which Trump has been accused. Jim Crow was hatched in a backroom deal brokering the 1876 presidential election. It took almost a century to regain what the South lost that night, and just in my lifetime we’ve lost much of the Voting Rights Act. Even if it’s true that the Russians were responsible for purging voter rolls, it would have been another instance of something our own government already does. The practice of illegally digging up dirt on political rivals didn’t begin with a call to Ukraine. And while voter suppression has certainly accelerated in recent years, it’s not entirely true that this is “not normal.”

It’s so hard to vote in Tennessee that even experts can’t figure it out. We’re at the bottom in voter turnout not just because of bots or bad algorithms, but ultimately because of ourselves. We turn away or tune it out, because we believe we’re powerless.

Our elections, like our legal system as a whole, have power because people believe in them. In the words of Mimi Rocah, one of my law professors, “People need to see the rule of law vindicated in some way. Seeing the lawlessness and corruption of this presidency go unaddressed makes people lose faith in the institutions that we as a society need to function.”

The mindset that says there’s no point in charging Trump if he’s never convicted is the same mindset that says the South is already a lost cause. But you shouldn’t stand for something because it’s popular. You should be willing to stand for what you believe in, even if you’re standing alone, by a stop sign, or in the rain.

Robin Happel, Pace University

In many ways, the impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives has been a long time coming. From the time Trump was elected, he has shown an open contempt for the laws and systems designed to check presidential power. Congress has seemed willing to tolerate any number of flagrant ethical and legal violations, seemingly in an attempt to maintain “business as usual.”

For many young voters, the delay in initiating a formal inquiry signaled an increasing lack of moral clarity among congressional Democratic leaders. Many of us wondered what more the Democrats needed to see: Trump was making his abject bigotry and inability to perform the duties of the office clear before he was even elected.

Still, the day-to-day problems of many Americans are exactly the same as they were before the formal impeachment inquiry was announced. I fully support impeachment and believe Donald Trump is entirely unfit for office—but I also believe that impeachment alone will not motivate voters, including young voters, in 2020. Democrats won’t be able to ride impeachment to victory. They will need to stand for something more.

Moving to impeach a president is certainly a bold move. But we will need to be even bolder to combat income inequality, address gun violence (including by police), fix the housing crisis, and tackle climate change, to name only a few key issues of our time. In his brief time in office, Trump has already made these battles more difficult; removing him from office won’t undo that damage. The truth is that congressional Democrats should have moved to impeach earlier: Our windows of opportunity are closing, especially on curbing our carbon emissions, and Trump has cost us valuable time. Impeachment proceedings are necessary—not because we’ll get that time back, but because we can’t afford to lose any more.

—Nathan Carpenter, Oberlin College

When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the formal impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump in September, I was worried.

As in past investigations, I thought Trump would weasel his way out of the crosshairs, all the while leveraging the inquiry to expand his outlandish vitriol and hatred toward Democrats and the press.

If the public hearings started earlier this month are any indication of the outcome of Trump’s impeachment, I think I was right to worry.

While I think the evidence is overwhelming—as is Trump’s incompetence—a quid pro quo is not. I’m doubtful House Democrats have the widespread support of the public, nor of their counterparts across the aisle, necessary to convict Trump of articles of impeachment.

As all of this unfolds, I find myself wondering: Does Trump’s impeachment deserve the amount of attention it continues to receive? And if Trump is impeached, is that necessarily the best outcome for our country?

Trump loves being the center of public attention. His interactions with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky are only further fueling his media-centric ego. As of November 14, he’s tweeted about fake news 623 times and Russian collusion 959 times.

As a journalism student and an instructor’s assistant at Syracuse University, I’ve seen the impeachment inquiry become part of my day-to-day life, driving my class discussions and news consumption. But as the 2020 election is rapidly approaching, Trump’s possible impeachment is secondary to other issues.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration began its withdrawal from the Paris climate treaty, solidifying its position that makes rolling back environmental regulations a top priority. After five years, residents in Flint, Michigan, still don’t have clean water; the future of hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients is in question as Supreme Court hearings about the program’s future are underway; nine states have passed laws effectively banning abortion.

My view of America post-Trump already looked grim, and with the way this impeachment inquiry has started, I’m sure the divide and bitterness among politicians and the public will only deepen. Our next president will have his or her hands full repairing the many relationships soiled by Trump and reinstating valuable policies protecting the environment, immigrants and women’s rights.

That is, if he loses.

With so many Democratic candidates vying for the nomination, I fear their quarreling could lead to four more beleaguered years of Trump.

As I prepare to vote in only my second presidential election, it’s not the impeachment inquiry driving my vote. It’s a hope that my vote will make a difference, electing a candidate who’ll bring positive change and correction, not another charlatan full of empty promises.

Max Kalnitz, Syracuse University

Trump is like a weed. We can pick a weed from the garden, but unless we tear its root from the ground, another one will pop up in its place. We can impeach Trump, but if we do not uproot the racism, misogyny, and classism that our country was founded on, then another wealthy white man will pop up in his place.

And we will continue to suffer. Indigenous women will continue to be abducted and murdered. Another black parent will die of heartbreak after the police kill their child for being black. Another synagogue will be burned down. And Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg will continue to make more money. We need to overhaul the country.

Once we’ve pulled up the roots, we need to continue to tend the garden. We need to revamp the education system to teach critical thinking, not memorization and regurgitation. We need to provide a universal basic income, free health care and higher education. We need to increase taxes for the wealthy. Pay reparations to indigenous peoples and those of enslaved African descent. Make going to the bathroom of your preference an inalienable constitutional right. Make slave rebellions a common type of historic reenactment. Stop referring to languages other than English as “foreign languages.” Allow Arab actors to play more than just terrorists.

Black women have already been doing the work to make the United States more just. The rest of us need to work with them.

And we can start with asking questions. Question the way you think: Why is what I know the truth? Question your agency: Do I exercise my agency as much as I could? Question the way you interact with others: Do I end up harming other people? Question those in power: What makes them better than me?

We can choose to wait and hope for the best, or we can take action and work for the best. The best for our families, our friends, our neighbors, ourselves.

Rebecca Duke Wiesenberg, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Donald Trump deserves to be impeached.

He has been flagrantly and unremittingly corrupt since the first day of his administration, and he’s only gotten more corrupt as Congress has failed to hold him accountable.

Unless we are willing to resign ourselves to living in a country in which the president is above the law— and I am not—then Trump must be removed from office.

In some ways, it is remarkable that we have finally reached this point. Impeachment was the last thing that the milquetoast Democratic House leadership wanted, but even they looked at Trump’s conduct with regard to Ukraine and realized that they risked making a mockery of themselves if they failed to act.

That they’re acting now is fine and necessary. Decent people with respect for the idea that government should be about serving regular people rather than elected officials’ enriching themselves should support the impeachment proceeding.

At the same time, it is important that Americans—especially older and wealthier Americans—not be consumed by it.

It may be therapeutic for a certain segment of the population to watch Trump and his henchmen get their due in front of a national television audience. The spectacle may drive ratings on MSNBC and traffic at The New York Times.

But impeaching Donald Trump is not going to save the planet. It’s not going to get clean water and clean air to marginalized communities. It’s not going to save the lives of the thousands of Americans who die each year because they don’t have health care.

Removing Trump from office will do precious little to change the material realities of people’s lives that are shaped by structural forces far bigger and far more menacing than a single contemptible leader.

Many younger and poorer Americans, struggling with things like student debt, and many people in other countries, struggling against American imperialism, understand this and understand it intimately.

The bar for resistance against the currents in American life that Trump represents must be higher than simply expelling Trump from office—just as the bar for Democratic presidential candidates must be higher than “Two elections, zero criminal convictions.”

Support progressives in Washington, yes. But it is even more important to support the less visible, less privileged people engaging struggles for justice in their cities and towns every day. The future of the country depends on their success.

Abraham Asher, Macalester College

In the early days of Trump’s presidency, I used to fantasize about both the Senate and the House voting to impeach him by a wide margin. There would be photos of him moving out of the White House and soon after, Mike Pence would be impeached somehow and the world would return to “normal.” At the time, I could not wrap my mind around how little progress America has made.

When rumors of an impeachment inquiry began, it felt like another wave of false hope. Congress had been pushing separate agendas and Nancy Pelosi seemed to have other priorities. But when coverage ramped up and the Ukraine dilemma reached a head, I almost wondered if the effort was intentionally more symbolic than actual. I interpret their impeachment efforts as a signal to the GOP that their party has become corrupted by Trump’s ideologies and will remain that way unless they pursue change.

As the election year approaches, democratic candidates are fighting for a blue wave. The impeachment hearings, more recently those with Bill Taylor and George Kent, have proven interesting but I fear it’s not enough.

While I tune in online, I don’t see many of my peers taking the inquiries seriously. I, myself, am not hanging on the edge of my seat waiting for new information because I know that regardless of the outcome, his supporters will still feel empowered. I’m very upset and crave justice, but I am also tired and losing trust in our government.

I still value the work our representatives are doing to prosecute Trump. The proceedings undermine the integrity of the Republican party as they excuse his behavior that is evidently being presented as treasonous. Representative Adam Schiff has made powerful opening statements in which he expresses his strong will to put an end to Trump’s governance. He has also been keen to point out Trump’s intimidation of former US ambassador and witness Marie Yovanovitch. As more people testify, there will be more revelations about the president, and I hope the faith our government has in him will sink even lower.

In the future, I hope the impeachment proceedings serve as an important history lesson in pointing out our government’s inefficiencies. The chances of President Trump’s being impeached seem slim in my eyes, but the inquiry feels like a step towards limiting Trump’s influence.

Sophie Steinberg, Occidental College

 

Three years after the election of Donald Trump, the country sits by as the impeachment process unfolds. No matter which side you stand on, it’s difficult to feel a sense of control over the political future. “Sitting by” is the best way to describe the public’s involvement in the impeachment: most people simply don’t have a say in what happens. Our role seems to be generally passive—we’re a democracy in name only.

While the idea of Donald Trump’s being removed from office is something I support, the impeachment, especially the focus, has been concerning. The president forcing foreign nations to investigate political rivals is an objectively bad thing, but how does it compare to concentration camps at the border? What does it compare to allegations of rape? In other words, which crimes are acceptable for a president and which aren’t?

Whether these questions can be answered isn’t important. For the vast majority of us, we will be forced to deal with the consequences of impeachment, much like the policies of the current administration. Even though it has been made a public spectacle, the developments that occur will not dramatically change our lives. Our focus should remain, as it has been before this, on those most affected by the wrongdoings of the current administration.

Cole Martin Joshua Stallone, New York University

In college, you can exist in a politics-free bubble, where you can choose to move in and out of politically driven spaces. My generation is becoming more attentive and concerned with keeping up-to-date with the news, whether traditional news sources or unconventional methods, like Twitter and Instagram. This impeachment inquiry allows those who weren’t as politically involved to learn more about what’s happening in the world around them—and I think this is a good thing. With knowledge, people are able to make better informed decisions. In the past months, I’ve sat down with my friends to watch the debates, and through this I’ve noticed a shift in our mindsets. We realize we can no longer be sheltered from what’s happening. Our voices are as important—or even more important—because these issues are being handed down to us. We are participating in the dialogue, regardless of our political leanings. The impeachment effort has motivated people on both sides to participate in the change they would like to see in 2020.

However, I don’t think the actual impeachment is as monumental as the wider societal change happening at the same time. Impeachment is less about Trump and more about the repercussions of one’s actions. It makes me hopeful for the future. Not because of who the next president will be, but because my generation isn’t ignorant about issues that affect the people around them. We see how the lack of consequences has emboldened racist behavior, and this has forced underprivileged groups to take a stand. I know the impeachment proceedings have changed the way my university has reacted to racially charged incidents in just the past weeks. It has allowed people to participate firsthand in the issues that affect their lives and those they love. The impeachment effort creates an atmosphere that doesn’t allow people with power and privilege to continue to skate by. It is an epoch-making event, that I believe will, and has, changed the way people react to broader issues that affect their livelihood.

In terms of importance, there are other, more important issues we should focus on. However, it is still significant this is happening. It sets an example—a standard—for how the president of the United States should act.

Blessing Emole, Syracuse University



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-do-young-people-think-about-impeaching-trump/
Postcards From the Global Climate Strikehttps://www.thenation.com/article/archive/postcards-from-the-global-climate-strike/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationSep 25, 2019

On September 20, an estimated 4 million people worldwide took part in the global climate strike—the largest climate protest in history. On every continent, crowds of protesters choked city streets, halting traffic and swarming the steps of government buildings. Led by a genaeration of young people who refuse to tolerate world leaders’ inaction in the face of a rapidly warming planet, the turnout is a testament to their strength of will and the power of their collective force. We asked students to describe their experiences of the march and what they see as next steps in the climate struggle.

tepping out of the subway, you could hear the crowd before you saw it. Not long after noon, southern Manhattan was shut down.

Growing up in rural Tennessee, not far from coal country, I am used to being one of the only ones to show up to environmental protests. Seeing tens of thousands of people standing beside me was a surreal feeling, almost like sleepwalking. And watching the wave of marchers roll over Foley Square, I was reminded of all the students still striking alone, in all corners of the world.

Shortly before the climate strike, I had the unique opportunity to ask Elizabeth Warren if she supported the Appalachian Communities Health Emergency Act, H.R. 2050. The ACHE Act would, essentially, put a moratorium on mountaintop removal mining, in recognition of its devastating health impacts, ranging from birth defects, to heart disease, and even death. The ACHE Act would, at last, put people before profit.

Along with many of my fellow Appalachian activists, I was pleasantly surprised when she said yes. To my knowledge, it was the first time Senator Warren has publicly opposed mountaintop mining—an important plank, arguably, of any just transition for Appalachia.

It’s easy to use the words “just transition,” or carry a sign calling for the end of coal. But it’s harder to envision what that future really is, and what it really means. This summer marks almost the hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain, and in some ways history seems to repeat itself. Miners are still sickened and defrauded by the companies they work for, and the fight against coal is still in the streets.

Today, the Coal Wars have largely faded from popular memory. Maybe the student strikes are similarly one incredible moment, destined to fade away. I prefer to think that the momentum will build, and carry into some sort of justice for coal communities and others who have historically suffered from fossil fuel exploitation. On a deeper level, maybe it is enough to have just one extraordinary day.

For a single moment in time, whether standing on a mountaintop in West Virginia or the center of Foley Square, someone said that our lives are worth more than money. Our lives are priceless. My generation’s movement is peaceful, but we must never forget those who came before us, and lost their lives for our right to challenge coal, and its costs to communities like mine.

Robin Happel, Fordham University

fter organizing a Harvard Strike for Divestment and Climate Justice, our group, Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard, and hundreds of our allies marched over to Boston City Hall Plaza to join the citywide strike, where I had the privilege of speaking. Suddenly, the call we had made only an hour ago in Cambridge—that Harvard and its peer institutions stop investing in the destruction of their students’ futures and start showing real climate leadership—took on new meaning.

A sea of elementary school students with bright orange bandanas—used to identify themselves to their teachers at the 7,000-person rally—peered up at me from the bottom of the stage. As I gripped the microphone, casting my eyes over a crowd that spans generations and identities, I glimpsed a paper-mache mask of my university president’s head and couldn’t help but smile. These are my people, I think. How incredible it is that we get to be a part of this moment, together.

Surrounded by Green New Deal advocates and pipeline resisters, ours was part of a collective call for all of our institutions to wake up to the climate emergency. It was a powerful reminder of how intersectional and all-encompassing our movement can be—and must be, if we’re going to survive this crisis.

The diversity of rally participants and, particularly, of rally speakers—including indigenous activists and faith leaders—also spoke to the fundamental role of justice in our call to action. Because climate change and social justice are inseparable. Because the front-line communities who understand this crisis and its solutions best continue to be marginalized. And because even as millions of us strike around the world, there are millions of us who do not have that privilege.

No movement is without its flaws and obstacles. What’s important is that when it matters, the movement overcomes them—and that happens when people stand in solidarity with one another. It happens when we remind ourselves that we are part of one interconnected global community, living on a shared planet; when we share ecological grief but choose to be joyous anyways, expressing a radical love for one another and for Mother Earth with music, art, and poetry; when we say that no matter what tomorrow brings, we are not going anywhere.

So when it comes to next steps, the answer is clear: We need everyone who can be involved where their passions and skills direct them—whether that’s grassroots organizing, legislative advocacy, technological innovation, or art-making. And we need everyone to turn toward their institutions and demand that they step up. Because if we want a more just and stable future, then our fight is far from over. In fact, it is only just beginning.

Ilana Cohen, Harvard University

he September 20 climate strike showed the world that young people are devoted to taking the future into our hands. At least 600,000 people, primarily youth, participated in the United States across 1,100 registered strikes to demand transformative action on the climate crisis. Hundreds of youth organizers, many who organized a strike for the first time, have been working behind the scenes for weeks and months on organizing strikes in their communities. They are the foundation of this historic, youth-led climate strike.

September 20 was the beginning of a new wave in the climate movement. From the start, organizers have been clear that this is an intergenerational and intersectional movement. Centering the diverse lived experiences and realities of underrepresented voices is where the conversation begins, and we must and will continue to have these conversations.

Through my work as a digital organizer and content strategist in the climate movement, my goal is to help amplify stories of the front-line youth across the country, as it is vital to reach current and potential allies through content. The future generation shouldn’t have to demand a livable world, but we are—and we’re not stopping.

Dillon St Bernard, The New School

ver the past year, I began to truly study how my actions impacted the environment, how I could change them for the better and how to start meaningful conversations among family and friends. But until I witnessed a “die-in” staged at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, climate change just felt like words on a screen, posts on social media, and passing comments between friends and family. Until I saw a crowd of strangers play dead in the middle of a thunderstorm to illustrate the reality of our dying planet, climate change was something I would only have to worry about when I grew older. Until I felt that eerie silence wash over me and the gravity of the situation sink in, climate change was not a reality. But because I saw fellow young people actively participating in and protesting for our right to inherit a healthy earth, my perception of climate change transformed into a three-dimensional truth with palpable calls and consequences. Climate change is knocking on society’s door, and we need to answer with concrete action. We need to keep standing up, showing up, marching, talking, writing, demonstrating, thinking and exchanging ideas. We need to bring this issue to all corners of our realities, all the way from Tumblr to town halls. We need to hold ourselves, others, and our leaders accountable and to the highest standards, and we need to inject hope back into the idea that we will one day live on a healthy planet, if only by the strength of our will and our love for each other.

Georgia Dalke, University of Winnipeg

t is fitting that Friday’s climate strike took place on an unseasonably warm day in Saint Paul. With temperatures rising well above 80 degrees, thousands of Minnesotans stood listening to speeches and calls to action in the shadow of the state capitol.

Time is running out. We know that. But what Friday demonstrated is that thanks to the leadership of young people, from the streets of our towns to the halls of our Congress, the climate movement in this country has matured.

More and more people are beginning to connect the dots between the environment and other issues—to understand how our economic system is built on resource extraction, how the vast majority of the world’s greenhouse gas is emitted by a handful of multinational corporations, and how black and brown communities are made to disproportionately suffer the effects of climate change.

In Minnesota, for instance, a generation of climate activists have cut their teeth battling to stop the construction of a new Enbridge oil pipeline that would tear through Native land in the northern part of the state in violation of tribal treaty rights. Those activists know who is destroying the environment, where they’re destroying it, and why. The people who are standing against Line 3, and who stood against the Dakota Access Pipeline a state over, are not interested in fighting over plastic straws and individual meat consumption.

They’re thinking bigger. That’s how we got a speaker on Friday making connections between air pollution in North Minneapolis and drought in Somalia. That’s how we got a speaker from majority non-white Richmond, California, home of a massive Chevron oil refinery, quoting Berta Cáceres on the evils of rapacious capitalism, racism, and patriarchy that have shaped its realities, environmental and otherwise. That’s how we got members of the surging ranks of the Democratic Socialists of American to drape a banner over a balcony inside the capitol building asserting that we now face a choice between eco-socialism and eco-apartheid.

The climate movement has grown up. Its leaders know that the climate crisis is inextricably intertwined with all of the other crises that are tearing apart our society. To stop one, we must stop them all.

Abe Asher, Macalester College

participated in the September 20 Student Strike as a grad school organizer for the Harvard Rally for Climate Justice and Divestment. Our action was based at Harvard University, drawing out students and professors at the university as well as local high school and primary schools.

The rally was organized by Divest Harvard, a group based primarily out of the college, and Organizers for Radical Climate Action (ORCA), a group of graduate students primarily based out of the Graduate School of Design. We held a one-hour rally at the central plaza of Harvard University. Speakers included Gina McCarthy, former head of the Environmental Protection Agency under the Obama administration; Marc McGovern, the mayor of Cambridge; Harvard professors; and students and children from the local community.

We participated in the global climate protest not only to echo the demands of the Greater Boston Strike (which organizers were closely in touch with), but also to rally for specific demands at Harvard University of divesting from fossil fuels by Earth Day 2020 and creating a mandatory course around climate justice at various Harvard graduate schools.

We protested, chanted, and sang outside the Harvard Science Center for one hour. As a graduate school organizer based at the law school, I worked with the Environmental Law Society to bring out students from Harvard Law School, as well as coordinating between the other graduate students of the university, including the Graduate School of Arts and Science, the Harvard Kennedy School, and Harvard Medical School. Twenty organizations at Harvard Law School alone signed onto the rally, and even more registered across the university.

I truly believe that more direct and disruptive action in the future, and continued coordination with the local community, will be essential to generate even more attention on the issue and calling out Harvard’s own hypocrisy. Harvard University has an outsize influence in the world and wants to be seen as a leader for its work. We hope that continued pressure of students and faculty on building true climate justice will help the university truly become a leader in this field. Activism is more crucial than ever. People have to wake up and see the emergency. The intellectual establishment cannot be complicit in the status quo and clap itself on the back for business-as-usual.

Ava Liu, Harvard University



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/postcards-from-the-global-climate-strike/
What 16 Young People Think About the Green New Dealhttps://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-16-young-people-think-about-the-green-new-deal/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationApr 1, 2019

ore than 70 percent of Americans understand climate change is happening—and at a rapid pace. These new figures mark a 7 percent increase from 2015, with respondents saying that extreme weather events are related to climate change. For everyone, wildfires that eliminate entire communities, disastrous hurricane seasons that are only predicted to worsen, and rising sea levels are terrifying to see.

For young people, these disasters are foreboding visions of their future. As a result, they’re the ones leading the fight for government action; they’re the global leaders staging strikes and sit-ins to hold failing leadership to account.

In the United States, much of this push has oriented itself around the Green New Deal, a House resolution introduced by New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts’s Ed Markey. The resolution aims to mitigate the steadily worsening effects of climate change through a shared, and ambitious, vision of a sustainable and equitable future for everyone.

The policy proposals that will undergird the Green New Deal are still to come; for now, the GND represents a moral and political imagining that politicians have consistently failed to offer. It’s a vision to champion; a charge to lead; and a new, youth-led expectation for the people elected into power.

The Green New Deal can only exist with the force and imaginations of the young people whose world it will shape. So Student Nation asked young people across the country: As the generation poised to inherit a world directly threatened by the impacts of climate change, how could the Green New Deal affect your future, or the future of disaffected communities coast to coast?


The Green New Deal resolution introduced in Congress on February 7 had a less-than-flattering term for places like where I’m from in Central Pennsylvania—
“depopulated rural communities.” Deep in Trump country, my hometown newspaper has already printed smears of the ambitious climate-justice platform. (“AOC’s Green New Deal is no cars, no planes, no cows.”) But some of the goals outlined in the resolution—job security in a time of wage stagnation, investment in clean air and water, and support for family farming—should resonate in small towns across the country.

This is because the Green New Deal, like the New Deal before it, has the potential to combat disinvestment in Middle America. In the 1930s, when for-profit utilities left nine out of every 10 rural homes without electricity, the Rural Electrification Act launched nationwide loans for cooperative power companies. The Green New Deal platform would replicate this intervention, redressing the economic devastation of rural deindustrialization in the pursuit of a just transition from fossil fuels.

But these policies can’t come from the “grasstops,” as the coalition of local advocacy organizations that make up the Climate Justice Alliance recently put it. The Green New Deal’s architects must commit to the lofty ideals laid out in the resolution —a “democratic and participatory process” to “plan, implement, and administer the Green New Deal mobilization at the local level.” This means rural communities, like my own, need a seat at the table in the coming year, as the Green New Deal moves from resolution to reality. —Lucas Smolcic Larson is a senior at Brown University studying anthropology and Portuguese and Brazilian studies.


As a millennial college student entering the workforce in a time of economic uncertainty and environmental crisis, I am constantly inundated with the word “burnout.”
With a growing mental-health crisis across college campuses, the looming burden of astronomical student debt, and the daunting prospect of inheriting a planet on the brink of catastrophe, it is no surprise that we are frequently called the “burnout generation.” Among a seemingly endless succession of burgeoning crises, the Green New Deal offers a glimmer of hope.

In the broadest sense, the Green New Deal creates a concrete vision for the future—something the Democrats have continually failed to do over the past few election cycles, and something for which everyone around me seems to be desperately grasping. Furthermore, the resolution does not simply provide a utopian conception of a nation free of unemployment or pollution, but lays out a framework for a “just transition” to a new, green economy built on socialist ideals.

The proposal’s immense scale and urgent tone legitimize our generation’s prevailing sense of foreboding, cogently articulating the dire threat that humanity currently faces. The drastic structural overhaul presented in the resolution, however, goes beyond vowing to prevent further damage. It provides Americans—and particularly young Americans—with something positive to unite around: Climate change and environmental destruction are presented as an imminent catastrophe, yes, but also as a rallying point with the potential to spark the creation of a more equitable society. —Emma Fiona Jones is a senior at Vassar College studying art history and women’s studies.


Scientists say we have 25 years—roughly one generation—to reverse the course of climate
change before it has catastrophic effects. One of our most innate human instincts is to stop danger in its tracks when it is preventable. As a child, when you begin to fall, you learn to put your hands out to try and catch yourself to avoid further damage. If something comes at you, you duck, fight back, or move out of the way. Self-preservation is the most universal traits among all species. So why is it, when we see with clear evidence that climate change is coming at us with devastating and irreversible effects on us and our world, would we look the other way and not do everything in our power to protect ourselves? We must act immediately and aggressively to protect our planet. This is why we need a Green New Deal now.

I am the daughter of a solar engineer. My father taught me at a young age about the transformative power of renewable energy sources, and that with sustainability and innovation, there is little we can’t solve. As a young person, part of the future generations who will inherit the world that will be shaped by the choices and consequences we make today, we cannot wait to take bold action to address the climate crisis. We must trust our most essential human instincts and protect ourselves, our oceans, our wildlife, and our climate while we still have the chance. —Jazmin Kay is a senior at George Washington University studying political science.


Without any of President Trump’s sarcasm, the Green New Deal is indeed brilliant.
It’s America’s final drastic action to save the planet and lift the weight of our carbon footprint in climate change.

The Green New Deal offers us a chance to give America a new look by improving the health of citizens through economic and environmental decisions. The $1 trillion plan can be, and has been, criticized for its cost, but it could very well save the most priceless thing on the market: our lives.

As a Maryland native, I know of many East Coast cities muffled by pollution and marred by inadequate housing and debt—and crucially, these are two additional components of the New Green Deal. It also provides the opportunity to dismantle environmental racism in places like Uniontown, Alabama, where toxins from landfill are known hazards to its townspeople.

With healthier foods, organic options and other “green” efforts to cleanse the earth on our side, we’ll restore the landscapes and places as we once knew them. Trees will grow to help purify our air. Animals will return to their natural habitats. Green jobs will help sprout economic prosperity. We can strip away America as we’ve known it—the America that, for many Americans, spoon-feeds them their own suffering. —Amber D. Dodd is a senior at Mississippi State University.


Obviously, I am not the only person impacted by the possibility of climate change destroying the world as we know it.
But, selfishly, I tend to view it through thoughts like: “I will never be able to write a Broadway show, or run for Congress, if the planet becomes unlivable.”

The future scares me so much. It’s why I back the Green New Deal completely.

There was a poster in my elementary school that said, “Reach for the moon, and even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” I think that quote applies here. If we can’t meet 100 percent of the power demand in the US through clean energy, but in aiming for that we hit 90 percent, that’s still making a positive change. We should be tackling environmental issues with ambition. A half-hearted “maybe someday we can possibly do this” approach isn’t going to get anything done. We used to think the idea of going to space was insane, but we worked at it with an ambitious “Yes, we can” attitude—and we got to the moon.

It’s disappointing to see so many people in Congress acting like the GND’s ambition is a negative thing. —Mollie Davis is a freshman at Hollins University studying communications.


I’m a man of few wants.
After graduating college, I want a job with good pay in a nice city, preferably somewhere near the coast, like many young people. I want to ditch my car, because driving is way worse than taking the bus. And I want to enjoy my good-paying job, my nice city, and its reliable public transportation for the rest of my natural life.

This dream—which, by most measures, is pretty moderate—is only possible if we support a Green New Deal that transitions the United States to 100 percent renewable energy and improves buses and trains as truly feasible alternatives to cars and planes. Beyond that, wages are lagging behind labor productivity, even in a nominally “strong economy,” so a union-focused job guarantee would provide economic security for young people across America.

Without a GND, we’re damning our coastal cities to the calamitous effects of climate change, like hurricanes and flooding. We’re sanctioning the automobile-centric status quo. But most importantly, we’re putting an expiration date on the lives of our younger generations, especially some of the most vulnerable.

Opponents of the GND—mostly Republicans and fossil-fuel executives—have erroneously cited an enormous price tag, telling voters that we “can’t afford” radical climate reforms. In actuality, we can’t afford the alternative. —Jake Gold is a junior at the University of Virginia studying economics.


I think often about my future
. I wonder where I’ll work and live. I wonder if I’ll get married and have kids. I even wonder about what I’ll do once, or if, I retire someday.

But lately, I also find myself wondering what’s going to happen to our planet. And I wonder if I’ll get to hit all of these milestones in my life.

I consider myself a green person. I recycle. I turn off the lights when I leave the room. I use a reusable tote when I go grocery shopping.

While these actions do make a small difference, I know it’s not nearly enough. Around 97 percent of scientists agree that humans are the sole cause behind climate change. Climate change is an issue that politicians are consistently putting on the back burner. But now we know that we have 12 years to figure it out.

To me, the Green New Deal is our last hope. Implementing it would show that climate change is a serious issue that needs to be resolved immediately. As Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said, the Green New Deal would finally treat climate change “like the serious, existential threat it is.” —Emily Sabens is a senior at Ball State University studying journalism and graphic design.


While the IPCC’s release of its October 2018 report alarmed individuals of all generations across the globe, I believe it had a particular impact on students and youth in the United States.
Here, developments in climate policy have continued to lag, despite repeated warnings from the scientific community.

I think that many students have been frustrated by some policy-makers’ refusal to acknowledge climate change as an immediate threat, dismissing the issue as trivially distant and comprehensive climate action as unnecessary. Many of the concerns I’ve heard from my peers have emphasized the damage climate change is currently inflicting on low-income areas, as well as communities of color.

So, it isn’t surprising that the students I’ve spoken to overwhelmingly support the Green New Deal, which addresses climate change as a scientific, social-justice, and economic issue. The primary critique of the GND students have expressed is the logistics of funding GND initiatives. Some of my peers have stated they support the GND in principle but need to know exactly how policy-makers will obtain GND funding (and how it will impact low- and middle-income individuals), before they back it as policy. Others have minimized funding, stressing that money cannot buy a new planet.

Overall, however, it seems like students, at least those I’ve encountered, are enthusiastic about the GND and optimistic about its implications for Earth’s future. —Lauren Padilla is a senior at Johns Hopkins University majoring in writing seminars.


We are, on this planet, hurtling toward a breaking point.
The world’s foremost climate scientists say that we have 12 years to stave off a global climate catastrophe that will commence in full by 2040. If we do not stop emitting carbon, we will soon be faced with human and environmental ruin on a scale that has no precedent.

Those are the stakes. But the stakes are, as usual, just that much higher for low-income communities.

The American government has stated unequivocally that, as the effects of climate change worsen, vulnerable people—who are disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards and who often lack access to health care, energy, information, and the resources required to move—will suffer most.

Climate issues and equity issues are inextricably linked, and the Green New Deal is designed to address both head-on. Its aim is to decarbonize the economy, but, in the process, with its jobs, health insurance, and housing guarantees, it is also to protect marginalized communities and ensure that they play a central role in building this country a sustainable future.

This legislation is not only about saving the planet. It is about reimagining the way that we live. Considering the magnitude of the crisis awaiting us, and considering the populations that crisis will devastate first and foremost, it is the necessary approach. —Abe Asher is a junior at Macalester College studying political science and religious studies.


Twelve years.
That is how long climate-change activists say we have to limit the climate-change catastrophe. Twelve years from now, I will not even be 40 years old. My generation is the generation that will undoubtedly inherit this crisis if we do not act now.

But there is hope.

As a young, black woman who lives on the intersection of multiple identities, it is important for policies to be intersectional and take into account that many people also live on the intersection of multiple identities and are impacted by issues like climate change in distinct ways.

The Green New Deal does just that. It does not just offer solutions like the reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions and pollution, but it goes deeper and calls for “high-quality healthcare for all, affordable safe and adequate housing, economic security, and access to clean water, clean air, healthy, and affordable food, and nature.”

The Green New Deal recognizes that these are also environmental-justice issues and that it is a tragedy that people in Flint, Michigan, and other places still do not have clean water and poor people across the country—many who do not even have access to health care—have developed illnesses because they live on polluted land.

The Green New Deal is necessary and must be enacted. —Rebekah Barber is a 2016 graduate of North Carolina Central University, currently a researcher at the Institute for Southern Studies.


Developing concrete solutions to climate change and economic disparity is an immense undertaking.
The US has the ability to break ground and hold our society accountable for humans’ environmental impact. In general, we need more social programs and legislation that amplifies the science behind climate change. And if the Green New Deal is put in place, communities that suffer from the deteriorating environment stand to benefit from a stimulated economy through alternatives to fossil fuels. Reduced smog levels and particulate matter in the air will improve public health, as both hit disaffected and disenfranchised communities the hardest. The Green New Deal is a very hopeful aspiration, and it sets a deadline that should have established long ago.

Seeing where we are, turning completely to clean and renewable energy by 2035 also seems like wishful thinking. Still, with almost 100 percent of the scientific community agreeing on the existence of this looming problem, the Green New Deal is the gateway to declaring climate change as a severe national emergency. As a generation, we should not disparage hope. —Kirk Stevenson is a senior at San Francisco State University studying journalism and political science.


While the thought of extensive green measures like those mentioned in the Green New Deal sound great, I believe that we need to take small steps before we do it all at once.
That being said, the implementation of the Green New Deal would be beneficial to everyone. Something needs to be done about the impending dangers of climate change, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Edward Markey clearly helped put together a well thought-out plan.

Initially, if this whole plan goes through as-is, there will be pushback, especially since this deal comes from left-wing Democrats. Disaffected communities will definitely have something to say, and this could wind up affecting who comes into office in the upcoming elections. Although, if the deal winds up doing exactly what it has proposed, such as bringing more jobs into the United States in conjunction with stopping the transfer of jobs overseas, and providing quality health care and a living wage, this could be a plan that appeals to all parties and affiliations.

This deal, without a doubt, would help shape my future. Ideally, it would be in beneficial ways such as cleaner air, cleaner water, renewable energy, and fewer dying polar bears. But this deal could also change the way I travel, the amount of taxes I pay and more. Of course, these changes could be considered minor if this deal helps save our earth. The proposal wants to achieve net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by creating millions of green jobs and investing in a new, clean-energy infrastructure.

This will be a tough journey, but it is something that people need to support, because without this proposal upcoming generations might not have a future. —Mallory Wilson is a sophomore at Hofstra University studying journalism, political science, and Spanish.


The Green New Deal has received criticism for being extreme and expensive.
Opponents argue that it poses an attack on industries critical to the United States economy and our society as a whole. But critics of the resolution fail to understand the context in which the Green New Deal is being proposed.

Let’s talk science.

The planet is currently warming at a rate of 0.2° C per decade and is on track to reach an increased temperature of 3.2° C by the end of the 21st century. A 2017 study classified warming into three categories: greater than 1.5° C as being dangerous, greater than 3° C as being catastrophic, and greater than 5° C as being unknown, suggesting beyond catastrophic effects and posing “existential threats to the majority of the population.”

The Green New Deal is extreme and expensive. If implemented, it will likely affect nearly every industry in the nation and will certainly have an immediate impact on the US economy. But extreme circumstances necessitate extreme responses—and the state of our planet far exceeds this qualification.

Right now, we can combat climate change. Soon, even the Green New Deal may not be enough. Soon, there will be no turning back.

We do not have the luxury of rolling our eyes at this resolution, and doing so will yield catastrophic consequences for the entire planet—consequences that my generation and the next will be forced to bear for years to come. —Kara Miecznikowski is a junior at the University of Notre Dame studying biological sciences and journalism.


Global climate change is a pervasive yet intangible demon that gradually erodes the place we call home.

Sea levels are rising at abnormal rates, exacerbating flood risks for low-lying and coastal communities. More-severe and -destructive hurricanes are running rampant through portions of the North Atlantic. Our natural weather pattern is riddled with far too many intense heat waves, accompanied by prolonged droughts and the melting of the arctic.

Nearly every natural resource the human race is dependent upon, including water, agriculture, and ecosystems at large, are in jeopardy. Compromising these systems will yield a host of implications, particularly for public health.

The gravity of this issue is perhaps obvious to younger generations poised to inherit an endangered earth if environmental-policy inaction persists.

But the problem with our current political system is that it doesn’t typically deal with intangibles. It doesn’t tend to address problems that we perceive as universal, or out of our control, and it seems to have significant trouble in grappling with cross-generational epidemics.

A fractionalized Democratic Party inflamed by generational divides in regard to addressing climate change certainly can’t catalyze collective action.

The Green New Deal, a non-binding resolution that, even if passed, will not result in policy enactment, was created with the sole purpose of uniting the party in a common vision.

It is merely a thought process, and to support the deal would be to acknowledge the urgency of climate change.

More pragmatic and passable legislation will only be made possible if the party as a whole unites in this vision. —Alyssa Hurlbut is a senior at Marist College studying journalism and political science.


I have spent the majority of my senior year of high school participating in the college process with a Mason jar full of coffee in my backpack at all times.
As I applied to 14 schools, I pushed myself further than I had ever gone before, and I’m still exhausted. While my time at high school seems far from over, the world’s 12-year deadline to reduce carbon emissions feels right around the corner. My fall was spent preparing for my future, but why fight for something that could cease to exist in my lifetime?

At times, taking action against climate injustice seems hopeless. I’ve often thought about whether my reusable Mason jars are helping reduce waste at all, and if I’m only using them to make myself feel better. But Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, only 12 years older than myself, has proposed the “Green New Deal,” an attempt to enact concrete climate reform as opposed to minor amendments made by Congress in the past. She proposes investing in renewable-energy infrastructure and jobs that help both the earth and communities in need. Through renewable technology, the government could further develop rural areas across the country by providing ecological capital. Her efforts have been both commended and scrutinized by media, and people are scrambling to make their opinions known on social media, the preferred medium of youth activists. Many in Congress agree that her resolution is ambitious and requires work from all sides of the political spectrum, but its presence alone represents a serious call to action. Her persistence in Congress makes me feel as though we need to rise to the occasion.

To protest the lack of action taken by the US and countries around the world, my school and I are participated the March 15 Climate Strike, meant encourage other politicians to support the resolution. And just as there is power in policy, there is power within the people; they are not mutually exclusive.

The Green New Deal marks a new era: one that prioritizes the safety of our planet and provides opportunities to communities in need. It’s the environmental justice we deserve and are willing to fight for.

I don’t want my adulthood to be up for debate. That’s why I will continue to march, strike, and help the environment like the future depends on it—because it does. —Sophia Steinberg is a senior at Beacon School, a public college/prep high school in New York City.


The Green New Deal has the capacity to change the downward spiral of our environment, while engaging the disaffected with jobs and opportunity.
At this point, we’re killing the environment a little more each day. Being that many of those in office, specifically the current administration, will never live to see the negative impacts of their inaction, they don’t see the need for drastic change.

Radical change is what we need. The Green New Deal offers some of the most bold environmental ideas ever proposed. If implemented, in the next 10 years it could mitigate the harms we have wreaked on the environment while growing our economy.

Just enacting a few of the proposed steps could make a huge difference. Renewable, zero-emission energy sources, for example, are commonsense solutions to my generation. Yet, we don’t fully tap these because politicians protect the power companies that can’t see—or won’t look past—their current profits.

The truth of the matter is, if we don’t get serious about change, my generation won’t see our children walk across the stage at high-school graduation. Serious change won’t be easy, and the upfront monetary cost is massive. But nothing worthwhile ever is easy, and the cost of not changing our ways is the very future of mankind.

So to this I say, take your pick: money or lives. —Zoe Zbar is a junior at the University of South Florida studying marketing.



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-16-young-people-think-about-the-green-new-deal/
What 17 Student Voters Think About Tuesday’s Electionhttps://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-16-student-voters-think-about-tuesdays-election/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationNov 9, 2018

s one of the most powerful voting blocs in the country, young voters on Tuesday made their influence clear: The midterms saw the country’s highest youth-voter turnout in 25 years, with 31 percent of youth ages 18 to 29 coming out to vote—largely for Democrats.

And it made a difference. According to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), young people’s overwhelming preference for blue “almost certainly helped the Democratic Party take control of the House of Representatives.”

None of this was an accident. Across the country, young people mobilized furiously, from registering their peers to knocking on doors for candidates they believed in coast to coast. The Parkland students crossed the country to urge fellow first-time voters to “Vote for Our Lives.” Young people across the country organized over 500 school walkouts on Election Day.

We asked students across the country to comment on the outcome of the midterms. For them, these results are not just a move in a theoretical chess game, or a race to consolidate power—it’s the future they will have to live in.

In the wake of the 2018 midterm elections, where unreasonably long lines and registration holds and purges were the results of quiet attempts at voter suppression, the 2013 evisceration of the Voting Rights Act is especially relevant. I studied the critical importance of the VRA in high school, only for the Supreme Court to gut it a year after I graduated. Going forward, I think young people should focus organizing and advocacy efforts on improving and protecting the right to vote for all citizens. This will require a long-term perspective, but we are already making some progress in the right direction.

A number of very exciting criminal-justice reforms succeeded through ballot initiatives on Tuesday, a few of which support restoring voting rights to those locked in the criminal-justice system. In a ballot initiative, Florida restored voting rights to over 1 million people who had been disenfranchised after being convicted of a felony. This is really huge, and we might have seen a different outcome in that state’s gubernatorial race had those citizens (about 10 percent of the state’s adult population) been able to vote. There are many other states where people convicted of felonies or specific violent crimes are not allowed to vote or must apply to have their voting rights restored—this is bad for democracy, especially given what we know about race- and class-based inequalities in our justice system.

We need to fight against felon disenfranchisement and voter-suppression tactics, including voter-ID laws, which are often enforced in a discriminatory manner, and for voting reforms like ranked-choice voting, fair districts, and making Election Day a national holiday, which will boost turnout and help make every vote count. —Jordana Rosenfeld, 2018 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh

Ron DeSantis wins governor of Florida. Red prevails again—by exactly 1 percent. In Florida, it seems 51 percent of the population likes to hear their leaders talk about issues, instead of acting on them. Fifty-one percent of the state’s population supports someone who doesn’t believe in the science behind climate change. Fifty-one percent has put our state’s environment on the bottom of its to-do list.

If the environment isn’t addressed now, there likely will be no reversing the catastrophic events that are to come for Florida. This puts the future of Florida in the hands of the youth. Florida Governor-elect Ron DeSantis talked a big game about wanting to save the Everglades. Yet where are the legitimate plans to back that up?

What about the red tide washing dead wildlife up on our beaches? What about the toxic green algae morphing our lakes into mossy aquatic cemeteries? What about rising sea levels shrinking our coastlines?

A staunch Trump supporter, DeSantis doesn’t seem to care about the real problems ahead for Florida. His campaign was so focused on slandering his Democratic opponent, Andrew Gillum, that he forgot to share his plans to raise Florida up.

I’m intrigued and uneasy about the future of the state I’ve always called home. Get your floaties, Floridians, we’re going down. —Zoe Zbar, University of South Florida

The energy around this election felt different this yeardifferent than how it felt in 2016. In the days before the election, I could sense that people were excited to vote in a way that I had not seen since President Obama was on the ballot.

And although voters also had the opportunity to make history with their votes this year—by electing the first black woman governor in history, the first black governor in Florida, etc. It seemed bigger than that. It was about the issues.

It was about students refusing to sit by and watch another classmate fall victim to gun violence. It was about the family and friends of the formerly incarcerated declaring that their loved ones should not be forever disenfranchised because of their worst mistakes. It was about the descendants of the enslaved pushing back against the lie of voter fraud and attempts to suppress their votes.

On Facebook, I noticed friends who were old enough to vote during the last presidential election posting about how they were excited to vote for the first time this year. I saw others encouraging their friends to vote, offering to give rides to the polls, and posting selfies of themselves serving as election-protection monitors at the early hours of the morning on Election Day.

I knew that no matter how the results turned out, our generation was ready for this long fight ahead. —Rebekah Barber, 2016 graduate of North Carolina Central University

On November 6, as I waited in line at my local fairgrounds for my turn to vote, I listened as two women chatted in front of me. As I eavesdropped, one sentence really struck me. One woman asked, “Where are all these young Democrats who were supposedly so excited to get out and vote?”

It’s true: The election results are a loss for Hoosier Democrats. As much as I wanted it to turn out differently, Indiana is an historically Republican-leaning state. But across the nation this midterm election, we did have some small victories.

For example, here in Indiana, Democrat J.D. Ford became the first openly gay man elected to the Indiana General Assembly. Voting rights were restored to over 1.4 million people in Florida. Democrats won control of the House.

And, maybe most importantly, many states across the country saw record-breaking midterm-voter turnouts—including in Indiana.

So to the two women in front of me: You’re wrong. We might be voting early or sending in absentee ballots, but we’re here, letting our voices be heard. The victories might be small, but we’ll continue working toward a brighter future. —Emily Sabens, Ball State University

Fossil-fuel companies are poisoning my generation’s future. On Tuesday, clean-energy ballot measures fell, one by one. In Colorado, big oil spent $41 million to defeat Proposition 112, which would have banned fracking on large swaths of land. In Washington, voters rejected what would have been the nation’s first carbon tax, after fossil-fuel interests spent $31.5 million against it. Environmental measures in Arizona, Alaska, and Montana met similar fates. Meanwhile, the Democrats—nominally the party of green climate policy—lack a comprehensive plan to transition to renewable energy. In June, the Democratic National Committee took a step in the right direction by banning donations from fossil-fuel interests. But, in a moment emblematic of establishment inertia on climate change, DNC Chair Tom Perez pushed through a resolution two months later undoing the commitment.

My hope lies with student activists in the Sunrise Movement, a grassroots coalition of young people working to stop climate change. At Brown University (where I’m a student), they are pressuring Perez, a Brown alumnus and fellow at the university’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, to create a Democratic Party for the people. This means rejecting the influence of companies who value profit over our collective future. It means fighting for a “just transition” to renewable energy through a Green New Deal that would create jobs while slashing emissions. Sunrise rejects an incrementalist approach to the climate crisis and demands bold and immediate action from Democratic leaders now in control of the House. Their platform presents an antidote to the poisonous politics of the fossil-fuel lobby. I hope the Democratic leadership will listen. —Lucas Smolcic Larson, Brown University

In the political establishment’s world, where the winners and the losers are decided by the number of subpoenas that can be issued or hearings that can be held, the 2018 midterm elections were pretty good for the Democrats. It’s a practical and pragmatic victory, where Democrats can more actively play the role of the opposition party. But for young Americans looking toward the bleak future of climate inaction, the electoral chess match is maddening, because it doesn’t look like it’ll put us on track to save civilization from anthropogenic destruction.

In other words, in the 2018 midterms, the young people are the losers.

It doesn’t help that Americans voted in large numbers for people who will die before the worst climate realities will come to pass. Politicians on both sides of the aisle have failed time and time again to show empathy for the severity of the situation. Not that there weren’t things to cheer for as returns came in—ballot initiatives and candidates across the nation doing good things for real people—but we have to do better, and think bigger, to create a world that will be good for the generations to come. —Jake Gold, University of Virginia

Sometimes I feel helpless about politics. It feels like every other week something bad happens: children getting separated at the border, the current administration ignoring scientific evidence of climate change, white supremacists feeling more emboldened than ever. I’ve attended rallies, called my congressmen, and registered people to vote, but sometimes I want to give up. Keeping up with politics feels like a full-time job—it’s far easier to ignore the chaos and to focus on things like job searching instead. But this election season—which, for me, started in mid-July as I watched a friend text hundreds of people for Beto’s campaign from his laptop in Nashville—has enlivened me. This election season was driven by a belief that people could change the status quo, even if it meant slow progress.

My friend Stephanie loves her home state of Nebraska. She likes to bring up the fact that Omaha, where she is from, has their own electoral vote. Last week, she took an Uber to the post office and paid $25 to express mail her ballot. Even though Nebraska turned red for every candidate, even though Beto didn’t win, and even though Republicans gained seats in the Senate, I know that organizers and activists have changed the political dynamics of the United States in ways that don’t necessarily show up in election results and in ways that we can’t directly see now. I’m excited about the thousands of people who showed up to vote on issues larger than themselves. I’m excited about the record number of women who have been elected and how Stacey Abrams is so close to winning Georgia. So much progress has been made, and I’m excited. —Lily Lou, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

On election night, I gathered with members of my university community to await the midterm results. As I looked around the room, I was struck by its diversity. Students conversed in Spanish and French, English and Korean. There were women in hijabs and men in kippahs. Everyone sat together, eyes fixated on televisions, laptops, and phones.

With each drop of blue that splashed across a screen, I breathed a sigh of relief—not just for me, but for people of color, for immigrants, for women, for the LGBTQ+ community, for working families, for education, for the environment, for survivors. The outcome may not have been a blue tsunami, but it was enough to preserve and reinforce hope.

Yes, young people must continue to battle the disturbing prejudices and inequalities of contemporary America. However, we also showed up in record numbers to elect the first Native American women to Congress, the first openly gay man to the governorship, the youngest woman to Congress. We uplifted leaders who not only reflect the powerful diversity of America, but have pledged to strengthen the causes upon which it depends: education, health care, and criminal-justice reform. I am proud to be a member of a generation that, when confronted with two visions of America—one cold, closed and homogeneous, and the other accepting, transformative, and varied—unequivocally chose the latter. —Lauren Padilla, Johns Hopkins University

Students went out in droves to vote, and I can’t help feeling that we’re marching to the proverbial slaughterhouse.

The South went to war over the prospect of slavery losing its balance of power in federal politics. The stakes do not appear as consequential as abolishing chattel slavery, but we face an urgency of declining wages and nationalist politics, not to mention climate change. If you consider the wide margin in the popular vote against the limited electoral results, it’s clear that the priorities of the Democratic Party leadership, and our own, must be militant.

The threat of investigating Trump is encouraging. We can cut short another period of cynical supply-side economics and the erosion of standards of living. On the other hand, Democrats seem to stand nowhere but simply against Trump. If Tuesday’s lackluster showing tells us anything, it’s that the politics of negation are empty. What appeals to voters is an economic platform that makes real the struggle of working people.

Pelosi-Schumer politics have run their course. The diminutive blue wave does not bode well for 2020. We as students are wasting energy if we mobilize votes for the barren political vision that is simply a reaction to Trump. It’s on Democratic leadership to produce persuasive arguments. It’s on us not to serve as their get-out-the-vote shock troops, but to hit the streets and revive meaningful activism through our campuses, through the unions, and through our communities. —Carl Fulghieri, University of Pennsylvania

I watched the 2018 midterm election from across the Atlantic Ocean, 4,000 miles away.

As a student living abroad in Europe for the past three months, you might think that United States politics would be slightly less prevalent in my daily life. Are other parts of the world really that concerned with the politics of the US?

Yes, they are.

The US contains only 6 percent of the earth’s landmass and less than 5 percent of the global population, yet countries around the world turn their attention to our elections, government and politics.

The United States is a topic of global focus, and not for reasons that we should be proud of.

In Ireland, I was asked by an Albanian taxi driver why people voted for “that crazy Trump.”

In the Netherlands, a man asked me if everyone in the United States is racist.

In the United Kingdom, a man yelled at me on the bus for being American—because I lived in the nation that elected Trump to be its leader. I didn’t argue with him.

A German newspaper, on reporting the US election results, titled an article on the subject, “Hatred and malice remain electable.”

I don’t often think of our country in a global context during elections, but this year, I did.

I imagined getting into a London cab and having the driver remark that the US government seems to promote equality and basic human rights for its people. I imagined not having to explain that yes, I’m American, and no, I’m not racist. I imagined, when asked my country of origin, responding “United States” without feeling ashamed.

This year’s midterm election results do not support these fantasies.

Yes, there were encouraging victories in this election. But “election” is a noun, and our country is in need of verbs. We need to reform laws. We need to protect rights. We need to fight for equality. We need to incite change.

Pete Buttigieg—Mayor of South Bend, Indiana—put it best: “We just made our government more Democratic. The next test will be whether we can make it more democratic.” —Kara Miecznikowski, University of Notre Dame

The results of this years midterm election were expected. I was not shocked by the Democrats’ taking the House and the Republicans maintaining the Senate. I was, however, elated to hear about the immense number of women, of all different races and religions, that were elected. I am grateful that people went to the polls—especially young people—and gave the Democrats a chance to get ahold of the House. Being a young person during this time, especially in the fields of politics and journalism, is extremely fascinating because you get to see people your own age fighting for ideas they believe in. I think the results of this election will help young people feel that their voices are being heard. Maybe now that people have seen how powerful young people can be when they get involved and vote, they will start listening to the issues we feel so strongly about and our ideas for solutions. —Mallory Wilson, Hofstra University

In the weeks before the elections, it felt as if there was an increased sense of urgency surrounding the youth vote, primarily ushered in by organizers who were young people themselves. My social-media feeds and timelines were flooded with friends telling each other to vote. And these campaigns seem to have worked: According to The Atlantic, there was a 188-percent surge in youth turnout. After the 2016 presidential election, the stakes have clearly gotten higher for young people.

Like many of my peers, my energy was focused on Texas, Georgia, and Florida. Watching these losses was particularly disheartening. But seeing just how close these races were, and just how much support Beto O’Rourke, Stacey Abrams, and Andrew Gillum were able to garner nationwide reignited my hope for the possibility of a more progressive future.

I wonder what the Democratic House majority will mean for students across the country. Will these new candidates ensure that, when it comes to gun violence, we can feel safe in our classrooms? Or in any public place, for that matter? And what does increased youth turnout mean in the long term, after the ballots have been counted? If more young people are engaging in this democratic process, then surely more young people are being exposed to the flaws that might accompany it. Will this mean a surge in youth activism against voter suppression? I don’t think the results of this election will lead to a decrease in the dedicated and persistent youth organizing that we’ve been seeing in these last two years. —Mary Akdemir, New York University

The Georgia governor’s race ostensibly pitted Democrat Stacey Abrams against Republican Brian Kemp. But it really pitted Abrams against both Kemp and a targeted voter-suppression effort so bold and so sweeping that it might have tripped alarms at the United Nations. Abrams wasn’t supposed to win.

And so in the early hours of Wednesday morning at a ballroom in Atlanta, Abrams, predictably trailing Kemp by a razor-thin margin of just fewer than 100,000 votes, took the stage to address her supporters.

The speech she delivered was remarkable. She didn’t despair. And she didn’t back down.

“Hard work is in our bones,” she said, “and tonight we have closed the gap between yesterday and tomorrow.”

The crowd around her roared.

“We still have a few more miles to go,” she continued. “But hear me clearly: That too is an opportunity to show the world who we are. Because in Georgia, civil rights has always been an act of will and a battle for our souls.”

Leave it to a progressive, black woman in the Deep South, having just been cheated out of a chance to win a free and fair election for governor, to stand up straight, composed and confident, and unflinchingly deliver the line of the night.

She knows. There was much to be heartened and relieved by on Tuesday. Turnout was strong. Democrats did well. But whether it’s officials in Georgia trying to steal elections or white, rural voters flooding to the polls to hold off progressive insurgencies in places like Florida and Texas and stomp out Democratic senators in places like Missouri and Indiana, the forces that made Donald Trump possible and then made him president are not by any stretch fading away.

What does this mean for young people, especially as we turn towards 2020? That the hard work had better be in our bones. We’re fighting for our lives in this country, and nothing is going to come easily. —Abe Asher, Macalester College

One hundred years ago, women couldn’t vote. On Tuesday, over 100 women were elected to Congress.

You can’t be what you can’t see. It may be a cliché, but in a time in our country when marginalized groups seem to be continually at risk, the midterm election results mean something. For women, young people, LGBTQIA+ people, people of color, Native Americans, Muslims, and so many groups typically underrepresented in government, the election sent a message to our generation and the generations to come: Regardless of your background, you can be elected to lead your community and country. While we are still far from our legislative bodies’ reflecting the makeup of our population, Tuesday showed us the promise of what our politics can be when it looks a bit more like us.

In my hometown of Ulster County in New York’s 19th Congressional District, we elected Antonio Delgado, the first-ever person of color to represent us, and Juan Figueroa, the first-ever Hispanic person elected to the office of sheriff in the history of New York State. Here, we saw significant increases of new registered youth voters leading up to the election, which likely helped solidify their historic victories.

But the work doesn’t stop now.

Young people dramatically increased their voter turnout, marking the highest level of participation among youth in the past 25 years at 31 percent turnout. Yet, while that is an increase compared to the last midterm election, when youth-voter turnout dropped to the lowest ever at 19.9 percent, this still means that 69 percent of young voices were not heard at the voting booth, when so many of the decisions on the ballot and our elected officials actions affect us the most.

Young people are currently the largest, most diverse voting bloc in the country. Over the course of the next couple of years, we will continue to shape politics and elect candidates that reflect our values that make us who we are. The playing field may not be leveled yet, but we have added new players to the game.

This is just the beginning. —Jazmin Kay, George Washington University

The midterm elections of this past Tuesday represent a major victory for women of color. Deb Haaland in New Mexico and Sharice Davids in Kansas became the first Native American women elected to Congress. Rashida Tlaib in Michigan and Ilhan Omar in Minnesota will be the first Muslim women in Congress. Sylvia Garcia and Veronica Escobar will be the first Hispanic women in Texas elected to Congress. Liberal opinion about the role white women played in the midterms, however, is divided.

The past two days has seen both a slew of self-congratulatory articles and social-media posts on the part of white feminists, and self-flagellating commentary demanding that white women “do better.” The results of the midterm elections demonstrate that the allegiances of white women have shifted over the past two years, likely as a result of the #MeToo movement and the Kavanaugh hearings: This past Tuesday, 59 percent of white women voters voted Democratic, while 53 percent of white women voted for Trump in 2016. The shift is most significant in white suburban women, although in the highly publicized races in Georgia, Texas, and Florida, a significant majority voted for Brian Kemp, Ted Cruz, and Ron DeSantis, respectively. Despite the shifting allegiances of white women voters, the midterms do not necessarily indicate a victory for intersectional feminism. We have yet to see whether the uptick in liberal-leaning white women is a result of the increasing threat to white women’s autonomy posed by the Trump administration, or a sincere commitment to intersectional coalition-building. —Emma Fiona Jones, Vassar College

A blue tide swept through America on Tuesday, and America’s youth were leading the charge. The wave of young voters does not come as a shock to me, nor does the resulting Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives. To students like myself, politics may have at one time been regarded as a separate sphere reserved for adults and the nation’s elite. But the minute an American citizen so easily took the lives of numerous elementary-school students and teachers in Newtown, Connecticut, that thought process was forced to an end. Mass shooting after mass shooting unfolded into debates on gun control and school safety—all of which made apparent the ubiquity of politics and the immense amount of power that political elites harbor in shaping the lives of American youth.

With the chilling realization that our lives as students were at stake, the narrative surrounding politics began to change. We young voters grasped the gravity of these elections, and with it, we mobilized efforts to change the system. In March, the survivors of the Parkland shooting even spearheaded a national march that saw millions of Americans rally for gun control. I do believe that school tragedies catalyzed a movement of political activeness among young voters, but gun violence was just the beginning. We saw not only the end result of semiautomatic weapons, but also the systemic factors that led to such barbarity. We saw how the rhetoric of the president could inspire a culture of hatred, xenophobia, racism, and white suprematism—all of which, in their extreme form, result in murder. We young voters couldn’t stand by idly. To me, these elections revealed our collective understanding that we do have power, and we have an obligation to exercise that power for those that no longer can. Our empowerment produced clear and evident change. — Alyssa Hurlbut, Marist College

To me, as a teenager, elections have always seemed more like a spectator sport than democracy at work. On the day of the midterm elections, my Instagram feed was filled with celebrities telling people to “Get to the polls!” and a sea of “I Voted” stickers. The whole nation felt the power of the youth vote as many young adults took to the Internet to share their excitement. First-time voter and friend Giulia Cox, who is six months older than me, said voting “made [her] feel like an adult,” as opposed to her recent 18th birthday, which did not.

Watching the live news feed from my couch in Brooklyn, I felt equally proud and helpless. When I saw Max Rose win in Staten Island over the Republican incumbent, I felt exhilarated. But as the night wore on and the Senate remained in Republican hands, I wondered if my bouts of protesting and volunteering over the past two years meant as much as a single vote on the first Tuesday of November. But I am forced to remind myself that progress doesn’t happen in one day, and as Stacey Abrams said, “There’s voices that are waiting to be heard.” It’s my last time on the sidelines. The wait is nearly over. —Sophia Steinberg, Beacon High School, New York City



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-16-student-voters-think-about-tuesdays-election/
Why Students Are Walking out of School on Election Dayhttps://www.thenation.com/article/archive/why-students-are-walking-out-of-school-on-election-day/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationNov 1, 2018

Early voting this season has been marked by a dramatic surge of youth participation. “The number of voters between the ages of 18 and 29 who have cast ballots early has surpassed turnout levels from the last midterm election in just about every state, according to several sources tracking early vote totals,” according to The Hill.

In Texas, 332,000 voters under the age of 30 have cast ballots already, up nearly fivefold from the 2014 midterms. In Nevada, the 25,000 young voters who have cast a ballot is also five times higher than in the same period four years ago.

Student organizers are determined to keep it up on November 6. At 10 am on Election Day, students in high schools and colleges across the country will walk out of class and march to the polls to cheer each other on as those eligible cast their votes. Even if students aren’t old enough to vote, they are still encouraged to lead and participate in the walkout to help make our message heard.

By bringing together young people across communities, issues, and organizations, organizers intend to send a strong message to politicians and the country that young people are unified in demanding action on issues like gun violence, racial injustice, climate change, and economic equality. Kids may only be 25 percent of the country’s population, but they’re 100 percent of the future. There are more than 500 school walkouts currently scheduled coast to coast.

Watch this video and check out Walkouttovote.org to see why.



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/why-students-are-walking-out-of-school-on-election-day/
‘If We Won’t, Then Who Will?’: An Interview With Chloe Maxmin and Canyon Woodwardhttps://www.thenation.com/article/archive/if-we-wont-then-who-will-an-interview-with-chloe-maxmin/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationOct 25, 2018

n 2012, 20-year-old Chloe Maxmin helped organize the first meeting of Divest Harvard, a student group that in two years convinced 72 percent of students and over 270 Harvard faculty members to support their university’s divesting from fossil fuels. Bill McKibben called the campaign “remarkable.” In October of the next year, Maxmin published her first Nation article, outlining the student campaign “to expose the reckless business model of the fossil-fuel industry that puts our world at risk.” This was the first of 24 articles that Maxmin wrote for The Nation through 2017 charting the student-led movement combating climate change.

As the first campus in the country to hold a referendum on divestment, the Harvard movement prompted student groups around the world to follow suit. Students at Yale, Stanford, the University of California, and Oxford University, among many others, mirrored the work that Maxmin and her colleagues led the charge on—all before Maxmin herself could legally drink. The campaign wasn’t immediately successful, but in 2017, Harvard finally announced it would “pause” investment in some fossil fuels and likely would not invest in the fossil-fuel industry in the future.

And in 2018, Maxmin, at age 26, is running for state representative of her home district in Maine. In June, she won her Democratic Primary race by 80 percent; earlier this month, her campaign was one of about 300 races endorsed by President Barack Obama. According to Maxmin, the campaign rests on a simple idea: that “we can work together to build something better and stronger.”

Student Nation spoke with Maxmin and her campaign manager and former Divest Harvard co-coordinator Canyon Woodward, 25. As young organizers—and now potential young politicians—we spoke about what young people bring to the table, the importance of getting involved, and how young people are working to forge a better future. This interview has been edited for clarity.

Student Nation: So many young people leave their communities to go to college, then make new lives for themselves in their new college towns. You’re both originally from Maine. What brought you back home?

Chloe Maxmin: It’s what I’m passionate about.

Canyon Woodward: Young people are funneling into big places like New York and San Francisco. It’s really bad for our communities—for one, it abandons an aging population that doesn’t have a younger generation around for them in their old age. Those local economies, where there aren’t young people coming back, starting businesses, and creating jobs, are set back. The problem of democracy, the Democratic Party, goes so far beyond cities.

SN: Do you sense that there is a new wave of young people breaking into politics? Of course, I’m thinking about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but also across the country. Do you consider yourself a part of this wave?

CW: We definitely feel a part of that wave and definitely see that. We’re a generation that came of age when Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring rose up—Chloe and I went off to college that fall of 2011, when the financial crisis was really shaking the world. Our formative college years were spent organizing campus activism, and I think that we’re a generation that has had a lot of taking to the streets. And we’re heading these movements—for the last decade, really. But there’s also been a tremendous amount of apathy throughout the Obama years from our generation, which you can see from our voting records.… I think that the Obama years bred some complacency, and apathy and that 2016 shook our generation to the core—woke up this sleeping giant—and we are stepping beyond issue organizing. We are realizing that our elected leaders aren’t responding to us or listening to us on issues like climate change, on immigration, on any number of different things…. Millennials are just now overshadowing baby boomers for largest voting bloc. I think it’s a time when we feel tremendously underrepresented and are simultaneously discovering our potential generation’s power.

CM: One of the key questions that our generation is asking is: If we don’t, then who will? We have to look decades forward. And at least for me and my friends, I’m genuinely terrified. Not just because we’re facing climate change or won’t be able to find health care or won’t find schools for our children. But we’re facing a moment where democracy doesn’t matter. I called Susan Collins, everyone I know did, and she didn’t listen to us. It’s at the federal level, but also the state level—our government does not respond to its people. If we don’t fight for a representational government, not only will we not have a say, but no one will have a say but the rich. One of the remarkable things about young people today is we are not complacent to the structures that be…because we know, deep down, that out entire lives depend on it.

SN: Yeah, the recent IPCC study is harrowing. Did that news affect you as young climate activists?

CM: I started working on the climate issue because I think it’s the greatest threat to my home—to my community, our way of life, our culture, our future. It’s so foundational, and obviously not just in Maine but all over the world. The fact that the dire urgency of the situation has been known for so long, and there’s been a solid mass movement around this issue for a decade at least—though people like Bill McKibben have been working on it for even longer.

For me, everything I’ve done has been about building communities in the places I’ve lived. We’ve built this political system, and yet our voices have nowhere to go. Even when everything we love is at stake—our political system is so stuck that nothing can happen. We need our political system to work for us. We need to do something right now. One of the reasons why I decided to run is because if we don’t have good people inside the system, then we’re screwed. Not just on climate—on everything. If we don’t have people who aren’t thinking about things not as business as usual, there’s going to be no change. This is after decades of working on this issue. No one is budging. Our last little bit of hope is I can get into office and I can do something for my community when this storm comes. Because it’s coming, it’s just a question of how bad.

SN: Why is it important for young people to get involved politically in this moment?

CW: So many reasons. I think that young people have a really unique perspective that desperately needs representation at the table, because we have so much skin in the game with things like climate change that are going to affect our futures more intensely than the older generation understands. And I think that young people also have the potential to break through this intense polarization and political environment that is so defined by anger and partisan politics. I think there’s a Pew Research study that shows millennials are the most independent generation—44 percent of millennials self-identity as independent. We’re rejecting the old partisan boxes and really standing on our values and fighting for these specific issues. I think that young people have the potential to bring a new energy to politics that can shift things forward out of this total gridlock that we’ve seen at the national level for so many years.

CM: One of the things that truly boggles me is that we’ve been facing the same crises for decades. Year after year things get worse and worse, but year after year we keep electing the same kinds of people who look the same and act the same and say the same things. So it’s not really surprising that these problems aren’t getting fixed because we’re not electing people who think about life in a different way. Being a woman, being young, gives you a different perspective from being a man and older.

Bernie inspired me and Canyon to devote our lives to him for months; we can inspire young people to do this as well. We do have the experience and the maturity to be in office.… [For] almost every young person that I’ve worked with, it’s almost like instinct to understand the line between what is black and white and what requires compromise. There are some things that are black and white, are very right and very wrong, and young people know that and stand up for that. But we also know that not everything goes our way, that you need to compromise and find solutions for everybody. That’s such a valuable balance to have when you’re young.

SN: Can you recall an example?

CM: There was one moment from our Divest Harvard days that always stuck with me. We had been building a movement on campus for years, had over 70,000 people sign on to our campaign, but the admin still wouldn’t recognize us. So we organized a sit-in at our president’s office building. We had students wake up at 5 am and sit in her hallways, and we didn’t move. Which was impressive for a lot of reasons—to get that many young folks to get up early in college, and to put their bodies on the line to stand up for a vision. But we understood that there are things worth doing that for. The climate crisis, for example, requires bold action, and that was what we could do with our bodies then.

The president came into the halls to get to her office. She always talked about how civil disobedience is so important. But then, she had a horrible angry look on her face. We knew she had never supported us, but I thought she would at least say that, though she didn’t agree, she was glad that we believed in something. Instead, she came in and said: “I’m so disappointed in you, you should be ashamed of yourself.” And that was so stunning to me, because that is an authority figure for us. But not one of the people in that room flinched.

So…there was a lot of space between what we wanted and what the administration wanted—a big space. But we eventually were able to compromise. We were forced to end the sit-in because the police locked the bathroom—they wouldn’t let us use the bathroom, which gives you an idea of how they worked. After we organized again and shut down her office for an entire week, and we trained hundreds of people in civil disobedience…. I mean, we literally built the movement, and still the administration did nothing. Canyon and I graduated that year, but the campaign fought on. There were more blockades, more student activism. Harvard has not divested. To me the point of divestment is to take a hard moral stand on climate change, but Harvard has not, and as far as I’m concerned will not, do that.

SN: Being veteran young activists who have done this, I think you could provide a lot to fellow young activists who may feel low on hope. What advice can you give young people, for example, college students, who are starting out advocating for what they believe in?

CW: I think that as a student activist, going up against the almost inevitable entrenchment of an administration, it can feel at times like a hopeless cause. And I would just say there are so many ripples from your work that you will never see. And some that you will! But I think that you have to have faith in those ripples going outwards and touching other people. I really strongly think that the student activism throughout the United States of the last decade has so much to do with what we’re seeing right now in 2018—with millennials coming out in droves and the young people running for office coast to coast. Things like the Fight for $15 campaign, climate justice, and tuition-free education—all these issues that have entered the mainstream political conversation over the last several years, I really think you have student activists who have put themselves on the line to thank for those things.

CM: The only thing I would add is that we don’t stop fighting for what we care about. Not just us, but anybody. We all have something that we’re willing to fight for. That’s really all that matters. If Divest had existed but nobody ever knew about it, that would have been okay, because we were fighting with integrity and purpose. And that is how you change the world.

SN:What are some specific things young people can bring to the table?

CM: I think one thing we touched on is moral clarity. We approach that not just in an immediate sense but in a long-term sense as well, and we know that both of those go hand in hand. We bring energy. I mean, we can canvass all day and work all night. We have a lot to give. I also think that we live in a political system that has never prioritized the future, has never prioritized young people’s voices, never really respected young people’s voices because we can’t vote for the first 18 years. Then, when we can vote, we’re too young or immature to have any real say in the process. So we know what it’s like to have a political system that does not represent us or fight for us. Youth is its own kind of expertise. And if that perspective isn’t brought into a political space, then a political space will not represent us.

CW: Millennials have come of age saddled with student debt and looking for work after the Great Recession, and it reveals that the political system, our elected politicians, have totally failed us. And how it’s a rigged system that really just works for the rich at the end of the day. And that outrages us. I think we’re really intent on changing that dynamic. Another thing that young people bring to the table is fun. A lot of us young people have experienced a really toxic culture of burnout, martyrdom, and having fun and being a healthy human and drawing people in to a really rich, positive campaign atmosphere is a huge part of what we’ve been trying to do. Having canvassing days, but also having music and celebration, kickball, capture the flag, making it fun and inclusive and exciting to be a part of.

SN:Has there been a particularly memorable moment so far you’ve experienced over the course of your campaign?

CW: One of the best moments that stands out is after putting in just a ridiculous amount of work, shoulder to shoulder with friends, to get out the vote for the primary in June, having no idea whether we would succeed or not, going up against the establishment party, the Democratic Party candidate, we found out that two of the voting locations in our district ran out of ballots and had to get more copies made, we had so many people turn out to vote. It was such a gratifying moment. If you put in the work of just going door-to-door and having one-on-one conversations with people and bringing other people into that, such amazing things can happen.

CM: So I go canvassing every day, and I usually go myself. We’re in the most rural county in the most rural state in the nation: You have to drive down long dirt roads, it’s very rural. I drove to this one house that was this trailer in the middle of the woods and went and knocked on the door, and a man answered and he invited me inside. I went inside even though no one knows where I am, I just went in and sat at his kitchen table with him and talked about his life and the issues he was facing and how his political system has abandoned him. He said, “People see my house and don’t even knock on the door, and I’m so glad you came here and talked to me today.” And of all the conversations, that one stuck with me. It’s so heartbreaking how many folks are left behind. But when we take the time to listen and not assume, it can be so heartwarming. Coming home to a fun, lively, supportive culture that we’ve created gives me a lot of hope for what politics can be.

SN: Often young people who break into these spaces are set back by their relative youth—especially in politics, veterans can be skeptical and believe there’s a certain way of doing things. Do you find you have to compensate because of age? And how do you deal with that?

CW: We have definitely experienced that dynamic. You know, especially with the Democratic Party establishment, we often get told we’re too young. And the way that we’ve dealt with that is go out and knock on the doors and organize house parties and organize the canvasses and just put in the work.

CM: Yeah. We don’t excuse youth at all—we don’t succumb to those narratives, though they’re all around us. We know we have just as much of a voice and power potential as anyone else. We just do our thing, and the rest follows.



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/if-we-wont-then-who-will-an-interview-with-chloe-maxmin/
Open Letter to the State of West Virginia From Its Studentshttps://www.thenation.com/article/archive/open-letter-to-the-state-of-west-virginia-from-its-students/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationFeb 23, 2018

Teachers across West Virginia walked off the job Thursday amid a dispute over pay and benefits, causing more than 277,000 public school students to miss classes as educators swarmed the state Capitol in Charleston to protest. All 55 counties in the state closed schools during Thursday’s work stoppage. In response, a group of high school students in the state have formed a solidarity group, #SecureOurFuture, and issued the following open letter to West Virginia’s citizens. We repost it below with permission.

People of West Virginia,

Teachers across the state are striking this Thursday and Friday because of inadequate compensation and rising insurance premiums. We, as West Virginia students, are asking for your support in our movement to #SecureOurFuture by ensuring that our educators are compensated fairly and reasonably.

Our public employees have been promised raises for many years without any follow through from our legislature. Various members are using smoke and mirrors, calling a $404 raise (less than 1% for some teachers) every year for five years a “five percent raise.” This proposal is insulting, neither compensating for the rise in insurance premiums, nor even keeping up with inflation.

Public servants deserve more, and if we want hardworking, dedicated, and talented teachers to stay in West Virginia, we must compensate them competitively.

Currently, the House and Senate are following Governor Justice’s lead to freeze premiums for a 17-month period; the House is planning to raid the rainy day fund, and the Senate is scrabbling for money to build funding PEIA for that period into the state’s budget. All of these proposals expose the lack of empathy and respect for teachers in our state. The legislature is out of touch with what teachers are asking for, portraying basic necessities as extravagant and selfish.

In the state of West Virginia it is illegal for public employees to strike or collectively bargain; this includes the teachers’ union, taking the teeth out of the unions’ bite. In April of 1990, teachers violated state law by going on strike for eleven days in 47 counties. This week’s strike represents the first time all 55 counties will go on strike together. That significantly demonstrates the dire straits that our education system is in, and the insincerity of the promises the legislature has made to our teachers over the years.

It’s an election year, and it’s clear our current elected officials want to pawn this issue onto the next legislature. Seventeen months from now, after midterm elections, public employees would be in the same situation; we cannot keep “kicking the can down the road.” Teachers are already among the worst paid in the nation, and now our legislature would effectively cut their salary further through these changes to PEIA. We are the youngest voting block in the state. We will vote for the future of West Virginia.

The American Federation of Teachers and West Virginia Teachers Association are represented by the colors blue and red. We will be wearing purple, a mixture of these colors, tomorrow to symbolize our solidarity with the school employees who work every day to prepare us to become tomorrow’s citizens. We understand that this strike is not just a day off from school for us; it is not about pay, it’s about what’s right.

Sincerely,
Students of West Virginia
Cora Dunlap, Chase Goldsmith, Clare Higgins, Zack Ihnat, Elena Liu, Jakob Spruce

Capital High School Student Organizers, Student Body President, Senior Class President and Secretary
#SecureOurFuture



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/open-letter-to-the-state-of-west-virginia-from-its-students/
The Limits of the Global Network University: An Open Letterhttps://www.thenation.com/article/archive/the-limits-of-the-global-network-university-an-open-letter/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationNov 30, 2017

This open letter, written by a coalition of student groups at New York University, was shared with The Nation with permission to publish it.

In recent weeks, it has come to light that two NYU professors scheduled to teach at the NYU Abu Dhabi campus this academic year, Arang Keshavarzian and Mohamad Bazzi, were denied visas to the United Arab Emirates.

This is not the first time that members of the NYU community have been prevented from moving across the “global network university” (GNU). NYU Professor Andrew Ross was banned from visiting the UAE in 2015, and NYU students have been denied entry to both Abu Dhabi and Israel/Palestine, where NYU has a Tel Aviv campus.

Unfortunately, and despite NYU’s nondiscrimination policy, discrimination across the GNU constitutes a pattern: NYU students of Arab and Palestinian descent face tremendous and systematic restrictions on entry to Israel/Palestine, while NYU students with Palestinian ID cards are barred from entering Israel and therefore precluded from studying at NYU Tel Aviv. NYU students with Israeli citizenship cannot study at NYU Abu Dhabi, and at least one NYU student was denied access to the UAE because their perceived gender identity did not conform to the gender listed on their passport. All this comes as the university struggles with the Trump administration’s travel bans.

Rather than collectively throwing up our hands and denying that anything can be done, the university should view this reality as a call to action across all NYU campuses. If academic freedom and nondiscrimination are core values of NYU, the university should unreservedly defend these values. By not defending its academic workers, the university is enabling regimes of censorship in individual states to affect academic work in another, with chilling effects on the production of academic knowledge everywhere.

The Emirati state provided no reasons for its visa decisions. However, as Mohamad Bazzi has written, “The U.A.E.’s security clearance forms require applicants to list religion and sect, and N.Y.U.’s own written instructions specify that its employees cannot leave those fields blank.” Whether or not religion was a factor in the visa decisions, the university’s request for such information represents an act of complicity with the most discriminatory practices of the Emirati state. It also calls into question the universalist rhetoric and celebrations of mobility that suffuse the “global university” branding, and forces us to consider for whom NYU is actually global.

Just as troubling is the university’s response. NYU has released no details on the incidents, nor has it publicly and vocally come to the defense of its faculty members and students. In the specific cases of Bazzi and Keshavarzian, NYU President Andrew Hamilton merely responded with a private letter that echoed earlier statements, saying that the university cannot be expected to “guarantee to their scholars that they can cross any border at any given time to teach or conduct research.” Current trustee Ken Langone defended even harsher immigration restrictions in an interview on Fox News, saying, “We have enough screwballs in America without importing them.” Such statements suggest a troubling disregard for the kinds of mobility required for NYU to truly represent a “global network university.” Moreover, the NYU administration has done little to ease existing concerns about its commitment to transparent and democratic university governance in these and other matters, opposing student representation on the NYU Board of Trustees while avoiding public stances in seeming support of its core principles.

Indeed, NYU seems more committed to colonial-era rhetoric of globalizing and modernizing the UAE and the world through liberal arts education than to its own principles as an institution. As members of the NYU community, we are much more interested in whether NYU’s concrete practices reflect its stated values than in NYU’s purported ability to spread those values to others. Moreover, it is unclear how NYU can serve as a “model for the world” when it refuses to defend its own values and in fact consistently accommodates authoritarian rule in the UAE and elsewhere.

As restrictions on freedom of movement have interfered with scholarly work at campuses around the world, including NYU New York, other academic institutions have shown what strong public stances in such matters could look like: the Middle Eastern Studies Association, for example, is itself currently contesting the Trump administration’s “travel ban” in a case before the Supreme Court. Additionally, NYU’s own Sanctuary Campus Coalition has consistently pressured the administration to systematically respond to issues of mobility in light of Trump’s travel ban.

Yet NYU appears to be abetting one of the most troubling strategies used by the Emirati government: in framing the cases of Professor Bazzi, Professor Keshavarzian, and numerous NYU students as a set of individual cases rather than as a “broad policy” of discrimination, NYU is choosing to overlook both the weight of evidence of discrimination and the opacity and arbitrariness of the decision-making processes in the Emirati security apparatus. The UAE may not publicly announce that it discriminates against individuals it categorizes as Shi’i, but patterns are clearly discernable. Indeed, the state routinely denies access to information instrumentally, in order to confuse its critics and stifle dissent. In maintaining its silence, NYU has both benefited from—and contributed to—violations of its own core principles.

Protecting the right of scholars to research sensitive subjects is particularly crucial given the troubling history of labor at NYUAD. As has been widely reported, NYU’s system of labor monitoring failed to detect endemic labor abuses during the construction of the Abu Dhabi campus. As labor and human-rights groups have been repeatedly denied access to the emirate, and Professor Ross was presumably banned for his work on labor, the University benefited from a state-enforced blackout that has had a devastating impact on its own workers. Increased independent scrutiny from the beginning of the project, meanwhile, may have helped alleviate some of the most glaring abuses.

These troubles are part of a wider problem with how NYU defines the role of a university. To explain how academic freedom can exist in a legal system where “showing sympathy” for Qatar can be punishable by 15 years in prison, NYU has reiterated what it describes as a difference between academic freedom and freedom of speech. According to this formula, academic freedom does not protect “any publicly accessible expression,” nor is it a “blanket guarantee” to “spout out” anything in class. Instead, it is supposed to support a narrowly defined set of practices inside the classroom. Unfortunately, the line between “spouting out” and teaching is never clearly delineated, and is likely to prove particularly fraught for scholars studying the local issues and questions with which “portal campuses” are supposed to engage. This was most evident in the suppression of scholarship and reporting on the exploitative labor practices through which the NYU Abu Dhabi campus was built.

In making such an argument, the university has cynically embraced the most pejorative definition of “academic” as “having no practical or useful significance.” Public outreach—of which publishing is the most obvious example—is central to scholarship, and yet it is precisely such “public-facing” activity that NYU overtly refuses to protect under the banner of academic freedom. The university should work to expand the impact of its scholars, rather than demeaning the value of their work.

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP), Middle Eastern Studies Association (MESA), and NYU Sanctuary have all issued statements calling on NYU to publicly and forcefully defend its academic workers. These accompany the positions taken by a growing number of NYU departments and faculty in protest of the university’s inadequate response thus far. NYU Sanctuary has argued, “Restrictions on the freedom of movement are a powerful coercive mechanism, one that discourages independent speech and critical scholarship.” As concerned members of the NYU community, we call on our university to publicly defend faculty and students who are denied entry to the UAE, and to combat restrictions of movement of NYU faculty and students that violate norms of academic freedom and nondiscrimination to the UAE, Israel, and the United States—as well as any other states in which this becomes a matter of concern—with all the means at its disposal.

Specifically, we call on NYU faculty and students to refrain from teaching, working, or studying at NYU Abu Dhabi until such time that the University:

(1) Addresses the NYU community’s concerns about the principles of academic freedom and nondiscrimination at NYU campuses and demonstrates that it is using all possible means to defend them.

(2) Issues a public statement that lays out the NYU stance on, and response to, the cases of Professors Bazzi and Keshavarzian.

(3) Acknowledges and enumerates other visa denials at NYU campuses, and how they have been addressed.

(4) Lays out a transparent arbitration process that will be used to advocate for students and faculty in similar situations in the future.

(5) Demonstrate a clear and genuine commitment to NYU’s core institutional principles of free movement across the GNU, nondiscrimination, and academic freedom.

Signed,
Graduate Student Organizing Committee-UAW Local 2110
Democratic Socialists of America at NYU
NYU Jewish Voice for Peace
NYU Students for Justice in Palestine
NYU Student Labor Action Movement
NYU Sanctuary Coalition



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/the-limits-of-the-global-network-university-an-open-letter/
No, Law School Didn’t Teach Us to ‘Engage’ With Racistshttps://www.thenation.com/article/archive/no-law-school-didnt-teach-us-to-engage-with-racists/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationAug 1, 2017

This was co-written by Yale Law School students Will Bloom, Wally Hilke, Bethany Hill, Amit Jain, Andrés López-Delgado, Maya Menlo, and Joseph Meyers.

In a recent opinion piece in Time, Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken breathes a sigh of relief: Unlike the disruptive protesters at Middlebury and Claremont McKenna colleges earlier this year, her law students are trained to respectfully voice their dissent. “From the first day in class, students must defend an argument they don’t believe or pretend to be a judge whose values they dislike,” she writes. “The litigation system is premised on the hope that truth will emerge if we ensure that everyone has a chance to have her say.” She argues that this professional decorum is the most effective way to overcome division, reminding us that it was powerful enough to protect lawyers like Thurgood Marshall from violence during the civil-rights era.

Unfortunately, Dean Gerken’s article mischaracterizes both the protest that we and around 20 other students helped organize against Charles Murray in October 2016 and the treatment of civil-rights lawyers in the South. If anything, our legal training has taught us that civility has its limits, and that disruption, creative protest, and rule-breaking are valid and often necessary tactics to effect change.

Dean Gerken claims that civil-rights luminary and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall was able to practice law in small, segregated towns in rural Maryland during the early days of the civil-rights movement because “members of the Maryland bar had decided to treat Marshall as a lawyer, first and foremost.” This account fails to mention that though Marshall and other black lawyers were permitted to practice in American courtrooms, once the courthouse doors closed, a different form of American “justice”—mob violence, lynching, and death threats—awaited them in the dark of night. To suggest that the legal profession’s culture of respect protected Marshall fails to acknowledge the violent tenacity of white supremacy. It ignores the fact that activists did not triumph over these forms of coercion in the courtroom alone, but through protest and direct confrontation with Jim Crow policies. This is the American history we learn at Yale Law School.

Dean Gerken suggests that disruptive protests undermine activists’ causes and harm academic debate. To this point, 57 percent of Americans in 1961 thought that disruptive lunch-counter sit-ins and freedom rides hurt black people’s’ chances of being integrated in the South. It is now clear that this criticism was not meant to support racial justice but to suppress it: Most of those Americans did not want black people to be their equals.

Dean Gerken’s account of the Charles Murray protest at Yale Law School also fails to acknowledge that students did, in fact, disrupt the event. Prior to Murray’s talk, a group of around 100 protesters packed the lecture hall and distributed fliers detailing his long history of hate speech. When Murray rose to speak, nearly every student in the audience also stood up. Students announced a concurrent teach-in on the effects of white supremacy, and then filed out of the room. This delayed the start of Murray’s talk, which he then delivered to a nearly empty hall.

When students invite a racist social scientist to speak on a university campus, as they did in the case of these protests, all should respond with alarm. Instead, both conservative and moderate commentators across the country have turned their scrutiny on student protesters. They style themselves as free-speech martyrs, but disruptive protest is also speech, and we and our peers, particularly those subjected to racist and gendered attacks by people like Murray, will continue to raise our voices in opposition.

We decline Dean Gerken’s invitation to adopt the “free-speech” framework propagated by conservative speakers who, like Murray, assert not only the right to speak but also the right to be heard by the very people they aim to oppress. We have no interest in civil conversation with a man who denigrates the cognitive capacities of women and people of color. People like Murray who repeatedly and unapologetically engage in bigoted speech despite being repeatedly and soundly rebutted have no place on a university campus. Inviting people like him to speak is not an invitation to dialogue but an act of aggression against the people he denigrates: women and people of color.

Fortunately, campus racial-justice movements have not confined themselves to the tight box Dean Gerken would set out for them. In 1968, students at Yale Law School walked out on a panel of white professors speaking on “Law and the Urban Crisis” and organized a competing event they called “Law Is the Urban Crisis.” In 2016, students of color and their allies at Harvard Law School occupied the school’s student center, renaming it “Belinda Hall” after one of the slaves owned by the family whose crest adorned Harvard Law School’s seal. Students used Belinda Hall for political education and community building, and to physically embody the ignored concerns and demands of students of color.

Confronting racism is difficult, but essential, work. Promoting civility can undermine this work by policing the tone and speech of those who are oppressed, diverting our attention away from efforts to combat ongoing white supremacy. Though the study of law and its decorum may be sobering, it does not mean law students should abandon protest and dissent. We intend to use all of the lessons of our legal training to fight injustice wherever we encounter it.



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/no-law-school-didnt-teach-us-to-engage-with-racists/
Why Doesn’t the First Amendment Count for Students?https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/why-doesnt-the-first-amendment-count-for-students/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationApr 6, 2016

These days, North Carolina isn’t exactly the holy land of civil liberties. It won’t let you go to the bathroom that fits your gender identity without fear of punishment. It’ll tackle and arrest you for speaking up at university board meetings. Why, then, would it suddenly be concerned about protecting freedom of speech?

That’s what Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest’s “Campus Free Expression Act” is supposed to do. Under the act, Forest says that he wants to make the University of North Carolina system “a place where there is free trade in the marketplace of ideas”—that is, where “all students, faculty, and others in the University community have the freedom to express opinions on the issues of the day.” His motivations seem more complicated, however. If the act moves forward, universities won’t be able to take action on issues brought up by students, such as divestment measures, out of concern for the “suppression of other viewpoints.” In addition, students could face expulsion for disrupting public events—putting the plug on ongoing protests at Board of Governors meetings against the corporate takeover of the UNC system, the dismantling of the state’s historically black colleges and universities, and the appointment of Margaret Spellings, George W. Bush’s secretary of education, as UNC president.

Forest’s double-talk can be seen, in fact, as the end of “free expression” as students know it. Theoretically, as long as schools are meant to serve them, those in charge should be interested in listening to what students have to say. At UNC—or up the road at Duke, where administrators have threatened students for demanding racial justice—this isn’t necessarily the most convenient way of doing business. The alternative? Preventing conflict in the first place.

At What Point Do Black Lives Stop Mattering to Administrators?

By Kevin Ferreira and Chad Olle, Boston College

In March 2015, Eradicate #BostonCollegeRacism emerged from the heartbreak and anger surrounding highly visible murders of black men and women by law enforcement. Week after week, violent images of disregard for black bodies pervaded the media—yet leadership at a university with a public mission to be “one for others” was silent. When students tried to speak out by staging a “die-in,” BC chose to discipline us.

In response, three student researchers created an infographic that pointed out the contradictions between BC’s stated social-justice mission and its actions to silence student voices. As the infographic gained visibility, a number of student activists started experiencing some of the same silencing that it documented, and the Eradicate movement was born. First, we were called into a string of meetings with administrators. We were told that the infographic was not approved for posting on campus and that we should refrain from taking further actions because of “concern for our student standings.” Later, a second infographic was denied by the provost’s office, abridging both established posting rules and common standards of academic freedom.

Since then, EBCR has hosted numerous events meant to amplify the voices of silenced students and push the university to address student concerns openly and transparently as many other universities have done. At last May’s graduation ceremony, a plane commissioned by an anonymous EBCR supporter flew over trailing a banner that read, “Eradicate Boston College Racism.” In October, BC invited Ta-Nehisi Coates to speak, and dozens of students wore duct tape over their mouths to signify the silencing of student voices on campus. In December, we staged 12 straight days of action that included the singing of anti-racist Christmas-carol parodies outside a Board of Directors meeting. There, the silencing continued: Students were not allowed to deliver our proposals to board members, and several student leaders were later called into official-conduct meetings.

Most recently, in February, elected leaders from the undergraduate student government organized a town-hall meeting to unveil a proposal addressing issues of diversity and inclusion at BC. This proposal was the painstaking, collaborative effort of many campus groups, including EBCR. Student leaders had presented the proposal to university administrators months before, with some circulating almost a year ago. Though the meeting drew a standing-room-only crowd to one of BC’s largest venues, no official response was offered from the president or any other high-level administrator.

When administrators engage with students, they’re more likely to invite us to talk with them one-on-one, behind closed doors, demonstrating the lack of priority given to issues of racial oppression and an unwillingness to take comprehensive action. For decades, anti-racist groups have grown tired of evasive tactics from a nearly all-white administration more concerned with PR than with students, faculty, and staff of color. Until BC lives up to its mission to be an institution that prepares students to “set the world aflame” with social justice, we will not be silenced.

Zionism’s Double Standard, Rejected

By Rosina Saeed, University of California, Santa Barbara

On March 17, the University of California Board of Regents rejected the Final Report of the Regents Working Group on Principles Against Intolerance, recognizing that anti-Zionism is legitimate as long as it isn’t anti-Semitic. The demand for this report came from outside entities who have pressured the UC administration to censor speech critical of Israel state policies. These actors aim to shut down Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, ultimately chilling the movement to boycott, divest, and sanction the state of Israel at the UC level.

The problem with the report was clear: It conflated anti-Semitism, or bigotry against Jewish people and culture, with anti-Zionism, a political movement and ideology. The working group had adopted the controversial US state definition of anti-Semitism, which states that any demonization, delegitimization, or double standard applied to the state of Israel is “anti-Semitism.” Not only is this, itself, a double standard but it also fails to adopt broader histories of Zionism and targets vaguely defined terms in a way that would risk violating academic principles of freedom of speech—altogether reflecting a level of anti-intellectualism that has no space at a university.

While fighting the report, we faced attempts at censorship from all sides. UC Regent Richard Blum and his spouse, Senator Dianne Feinstein, threatened formal punishment to students and faculty expressing anti-Zionist views, up to and including permanent expulsion. At demonstrations, we’ve faced Islamaphobic hate speech, racialized slurs, and even physical assault.

At the Regents meeting on March 23, SJP, JVP, and individual faculty stormed the UC Office of the President to protest enactment of the statement. We also voiced complete lack of confidence in the Regents’ choice of “experts” for the report: two off-campus partisans of Israeli advocacy groups, a faculty member who admitted not to be an expert on the term “Zionism,” and another faculty member involved in reducing the number of black, Latinx, and Native enrollment at the UC as a legal architect of the atrocious Proposition 209.

Most importantly, we engaged a broad cross-section of organizations to endorse our position, including unions, legal groups, the UC Academic Senate, and even the Los Angeles Times. This victory over censorship, and the larger fight to get the UC to stop fueling the Israeli government’s five-decade long military occupation, is driven by growing solidarity for human rights across struggles.

The Most Dangerous, Colorful Club on Campus

By Amanda Dodson, Franklin County High School

Anti-LGBT hate slurs hang in the halls of Franklin County High School in Winchester, Tennessee, like songs on a broken record. In January, a group of students responded by starting a Gay-Straight Alliance at the school, to fight the hate and prejudice against us and our straight allies.

Within the first week of our first meeting, people were questioning why we needed the GSA in the first place. Community members started a Facebook group calling for “protection for traditional marriage.” On February 8, the school board held a hearing on whether we had the right to meet. Attendees raised Christian flags and whispered hateful slurs under their breath. The first speaker argued that clubs that promoted any type of viewpoint shouldn’t be allowed, whether they’re Christian or LGBT. The second speaker revealed that the entire reason we started the club was to have a cover to perform sexual acts on one another. The opposition was strong, but we were stronger. After students spoke, and supporters from across the state rallied outside, the board decided that our club could stay.

After the hearing, students at the high school began putting up “straight pride” posters. One of my teachers told me, “I don’t like the rainbow flag. I like the American flag.” One day, my girlfriend and I were putting up GSA posters in the lunchroom. We had one of our posters ripped down, and we almost got attacked by a group of males. When we reported this to an administrator, he suggested that we were the instigators for hanging posters during lunch. After that day, we have been too afraid to go in the lunchroom anymore. Meanwhile, I was told to kill myself, but the administration did little to nothing about it. Our school had become a circus. Administrators were the ringleaders, the other students were the performers, and we were the freaks.

It had been one month since the first school-board meeting, and we were already back again. They considered getting rid of every non-academic club in Franklin County just to get rid of us. After a long, heated debate, they again voted to allow us to stay.

We still have a ways to go. In March, we were told that our buttons are a violation of dress code, despite that students can wear cross necklaces and staff can wear hats with Confederate flags. Our shirts were denied for having “too much color,” even though the band shirts last year had a rainbow font and were printed on yellow T-shirts. The administration uses the excuse that band students “aren’t allowed to wear them anymore,” despite that they wear them all the time without questions. As much hate and discrimination that our club goes through, the loving support of the GSA members is what keeps us going.

Hiking Fares, Cutting Funding, and… Knocking on Your Door About It?

By Lindsey Disler, Grand Valley State University

Imagine that you were harassed by police at the bidding of a corrupt CEO. This executive influenced the police to intimidate students, workers, and community members in retaliation for protesting—exercising their right to express anger after cuts to worker pensions, higher prices for customers, and a hike to the CEO’s pay. Imagine that his salary is funded by taxpayers in a small city, but that he makes as much as the head of NASA.

In 2016, this is Grand Rapids, Michigan, as students and workers organize against Peter Varga, the CEO of the The Rapid, Grand Rapids’ local transit authority. In August, students from United Students Against Sweatshops Local 77 and members of the Amalgamated Transit Union teamed up with community members to put The Rapid in reverse. That month, the board of directors, who are mostly elected officials in Western Michigan, voted to raise fares by 16 percent, gut the defined benefit pension of the workers, and give the CEO a raise.

Since August, the ATU tried bargaining with the company, but Rapid executives refused to sit in the same room as ATU negotiators. Varga refused to respond to simple requests, and, even the mayor, a professed fan of Cesar Chavez who sits on The Rapid’s Board of Directors, refused to listen. In response, we’ve taken up civil disobedience.

After students, workers, and community members held a sit-in at a city commission meeting in November and shut it down, the mayor issued a public statement condemning our action. Soon after, the Rapid called USAS’s faculty adviser to try to get us to stop working with the ATU and told us that we were “just going through a phase.” At the Rapid’s January board meeting, we held another sit-in. This time, a worker was suspended indefinitely—prompting a federal ruling two weeks later affirming workers’ right to protest at board meetings. Meanwhile, Rapid executives admitted that they were trying to convince the city to pursue and prosecute students.

Indeed, on March 18, a plainclothes police officer showed up at the door of a student organizer, told her that she was going to be charged with a civil disturbance, and asked her to identify other group members. She also said that students would be arrested in their homes if they didn’t show up to the police station to pick up a summons. Soon after, two others students were approached, including one USAS member who didn’t participate in the sit-in at all. Police also came to a worker’s home in body armor and began to question him. After the press began to cover the police harassment, the Rapid publicly admitted to being behind this intimidation campaign—clearly reflecting its commitment to chilling the speech of activists.

The Rapid’s plan can only backfire: The ATU, USAS, and the Grand Rapids community are more determined than ever to see this struggle through. In the face of corruption, we see how much harder we need to organize to win.



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/why-doesnt-the-first-amendment-count-for-students/
$15 and a Union for Students? Yeshttps://www.thenation.com/article/archive/15-and-a-union-for-students-yes/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationMar 11, 2016

What’s the difference between a “student” and a “worker”? In 1968, members of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers took over South End, Wayne State University’s daily newspaper, and gave it a new subtitle: “One class-conscious worker is worth 100 students.” In 2015, Hillary Clinton released her “debt-free” college plan, calling for students to work ten hours a week without getting paid. Both ideas are off. The first needs updating: In a world of tuition and debt, the vast majority of students are also workers. This includes upwards of a million students working on campus, on par with Walmart’s domestic workforce. The second—the idea that student work should be compensated or treated any differently from other work—is the target of a new, national movement.

On February 26, 300 students at the University of Pittsburgh marched calling for $15 an hour for student workers. Following the action, United Students Against Sweatshops launched the Student Worker Organizing Committee to bring #15onCampus to schools across the country. These efforts build off a September victory in Seattle, where student workers at the University of Washington won the same $15 wages as others in the city. Nationwide, students are demanding higher wages, an end to harassment and discrimination on the job, “just cause” protections, and more. Together, these demands set the stage for larger battles over the means and ends of higher education.

In this post, students from five campuses talk about their campaigns to win higher pay and labor rights. This post is the latest edition of the Nation’s student and youth organizing feature, edited by James Cersonsky (@cersonsky). For more, check out February 3 and February 18.

In Scott Walker’s Wisconsin, a New Kind of Labor Movement

By Luke Gangler, Amy Jochsett, Danny Levandoski, Samuel Park, Sophia Rogers & Cornell Zbikowski, University of Wisconsin–Madison

From the destruction of public sector collective bargaining to “right to work,” Scott Walker has made it nearly impossible for campus workers to certify a union, bargain over working conditions, or fund ourselves. At every turn, students have fought back. On Valentine’s Day in 2011, the Teaching Assistants’ Association and the Student Labor Action Coalition, USAS Local 1, led a march to the state capitol to protest Scott Walker’s infamous anti-union legislation. Just days later, more than 100,000 angry workers and students were in the streets, demanding their basic workplace rights.

In 2016, we’re still fighting for fair wages and representation—now on Bascom Hill instead of the capitol, and using organizing tactics that predate the existence of legal union representation. Bringing together workers from dining halls, libraries, housing, and other vital departments, we are demanding that Chancellor Rebecca Blank establish a campus-wide living wage of $15 an hour. Additionally, we are demanding a student-run grievance process, campus-wide workplace policies approved by students, and, in solidarity with the TAA, fair wages for graduate assistants, who earn 13 percent less than they did in 2002.

These concerns are nothing new. In 1969, UW graduate students formed the first student worker union and went on strike demanding a uniform grievance policy and an end to discriminatory policies. Undergraduates refused to go to class in solidarity. The next year, undergraduate student workers formed the Memorial Union Student Labor Organization—one of the only undergraduate student-worker unions, which lasted until UW administration dismantled it in 2004.

In February, the Student Labor Action Coalition delivered our demands to the chancellor. Since then, we have called out her hypocritical speaking engagements addressing poverty in the greater Madison area and brought the fight to the workplace, picketing at dining halls and engaging student workers, students, and allies.

Together, we are fighting not only poverty wages and poor workplace conditions, but systematic discrimination. Student workers report sexual, sexist, and homophobic harassment from management. One worker was told by human resources staff that the solution to an inaccessible workplace was to “keep [her] disability out of the workplace.” Just a few months later, she was illegally fired on the basis of her disability.

The administration says that the “student hourly positions are never meant to pay for someone’s college education,” and that student workers are students first. Likewise, the campus-wide raise to $9 that it announced last month is inadequate for undergraduate student workers and didn’t affect nearly half of us. Meanwhile, the chancellor says that she can’t envision a raise beyond $9 an hour in the foreseeable future. Students are fed up—and, with our collective power, we believe that we can win.

The Price of the Glass Ceiling

By Lily Luo, Wellesley College

At the beginning of the school year, Wellesley was, as far as we knew, the only college failing to financially compensate its Residential Assistants with a salary or housing. RAs didn’t receive free housing or a stipend, even though they were expected to come early for orientation and be available for nine hours of work per week throughout the school year. Over the past five years, they’ve relied on yearly student referendums to allocate a small stipend, which itself only came out of the student activity fee rather than from the college itself.

In August of last year, we founded Wellesley’s Student Labor Action Project chapter to confront class issues and financial inaccessibility at Wellesley. We realized that supporting those who had been fighting for RA compensation was a perfect place to start. The administration’s failure to pay RAs is part of a larger pattern: low-income students are denied many of the opportunities Wellesley offers. In order to afford the college’s $60,000 yearly price tag, they need to spend much of their “extracurricular” time in paid activities.

We began mobilizing campus support for RA compensation through a poster campaign, allowing students to share why RA compensation was important for them. Some students were appalled that a school committed to helping women shatter the glass ceiling would fail to compensate students for doing real emotional labor. Some pointed out that a school guaranteeing to meet all demonstrated need should make sure that, once on campus, students can support themselves and participate fully in campus life.

Using pressure created by our poster campaign, we held the administration to a firm deadline: by November 2 it needed to provide a comprehensive plan to pay RAs for the 2016-2017 school year. We planned a large-scale demonstration for that day that over 200 students committed to attend. Two days before our planned action, the school sent out a campus-wide email pledging to start compensating RAs next school year.

SLAP sees this victory as part of a continuing fight to make Wellesley more accessible. In February, we started a listening campaign to create a space where students feel comfortable talking about their experiences of financial inaccessibility. Seeing student workers on campuses like UMass Amherst form unions shows us that our work is far from over and that, when students collectively call for change, it can happen.

How the South Is Winning

By Lindsey Smith, University of Memphis

The United Campus Workers (UCW) was formed in 1999 alongside the Progressive Student Alliance, a local of United Students Against Sweatshops, to launch a living wage campaign for University of Tennessee workers. Our mission is to advance the interests of Tennessee higher education staff and faculty.

In 2010, UCW launched a campaign in Memphis to raise the wage of campus workers. Students and workers pushed for a citywide living wage ordinance, but Governor Bill Haslam signed a bill that prohibited local governments from mandating health insurance benefits, leave policies, hourly wage standards, or prevailing wage standards that went beyond the existing requirements of state and federal law. In response, organizing efforts redirected pressure toward the University of Memphis administration—ultimately winning workers employed directly by the university a campus minimum wage raise to $10.10 per hour in 2014, starting in January 2015.

Now, Governor Haslam is pushing a privatization scheme that could undermine this win. Haslam’s plan promises to outsource all state-owned real estate, including state parks, prisons, hospitals, armories, and universities. The goal is to cut costs—in other words, lower wages and slash the benefits that these workers have fought for, while advancing the fiscal austerity of the Republican dominated legislature. Similar privatization measures have been detrimental to state infrastructure and public services. Over the past eight months, we have united across the state. We’ve held rallies, phone banks, teach-ins, and sit-ins, to tell Governor Haslam that Tennessee is not for sale.

We recognize that our struggle with labor issues is deeply rooted in the oppression of other marginalized groups, from the largely black workforce at the University of Memphis’s physical plant to the oppression faced by Tennessee’s students of color. Labor issues, especially in the South, are inextricably linked to the struggles of people of color. None of us are free until all of us are free, and we will fight for the power of students and workers until collective liberation comes to fruition.

$15, a Union, and Much More

By Brooke Petersen, San Diego State University

The Fight for Fifteen’s arrival in San Diego in August 2013 jump-started San Diego State University student participation in the labor movement, culminating in a campus day of action for $15 and a successful union drive in April 2015. Students have tied the call for higher wages to food and housing insecurity. Last spring, the California State University commissioned a year-long study of student poverty. Almost a quarter of students reported going hungry, and 12 percent reported housing insecurity—in a system that spent $2 million remodeling its presidents’ homes.

Our calls for a campus-wide $15 minimum wage and union recognition for undergraduate student workers are part of a list of 20 demands from SDSU’s Multicultural Coalition, launched on March 2. From divestment to fee freezes to Ethnic and Gender Studies requirements, the list creates a united platform for ethical change. At a tense visit from CSU chancellor Tim White, we read our demands. Although the microphone was cut on our first speaker, we were ready, and each demand was taken up by a new voice.

Indeed, our wages are only one lever of power between students and the administration. The fee freeze, executive salary freeze, and resources for people of color—who are disproportionately paid lower wages—are equally important in creating economic sustainability. Over the past several years, we’ve won a majority vote of students on divestment from corporations complicit in human rights violations in occupied Palestine, while mobilizing hundreds against fee hikes, anti-Muslim hate crimes, and sexual violence at SDSU. Only when SDSU stops seeking exploitative profit—whether from fossil fuels, war industries, or student debt—will it create the environment we need for work and learning.

As students realize the value of our own work, we see ourselves as part of a larger, university-wide struggle. Concurrent with our demands, food and retail workers on campus are facing significant resistance to their unionizing efforts, and CSU faculty are preparing to strike April 13 to 19. We stand in support of the strike and are building a strike fund to help low-wage campus workers join.

What’s a Month Without Pay in the City?

By Samuel Falcone-Coffin, Columbia University

Joining students at New York University and City College, Columbia’s Student-Worker Solidarity is organizing for a minimum wage of $15 for all campus workers. Despite Columbia’s $9 billion endowment, conversations with student workers and our own experiences demonstrate a shortage of work-study jobs for students from working class backgrounds, jobs without livable wages (many starting at $9), and chronic (and illegal) reports of payroll backlog amounting to months without pay. Currently, vital services like emergency first response, sexual violence response, and nightline mental health support hotline operate on a volunteer basis—leaving these crucial and enriching positions open only to students who can afford to devote their time to unpaid labor.

After dozens of conversations with student workers, we held a student worker organizing meeting with more than 50 attendees, who shared their visions of Columbia’s work-study program. In October, student workers flooded the provost’s steps, telling stories of working three jobs to make ends meet and being unable to work enough hours to fulfill their entire work study award. In November, brandishing a paper mache effigy, we brought our demand for backpay of overtime wages directly to Barnard President Debora Spar. Continually, we’ve had to remind the university of its commitment to the prosperity of all students.

For its part, despite meeting with students and hearing extensive testimony detailing the realities of low wages and payroll backlog, the administration has yet to support the demands of our campaign in any meaningful sense. We have, however, gathered 600 student signatures and the support of a growing number of academic departments. We’ve also started to win: After our rally in October, Campus Public Safety, one of the largest student employers, announced that it would raise its wage to $15.

In December, we formed the Barnard Columbia Solidarity Network. This coalition brings the struggle in direct relationship with others: for climate justice, for justice in Palestine, to end rape culture, and around issues specific to communities of color. To win, we must situate the campaign for a living wage in the collective fight for a better world for everyone.



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/15-and-a-union-for-students-yes/
Young Oklahoma Voters Not Afraid of Democratic Socialismhttps://www.thenation.com/article/archive/young-oklahoma-voters-not-afraid-of-democratic-socialism/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Lauren Massing,StudentNationMar 2, 2016

This article was originally published in the University of Oklahoma’s OU Daily on February 28, two days before Senator Bernie Sanders won the Democratic primary in Oklahoma.

Democratic socialist is a term presidential candidate Bernie Sanders uses frequently to describe himself, but it doesn’t seem to scare younger voters.

Jessica Thornton, an OU graduate from Oklahoma City and Sanders supporter, said she understands where the negative stigma associated with socialism comes from, but that it should not be seen as a scary thing.

“I know there have been types of socialism in the past that have gone negatively, but the same thing can happen with capitalism,” Thornton said.

During a rally in Oklahoma City on February 28, Sanders said it is the job of the citizens to “revitalize American democracy,” an idea that ties in heavily to his position on democratic socialism.

Harper Horning, a biology junior at OU, said the polarization of American politics makes it hard for our nation to move forward, and that Sanders’s ideas for the future of America bring hope to younger voters like herself.

“I feel like as millennials and as college students, we don’t want that as our future, and his ideas are so progressive that it’s easy to feel like he might actually stand for something more than just politics,” Horning said.

Horning also said the term democratic socialism doesn’t scare her, because it is already in place to a certain extent.

“I don’t think of it as a bad thing because we have so many socialist programs like Medicare and Medicaid…you have to have some sort of government regulation for our country to work,” Horning said.

Manon Fisher, an industrial engineering sophomore at OU, said one thing that stands out for her the most when it comes to Sanders’s policies is making college education free.

“Putting yourself through school is hard, and it’s positive for me to think that maybe when my little sister goes to college, it will be different for her,” Fisher said.

Horning said Sanders’s policies are refreshing to hear, because sometimes millennials can feel weighed down by the problems in the country.

“It’s refreshing to hear such big and inspiring ideas that are so open to change because I think we need drastic progress at this point,” Horning said.

Sanders began his presidential campaign 10 months ago and at the time was down 3 percent in the polls, he said during the rally. But earlier this month, he won the New Hampshire primary.

“At the time, we were considered a fringe campaign,” Sanders said. “A lot has changed since then; a few polls even have us in the lead.”



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/young-oklahoma-voters-not-afraid-of-democratic-socialism/
Trump and Friends: Meet the Immigrant Youth Movementhttps://www.thenation.com/article/archive/the-trump-generation/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Lauren Massing,StudentNation,StudentNationFeb 18, 2016

Behind the curtain of the Donald Trump campaign, there’s an anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim movement. When the dust settles on the campaign trail, there will be many Trumps left standing, from his opponents, inspired to talk like him, to the base he’s riled up. Trump, the candidate, will win or lose. What’s the answer to Trump, the movement?

In this post, contributors offer three possible answers. Together, they represent and reflect an immigrant youth groundswell that has brought visions of a border-free society into the national spotlight. This post is the latest edition of The Nation’s youth organizing feature, edited by James Cersonsky (@cersonsky). For more, check out February 2.

Who “Deserves” Not to Be Deported?

By Sandy Valenciano, California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance

After the July 2015 shooting of Kate Steinle by Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, an undocumented immigrant, San Francisco was under a magnifying glass—thanks to politicians across the spectrum who exploited the issue for personal gain. “This senseless and totally preventable act of violence committed by an illegal immigrant is yet another example of why we must secure our border immediately,” said Donald Trump, then only a few weeks into his campaign. Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, California’s Democratic senators, attacked sanctuary cities and called for legislation requiring local law enforcement to communicate with ICE.

To counter the scapegoating of undocumented immigrants, the FREE SF Coalition formed the #ICEoutofSF campaign. This campaign is part of a statewide effort, ICE out of CA, to disentangle local law enforcement and ICE—the opposite of what elected officials from both parties are demanding. Together, we are organizing to highlight the human costs of ICE’s unconstitutional practices and shine a light on the complicity of local sheriffs.

Nationwide, ICE has a mandate of some 35,000 beds to fill, giving it an incentive to detain anyone, regardless of individual circumstances. ICE does not act upon judicial warrants, but targets individuals with the help of “guidelines” from the Department of Homeland Security. In the process, the Fourth Amendment rights of undocumented people to be safe inside their homes are frequently violated. ICE is supported by the Priority Enforcement Program, the Obama administration’s rebranding of its discredited “Secure Communities.” PEP and S-COMM work similarly: Under S-COMM, local law enforcement would hold individuals for ICE to pick up; under PEP, locales “notify” ICE when an individual is being released instead. These “notifications” involve raids outside of jails, courts, and people’s homes.

In one of many such examples, Immigrant Youth Coalition organizer Yadira Sanchez had her grandfather taken into ICE custody and almost deported. ICE showed up at her parents’ home looking for a man with a name similar to her grandfather’s. Although the names were different, they detained him, and, in less than 24 hours, he was on a bus to the border. It took the family several hours to locate him. Before they did, ICE did not respond to questions from the family or its attorneys, all of whom were desperately trying to understand what was happening. Ultimately, we were able to direct such a high volume of calls to the Los Angeles ICE Field Office that ICE decided to turn the van around and release him.

Although we are glad that Yadira’s abuelito was not deported, no one should ever have to experience such a traumatic event, let alone in the name of “public safety.” Yadira was grateful to have a network of support. Unfortunately, the others in her abuelito’s van weren’t so lucky, and no one will hear their stories.

A Transnational Movement

By Zana Alattar and Dina Jaber, Students Organize for Syria

As Syrian-Americans, we have witnessed the crisis in Syria with difficulty. The people fighting for their lives could have been us if our parents had not fled the country 20 years ago.

On March 15, 2011, the Syrian people broke a 40-year period of fear when they took to the streets for democracy and human rights. They were met with extreme brutality and, since then, have faced unimaginable death, destruction, and loss. Thousands of miles away, their demands for human rights and justice have resonated with students in the United States. At Arizona State University, student activism became the platform for a national initiative: Students Organize for Syria.

Since 2014, SOS has brought together students from across the United States, from all backgrounds, to support Syrians’ struggle for freedom and human rights by taking direct action, educating our peers, and providing mutual aid to Syrian students.

SOS has led a number of campaigns and grown quickly, with chapters at 19 universities. Through #RefugeesWelcome , we’ve written op-eds in local and campus newspapers, held rallies and vigils, and educated our communities on the problems with the refugee vetting process. On October 9, SOS allied with the Syrian American Medical Society for #Advocate4Syria , lobbying Congress to resettle 100,000 Syrian refugees by 2016 and take actions to protect civilians in Syria.

We have also organized different forms of aid. In December, as part of our annual Mustache Campaign, 13 teams mobilized to raise over $100,000 for winter supplies and education for Syrian refugees. Through our Paper Airplanes campaign, we are connecting Syrian students with their American counterparts, who provide English tutoring once a week via Skype. At least 3.3 million Syrians have been forced out of school because of aerial bombardment—making it crucial to find other means of education. And on February 1, we partnered with STAND on Books Not Bombs.” In this campaign, we are petitioning our schools to create scholarships for Syrian refugee students who would otherwise not be able to pursue higher education. In the first two weeks, we gathered more than 4,600 signatures, which collectively target 121 universities. This campaign also serves as a platform to increase student engagement with the Syrian crisis and to educate students about the world’s worst humanitarian crisis since World War II.

As Syrian-Americans, the memories of Syria—faint smells of Damascus jasmine, cyprus trees, and Arabian musk—will never fade from our minds or hearts. As members of the larger student community, we see that the crisis in Syria is not for Syrian-Americans alone to address, but for all of us.

“Take Your Ass Home, Donald Trump!”

By Jasmine Bonola and Kathleen Mora, United We Dream

Growing up Mexican-American hasn’t been easy, but it has made us aware. Our parents’ shared struggles being undocumented in rural North Carolina made us instant best friends. We’ve fought injustice from the beginning of our freshmen year in high school, when we realized our classmates could not take drivers’ education courses because they were undocumented.

When Donald Trump threatened and insulted our friends and families, we were not going to keep quiet. The moment we heard that Trump was going to hold a rally in Raleigh, we prepared to tell him that neither he nor his hateful speech were welcome in our state. We were aware of how protesters were treated at these rallies, and we prepared accordingly. The night before, we practiced every possible outcome, from light aggression to full-on physical assault; we focused on remaining calm and non-aggressive. We braided our hair to make it harder to pull. We walked into the Dorton Arena preparing for the worst.

While we stood in a sea of Trump supporters, listening to them scream as if they were watching their favorite team play, we were nervous, hearts pounding, blood pumping. When the time came, we pulled out our little red signs and screamed at the top of our lungs, “Stop the hate, we make America great!” Seconds after we began, the attack started. Our signs got ripped away, we got shoved by everyone around us, and women who were being kind to us before called us names and got in our faces. An older gentleman approached us and put his sweater around our faces as if he were trying to suffocate us. Security rushed in, and we were kicked out.

As we walked out of Dorton Arena, we hugged and cried—not because we were sad, but because we had sent a message on behalf of thousands of members of our community. On the way to our rides, we discovered a protest at the entrance to the arena, and we joined it. There, we met other activists who had come to disrupt Trump as well—an emotional, but reassuring, moment. Together, we are a community that is ready to defend itself in the face of white-supremacist, anti-immigrant voices.

In the fall, we took to the streets against HB 318, a law that targets undocumented immigrants and the poor by requiring the police to cooperate with immigration authorities, implementing “E-Verify” for state workers, restricting forms of acceptable identification, and cutting access to SNAP benefits. Since then, we have mobilized to provide alternate identification for people who do not have state-supported IDs, and we have spoken to council members in our cities to persuade them to embrace our immigrant communities. As November approaches, we are approaching eligible community members to register to vote, educating them about the importance of making our voices heard. The Latino vote isn’t just about numbers—it’s about showing that we take our opposition, and our power, seriously.



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/the-trump-generation/
Silence on Campus: Contingent Work and Free Speechhttps://www.thenation.com/article/archive/silence-on-campus-contingent-work-and-free-speech/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Lauren Massing,StudentNation,StudentNation,Alex Press,StudentNationFeb 17, 2016

While debates over the threat college students pose to free speech on campuses continue to dominate headlines, the silencing that follows from contingent employment does not.

But, while student activists make for more colorful copy, if we’re concerned with free speech on campus, we should scrutinize how it’s threatened by those who hold the most power within these institutions: administrators.

Just ask Peter Fraunholtz. A Northeastern University adjunct for 18 years, Fraunholtz helped the university’s recently unionized adjuncts complete the bargaining process for their first contract. That process finally came to an end last month, nearly two years after the 900 instructors gained representation from the SEIU, making them the largest adjunct union in the Boston area.

Despite these large numbers, Fraunholtz estimates they won the campaign with “about 25 committed individuals.” Much of the absenteeism comes down to the fear that afflicts vulnerable workers when presented with the choice to either speak out or stay silent.

Testifying to the sometimes surreal nature of participation in the campaign, Fraunholtz tells the following story: “Northeastern University police came after me when I was flyering on campus. They took my ID, they called in my name, and then somebody came out and said ‘Oh, this has to be approved by the faculty senate,’ and then somebody else showed up from elsewhere and said, ‘Oh no, this has to be approved by marketing.’ Then a third person showed up and said, ‘If you walk over [to the public sidewalk], you can do whatever you want.’”

Pausing to laugh at the idea of getting a flyer critical of the administration approved by that administration’s marketing department, he adds, “But that’s what they’re thinking: it needs approval. Everything must be approved.”

He isn’t wrong.

Writing via e-mail, Joe Berry, author of Reclaiming the Ivory Tower: Organizing Adjuncts to Change Higher Education, says that if the chilling effect on speech that follows from job insecurity is hard to document, its prevalence is impossible to deny.

“There’s a joke among contingents that says, ‘Any contingent who says they teach their classes as a professional worker in the same way they would if they had job security is either lying or too stupid to be trusted with a class.’” Explaining how this unfolds in the classroom, he explains: “Self-censorship is by far the biggest consequence of this, as far as the education of students are concerned. Much of this is by omission. The topic not brought up, the questions not answered, the extra point not made, the opinion toned down and therefore less clear.”

The “contingents” Berry refers to are academic contingent workers otherwise known as adjuncts. In 1969, only 21.7 percent of faculty positions were non-tenure track, but in 2013, adjuncts constitute over half of all faculty, with tenure and tenure-track faculty a mere 34 percent of the total workforce, according to figures from SEIU, one of the key unions organizing adjuncts. Reliance on contingent workers is a pillar of what some have called the “creeping corporatism of the American university,” wherein the university operates as a business, often at the expense of those whose labor propels it to profitability.

Corporatization creates a dilemma for higher education: College, unlike most businesses, serves a social function—the production and transfer of knowledge—the achievement of which requires an environment of intellectual freedom that can conflict with profit margins, as some actors central to the model, such as donors, may take issue with controversial speech. In the past, tenure resolved some of this tension—once professors gain tenure, they’re walled off from these pressures, at least theoretically. With the erosion of tenure and a slack academic job market, free speech disappears as professors become increasingly disposable.

As Steven Vallas, a sociologist at Northeastern University who researches the changing nature of work, argues, a professor’s right to speak freely presumes a foundation of job stability.

“If you have an expansion of the adjunct, precarious professoriate, than you really are eroding the proportion of people who can speak their mind.”

In contrast to claims that censorious students are the central threat to the ability of college to serve as a marketplace of ideas, the silencing of speech that comes with a sense of one’s disposability appears much more powerful.

Conceding the difficulty of capturing the preemptive stifling of debate that comes with disposable worker status, we can take the severity of repercussions visited upon those who don’t censor themselves as indicative of the problem.

Take the case of Steven Salaita, an indigenous studies scholar whose offer of a position at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign was rescinded after he tweeted critically about Israel’s 2014 attack on Gaza. A violation of academic freedom that resulted in a rare formal censure from the AAUP, for Salaita, administrative censorship is no secret. “For the uninitiated, the levels of vitriol and retribution that attend criticism of Israel can be stunning,” he writes, referencing a report authored by the Center for Constitutional Rights and Palestine Legal that details hundreds of reported acts of suppression of pro-Palestine advocacy in under two years. Salaita sued the University of Illinois for violating his rights. While he settled out of court for $875,000, discovery findings from his lawsuit reveal the likelihood of donor influence on the decision to fire him, with the chancellor communicating with donors about Salaita’s tweets and his possible dismissal.

As Salaita’s case demonstrates, the extent of donor pressure goes a long way to explain why administrations might choose to silence speech, explains William Robinson, a professor at the University of California–Santa Barbara. In 2009, Robinson caught the attention of outside organizations that then pressured UCSB administrators to charge him with violating the university’s academic code of conduct, according to Robinson’s account of the incident, as well as details published by his supporters.

Explaining the role financial needs play in decisions to censor faculty in public higher education, Robinson argues, “As public funding is cut, the administration becomes more reliant on private donors. These donors then use that leverage, threatening to withdraw donations if an administration doesn’t act.”

The problem is worsening as public funds for higher education are drying up across the country, according to a recent report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. As this money dwindles, administrations turn to wealthy donors, creating the conditions under which prestigious donors can sway administrator’s decisions on how to respond to controversial faculty, if those faculty can get hired in the first place.

Although instances of administrative rebuke in the face of outside pressure remain rare, Adia Harvey Wingfield, a sociologist at Washington University of St Louis, views these incidents as “canaries in the coal mine,” affecting instructors and graduate students alike by showing what can result from speaking up on an issue someone else finds controversial. Writing about the cases of Saida Grundy and Zandria Robinson, two black female professors whose Twitter feeds offended outsiders who labeled their views anti-white.

While these cases concern individuals, administrative resistance to the exercise of protected rights by campus members is most acute with respect to union campaigns, as unions offer a means to protect whole categories of workers, obstructing administrators’ ability to discipline individual employees at will. The intransigence of administrators in the face of unions can be inferred by their retention of expensive law firms, handing over student tuition to the likes of Jackson Lewis, a firm the AFL-CIO calls “the number one union buster in America.” The effects of these efforts can by seen by figures compiled by the Delta Cost Project. This data shows that while private colleges increased spending on instruction by 22 percent between 1998 and 2008, administrative spending increased by 36 percent over the same period, with administrator-to-student ratios shrinking rapidly. In pursuit of a service model of higher education, universities appear determined to minimize labor costs even as administrative bloat grows.

According to Anne Fleche, an adjunct involved in the Northeastern adjunct union campaign “from SEIU’s very first e-mail,” a lawyer from Jackson Lewis led the university’s bargaining efforts, confirming accounts that the firm was at the bargaining table from start to finish. Some previously speculated that the administration would spend more on the firm than on any wage increases agreed upon in the end. At this thought, Fleche sighs. “I can’t imagine what they must have paid those lawyers instead of giving us a raise.”

Asked why a university would spend so much to defeat a union, Joe Berry explains that the benefits an administration accrues by weakening a union go beyond monetary considerations. “It’s a matter not of money in the short run, but power in the longer run,” he says via e-mail.

At Northeastern, where I’m a graduate student, many believe a planned one-day adjunct strike was the reason the two sides finally reached an agreement—bargaining ended at 1 am on January 14, just five days before the January 19 walkout. Although an e-mail sent to faculty, staff, and students states that the two sides reached an agreement after the university made it clear to the union that the strike wouldn’t have any impact on its final offer, faculty members I spoke with contest this claim, with Vallas calling it a “deeply disempowering move” meant to discourage campus members from organizing outside the terms approved of by the administration.

As Fleche put it, “When support for the walkout started coming in from students, alumni, and city councilors, while we’d been asking the administration for more bargaining days with no answer from them…suddenly [the administration] found days in January, and they happened to be before the walkout.

“Whatever the reason for the agreement’s timing, it’s substance is laudable: a working relationship between a university and its adjuncts.” The story at Northeastern has made it very clear that understanding the market pressures administrators are under illuminates the means to resist those constraints: supporting the unionization of faculty, graduate students, and staff, along with pushing for greater public funding of higher education.



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/silence-on-campus-contingent-work-and-free-speech/
In the Wake of Mizzou, Black Students Are Winninghttps://www.thenation.com/article/archive/in-the-wake-of-mizzou-black-students-are-winning/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Lauren Massing,StudentNation,StudentNation,Alex Press,StudentNation,StudentNationFeb 3, 2016

First, for decades, they ignore you. Then, when things get serious, they laugh at you for being too demanding. Then, you win, and you keep winning. And the black student movement, from the University of Missouri to Yale, rolls on.

Students’ notoriously “unreasonable” demands—and there have been many of them over the past few months, from new cultural centers to the ousting of university presidents—are just the tip of a living, breathing movement. This movement is a national “we are done,” in the words of Alabama student activists, to uncountable experiences of anti-black racism in American higher education. It marks the swelling of “Black Lives Matter” into the university setting. At the same time, it cuts across generational lines. At Mizzou, students’ demands in November included “that the University of Missouri meets the…demands that were presented in 1969.”

In this post, students from four universities outline what happened in the fall and offer hints of what’s to come. This post is the new incarnation of The Nation’s youth organizing feature and is edited by James Cersonsky (@cersonsky).

We Are Done

By Amanda Bennett, University of Alabama

In the decades following the desegregation of the University of Alabama, we were told to be grateful for our presence on campus. And yet, we existed in an environment in which our professors and administrators didn’t look like us, our classes were held in buildings that glorified KKK members and Confederate generals, and institutional barriers—to campus organizations, scholarships, and alumni networks—limited opportunities for black students.

As black students, we did not have a place to gather to discuss our experiences with racism on campus. We effectively did not have an office of diversity, nor did we have a safe and efficient way to report sexual assaults and hate crimes. Black and Muslim students were forced to accept being followed at night and being harassed by racial slurs, while the students who preyed on them were rarely held accountable. It was a campus that was not yet equipped to meet the evolving needs of its student body.

In October 2015, I produced and co-wrote the short video “How Does It Feel to be a Problem?” with the hope of educating my peers and others around the country about the intersectional nature of black experiences and the uncomfortable vulnerability of black bodies on college campuses. In September and October, spurred by the boldness of students at the University of Missouri, we launched the “We Are Done” movement.

We drafted 11 demands, taking into consideration the opinions and needs of students of all ethnicities, sexualities, genders, socioeconomic statuses, and abilities. We aimed to combat sexual assault and bigotry on campus, while advocating for the creation of an office of diversity and an increase in funding for departments and organizations that were committed to intersectional activist work, such as the Department of Gender and Race Studies and the Women’s and Gender Resource Center.

On November 19, 300 students gathered in Malone-Hood Plaza, the location of George Wallace’s infamous 1963 “stand in the schoolhouse door” in opposition to the enrollment of African-American students Vivian Malone and James Hood. After the demonstration, we met with administrators to debate our demands. Less than three months later, on February 1, we were able to hold the grand opening ceremony for the new Intercultural Diversity Center. And, in response to our push for the inclusion of diverse voices in the strategic planning committee—one of the committee’s responsibilities is to guide the creation of the office of diversity—we’ve seen the creation of a diversity subcommittee to obtain feedback across campus that will be incorporated into the university’s five-year Strategic Plan.

This semester, we will continue to work with feminist groups, African-American groups, religious groups, LGBTQ groups, and other organizations representing marginalized peoples to develop policies that are both inclusive and respectful of the unique experiences of each group. We intend to use the university’s new Intercultural Diversity Center as a place to hold forums and other programming on diversity and oppression.

In our effort to organize against structural inequality, we will continue supporting each other across lines of difference—rebutting the claims of our detractors that organizing against racism is too “divisive.” We recognize that the path to equality is dependent upon an intersectional approach to our rhetoric and strategy.

Nine Hours, One Document

By Bilphena Yahwon and John Gillespie, Towson University

Last November 18, at 3:30 pm, concerned black students walked into the office of Towson University’s interim President Timothy Chandler’s office, chanting, “We want answers now!” and “Black students matter!” We issued a list of demands, from increasing the number of black professors on the tenure track to terminating the university’s contract with Maryland State Correctional Services. It was our intention to remain in that office, chanting for as long as we had to, until there was an institutional agreement to commit to the mental, emotional, and intellectual health and development of the black students of Towson. After nine hours of revising the demands, we walked out of the president’s office with a signed document.

Our protest has also given rise to the Organized Network of Student Resistance, a group dedicated to pushing conversations of intersectionality and engaging in direct action to dismantle institutional racism. We hope to connect with students across Maryland, and beyond.

Our success has led to death threats and racist comments via Yik Yak from fellow Towson University students. Others slandered our tactics. One op-ed claimed that our president deserved to be fired for signing our demands. Amid the blowback, we were asked, Where did all this come from?

The #OccupyTowson protest did not spring up from an isolated incident. On November 11, black students shared their personal narratives at a campus-wide event on racism at our university. These stories included eggshells thrown at black students along with racial slurs; sexual and racial epithets from classroom professors; the lack of representation among black faculty on the tenure track; and a deficit in cultural understanding among our peers. None of this is new. Towson University has a history of institutional, overt, and micro-aggressive racism. Only two years ago, a noted white supremacist, Matthew Heimbach, led night patrols armed with batons under the guise of protecting white communities from black men at Towson University. That same year, Jared Taylor, a white nationalist and founder of New Century Foundation—an organization dedicated to better “understand the consequences of America’s increasing diversity”—was invited to speak at Towson on behalf of Heimbach’s student government-funded White Student Union. Additionally, Towson’s diversity councils are predominantly white, with, for example, only two people of color on the president’s 9-member council.

#OccupyTowson represents Towson University’s entrance into the #StudentBlackOut movement. We are guided by the words of Zora Neale Hurston: “If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.”

Abolishing the Prison Industry

By Blake Simons, University of California

To achieve freedom, we have to abolish white supremacist institutions that oppress us. In December, the Afrikan Black Coalition successfully pressured the University of California system to divest $25 million from the three largest private prison corporations, CCA, the Geo Group, and G4S. The UC is now the first educational system in the United States to divest from private prisons. ABC is now targeting Wells Fargo to end its $900 million credit line to private prisons; if it does not, ABC will push the UC system to divest its $425 million investment in Wells Fargo.

This victory was made possible after extensive research into the UC’s investments revealed major private prison investment. In turn, ABC filed a Freedom of Information Act, met with the CIO of the UC system, and published an expose on these morally bankrupt investments. Framing it as a moral disaster, we relied on public pressure and the threat of direct action to win divestment.

We also relied on months of work to strengthen our grassroots base. During the summer, we held Camp Uhuru, an annual leadership summit designed to provide training and leadership development for grassroots black student leaders within our coalition of Black Student Unions. In the fall, we held our Black Student Leadership Training, which brought together up-and-coming black scholars and activists across the state to develop a network of black leaders committed to improving the condition of black people on campus and throughout the diaspora. Without this political education, it would have been impossible to achieve our prison divestment win. As Malcolm X said, “the greatest mistake of the movement has been trying to organize a sleeping people around specific goals. You have to wake the people up first, then you’ll get action.”

In addition to divestment, the Black Student Unions that are a part of our coalition have issued demands for racial justice to administrators at UC Berkeley, Merced, Davis, Santa Cruz, and Cal State, LA, and have already achieved some institutional wins, including the creation of a $20 million dollar scholarship for black students and the hiring of black psychologists. ABC has also supported AB 253, a new law that requires stop data to be recorded by police departments across California. Later this month, we are finalizing the induction of seven California State University campuses into our coalition. At a time of pronounced white supremacist violence, we must unify.

Taking Down the Confederacy

By Dominique Scott, University of Mississippi

Planning for the “Take Down the Flag” campaign at the University of Mississippi began after the shooting of nine African-Americans in Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Following the tragedy, there was a nationwide call for institutions to reconsider their use of Confederate iconography and memorabilia. The University of Mississippi’s racist history, in conjunction with exclusionary symbols like those of Confederate battle flags, fosters a space that is unwelcoming to students of color. Our campaign for the removal of the current Mississippi state flag, with its Confederate battle flag insignia, began as the first phase in a longer campaign for the removal of all symbols of white supremacy on campus.

In September 2015, we formed a small coalition, Students Against Social Injustice, and dropped letters in the administrative building addressed to the interim chancellor, the vice chancellor of student affairs, and the dean of students. These letters outlined a number of demands for the university, including more campus spaces for people of color, a ban on the Confederate battle flag at campus events, and the removal of the Mississippi state flag from the center of campus. While awaiting a response, we continued our outreach, gaining the support of a number of student organizations and dozens of faculty, staff, and departments. Three weeks later, we met with administrators, leaving frustrated but better equipped to fight on. Following the meeting, we held a public forum titled, “Confederate Symbols: A Conversation on Southern Heritage,” to educate the campus community about the history of the evolution of the flag, its meaning, and its long-running ties to the university.

After the forum, representatives from the Associated Student Body reached out to bring the issue before the student government. In addition to writing and lobbying for Resolution 15-3, a resolution to remove the state flag from campus grounds, we held a rally on October 16 that attracted a crowd of more than 300. At the rally, black students spoke about their experiences with racism and exclusion. Following the rally, the Ku Klux Klan and League of the South arrived on campus to conduct a counter-protest. Slurs were hurled at black students, and the ensuing altercation began to disrupt classes, so the counter-protestors were escorted off campus.

Thereafter, the university came under new, nationwide scrutiny—and faculty and students wrote op-eds and statements of support, and online posts under #TakeItDownASB. Finally, on October 20, the ASB Senate met to vote on Resolution 15-3, which passed by a vote of 33-15 after a three-hour deliberation. The following day, the Staff Council, Faculty Senate, and Graduate Council all passed resolutions of their own supporting Resolution 15-3. At dawn on October 26, university police removed the flag from the circle.

The removal of the flag only scratches the surface of exclusionary practices at the University of Mississippi—as well as nostalgic reminders of racism, which include a large Confederate monument and buildings named for prominent white supremacists. We have compiled a more detailed list of demands for the university administration that we will be releasing this spring.



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/in-the-wake-of-mizzou-black-students-are-winning/
In 2016, No More Human-As-Usualhttps://www.thenation.com/article/archive/in-2016-no-more-human-as-usual/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Lauren Massing,StudentNation,StudentNation,Alex Press,StudentNation,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNationJan 22, 2016

When I was younger, I used to be zealous about changing light bulbs. Then my focus shifted to changing the systems that determine how we use energy, because, as the saying goes, “we need system change, not climate change.” As a youth delegate to COP21—the international climate-change conference in Paris last December—I witnessed the most sophisticated political skills the world has to offer focus on one goal: to change the fundamental components of our energy systems. They failed. In Paris, I learned that there is an even deeper level of change required to prevent climate catastrophe. It’s not system change—it’s human change.

COP21 was a big deal before it began. Unprecedented international commitment to address climate change set the stage for a global binding treaty. More than 150 nations submitted emissions reduction goals, compared to the 27 countries that made commitments ahead of Copenhagen’s COP15 in 2009. President Obama said that COP21 was the “best chance we have to save the one planet we have.” The grassroots movement fully engaged as thousands of people marched around the world to demand climate action. No doubt: Paris was an historic moment.

By December 12, 2015, over 190 nations arrived at consensus, producing a 31-page agreement. For the first time, an explicit global commitment existed to end our dependence on fossil fuels. There was instant praise. A headline from The Guardian read: “nearly 200 nations sign in end of fossil fuel era.” John Kerry called it a “victory for all the planet and future generations.”

Christiana Figueres, the highest-ranking UN climate-change official, tweeted:

“We have made history together! #ParisAgreement at #COP21 unites the world for a better future.”

COP21 was not the silver bullet to stop all climate chaos, but it was recognized as a huge victory for international collaboration. Celebrations erupted across Paris.

I was surrounded by exuberance but had never felt more alone, grieving instead of joyful. Yes, COP21 was a political triumph, but I could not overlook a mountain of bare facts. The agreement is weak and profoundly unjust, condemning youth and frontline communities to bear the full brunt of climate catastrophe. There is no clear date by which the world phases out fossil-fuel use. There is an appalling lack of financial support for frontline communities facing the worst climate impacts. Even if all countries adhere to their non-binding emissions-reduction targets, our planet will warm 2.7C–3.7C, a level far beyond what is safe. The hypocrisy of COP21 was overwhelming as—during the negotiations—President Obama signed a bill expediting permits for oil and gas pipelines. At 3 am on December 12, headlines declared that John Kerry threatened to walk out of negotiations if developed countries were required to provide financial assistance to developing countries. A debate over “shall” or “should” dominated the final hours of COP21.

The night before negotiations ended, I stumbled out of a meeting at 1 am and found myself on a shuttered Parisian street lit only by a few dim lamps. The cold wind whipped my cheeks, but my chest burned red hot with rage at the politicking that was celebrated while my generation faced doom. The worst pain came from images of my home that flashed before my eyes. I’ve already seen so much change in my short lifetime: The animals on our farm shed their coats during winter warm spells, only to freeze when the cold returns. Spring comes early. Summers are hot and dry. My heart broke at the thought of all that I love most falling prey to the chaos of politics and climate change. Anguish filled my soul as I realized that the best politics that the world has to offer are not enough to avert disaster.

Then a revelation stopped me in my tracks. The euphoria around COP21 was fully merited. The agreement represents the best of what humans have learned to do over centuries: to use the political arts of compromise and negotiation to overcome conflict and unite disparate groups. But here’s the thing: COP21 demonstrates that even the best of what humans have learned to do is not enough. The climate emergency demands something else, something that lies beyond the known threshold of human political arts, beyond the known functions of the human toolkit, beyond the best that we have already achieved.

The idea that we can no longer operate according to “business-as-usual” or “politics-as-usual” is by now a cliche. What struck me that night and drives me now is a different idea: we can no longer afford to be human-as-usual. In the age of changing climate, human-as-usual is not enough.

Under that murky, light-polluted Parisian sky, I suddenly felt a sense of renewed clarity. I realized that our political systems are built to master human-to-human confrontation. Major historical struggles have been “us versus them.” Compromise was essential for the development of society and civilization. But today, our foe is not each other. Our foe is physics, and the physical world does not negotiate. It does not train on the art of compromise. We enter an unprecedented era of “us versus it.” We need to find new ways of being in which we are all on the same side, supporting one another as we confront the limits of physics. The very facts of the climate crisis require us to depart from the familiar territory of human-as-usual.

What does it mean to move beyond the human-as-usual? To be honest, I don’t know how it’s done, what it feels like, or if people are capable of achieving new ways of being human. But I do know that we have to try. Crisis has always been the crucible of creativity, and that’s exactly what we need now. As long as we celebrate the outcomes of traditional political behavior, even at its best, we are blinded to the breakthroughs that may occur when we refuse to be as we have been before. Most importantly: If we fail to reach for un-usual behaviors, we will find ourselves reproducing the very behaviors and systems that created the climate crisis in the first place. This assures a never-ending cycle of shortfall and destruction.

Last week, we remembered the life and words of Martin Luther King Jr., a man who summoned all people to reach beyond anger and hatred towards love and hope. In his “Christmas Sermon on Peace” in 1967, Dr. King said:

“We will never have peace in the world until men everywhere recognize that ends are not cut off from means, because the means represent the ideal in the making, and the end in process, and ultimately you can’t reach good ends through evil means, because the means represent the seed and the end represents the tree.”

The climate crisis calls upon humanity to unite in ways that are novel, transcendent, creative, and brave. Not-human-as-usual is the seed of a new forest in the making, one that is unlike any that this world has known.



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/in-2016-no-more-human-as-usual/
You Shouldn’t Have to Take an African-American Studies Course to Read African-American Authorshttps://www.thenation.com/article/archive/you-shouldnt-have-to-take-an-african-american-studies-course-to-read-african-american-authors/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Lauren Massing,StudentNation,StudentNation,Alex Press,StudentNation,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,Zachary R. Wood,StudentNationJan 13, 2016

Justice Antonin Scalia’s already infamous suggestion that blacks need “special schools” in reference to comments about Fisher v. University of Texas, is not only reminiscent of the pseudoscientific racism posited in Charles Murray’s The Bell Curve but also indicative of a dire lack of intellectual diversity in higher education.

At most colleges in the United States, students have to take courses in African-American studies to read the work of black thinkers in an academic setting. Meanwhile, the work of white male authors is taught in virtually every course that does not focus specifically on the experience of nonwhites.

I am a sophomore at Williams College, majoring in political science and philosophy. Throughout my freshman year, I took seven courses in the humanities and social sciences, from English and philosophy to political science and anthropology. Yet only two of the seven courses incorporated the critical thought and perspectives of at least one scholar of African descent. Those two courses were on African-American literature. In conversations with friends at other colleges and universities, I have asked if they have read in any of their courses the work of any scholars of black America, Africa, or the black diaspora, and each time, I’ve receive one of two answers. Either they say no, they haven’t, or they mention a course that they’ve taken on race.

If students are to enter into the world after college with a respect and concern for legitimate differences, be those of experience or opinion, this has to change. Colleges and universities across the country should confront the degree to which they advance the political and philosophical thought of white male thinkers in comparison with that of African-American thinkers. Needless to say, some of the greatest minds in the history of Western thought have been of African descent.

Integrating the political and philosophical thought of intellectuals of African descent into courses outside of African-American and Africana studies departments is imperative. Given that the most explosive issue in American society is race, any robust understanding of the world we live in and the challenges we face in this country must include the reality of black life and experiences from the point of view of black people themselves. Without knowledge of the subjective truths of black people’s collective experience, how can one come to understand, accurately describe, and attempt to solve the problems facing our multiracial democracy?

Further, the black intellectual tradition is corrective. In every field of study in the humanities and social sciences, the consciousness, experience, and identity of people of African descent has been misunderstood and thereby misrepresented. The black intellectual tradition in America, from its inception, has worked to refute notions of genetic, biological, and cultural inferiority echoed in Justice Scalia’s remarks. In fact, had Scalia read the work of Cornel West, Evelynn Hammonds, Charles Mills, Ann Morning, or numerous other African-American scholars who have written about the pseudoscience of race, he may not have made the same comments.

What I’m arguing for is an embrace of intellectual diversity: breaking up homogeneity and thinking through different perspectives on the most urgent issues of our time. Students who do not sign up for any African-American studies courses in college will likely graduate without reading the work of any thinkers of African descent in an academic context, one that forces them to interrogate their own understanding and those of the author.

I think every college student in America could benefit from reading the work of W.E.B. Du Bois, James Baldwin, John Hope Franklin, Toni Morrison, Cornel West, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and other thinkers of the black intellectual tradition. It would broaden and deepen their understanding of what it means to be American. This is why I hope that educators and administrators at colleges and universities across the country will embrace the challenge of diversifying their pedagogical choices.



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/you-shouldnt-have-to-take-an-african-american-studies-course-to-read-african-american-authors/
Youth Power and Powerlessness at COP21https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/youth-power-and-powerlessness-at-cop21/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Lauren Massing,StudentNation,StudentNation,Alex Press,StudentNation,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,Zachary R. Wood,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNationDec 10, 2015

If you see me in Paris, you’ll notice my black eye. One early morning, I raced to the métro near our delegation’s hostel in a state of dizzy stress, a too-heavy bag slung across my chest and bleary with fatigue from long days at COP21, the UN climate conference in Paris. I bought a ticket, rushed through the swinging door, but before I knew what happened, the door swung back hard and hit me in the face. I staggered onto the train and slumped into a seat. The side of my face throbbed, and I could feel the bruise blooming around my eye.

I’ve had a few days to contemplate my black eye, and I’ve come to see it as a metaphor for the deeply contradictory predicament of youth at this most significant of world negotiations on averting climate catastrophe. When it comes to climate politics, we find ourselves having all the power and no power at all.

The thousands of young people here are universally earnest, eager, informed, determined, compassionate, committed, and focused—willing to sacrifice time and energy to the urgency of the climate crisis. We’ve come of age with the knowledge that our futures are insecure in the face of extreme climate disorientation. We are the only global generation in the history of humanity that knows it is impossible to count on the future being anything like the past—that our homes and all that we love will be transformed or destroyed. Traditional institutions have failed our generation in the face of the climate threat, so we have learned from a young age to stand up for what we love. We plan actions and craft messaging to assert that power is in the hands of the people. We don’t “wait on change.” We organize our communities, lobby to divest, and shut down fossil fuel infrastructure. Our narrative asserts our ability to create change in the face of crisis.

But here at COP21, we constantly strategize over how to impact the negotiations, how to have our voices heard, and how to influence politics and policies. There is a deep sense of frustration that often shades into despair. Despite immense tidal waves of energy and dedication, our voices are excluded. We knock on doors, but most of those doors are slammed in our face. We call for rich nations to provide financial support for vulnerable poor countries that face the first and worst climate impacts. John Kerry announced on Wednesday that the United States pledges $800 million in climate finance. Meanwhile, the US spends $37.5 billion annually on fossil fuel subsidies. One of the core youth demands at COP21 is financial support for countries that are already experiencing (and will soon experience) severe climate impacts. We regard this as a necessary act of justice. Yet the United States has avoided the idea of reparations, reportedly demanding that vulnerable nations never seek compensation from rich nations. The quality of action that we seek remains elusive.

The youth narrative of hope and change clashes with the realpolitik of COP21 and climate politics. There is a howling disconnect between what we know society needs to address and the solutions that are proposed in negotiating rooms. Youth spend their days running on the renewable energy of love as they try to figure out how to influence political actors. But so far we have not translated the enormity of our generation’s historically unique experience of risk and insecurity into the kind of effective political clout that would push forth a strong ambitious agreement.

This paradox is an illustration of “the mobilization gap.” I discovered this phenomenon as I wrote my Senior Thesis at Harvard College. Those in the climate movement see our goals as political but don’t believe that we have the clout to achieve these political goals. At COP21, I see youth working towards goals and solutions that cannot be accomplished without politics. But our efforts have so far failed to impact politics on the scale of what’s necessary. There is a gap between what we do on the ground and the political willingness to create the policy environment in which climate solutions can take root. When it comes to youth, the mobilization gap is most dangerous. It’s essential that political leaders feel the urgency and risk that only a young person can know.

As a result of the mobilization gap, politics has become distant from the people. But I refuse to believe that we are doomed to a world in which youth voice never permeates the halls of decision-makers. The challenge now is to close the mobilization gap by inventing new modes of action that channel popular commitment into political pressure. It means finding new ways to influence politics while holding elected officials accountable for their actions. As a Nation Fellow this year, I’ll be working on a book that explores concrete solutions to this challenge: How does the climate movement become a more effective grassroots political force?

My delegation, SustainUS, often gathers to sing a song by climate artist Rachel Schragis that includes these lines: “There are some places you’ve been that I have not been to. There are some places that we have not been to yet. Everywhere I go I see a different situation.… but everywhere we are we know the same thing.” As we sing, people hum and create a beat with their hands. My friends close their eyes to feel the presence of vibrant souls, gathered together, sharing the pain, rejoicing in the inspiration and solidarity.

The lack of political action on climate change has not destroyed young people’s joy and passion. But we have banged our heads on the doors of political intransigence for far too long. It’s time to figure out how we become a powerful movement with agency and effective political power. When it comes to having an impact on our political system, having our voices heard, holding our leaders accountable—there are some places that we have not been to yet.



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/youth-power-and-powerlessness-at-cop21/
15 Youth Movements to Dismantle White Supremacy Rising This Summerhttps://www.thenation.com/article/archive/15-youth-movements-to-dismantle-white-supremacy-rising-this-summer/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Lauren Massing,StudentNation,StudentNation,Alex Press,StudentNation,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,Zachary R. Wood,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,StudentNationAug 7, 2015
1. The Root of a Movement

On April 20, Judge Dennis Porter dismissed charges against Chicago police officer Dante Servin in the killing of 22 year-old Rekia Boyd on the basis of technical differences between involuntary manslaughter and first degree murder. Since then, the Chicago chapter of Black Youth Project 100 has organized nationally and locally to ensure that Servin is fired without a pension from the Chicago Police Department. We have staged several direct actions and testified in front of the CPD Police Review Board every month to demand Servin’s termination. It is our duty as an organization with a black queer feminist lens to center on the lives of black women that are victims of state violence.

—Rachel Williams

2. The Next Charleston

On July 18, Black Lives Matter–Charleston honored the most recent victims of White Supremacy by joining forces with the RBG Pan-African movement and others to meet the KKK face-to-face at a statehouse rally. This summer, we have resolved to become proactive in self-definition and self-defense by launching campaigns designed to build broad-based participation. We are promoting #‎BlackMindsMatter–Afrocentric Political Education by organizing a network of five neighborhood Liberation schools; establishing a culture of accountability and community oversight with our institutions of social welfare through #‎ProjectWeAreWatchingYou–Accountability, Transparency & Due Process; working to register 5,000 new voters, or #‎YourTimeIsUp–Political Mobilization; and innovating a cooperative marketing system for the local black economy, #‎BlackBusinessMatters–Economic Development.

—Muhiyyidin D’baha

3. The Presidential Challenge

On July 18, Black Lives Matter protesters shut down the Presidential Town Hall at Netroots Nation, a progressive conference held this year in Phoenix, Arizona. With Arizona organizer Tia Oso and Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors taking to the stage, black women organizers asked Democratic presidential candidates Martin O’Malley and Bernie Sanders to address police brutality and systemic racism—in particular, the murder of black women like Sandra Bland, who allegedly committed suicide after being arrested by Texas police. They also highlighted the lack of emphasis on black organizing and issues at the conference, which was focused on immigration but had no discussion of the organizing and experiences of black immigrants. Other organizers spoke offstage, invoking #IfIDieInPoliceCustody and the liberation of black trans women. After the event, both candidates used the hashtags #BlackLivesMatter and #SayHerName, expressing concern over our issues.

—Elle Hearns and Angela Peoples

4. Kicking the Confederacy off Campus

Since June, a group of students and alums from Middle Tennessee State University have been organizing to change the name of the ROTC building named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate General and Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Forrest Hall was established in 1958 and withstood a campaign to remove its name in 2006. In 1989, MTSU removed a 600-pound medallion of Forrest from the Keathley University Center. Following the shooting of nine people at Emanuel AME Church, Tennessee’s governor called to remove a bust of Forrest from the state capitol; Showing Up for Racial Justice-Nashville has staged a campaign, #BustTheBust, to remove the bust; and MTSU President Sidney McPhee has called for another conversation for the removal of the Forrest Hall name. As we spread our petition, the decision to remove the name sits in the hands of the Tennessee Historical Commission.

—Andre Canty

5. Putting the Campus Police in Their Place

On July 6, the Saginaw News of Central Michigan reported that a Saginaw Valley State University master’s student, DaJuawn Wallace, was being charged with a felony for fleeing and eluding police. In February, university police signaled for Wallace to stop, but Wallace continued driving for 1.5 miles until he found a well-lit area to pull over. If charged, he could have lost his financial aid, scholarships, and employment. On July 7, the day prior to his preliminary examination hearing—and following student outcry on social media—all charges were dropped. Still, we saw this as an opportunity to highlight the larger problem of harmful interactions between students and police. The following day, community members and students protested outside the Saginaw County Courthouse, standing quietly before speaking about social injustice and questioning the length of time it took to drop the charges. On July 13, SVSU’s president launched an internal investigation focusing on police policy at the university and met with students to discuss our concerns.

—Florence Alexander

6. At Columbia, a $10 Million Bubble Bursts

In June, after 16 months of organizing, students from Columbia Prison Divest won an unprecedented victory. Columbia University, which previously held over $10 million in shares in two private prison companies, Corrections Corporation of America and G4S, will become the first university to financially divest from the industry. As part of a larger prison divestment movement that seeks to make prisons a socially toxic investment, CPD sought to expose the racist systems of inequality that justify the privilege awarded to elite college students at the expense of the incarceration and degradation of marginalized communities. Moving forward, we are using the momentum from our win to support prison divest campaigns on other campuses while encouraging students to recognize our place within the system of mass incarceration and take an anti-racist, prison abolitionist stance on the issue.

—Asha Rosa

7. At the UC, Palestinian Justice Stays on the Table

At its July meeting, after thousands of students, faculty, and staff signed an online letter of appeal, the University of California Regents decided not to propose the adoption of the US State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism. The State Department’s vague language could be interpreted to include criticisms of Israeli government policy and its treatment of Palestinians, which Palestine rights activists and advocacy groups, such as Students for Justice in Palestine, UC Student-Workers’ Union–UAW 2865, and Jewish Voice for Peace, reject. While this decision marks an important victory for the protection of free speech, especially on university campuses, we remain vigilant of future efforts to adopt this definition and, overall, to stifle Palestine advocacy.

—Safwan Ibrahim

8. In Miami, a Sit-In for Community Control

In Miami, Dream Defenders has been working with the historically Black neighborhood of Overtown to fight the displacement of its low-income population. We are organizing to ensure adequate employment and other community benefits before the $2 billion Miami Worldcenter is constructed. We have already met with the mayor, commissioners, and developers to put forth our demands. We have vowed—and carried out—days of civil disobedience. On July 10, we staged the first-ever sit-in at Miami’s Government Center. On July 14, we voiced concerns at the county commission—and were escorted out by police. So far, one of our demands was accepted: banning the criminal history box on job applications. The MWC needs another $100 million in taxpayer subsidies to break ground, which gives us another opportunity to pressure city officials into enforcing our demands.

—Armen Henderson

9. In Chicago, a Break in the School-to-Prison Pipeline

Over 2011 and 2012, black male students in Illinois were suspended eight times more than their white counterparts. This led us to lose over one million days of instruction because of exclusionary discipline, and Illinois was one of the worst states for racial disparities. I know this story all too well—I was expelled for cutting class because I didn’t feel well and spent months looking for a new school. In May, after pushing for two years in Springfield, students of color from VOYCE and the Campaign for Common Sense Discipline passed Senate Bill 100, the most comprehensive state legislation to address the school-to-prison pipeline. SB 100 bans zero-tolerance in all Illinois publicly funded schools, and exclusionary discipline is now the last resort. The “counseling out” of students is also forbidden along with the use of fines and fees as a disciplinary measure. SB 100 is currently sitting on the Governor’s desk awaiting his signature.

—Carlil Pittman

10. In New York—and Beyond—Reimagining the Struggle

At “Stars & Stripes: (Re)Claiming the Vision” on July 4 on Coney Island, artists created space on the boardwalk to dance and build relationships at a time where the mere presence of blackness endangers us. The Million Hoodies for Justice Arts Network was joined by Afro-Latino and Puerto Rican community members, reflecting the force of the African diaspora in the struggle for black lives. Our network is a new, national platform to facilitate creativity, community, storytelling, and resilience. In the coming months, we are excited to launch in Miami, New York, Minnesota, Philadelphia, and Chicago.

—Brittany Williams

11. Whose Celebration?

On June 24, the White House held a reception to commemorate June as LGBT Pride Month. As President Obama began his speech, a voice came from the crowd: “President Obama, release all LGBTQ immigrants from detention and stop all deportations.” The voice belonged to Jennicet Gutiérrez, an undocumented trans woman and one of the founding members of Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement. Jennicet said that she could not celebrate Pride while some 75 transgender detainees are being exposed to assault and abuse in ICE custody. Her protest was met with boos, jeers, and calls of “This isn’t for you!” from the LGBTQ leaders assembled there. Jennicet and Angela Peoples of GetEQUAL were escorted out of the building after the interruption. Jennicet’s action received attention from supporters around the world, starting conversations about the treatment of trans women of color in detention. There is no pride in a country that treats immigrants this way and there can be no celebration while this administration continues detention and deportation of undocumented people.

—Familia TQLM, Not1More, and GetEQUAL

12. Whose Parade?

On June 21, two-spirit, queer, and trans youth of color blocked Denver’s “Coors Pride Parade.” Our community lost 17-year old Jessie Hernandez in January because of Denver Police’s violent practices. For Buried Seedz of Resistance, the idea for this action came on June 1 as we invoked the spirit of our ancestors marching in unison and protection with us, including Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Angie Zapata, Ale Reyes, and Jessie Hernandez. As a collective, we hadn’t attended Pride for the past six years for the same reasons we protested this year—excessive police presence, corporatization, the lack of Trans Queer People of Color in leadership, and the overall white-washing of Pride’s original roots as a Trans and Queer uprising against the police. We are continuing to build relationships and work closely with the Hernandez family and plan to collect interviews and stories for a documentary about Jessie’s life through the directorship of their siblings.

—Buried Seedz of Resistance

13. #NotYourScapegoat

On July 14, hundreds of San Francisco immigrant rights activists gathered at San Francisco City Hall to call for a sober dialogue after Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, an undocumented immigrant, shot Kate Steinle. Following the shooting, the city has been at the center of heated debates about Sanctuary Cities and due ordinance policies that prevent local law enforcement from colluding with federal immigration agents. At the gathering, we held white carnations under Steinle’s name to show respect and plead for sensible solutions—rather than responding with nativist measures like those of California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer who have proposed bills to blur the jurisdictions of local law enforcement and ICE. As an undocumented immigrant in San Francisco, I’ve witnessed people from all backgrounds support each other, and I believe that we can do it again.

—Frank Seo

14. #RejectPEPComm

On July 15, in Duarte, California, members of the Immigrant Youth Coalition, in partnership with the ICE Out of LA Coalition, protested the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Department of Homeland Security for advancing the Priority Enforcement Program, or PEP-COMM. We loudly interrupted what we considered a farcical Sheriff-sponsored community forum that promoted anti-immigrant voices while suppressing comments from community members directly impacted by the new federal policy. We proceeded to march out of the building, chanting “No Papers, No Fear!” Outside, four members of the IYC from the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys, all directly impacted by deportation policies, refused police orders to leave the intersection near the venue and were arrested. We stand in fierce resistance to PEP-COMM as all immigrants, even those with felonies, are community members, friends, and family who don’t deserve double jeopardy under collaborations between police and ICE. In policy, PEP-COMM is a transparent re-branding of the heavily discredited S-COMM program—and is gaining traction in the wake of the recent incident at the San Francisco pier.

—Adrian James

15. “For the future, and for the yet-to-be born!”

Editor’s note: After embarking on July 5, the Apache Stronghold Caravan has brought the resistance to Resolution Copper’s takeover of the sacred Oak Flat in Arizona—added to the National Defense Authorization Act by John McCain—to Washington. For more, read Naelyn Pike’s dispatch from June 22. (Video: Wendsler Nosie)

—Apache Stronghold



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/15-youth-movements-to-dismantle-white-supremacy-rising-this-summer/
Boston University Is Proof That University Campuses Are Anything But ‘Post-Racial’https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/boston-university-is-proof-that-university-campuses-are-anything-but-post-racial/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Lauren Massing,StudentNation,StudentNation,Alex Press,StudentNation,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,Zachary R. Wood,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,StudentNation,Jailyn Gladney,StudentNationJul 14, 2015

Three summers ago I took my first step onto Boston University’s campus as an accepted student in mid-July; when I stepped into the Metcalf Ballroom for new student orientation, I was just thankful to have finally found a way to escape the unrelenting Boston heat. I still had that stupid new-student grin on my face and the naive belief that campus would look something like the brochure the school had sent a few months ago inviting me to attend “multicultural weekend.” By the time I sat down and looked around, I realized that there were decidedly fewer black and brown faces than I’d anticipated.

Before I could think about what that might mean, a couple of deans and representatives of the BU Police Department got up on stage and told us about all of the things they were doing to keep us safe.

After being raised in Georgia, my first three years of college in a major US city located in the Northeastern United States has taught me that Northern white liberals really do believe that their region’s historical identification with the Union (as opposed to the Confederacy) absolves them of their complicity in American slavery as well as the systemic and institutionalized racial oppression that followed and continues to this day. Those in Boston often conveniently forget that the city violently resisted desegregating their separate and unequal schools; they ignore the fact that, in the span of only a generation, Boston public schools went from being 65 percent to only 13 percent white, as white people decided that they’d rather leave the system than send their kids to school with black children. By the time Northern white folks were done rioting and fleeing to the suburbs where black and brown folks couldn’t touch them, Boston schools were once again separate and unequal. And Northern white liberals seemingly view racially discriminatory policing tactics developed in their own region—like “broken windows” policing and the now-illegal stop-and-frisk tactics—as aberrations from their otherwise “colorblind” racial utopia.

Somehow, this brand of liberal views their racial consciences as somehow cleaner than those of their Southern brothers and sisters. But they aren’t.

Exactly 588 days after Trayvon Martin was tailed and then killed by George Zimmerman while walking in his own Florida neighborhood, a cop car followed my black boyfriend for two blocks as he walked down the street. He was coming from a Chinese place in Allston—where wealthy students who are often white and can afford to pay for an off-campus apartment usually choose to live—just west of the outermost BU dormitory, headed to a supermarket only a block away from campus. A cop car was following him, driving backwards down the six-lane road that runs through much of the university’s campus.

When he stepped out of the market, two Boston police officers were outside waiting for him.

One of the officers asked him what he was up to, where he was from and where he was going. He told them that he’d just come from the Chinese place up the street and that he was a BU student who lived about a mile away in on-campus housing. They didn’t believe him and asked to see his identification. As he reached into his pocket to grab his student identification card, he saw another cruiser roll up while the second officer watched him in silence with one hand on his gun holster. As the first officer scanned the ID, he explained to my boyfriend that they’d stopped him because he’d supposedly been looking over his shoulder into parked cars—something they said that thieves usually do before stealing them—and told him that he shouldn’t look so suspicious walking down the street late at night.

My boyfriend later told me that the reason he kept looking over his shoulder was because a cop car was slowly driving the wrong direction up a major thoroughfare without its lights or siren on.

The year before, some white guy with too much alcohol in his system, and nearly 400 years of white supremacy and racialized violence backing him up, threatened to lynch my black friend at a party on campus. Without any evidence to support his claims, the white guy suggested that my friend wouldn’t talk to him because he “didn’t like white people.” The confrontation escalated, a crowd grew and the drunk guy was escorted out of the party as he said: “Back where I’m from, we lynch niggers like him.”

As is often the case, my black friend didn’t see the point in reporting the incident to our apathetic administration and so the student never faced any consequences.

For black students, every day on campus is a reminder that we aren’t welcome. When “I support Dylann Roof” posters were hung up in high-traffic areas near our campus chapel and student union the night after Roof sat and prayed with nine black people for an hour in Charleston, South Carolina, before allegedly murdering them in cold blood, we knew that we weren’t welcome. Our school isn’t in the South and nooses aren’t being hung from our trees, but the message is the same: We don’t belong in their hallowed halls or on their finely manicured lawns.

The administration spits in our faces when they use the messages of Martin Luther King Jr. and Howard Thurman as little more than pullquotes and figureheads for a university that’s only 3 percent black and shows few signs of working to increase that percentage. It has sent us our acceptance letters and conjured up financial-aid packages that have put us in crippling amounts of debt.

President Robert Brown has shown that he clearly is not interested in improving the diversity of students or instructors on campus. He once decided that he had more important things to do than attend a mandatory hearing on the dangerously low numbers of minority teachers he employs and students he enrolls. When given the chance to defend Dr. Saida Grundy (one of the few teachers of color that he has hired) against right-wing attacks on controversial tweets made on her personal Twitter account, President Brown instead chose to insinuate that a black woman’s words could in some way oppress a group of young white men; this week, a black student witnessed three white men posting fliers on campus that declared “BLACK PRIVILEGE means not being fired after saying that white college males are a problem population. #FIREGRUNDY”

At orientation, the deans and the police told us a lot of things about how to stay safe both on and off campus. They fed us visions of a liberal university with “good” white people who believed in progressive and diverse education and perspectives. They told us to lock our doors, travel in groups, and be vigilant when walking on the streets. They taught us how to protect ourselves from people existing outside of the BU community…without ever telling us how to keep ourselves safe from those within it.



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/boston-university-is-proof-that-university-campuses-are-anything-but-post-racial/
As the Semester Ends, Students Hold Sit-Ins, Win Higher Pay, and Unionizehttps://www.thenation.com/article/archive/as-the-semester-ends-students-hold-sit-ins-win-higher-pay-and-unionize/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Lauren Massing,StudentNation,StudentNation,Alex Press,StudentNation,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,Zachary R. Wood,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,StudentNation,Jailyn Gladney,StudentNation,StudentNationJun 22, 2015

1. Organizing the Interns

On May 28, after nearly a year of organizing, interns at the American Federation of Teachers won union rights. With wages below the labor movement’s public living-wage standard of $15 per hour, which doesn’t cover rent and expenses in Washington, DC, and without access to health insurance, we knew that working-class students without outside support didn’t have access to internships at the AFT—and we thought that it was time the labor movement led by example. We talked to our coworkers about what was and wasn’t working in their internships and, more importantly, how we felt we fit into the bigger picture of the labor movement. We hope that by organizing successfully, we can encourage interns and young workers to do the same and, by partnering with OPEIU Local 2, anchor our movement in the long-term stability of a union with strong relationships with progressive employers. When our first contract is bargained, it can be used as a blueprint and organizing platform for what internships can and should be.

—Haley Quinn

2. Growing the Union

On February 20, the Massachusetts Commonwealth Employment Relations Board ruled emphatically in favor of the right of peer mentors at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst to unionize and called for an election to determine if a majority of peer mentors desired to be included in the RA bargaining unit and represented by UAW Local 2322. On April 14, peer mentors participated in a mail-in secret-ballot election, where we voted 47-2 to join the union. On June 3, we had our first bargaining meeting with management.

—Jenna Grady

3. Raising the Wage

On April 21, the University of Washington responded to pressure from student and worker organizations, including UW United Students Against Sweatshops, by raising the minimum wage for all student workers to at least $11 per hour. The raise was announced following a lively “Hungry for Justice” protest organized by the Reclaim UW coalition inside a Board of Regents dinner. This victory affects more than 2,600 student workers as well as 70 non-student workers earning less than $11 per hour. Moving into the summer, students and workers will continue calling on the UW, the largest employer in Seattle, to follow the Seattle minimum-wage ordinance by paying workers at least $15 per hour by 2017. We will also continue to pressure the UW to comply with student and worker demands for a more equitable campus.

—Becky Fuller-Phillips

4. #TraumaCenterNow

On June 4, nine #TraumaCenterNow activists, including five University of Chicago students and alumni, began a sit-in in the lobby of the school’s main administration building. Our demand was to meet with President Robert Zimmer to discuss the lack of trauma care on the South Side. Because the university has refused to open a Level I trauma center, victims of violence on Chicago’s predominantly black South Side—which saw more than its share of the 1,000-plus shootings citywide this year alone—must be transported over 10 miles for treatment. In the five years that community members, students, clergy, and nurses have been pressing the university to meet this need, President Zimmer has refused to meet with us even once. Two hours into the sit-in, the Chicago Fire Department broke down walls and windowsto reach the protesters, who were arrested by University of Chicago police and held in lock-up for 48 hours before being charged and released. The next day, 150 #TraumaCenterNow activists and supporters disrupted a university alumni-weekend ceremony, staging a die-in at the feet of President Zimmer to press him to acknowledge racialized healthcare inequity.

—Students for Health Equity

5. #NoCutsUChi

On June 4, 12 graduating University of Chicago seniors donned caps and gowns a week early, staging a sit-in at our admissions office to protest a budget that will lay off low-wage workers, cut student jobs, and raise tuition. Amid the school’s $4.5 billion capital campaign, the new budget demonstrates its consistent prioritization of corporate interests over those of its students, workers, and community. The seniors sat in for five hours, after which they were told that remaining in the building would prevent them from graduating, pending a later disciplinary hearing. We did, however, have one of our demands met—a meeting with the administration to address Title IX violations—and plan to continue fighting UChicago’s corporate priorities with our newly launched campaign, Fair Budget UChicago.

—Anna Wood

6. In Arizona, an Apache Stronghold

Since February 7, Apache people and allies have been occupying the sacred Oak Flat near Superior, Arizona, in protest of development plans by Resolution Copper, a copper-mining company. Over the spring, we have campaigned against a deceptive maneuver to incorporate the takeover into the federal National Defense Authorization Act in December—and the role of mining corporations like Resolution Copper in destroying lands sacred to the Apache people and all Native people, stripping us of our identity and future. In July, we will be taking the fight to Washington with a protest at the Capitol. We are calling for national support for a repeal of the land exchange in the defense bill. Our ancestors fought for us to live; as young people, it is our turn to do the same.

—Naelyn Pike

7. In St. Louis, the Statue Moves

At a town-hall meeting on Thursday, March 30, students challenged the Saint Louis University administration, including SLU’s new president, to remove a piece of campus artwork called “Where the Rivers Meet.” The statue depicts Jesuit missionary Pierre-Jean De Smet towering over two Native Americans, honoring a history of white supremacy and colonialism. This action follows a series of efforts condemning the art’s lack of historical context and cultural sensitivity. During the historic campus-city wide protest OccupySLU in October that led to the Clock Tower Accords, a Ferguson activist posted a viral tweet with a picture of the statue; shortly after the town-hall meeting, another student wrote an article in the student-run newspaper calling it out. On May 20, the university relocated the statue to the St. Louis University Museum of Art.

—Jonathan Pulphus

8. 1,000 Transit Passes

On June 11, the Providence Student Union won free transportation to school for 1,000 high-school students in Providence, Rhode Island. Last year, PSU won free bus passes for 800 students and pushed every mayoral candidate—including now-Mayor Jorge Elorza—to commit to expanding passes for 1,000 more. After Elorza failed to include these passes in his proposed budget, we rallied at City Hall for a full week, chanting “Keep your promise!” and marching 60 laps around the building to symbolize the distance students must walk every day. After we met with the mayor and the city council president and testified at the council, the budget was changed to meet our demands starting next school year.

—Justin Hernandez

9. How We Gonna Pay?

On May 23, the Right to the City Alliance, Students for Housing Justice at the New School, the Metropolitan Council on Housing, and the Cooper Square Committee mobilized a New York City Renters’ Assembly in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. More than 90 students, tenants, community members and housing organizers came to the event and shared insight on the mayor’s contradictory plans to increase affordable housing while implementing rezoning that favors developers over community development initiatives; the fight to protect our rent laws and repeal vacancy decontrol; racism in US and local housing policy; and incidents of police brutality against rent strikers in communities like Sunset Park. This assembly is a part of a series of renters’ assemblies that Right to the City is coordinating across the country—from Portland to Los Angeles to Jackson. Our goal is to build our power to win renters’ rights and gain community control of land and housing in all our cities.

—Masoom Moitra and Lenina Nadal



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/as-the-semester-ends-students-hold-sit-ins-win-higher-pay-and-unionize/
What Are ‘Nation’ Interns Reading the Week of 6/5/15?https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-are-nation-interns-reading-week-6515/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Lauren Massing,StudentNation,StudentNation,Alex Press,StudentNation,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,Zachary R. Wood,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,StudentNation,Jailyn Gladney,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationJun 8, 2015What Are ‘Nation’ Interns Reading the Week of 6/5/15?

]]>

Queen Arsem-O’Malley focuses on grassroots labor organizing, youth-led social movements, anti-carceral feminism, and critiques of mainstream media.
@qaween

Death and Neglect at Rikers Island Women’s Jail,” by Erika Eichelberger. The Intercept, May 29, 2015.

Poor medical care and systemic neglect create a dangerous—and even deadly—situation at Rikers Island. In this investigation, Erika Eichelberger delves into the abuses that people who are inmates in the women’s jail suffer at the hands of the doctors, nurses, and administrators who control their lives.

Cole Delbyck focuses on LGBT politics, East Asia, and representational issues in film and television.
@cdelbyck

Internal Report: Major Diversity, Organizational Problems At Human Rights Campaign,” by Chris Geidner. BuzzFeed, June 2, 2015.

For many, the Human Rights Campaign’s logo, a yellow equal sign, has become synonymous with the struggle for LGBT rights in America. This internal HRC report recently obtained by BuzzFeed paints a very different picture— “Leadership culture is experienced as homogenous—gay, white, male.” Although the HRC already has a plan in place to better represent those who fall outside of those demographics, the report reflects a serious tension within the LGBT community, where the G often drowns out the concerns of the L B T.

Khadija Elgarguri focuses on MENA issues including women’s rights, the relationship between foreign policy and cultural change, and women’s roles in protest movements in the region.
@dijaawad

A Muslim woman beat Abercrombie & Fitch. Why her Supreme Court victory is a win for all Americans,” by Simran Jeet Singh. The Washington Post, June 1, 2015.

This Washington Post opinion piece explains why, in the Abercrombie lawsuit brought by Muslim-American Samantha Elauf, the Supreme Court’s decision to rule in favor of equal opportunity and religious freedom is a landmark decision in a time when employment discrimination is still a norm. “This case illustrates how we see ourselves as a society,” Singh writes. “Americans are one step closer to not having to choose between their faith and their work.”

Benjamin Hattem focuses on Israel/Palestine and the broader Middle East, as well as economic inequality, homelessness, and the prison system.
@benhattem

FBI Successfully Runs Out the Clock on DOJ’s Inspector General Review of Use of Phone Metadata,” Empty Wheel. June 3, 2015.

The FBI has failed to produce documents to the DOJ Office of the Inspector General about how the bureau used phone metadata it collected. With the passage of surveillance reform that contracted NSA surveillance authorization but reauthorized FBI metadata collection, those documents may never be released.

James F. Kelly focuses on labor, economic inequality, world politics and intellectual history.
@jamesf_kelly

How the Red Cross Raised Half a Billion Dollars for Haiti ­and Built Six Homes,” by Justin Elliott, ProPublica, and Laura Sullivan, NPR. ProPublica, June 3, 2015.

America’s charity of choice, the Red Cross, promised thousands of Haitians new homes after disaster struck their nation. Despite claiming to have sheltered 130,000 people and helped more than 4.5 million Haitians “get back on their feet,” the organization has only built six permanent homes, leaving thousands to shacks made of rusty sheet metal, without access to drinking water, basic sanitation, and electricity. This joint ProPublica-NPR expose not only reveals the utter incompetence of a highly revered institution but highlights how “charity” organizations are able capitalize on the broken politics of disaster relief.

Ava Kofman focuses on technology, popular science and media culture.
@eyywa

The Price of Housing Preservation: Linden Plaza’s Saga,” by Abigail Savitch-Lew. City Limits, May 27, 2015.

Just one of many stories of the absurd rise in the costs of affordable housing in East New York, this investigation of Linden Plaza further shows us that de Blasio’s proposed housing plan might not be doing nearly enough.

Abigail Savitch-Lew focuses on urban policy, labor, and race.
@savitchlew

A Choice for Recovering Addicts: Relapse or Homelessness,” by Kim Barker. The New York Times, May 30, 2015.

For years, reputable nonprofits and NYC government agencies referred homeless men and drug addicts to a number of unregulated “three-quarter houses”—seen as somewhere between halfway houses and homes—where landlords churn a profit at the expense of their residents’ health and futures. At Back On Track, a set of homes in East New York, the landlord made deals with drug clinics, then forced his tenants to enroll—and if they got clean, he would urge them to relapse so they could continue to qualify for housing. The article has already led de Blasio to announce a new task force on investigating three-quarter houses.

Hilary Weaver focuses on reproductive rights, feminism and related political, health and educational issues.
@Hilary_Weaver

I Was a Proud Non-Breeder. Then I Changed My Mind,” by Michelle Goldberg. New York, May 25, 2015.

One of my friends has a birth-control alarm on her phone that reads, “Cats, not babies”—at 22, she knows she will never want children, but as a 23-year-old, equally career-driven woman, I know that, years from now, I do. The Nation’s Michelle Goldberg writes about her switch from not wanting children to being the mother of two—and why it’s OK to change camps.



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-are-nation-interns-reading-week-6515/
From University Sit-Ins to Highway Blockades, the Spring Rages Onhttps://www.thenation.com/article/archive/university-sit-ins-highway-blockades-spring-rages/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Lauren Massing,StudentNation,StudentNation,Alex Press,StudentNation,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,Zachary R. Wood,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,StudentNation,Jailyn Gladney,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationJun 8, 2015From Cleveland to Santa Barbara, the youth-led groundswell against racial and sexual violence continues.

]]>

This post is part of The Nation’s biweekly student movement dispatch. As part of the StudentNation blog, each dispatch hosts first-person updates on youth organizing. For recent dispatches, check out May 1 and May 18. Contact studentmovement@thenation.com with tips. Edited by James Cersonsky (@cersonsky).

1. #SayHerName

On May 21, Black Youth Project 100, Black Lives Matter, and Ferguson Action called for a Day of Action to End State Violence Against Black Women and Girls in an effort to complicate male-centered narratives about anti-black violence that often exclude the experiences of black women. In New York City, we called out the names of black women lost to police violence as we marched in funeral procession to City Hall where a budget proposal for 1,000 new cops was being made. Overall, more than 20 cities organized actions to advocate for black women just as we stand for black men. With #SayHerName trending nationally and attention being drawn to the high rates of police murder, incarceration, and sexual assault of black women, our generation’s black youth-driven movement made another strong move to bring the needs of the most marginalized of our communities to the center of our work.

—Asha Rosa

2. #BreakTheCurfew

In the Bay, we responded to the Black Youth Project’s call with a day of action: Black women reclaimed our bodies, agency, and Afrikan tradition in a shutdown of San Francisco’s financial district in the morning; the Anti-Police Terror Project uplifted the name and life of Yuvette Henderson, a mother who was murdered by Emeryville Police on February 3, in the afternoon; and the local BYP chapter facilitated a night march, mostly comprising black women and children, through the streets of Oakland. At the march, we were met with police aggression, as the Oakland Police Department confronted us in full riot gear to enforce a previously unannounced curfew ordered by Mayor Libby Shaaf—and deemed unconstitutional by the National Lawyer’s Guild. Since then, we have taken the streets two more times in defiance of the curfew. In the process, the OPD has targeted protesters, citing 47 and arresting five, some of whom were abiding by police orders. We demand an immediate end to the curfew, the dropping of all charges and fines for #BreakTheCurfew protesters, an abandonment of Mayor Schaaf’s request for more police officers, and an end to FBI surveillance in Oakland. Until our demands are met, we will continue to take the streets that will always be ours.

—Brianna Gibson

3. Whose University?

On May 13, after being constantly rebuffed by the University of California–Santa Barbara administration in trying to set up meetings to discuss current sexual assault policies on campus, 40 students, faculty, and parents staged a sit-in in Chancellor Yang’s office. During the sit-in, students discussed how the current policies were ineffective and discussed ways to address concerns while awaiting the chancellor. After 13.5 hours, he signed all 13 of our demands, including immediate removal of perpetrators from university housing if found guilty through the campus adjudication process and agreement to publish a quarterly report aggregating data of cases reported to the university.

—Lexi Weyrick, Alejandra Melgoza, and Melissa Vasquez

4. Whose Graduation?

On Tuesday, May 19, Emma Sulkowicz and four other students carried her mattress as she walked across the stage at Columbia University’s graduation ceremony. For the past year, Emma’s Carry That Weight project has brought national attention to the epidemic of sexual violence on college campuses, and served as a powerful protest against Columbia’s mishandling of the issue. Despite the university’s pointed efforts to ban “large objects” from the ceremony, Emma’s action was a sobering reminder that Columbia’s response to sexual assault continues to be dangerously inadequate. At various commencement-week ceremonies, members of No Red Tape and the Coalition Against Sexual Violence also handed out strips of red tape for students to place on their caps to show solidarity with survivors of sexual and domestic violence. Activists at Columbia will continue to hold the administration accountable for student safety, protest the ongoing presence of rapists on campus, and work to honor the voices of the survivors so often silenced in favor of the university’s public image.

—Amber Officer-Narvasa

5. In Newark, 2,000 Walk Out

On May 22, the Newark Students Union organized a citywide walkout in protest of Superintendent Cami Anderson’s “turnaround” policy. Under turnaround status, targeted schools lose half their teachers and staff, receive budget cuts for extracurricular programs, and extend their school days. We believe that the implementation of any such process should occur with the consent of the community—and that actions by Anderson, who was appointed by the state, are an attempt to undermine public education and further the neoliberal model of privatization. Outraged by these moves, 2,000 students from more than 10 schools walked out and marched to the steps of City Hall. From there, we took over Newark’s busiest intersection and shut down McCarter Highway.

—Jose Leonardo

6. In Charleston, a Fight for the Public

On Tuesday, May 26, 40 students from Burke High School in Charleston, South Carolina, rallied outside the Charleston County school district office before delivering our thoughts to the CCSD board of trustees. We staged this action, the March on 75 Calhoun, to demand greater input from Burke students, parents, and community members in what happens to Burke High—which could include turning Burke into a charter school. The action follows a series of meetings attended by students, parents, and community members. On June 11, we will present our issues to elected officials at a meeting at the high school.

—Rashon Young

7. In Omaha, a Mark for Native Justice

On May 19, after 13 years in the Omaha, Nebraska, school district, we prepared to walk the stage from South High School. However, administrators and faculty felt that our Native American cultural and ceremonial practice of wearing the eagle plumes that we receive in acknowledgement for this achievement would be a distraction from the ceremony. In response, family and community members went before the school board to inform it that it is our right as enrolled members of federally recognized tribes to be allowed to wear our eagle plumes per 42 US Code § 1996—Protection and preservation of traditional religions of Native Americans. The morning of graduation, the district decided to allow the eagle plume to be worn and agreed to reconsider its practices.

—Student from Omaha

8. The Largest University to Divest in History

On May 21, the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii voted unanimously to divest its $66 million endowment from coal, oil, and gas companies, the largest university to divest to date. The ten-campus UH system joins over 200 institutions across the globe that have pledged to pull their investments from fossil-fuel companies and replace them with green funds. Unlike at other campuses, such as Harvard, the campaign at UH, DivestUH, was highly collaborative. Students, faculty, and community members presented signatures, resolutions, and testimony to the regents, who engaged in constructive dialogue and formed a multi-stakeholder task force. Our next steps are to tackle the $260+ million fund of the UH Foundation, an independent fundraising organization, and to use this win to spur stronger sustainability commitments from the university and state.

—DivestUH

9. Justice for Cleveland

Editor’s note: On Saturday, March 23, hundreds gathered at Impett Park in Cleveland before marching to county prosecutor Timothy McGinty’s house to demand charges for the police who shot 12-year-old black boy Tamir Rice. The same day, Officer Michael Brelo was found not guilty for the killing of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams in 2012, prompting citywide protests. (Video: RuptlyTV)

—Cleveland Community

10. Justice for Baltimore

Editor’s note: On Tuesday, May 26, Baltimore youth and community members shut down traffic on I-395 to protest the state’s decision to put $30 million into a juvenile prison while decreasing education funding. (Video: The Baltimore Sun)

—Baltimore Community



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/university-sit-ins-highway-blockades-spring-rages/
What Are ‘Nation’ Interns Reading the Week of 5/29/15?https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-are-nation-interns-reading-week-52915/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Lauren Massing,StudentNation,StudentNation,Alex Press,StudentNation,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,Zachary R. Wood,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,StudentNation,Jailyn Gladney,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationMay 29, 2015

Queen Arsem-O’Malley focuses on grassroots labor organizing, youth-led social movements, anti-carceral feminism, and critiques of mainstream media.
@qaween

Killing the Colorado (Part 1: Holy Crop),” by Abrahm Lustgarten and Naveena Sadasivam. ProPublica, May 28, 2015.

While drought in California has been capturing headlines, the Colorado River is entering its 15th year of drought. ProPublica’s multi-part investigation delves into the history of the river, water rights, and the river’s ever-decreasing supply. The first part explores cotton farming in Arizona, a practice that is heavily subsidized by the federal government and uses billions of gallons of water every year.

Avi Asher-Schapiro focuses on US foreign policy, politics in the Middle East and South America, and technology issues.
@AASchapiro

Why Saudi Arabia’s Yemen war is not producing victory,” by Bruce Riedel. A-Monitor, May 22, 2015.

Gulf expert Bruce Riedel offers up a smart analysis of the Yemen conflict where, he says, the “Saudis are learning the limits of their power.”

Cole Delbyck focuses on LGBT politics, East Asia and representational issues in film and television.
@cdelbyck

Why Can’t We Talk About Homophobia in the Black Community?” by Daniel Reynolds. The Advocate, May 26, 2015.

In this thoughtful and historically grounded essay, Reynolds tackles the sensitive subject of black homophobia—a topic some believe gets too much and some too little, attention. 2015, in many ways, has been a banner year for representations of black LGBT voices in the media (Thank you, Empire), but there is of course a gap between the stories people see on screen and reality. Reynolds emphasizes that “Ignorance and hate are not black-exclusive,” while simultaneously providing an analysis for the specific ways homophobia has manifested in the black community.

Khadija Elgarguri focuses on MENA issues including women’s rights, the relationship between foreign policy and cultural change, and women’s roles in protest movements in the region.
@dijaawad

The GOP’s Embrace of Anti-Islamic Bigotry,” by Peter Beinart. The Atlantic, May 26, 2015.

Beinart makes the necessary observation that in an era where America “has become a less bigoted country… anti-Muslim bigotry is still entirely acceptable, at least in the GOP.”  Beinart cites Lindsey Graham’s flippant remark that “Everything that starts with ‘Al’ [the] in the Middle East is bad news” as one in a litany of examples of today’s casually rampant intolerance. Graham’s statement speaks to a worrying lack of global awareness, especially considering that he is “running as the foreign-policy intellectual in the GOP field.”

Benjamin Hattem focuses on Israel/Palestine and the broader Middle East, as well as economic inequality, homelessness, and the prison system.
@BenHattem

Meet the Latest Secret Free-Market Group That Wants to Take Over Your Public School,” by Sarah Lahm. In These Times, May 27, 2015.

In These Times examines another organization tied up in the campaign to destroy public education. CRPE suggests that its member districts define accountability as the “right to continue to operate” and proposes forcing schools like Minneapolis’s Dowling Elementary, which was designed to meet the needs of special education students, to “cram more kids in” in order to justify its higher-than-average program expenses.

James F. Kelly focuses on labor, economic inequality, world politics and intellectual history.
@jamesf_kelly

The man behind France’s ban on supermarket waste says he wants the rest of the world to follow suit,” by Cassie Werber. Quartz, May 27, 2015.

One of my first jobs as a teenager was working as a barista for a certain global doughnut/coffee company. To my bemusement, each night the dozens of leftover pastries and bagels were thrown into the garbage to rot in a landfill instead of being donated to a soup kitchen or charity. I don’t think it’s a stretch to proclaim that saving perfectly edible food should be regarded as a universal simple axiom and we should follow the lead of France by codifying it into law.

Ava Kofman focuses on technology, popular science and media culture.
@eyywa

Women, Incarcerated,” by Zoe Greenberg and Sharona Coutts. RH Reality CheckMarch-May 2015.

This spring, RH Reality Check published a deep-dive investigative series into the known and unknown facts about the experiences of women in the criminal justice system. From the abysmal lack of medical care offered to pregnant women in prison to inflexible foster laws to the sometimes-fatal lack of drug treatment, the series outlines the immense trauma and violence that mass incarceration wreaks upon thousands of women’s lives—and that reverberates for generations within families and communities.

Abigail Savitch-Lew focuses on urban policy, labor and race.
@savitchlew

A Plea for Culinary Modernism,” by Rachel Laudan. Jacobin, May 22, 2015.

Historian Rachel Laudan challenges the idea, now popular in the locavore and organic food movement, that we must return to a pre-1950s past in which we ate wholesome, natural foods that were better for our bodies and the environment. Her vivid, class-conscious descriptions of the world’s culinary history suggest that before industrialization, only the very rich were able to eat diverse, nutritional and delicious foods. Rather than dismiss industrial products, she calls for a more specific evaluation of the benefits and disadvantages of different types of food processing—though I wish she would take us through some examples that really grapple with the environmental and health harms of the modern, industrial food supply.

Hilary Weaver focuses on reproductive rights, feminism and related political, health and education issues.
@Hilary_Weaver

Lena Dunham, Amy Schumer and Comedy Actress A-List in Raunchy, R-Rated Roundtable,” by Stacey Wilson Hunt and Michael O’Connell. The Hollywood Reporter, May 27, 2015.

Each year, when Emmy nominees are announced, I watch the THR roundtable interviews of female nominees; TV actresses seem to have unmatched, specific insight into subtle sexism and intersectional discrimination, and they often use humor to point to these problems. With this interview featuring Lena Dunham (Girls), Ellie Kemper (The Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt), Kate McKinnon (SNL), Tracee Ellis Ross (Black-ish), Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin), and Amy Schumer (Inside Amy Schumer), THR initiates an unsurprisingly blunt, humorous and necessary conversation about relevant issues women in entertainment face today.

 



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-are-nation-interns-reading-week-52915/
What Are ‘Nation’ Interns Reading the Week of 5/22/15?https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-are-nation-interns-reading-week-52215/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Lauren Massing,StudentNation,StudentNation,Alex Press,StudentNation,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,Zachary R. Wood,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,StudentNation,Jailyn Gladney,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationMay 22, 2015

Queen Arsem-O’Malley focuses on grassroots labor organizing, youth-led social movements, anti-carceral feminism, and critiques of mainstream media.
@qaween

The Radical Vision of Toni Morrison,” by Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah. New York Times Magazine, April 8, 2015.

“We don’t need any more writers as solitary heroes,” Morrison said in her 1981 keynote address at the American Writers Congress. “We need a heroic writer’s movement: assertive, militant, pugnacious.” In this profile of Toni Morrison, Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah looks not only at her writing, but also her work as an editor as a contribution to the civil rights movement and the powerful societal consequences of both.

Avi Asher-Schapiro focuses on US foreign policy, politics in the Middle East and South America, and technology issues.
@AASchapiro

Sentenced to Death in Egypt,” by Emad Shahin. The Atlantic, May 19, 2015.

Emad Shahin—an Egyptian political scientist at Georgetown University—was just sentenced to death in his home country. Here, he responds to the charges of “espionage” and “conspiring to undermine national security.”

Cole Delbyck focuses on LGBT politics, East Asia and representational issues in film and television.
@cdelbyck

Sexy Times at the Annual Twin Peaks Festival,” by Travis Blue. Butt Magazine, May 6, 2015.

When I grow up, I want to be…Laura Palmer? There are fans of Twin Peaks and then there’s Travis Blue, who modeled his life after the sexed-up, teenage drug addict at the center of David Lynch’s cult classic. Over the course of six fan-organized Twin Peaks festivals, Blue documents his sexcapades with various men while always keeping reminding himself WWLPD (What Would Laura Palmer Do)—“He wanted to cuddle, but I didn’t think Laura would do that.”

Khadija Elgarguri focuses on MENA issues including women’s rights, the relationship between foreign policy and cultural change, and women’s roles in protest movements in the region.
@dijaawad

Gazans reach beyond blockade through start-up.” Ma’an News Agency, May 20, 2015.

128 Gazan businesses were destroyed during last year’s bombardment by Israel, which claimed around 2,200 Palestinian lives and further crippled the blockaded strip in which two thirds of young people—most of whom hold degrees—are affected by unemployment. After GDP declined by 15 percent, two Gazans opened “a gap in the blockade,” by starting a software firm that primarily staffs young female programmers. The dire state of unemployment was exemplified when 400 people applied for 10 jobs, but one of the founders says the high demand signals that Gazans aren’t “just…waiting for humanitarian aid.”

James F. Kelly focuses on labor, economic inequality, world politics and intellectual history.
@jamesf_kelly

Qatar: Promising Little, Delivering Less—Qatar and migrant labour abuse ahead of the 2022 Football World Cup.” Amnesty International, May 20, 2015.

Despite a fair amount of media scrutiny, a new report from Amnesty International says that Qatar, the host nation of the 2022 World Cup, has failed to improve conditions for its workers. Faced with obvious human rights abuses, FIFA sponsors Adidas, Coca-Cola, and Visa have urged Qatar to pursue reform measures, yet none of these mega-corporations are threatening to withdraw their sponsorship. It’s a shame that the Beautiful Game’s biggest event is mired in a seemingly endless web of corruption.

Ava Kofman focuses on technology, popular science and media culture.
@eyywa

Blood and Glory,” by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio. The New Inquiry, May 13, 2015.

In the weeks following 9/11, immigrants began to clean the rubble at Ground Zero, making $60 for 12-plus hour days while their contractors worked with deals over hundreds and thousands of dollars. In a lyrical, swooping essay, Villavicencio lays out the case that “the bodies at Ground Zero were made heroic; the immigrant bodies that cleaned them up, less so.” Linking scientific and legal notions of personhood to the shadow labor of necropower, she reveals Ground Zero as an exemplary site for thinking through how the state brings certain lives back after death and lets others die while they’re still alive.

Abigail Savitch-Lew focuses on urban policy, labor and race.
@savitchlew

Why My Charter School Needs a Union,” by Dave Woo. In These Times, May 8, 2015.

“I have serious concerns about how resources are allocated by my own charter network,” says teacher Dave Woo, after he learned through FOIA requests that his charter school network spends a quarter-million dollars annually renting a downtown space for administrative activities. Challenging the demonization of unions, he describes them as a mechanism for accountability. For me, this begs the question: why not take the celebrated innovations developed by some charter schools and simply integrate those innovations into a unionized, public school system?

Hilary Weaver focuses on reproductive rights, feminism and related political, health and education issues.
@Hilary_Weaver

What Young Feminists Think of Hillary Clinton,” by Molly Mirhashem. National Journal Magazine, May 18.

This time around, Hillary Clinton’s campaign will aim to impress the millennial crowd—especially those interested in the women-focused causes Clinton champions. Mirhashem’s narrative, featuring millennial feminists, proves that this group expects a lot of the feminist icon, should she earn the desk in the Oval Office.

 



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-are-nation-interns-reading-week-52215/
Students Walk Out for Community College, Hunger Strike for Janitors, and Mass for Tony Robinsonhttps://www.thenation.com/article/archive/students-walk-out-community-college-hunger-strike-janitors-and-mass-tony-robinson/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Lauren Massing,StudentNation,StudentNation,Alex Press,StudentNation,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,Zachary R. Wood,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,StudentNation,Jailyn Gladney,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationMay 18, 2015As the semester ends, the action ramps up.

]]>

This post is part of The Nation’s biweekly student movement dispatch. As part of the StudentNation blog, each dispatch hosts first-person updates on youth organizing. For recent dispatches, check out April 24 and May 1. Contact studentmovement@thenation.com with tips. Edited by James Cersonsky (@cersonsky).

1. At City College, Walking Out

On Wednesday, May 6, more than 200 students and faculty walked out of class and held a sit-in at the administrative building of the City College of San Francisco, demanding an end to the Special Trustee with Extraordinary Powers, Guy Lease, the end to a payment policy that discriminates against non-AB540 undocumented students and the reversal of cuts stemming from the college’s illegal accreditation process. Despite a recent court decision demonstrating that the accrediting commission, the corporate ACCJC, broke the law in evaluating CCSF, the special trustee and administration continue to downsize and limit access to the college. At the rally, we highlighted the disproportionate impact these cuts have on Diversity Studies, resource centers, and the students they serve—students of color, LGBTQ students, single parents, formally incarcerated students, and those with special needs. On May 7, the Board of Supervisors held a special hearing at City Hall, but the special trustee—who has a $216,000 salary while students have been pushed out for owing minimal fees, hundreds of classes have been canceled and faculty haven’t received a raise since 2007—failed to attend. We will continue to mobilize until all demands are met.

—Save CCSF Coalition & Diversity Studies Coalition

2. At Trade Tech, Demanding Respect

On May 6, seven officers of the Associated Student Organization from Los Angeles Trade Technical College submitted our resignations to send a statement that the system discounts students’ voices. This was on the heels of the Los Angeles Community College District’s April dissemination of the audit reports of the student trust funds of the district, detailing the mismanagement of our fund—and calling for the reimbursement of $17,000 to the ASO. In our letters of resignations, we reported a range of grievances, including differential treatment, lack of support, gender discrimination, harassment, and racial and ethnic bias by the administration.

—Zaakiyah Brisker

3. No More Tuition

On November 18, 500 students at the University of California–Davis massed to commemorate the pepper-spray incident during the Occupy Movement in 2011—and protest upwards of 27 percent in threatened tuition hikes over the next five years. The next day, students from across the state converged on the UC–San Francisco campus to shut down the Regents meeting and fight the hike. Since then, students at UC Davis have held sit-ins, teach-ins, and building occupations to bring attention to the overwhelming debt and the ever-looming threat of tuition increase. On May 14, Governor Jerry Brown announced a two-year tuition freeze in his state budget.

—Evelyn Nuno

4. No More Cuts

On October 25, Louisiana State University students stormed the field at Death Valley stadium after we beat Ole Miss, reminding the campus and the city what it means to be “Forever LSU.” However, when LSU faced funding cuts up to 82 percent related to state budget deficits, the Baton Rouge campus was silent until a small group of students organized “Make the Change: March the Capitol.” On April 30, 1,200 students, alumni, Louisiana residents, and legislators marched to the steps of the state capitol and vowed to speak out and put the pressure on state representatives to save higher education. Through the action, we registered dozens of voters, sent 8,000 personalized emails to legislators and, on May 7, saw House legislation that would cover all higher education funding.

—Gabrielle Murphy

5. 96 Hours Against Sweatshops

On Monday, April 20, Cards United Against Sweatshops began a 96-hour occupation of the administrative building at the University of Louisville. We decided to escalate after ongoing failure to work with the administration to get the university to cut its licensing contract with JanSport. JanSport is a subsidiary of the VF Corporation, which refuses to sign on the Accord on Fire and Safety in Bangladesh, a legally binding agreement that would mandate safety inspections of all factories a company has in Bangladesh. On April 24, the second anniversary of the infamous Rana Plaza collapse, we decided to end the sit-in. On May 7, the university announced that it would not be renewing the contract—the 19th school to cut ties.

—Kate Hall

6. A Hunger Strike for Jobs

From May 3 to 9, five students from the Tufts Labor Coalition staged a hunger strike to protest planned layoffs of 20 to 35 campus janitors—or 10 to 17 percent of the total workforce. The cuts, which make sense neither morally nor economically, are set to take effect at the beginning of June. Dozens of students joined the hunger strikers in a tent encampment outside of Ballou Hall, the main administrative building, with support throughout the week by janitors, faculty, students, local politicians, and community members. As meetings between TLC and the administration continue to be fruitless, actions will continue until Tufts cancels the cuts.

—Nathan Foster

7. Finally, a Step for Trans Justice

In the spring of 2013, students at Smith College founded Q&A to advocate for a trans women–inclusive admissions policy. Since then, we’ve met with administrators, organized educational events and staged protests. On May 2 of this year, the college changed its policy, which required “F” gender markers on all parts of the application, to one that is based on female self-identification. While our refrain, “trans women are women,” has sunk into the collective conscious of Smith College, we must continue to challenge cultural attitudes about trans women. Moving forward, Q&A will work to make Smith a space in which all trans women can thrive by supporting organizing for the rights of undocumented students, recruitment and retention of students of color, accessibility for students of dis/abilities, and economic justice.

—Smith Q&A

8. In Arizona, a Historic Win for Undocumented Youth

On May 7, the Arizona Board of Regents announced that the state’s public universities would grant in-state tuition to DREAMers, undocumented young people who arrived in the United States as children. The decision followed a May 5 ruling in which a state judge ruled that DACA-approved youth, who have work visas under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, should be granted in-state tuition at Maricopa County Community Colleges. For the past three years, a statewide coalition including the Arizona DREAM Act Coalition, Scholarships AZ, Flagstaff No More Deaths and Arizona State University’s Graduate and Professional Student Association has worked to put a human face on this issue. We marched, shared stories, and won the support of allies ranging from the Flagstaff City Council to Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton. Now that the doors to higher education are open for Arizona’s 22,000 DACA students, we are planning to explore options for financial aid and resources for undocumented young people while defending our rights from ongoing attacks.

—Korina Iribe

9. In New York, the Ongoing March for Equality

On March 25, for the second year in a row, students from NYCLetEmPlay took over the New York City Council education budget hearing to protest the city’s separate and unequal high school sports system: 17,000 students of color go to a public high school with no sports, and 38,000 have no sports this spring. At the hearing, more than a hundred students stood in front of Chancellor Carmen Fariña, rose our black fists like Tommie Smith and John Carlos from the 1968 Olympics and chanted #CivilRightsMatter—only to be dismissed and kicked out by the police. The following day, the city’s Department of Education retaliated by firing our media arts teacher who has been filming our protests and reassigning our dean and college counselor who have stood in solidarity. In turn, we walked out of school, marched to City Hall and staged a sit-in in the hallways. We will continue protesting every Wednesday in front of the department and City Hall until our demand that all students of color have equitable access to sports is met. On May 20, we will move to the Panel for Educational Policy in Brooklyn to testify in front of Chancellor Fariña.

—Sory Konate

10. #Justice4Tony

Editor’s note: On May 13, hundreds of young people filled the streets of Madison, Wisconsin, demanding justice following the non-indictment of officer Matt Kenny for the killing of 19-year-old Tony Robinson. (Video: Freedom Inc)

—Madison Community



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/students-walk-out-community-college-hunger-strike-janitors-and-mass-tony-robinson/
What Are ‘Nation’ Interns Reading the Week of 5/15/15?https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-are-nation-interns-reading-week-51515/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Lauren Massing,StudentNation,StudentNation,Alex Press,StudentNation,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,Zachary R. Wood,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,StudentNation,Jailyn Gladney,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationMay 15, 2015

Queen Arsem-O’Malley focuses on grassroots labor organizing, youth-led social movements, anti-carceral feminism, and critiques of mainstream media.
@qaween

Coal Ash May Be Making Pennsylvania Inmates Sick, and Now They’re Fighting to Shut Their Prison Down,” by Raven Rakia. VICE, May 5, 2015.

In an incredible investigation at the intersection of environmental justice and prison advocacy, Raven Rakia details the combination of the dire health consequences of coal ash and the sometimes-fatal negligence of a Pennsylvania prison.

Avi Asher-Schapiro focuses on US foreign policy, politics in the Middle East and South America, and technology issues.
@AASchapiro

The Detail in Seymour Hersh’s Bin Laden Story That Rings True,” by Carlotta Gall. New York Times Magazine, May 12, 2015.

Seymour Hersh’s recent expose in the London Review of Books on the killing of Osama Bin Laden has many calling him a conspiracy theorist. But veteran New York TimesAfPak correspondent Carlotta Gall comes to Hersh’s defense on several key points, confirming that, at the very least, the government version of events rests on a series of half-truths.

Cole Delbyck focuses on LGBT politics, East Asia, and representational issues in film and television.
@cdelbyck

I Was Born Homosexual. I Chose to Be Gay,” by J. Bryan Lowder. Slate, May 12, 2015.

What can I say about this powerful and challenging essay on the schism between homosexuality and gayness? Effortlessly pulling from sources ranging from RuPaul and Oscar Wilde to Foucault and Edmund White, Lowder takes a temperature test of what it means to be gay in and outside the bedroom in 2015. I particularly appreciated his attempt to define gayness, something he breaks down into four key concepts—cruising, drag, queenliness, and family.

Khadija Elgarguri focuses on MENA issues including women’s rights, the relationship between foreign policy and cultural change, and women’s roles in protest movements in the region.
@dijaawad

Vatican to Recognize Palestinian State in New Treaty,” by Gaia Pianigiani and Rick Gladstone. The New York Times, May 13, 2015.

In a “symbolic step,” the Vatican submitted for approval a treaty that recognizes Palestine as a state. While this “powerful signal of legitimacy” to stateless Palestinians is momentous, what’s particularly interesting is the response by Israeli officials, who stated that the Vatican’s move “does not advance the peace process.” Israel’s “disappointed” response signals that a two-state solution does not factor favorably into its peace process equation, which likely contributes to the process’s “long-paralyzed” status.

Benjamin Hattem focuses on Israel/Palestine and the broader Middle East, as well as economic inequality, homelessness, and the prison system.
@BenHattem

The Disturbing Reason Higher Education Lobbying Groups Are Supporting For-Profit Colleges,” by Alec MacGillis. Pacific Standard, May 12, 2015.

The higher education lobby is trying to halt regulation of for-profit colleges in the hopes of deregulating their own federal funding and Pell grants. It’s another reminder that, as the author puts it, “the higher education lobby represents an industry as self-interested as any other.”

James F. Kelly focuses on labor, economic inequality, world politics and intellectual history.
@jamesf_kelly

Shell oil rig arriving Thursday is just the start of the Arctic drilling fleet,” by Coral Garnick and Hal Bernton. The Seattle Times, May 13, 2015.

The Obama administration rarely passes up an opportunity to mock the Republican Party’s climate skepticism—Vice President Joe Biden recently compared denying the reality of human-induced climate changed to “denying gravity.” With the announcement this week that Shell has been given conditional approval to drill in the Arctic, many are left wondering whose interests the White House has in mind.

Ava Kofman focuses on technology, popular science and media culture.
@eyywa

Eight Big Ideas from Seven on Seven,” by Michael Connor. Rhizome, May 4, 2015.

This article rounds up the cool projects from Rhizome’s Seven on Seven conference, which pairs seven artists with seven technologists to collaborate on projects. This year’s theme was “Empathy and Disgust.” The keynote featured algorithm-goddess Kate Crawford interviewing counter-surveillance hero Laura Poitras: lots of <3.

Abigail Savitch-Lew focuses on urban policy, labor and race.
@savitchlew

You’ve Heard What’s Wrong in Freddie Gray’s Neighborhood. Here’s One Local’s Vision for Turning That Around,” by Mary Hansen. Yes Magazine, May 11, 2015.

Blaize Connelly-Duggan, the director of an alcohol recovery center in the neighborhood where Freddie Gray grew up, dreams of community-driven development—restaurants and tourist destinations constructed and owned by current residents, with white people visiting as customers, but not generating displacement. His desire for resources to buy that burned-down CVS and make it a community-owned organic food store seems practical and modest enough; will the new mayor pay attention to locals like Connelly-Duggan as they address the demands of protesters?

Hilary Weaver focuses on reproductive rights, feminism and related political, health and education issues.
@Hilary_Weaver

Nellie Bly’s Lessons in Writing What You Want To,” by Alice Gregory. The New Yorker, May 14, 2014.

May 5 marked what would have been journalist pioneer Nellie Bly’s 161st birthday. This piece, featured in The New Yorker last year, reminds journalists and journalistic hopefuls of a trailblazing woman who helped establish some of the founding principles for investigative journalism.

 



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-are-nation-interns-reading-week-51515/
What Are ‘Nation’ Interns Reading the Week of 5/8/15?https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-are-nation-interns-reading-week-5815/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Lauren Massing,StudentNation,StudentNation,Alex Press,StudentNation,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,Zachary R. Wood,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,StudentNation,Jailyn Gladney,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationMay 8, 2015Nation interns reading the week of 5/8/15?]]>

Queen Arsem-O’Malley focuses on grassroots labor organizing, youth-led social movements, anti-carceral feminism, and critiques of mainstream media.
@qaween

The NSA’s greatest hiring strength is students, but resistance is growing,” by Hannah K. Gold. The Guardian, May 1, 2015.

When an agency gives students scholarships and lends universities prestige through its recruiting process, there aren’t a lot of people who are going to argue. When that agency is the NSA, things get more complicated, as Hannah Gold reports on NSA recruitment of students around the country.

Cole Delbyck focuses on LGBT politics, East Asia, and representational issues in film and television.
@cdelbyck

When Baltimore Shook With Anger, Here’s What China Saw,” by Viola Rothschild. Foreign Policy, May 5, 2015.

Since the late 1990s, hundreds of thousands of Africans have migrated to China. Although the relationship between the China and African workers has been economically successful, interactions between Chinese citizens and African immigrants on the ground have been fraught with tension and racism—Africans are often characterized as drug-dealing troublemakers and criminals. Rothschild positions Chinese reactions to the recent death of Freddie Gray and the ensuing riots to provide an important commentary on the state of black lives not only within our borders, but also around the world.

Khadija Elgarguri focuses on MENA issues, including women’s rights, the relationship between foreign policy and cultural change, and women’s roles in protest movements in the region.
@dijaawad

Double Standards: US Accused of ‘Hypocrisy’ Over Yemen, Ukraine Conflicts.” Sputnik, May 6, 2015.

The Saudi-led, US-backed bombing campaign in Yemen has killed hundreds of civilians and created a humanitarian crisis in yet another invasion piloted by faraway global leaders who somehow still believe the “bombs will restore stability” argument. Critics say “the US and Saudi geo-strategic interest in containing the influence of Iran” is the driving force in this latest bout of blatant “international lawlessness” precipitated by the United States’ “War on Terror.”

James F. Kelly focuses on labor, economic inequality, world politics, and intellectual history.
@jamesf_kelly

France passes new surveillance law in wake of the Charlie Hebdo attack,” by Angelique Chrisafis. The Guardian, May 5, 2015.

It’s difficult not to draw parallels between the controversial new surveillance law passed by the French parliament and the Patriot Act. While Snowden’s revelations about the NSA have provoked a considerable re-evaluation of mass surveillance, there’s no doubt that equipping intelligence agencies with new powers is more palatable when national anxiety is heightened by recent acts of terror.

Abigail Savitch-Lew focuses on urban policy, labor and race.
@savitchlew

America’s trailer parks: the residents may be poor but the owners are getting rich,” by Rupert Neate. The Guardian, May 3, 2015.

Thanks to the national divestment from public housing, trailer parks have become one the last places a poor family can find affordable housing, especially in the American South. Six percent of Americans live in a trailer park, and it’s become a lucrative business for owners and investors. With the provision of affordable housing increasingly privatized, who is to stop those investors from raising rents when they feel like it?

Hilary Weaver focuses on reproductive rights, feminism and related political, health, and education issues.
@Hilary_Weaver

A Cancer Survivor Designs the Cards She Wishes She’d Received From Friends and Family,” by Kristen Hohenadel. Slate, May 6, 2015.

My 23-year-old friend with stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma shared this post from Slate’s design blog and said, “These are perfect.” She has been so tired of people trying to console her by saying, “Things happen for a reason”; then, she saw 24-year-old Hodgkin’s survivor Emily McDowell’s cards with messages cancer patients might want and need to hear. And, as her friend who spent days searching for the right thing to say, I love these, too.

 



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-are-nation-interns-reading-week-5815/
What Are ‘Nation’ Interns Reading the Week of 3/6/15?https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-are-nation-interns-reading-week-3615/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Lauren Massing,StudentNation,StudentNation,Alex Press,StudentNation,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,Zachary R. Wood,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,StudentNation,Jailyn Gladney,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationMar 6, 2015What Are ‘Nation’ Interns Reading the Week of 3/6/15?

]]>

Queen Arsem-O’Malley focuses on grassroots labor organizing, youth-led social movements, anti-carceral feminism, and critiques of mainstream media.
@qaween

U of T Teaching Assistants Reject Deal and Go on Strike,” by Gerard Di Trolio. rankandfile.ca, February 28, 2015.

On March 2, 6,000 graduate student Teaching Assistants at University of Toronto went on strike after voting overwhelmingly to reject a tentative agreement.On Tuesday, York University TAs also went on strike, shutting down classes. The strikes are the latest in a wave of contingent academic worker organizing, which has seen adjunct walkouts and grad student unionizing in the last month alone.

Avi Asher-Schapiro focuses on US foreign policy, politics in the Middle East and South America, and technology issues.
@AASchapiro

It’s Not Just the Drug War,” by Marie Gottschalk. Jacobin, March 5, 2015.

Mass incarceration provokes a lot of outrage, but few understand its root causes and what’s needed to overhaul the system, say political scientists Marie Gottschalk. In this wide-ranging interview, she carefully traces the history of the prison system and emphasizes that mass incarceration can’t be solved by just ending the War on Drugs.

Cole Delbyck focuses on LGBT politics, East Asia and representational issues in film and television.
@cdelbyck

A Few Words on Russell Tovey and Why If It Weren’t for My Father, I Wouldn’t Be a Faggot,” by Noah Michelson. The Huffington Post, March, 3, 2015.

Russell Tovey’s recent remarks on effeminacy have provided much fodder for the ever-relevant discussion of femmephobia among gay men. Are we shocked that this kind of language is commonplace in the LGBT community or does it mean something different coming from an actor starring in thegay TV show of the moment? Using his own life experience as “an extremely effeminate boy,” Michelson bravely unpacks Tovey’s comments, by locating him in a gay culture where masculinity is the new frontier.

Khadija Elgarguri focuses on MENA issues including women’s rights, the relationship between foreign policy and cultural change, and women’s roles in protest movements in the region.
@dijaawad

Closing the TV-Guest Gender Gap.” by Steven I. Weiss. The Atlantic, March 3, 2015.

On his quest to close the TV-guest gender gap at his Manhattan-based studio, a host found that the challenge isn't a lack of female intellectuals; it's about how public industries and social institutions are set up in favor of men. While the host in question was able to achieve a level of gender parity, the fact remains that “women occupy just 15 percent of editorial pages, corporate boards, and congressional seats,” and the ratios are similar in “almost every major literary journal and intellectual magazine.” Who knew achieving gender equality could be this difficult in the bastion of feminism?

Benjamin Hattem focuses on Israel/Palestine and the broader Middle East, as well as economic inequality, homelessness, and the prison system.
@BenHattem

ECB bond buying: the devil’s in the detail,” by Lindsay Whipp. Financial Times, March 5, 2015.

Mario Draghi held a press conference recently to talk about the European Central Bank's new bond-buying program. The event was held in Cyprus and protested vehemently by Cypriot citizens opposed to the austerity policies that the ECB and IMF have forced on Cyprus. At the conference, Draghi confirmed that the ECB won't buy Greek or Cypriot government bonds under the quantitative easing program; he said Greece could get in on the bond-buying, but only if the country agrees to the austerity measures imposed by the ECB's bailout program.

Nadia Kanji focuses on foreign policy, political art & alternative economic structures.
@nadiakanji

This Changes Something,” by Dru Oja Jay. Briarpatch Magazine. January 2, 2015.

In this review of Naomi Klein’s new book This Changes Everything, Dru Oja Jay, like Klein, paints a sober picture of the effectiveness of environmental NGOs. Though Klein critiques how “Big Greens” are often in cahoots with the corporate sector leaving them “embedded within the neoliberal status quo,” Oja Jay pushes this assessment further by illustrating the pitfalls of foundation funding in climate justice organizing. Overall, Klein’s book is portrayed as a useful tool for continued resistance against fossil fuel giants, but we need a few extra steps to really change everything.

James F. Kelly focuses on labor, economic inequality, world politics and intellectual history.
@jamesf_kelly

The Republican Discovery of the Poor,” by Thomas B. Edsall. The New York Times, February 11, 2015.

Possibly foreshadowing the rhetoric of 2016, some conservatives are incorporating populist notions of class antagonism into their political vernacular. Because the corporate agenda of the Republican Party rejects policy initiatives that actually improve the lives of the working class, the authenticity of their claims is obviously questionable. However, because our political discourse is so dominated by the emotional bond with certain values, this turn is potentially dangerous for the Democrats.

Ava Kofman focuses on technology, popular science and media culture.
@eyywa

Data is the new '___': Industrial Metaphors of Big Data,” by Sara M. Watson. DIS Magazine, February 17, 2015.

Big data is like oil, gold, the ocean, smog, breadcrumbs, the new bacon, the new black…the list of metaphors for big data is, like big data, seemingly endless. These metaphors influence our understanding of data as an abstract, industrial, trendy and impersonal process. But of course, if those who control language control the world, and those who control data also control the world, we’d be wise to invent some new metaphors––ones drawing on agency, embodiment, and personal identity—–before we lose track of ourselves in the tsunami of oily gold.

Abigail Savitch-Lew focuses on urban policy, labor and race.
@savitchlew

Labor and Letters.” N+1, Winter 2015.

When should academics, editors, artists, leftists, and white collar workers unionize—and when should they sacrifice greater pay for the “higher cause”? Who loses out when white collar workers prefer to avoid confrontation with their bosses? At small and low-budget magazines like Dissent or Harper’s there does not seem to be one answer to the question—it is a matter of constant negotiation with a tight budget and constant accommodations to the ebbs and flows of an external capitalist environment.

Hilary Weaver focuses on reproductive rights, feminism and related political, health and education issues.
@Hilary_Weaver

How I Learned To Be OK With Feeling Sad,” by Mac McClelland. Buzzfeed, February 20, 2015.

Accompanying the release of her new book, Irritable Hearts, McClelland’s long-form essay details life with PTSD and coming to terms with the feeling of sadness. She recounts her challenges in settling into her sadness and the keen observation that in a world where “it takes a big man to cry,” “it takes a bigger woman still, to feel the strength of a sob, without apology or shame.”

 



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-are-nation-interns-reading-week-3615/
Students Walk Out on Testing, Rise for Black Trans Lives and Unionizehttps://www.thenation.com/article/archive/students-walk-out-testing-rise-black-trans-lives-and-unionize/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Lauren Massing,StudentNation,StudentNation,Alex Press,StudentNation,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,Zachary R. Wood,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,StudentNation,Jailyn Gladney,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationMar 5, 2015From Newark to New Orleans, youth rise for justice.

]]>

This post is part of The Nation’s biweekly student movement dispatch. As part of the StudentNation blog, each dispatch hosts first-person updates on youth organizing. For recent dispatches, check out February 11 and February 20. Contact studentmovement@thenation.com with tips. Edited by James Cersonsky (@cersonsky).

1. The Weeklong Walkout—and More

On Monday, February 23, at 10:25 AM, 250 students from Santa Fe, New Mexico, walked out to protest the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, the new high-stakes standardized test that 11 states have adopted. Some of us met with Superintendent Joel Boyd, who urged us to write letters to Secretary of Education Hanna Skandera and promised he would personally deliver them. The following day, we walked out again—this time, meeting at Skandera’s office, who declined to meet with us—followed by a smaller walkout, with the same result, on Wednesday. On Friday, we converged on the governors office, where we held a silent sit-in and delivered handwritten petitions. Then, inside, we watched several Democratic senators articulate problems with the extreme testing regime, including its monopolization of instructional time, privatization agenda, technological failures and boon to corporations like Pearson at the expense of real learning. Meanwhile, two Santa Fe High student protest leaders spoke in the capitol rotunda about our concerns with the PARCC tests and our goal to expand the new Academy of Sustainability Education that launched on our campus this year. This week, Senate Education Chair John Sapien has agreed to meet—while thousands of students are set to walk out across the state during PARCC testing.

—Melachai Ramirez

2. The 72-Hour Takeover

For more than nine months, state-appointed Newark Superintendent Cami Anderson has persistently ignored the call of students, parents and community members for an end to the One Newark plan, her immediate resignation and full local control of schools. On February 17, eight members of the Newark Students Union took over Anderson’s office for 72 hours. We organized rallies inside and received support from allies across the country. When Anderson met with us 65 hours in, we implored her to attend the next public board meeting, which took place on February 24. She didn’t show up, showing us, once again, that she does not have the welfare of the community or students in mind.

—Gabrielle Vera

3. Why Do Debtors Have to Pay?

On Monday, February 23, fifteen people took the historic step of declaring a student debt strike. Calling themselves the Corinthian 15, they refuse to pay the federal loans they took out to attend the defunct for-profit chain Corinthian Colleges Inc., which has been investigated by various state and federal authorities for fraud. The Corinthian 15 are organizing under the mantle of the Debt Collective, a new membership organization that evolved out of the Rolling Jubilee campaign. On the same day, the Rolling Jubilee erased over $13 million of debt associated with Everest College, part of the Corinthian chain, as an act of solidarity with the strikers. To current and former college students across the country, we say: It’s time to demand the end of a higher education system that profits off our dreams. To the Department of Education, lenders, servicers and guarantee agencies who have stolen our futures, we say: enough!

—Debt Collective and Rolling Jubilee

4. Whom Does the University Serve?

On February 27, students, professors and local residents gathered at the University of North Carolina–Charlotte to protest the Board of Governors’ push to close, all at once, East Carolina University’s Center for Biodiversity, North Carolina Central University’s Institute for Civic Engagement and Social Change and University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill’s Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity. The NC Student Power Union interrupted the meeting—leading five people to be escorted out and the board to call for recess and move the meeting to a room closed off to the public. Students gathered outside and chanted, “No cuts, no fees, education should be free!” loudly enough to interrupt the meeting inside. In the face of this action, the governors unanimously decided to close all centers immediately.

—Elisa Benitez

5. In Ohio, Student Workers Go Live

Building on a grassroots organizing drive that began in November 2014, resident assistants at Ohio University are nearing a vote to join AFSCME Local 1699. RAs are looking to negotiate a wage increase from the current $3.80 per hour, establish a system of due process in the notoriously unfair discipline procedure and exercise control over building assignments. In the face of anti-union maneuvering, including a nominal wage hike and captive audience meetings with every RA, we have mobilized campus workers and students and won support from just over half of the campus RA population. We also have the support of the student government, thirty faculty members, former RAs and the campus worker union. RAs are aiming for a unionization vote by early May.

—Ohio University Resident Assistant Union Drive Team and Ohio University Student Union

6. In Massachusetts, the Union Grows

On February 20, the Massachusetts Commonwealth Employment Relations Board ruled that Peer Mentors at UMass are entitled to an add-on election to join the Resident Assistant bargaining unit, a part of UAW Local 2322 since 2002. This decision overrides the university’s attempts to deny Peer Mentors our right to unionize. In the seven months since we filed with the state for recognition, the administration has outlined numerous changes for the job come Fall 2015, reclassifying it as an internship. Meanwhile, the timing of the university’s announcement that it will no longer consider us employees implies union avoidance as motivation for this change. The university has continued to plan the replacement Peer Mentor position, including hiring next year’s interns. This is not only disrespectful but harmful to our work—from interactions with residents to relationships with RAs. With a majority vote to join the RA Union, we are excited to join forces as student staff members in Residential Life and work together to improve our jobs and communities.

—Jenna Grady, Sam Prosser and Ian Roche

7. Everywhere, A Day Without Work

In response to the call for a National Adjunct Walkout Day on February 25, more than one hundred graduate students, lecturers and faculty at the University of California–Santa Cruz marched in a procession honoring Saint Percaria, the patron saint of precarious workers. Joined by a contingent of giant puppets, we sang “Carry that Debt” and the “Dawning of the Age of Precarious” and chanted “Litany of the Precariat.” The marchers protested the combined effects of university privatization—an increasingly precarious teaching faculty, administrative bloat and rapidly increasing tuition. This procession was the kickoff for the lecturers union, AFT 2199, contract campaign, focused on increasing stability for the significant proportion with low-security positions. It is also the first in a series of student-led protests across the state expected to escalate over the coming weeks.

—Evan Grupsmith

8. Camex’s Dirty Laundry

On February 22 in Atlanta, fifty members of United Students Against Sweatshops disrupted Camex, the country’s largest collegiate apparel convention, by confronting the popular backpack brand, Jansport. Jansport’s parent company, VF Corporation, has refused to sign the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, leaving its workers vulnerable to deadly factory fires and collapses. We converged on Jansport’s booth, chanting, “Hey Jansport and VF, don’t let your workers burn to death!” We were forcibly removed from the event. This action was part of USAS’s national End Deathtraps campaign, which has pushed 16 universities to cut ties with Jansport/VF Corporation.

—Sivan Rosenthal

9. Hillel’s Student Life

Open Hillel, the student movement demanding that Hillel International remove its exclusive “Standards of Partnership,” has launched its first national tour. Four white Jewish activists from the mid-century American civil rights movement are set to speak at more than a dozen college campuses about Jewish values of social justice and their experiences fighting racism in the Jim Crow South and Israel/Palestine. At many campuses, they will speak alongside black organizers from today’s anti-racist struggle. All four Jewish speakers are technically barred from Hillel, the “center for Jewish life on campus,” because they are critical of Israeli policies, with two supporting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions, or BDS, movement. Although welcomed at Harvard Hillel on February 25, the tour has already been excluded from both UMass–Amherst and MIT Hillels. We challenge everyone to consider who the “Standards of Partnership” exclude—and draw connections between faith and solidarity organizing.

—Open Hillel Steering Committee

10. Making Penny Proud

On February 10, Penny Proud, a Black transgender woman and member of the BreakOUT! community, was brutally murdered in New Orleans. That evening, people across New Orleans gathered to honor Penny’s memory and support her family and each other. Amid overwhelming press at the vigil and afterward, BreakOUT! guided family members through the interview process while demanding dignified coverage—leading to only one news story that misgendered and disrespected her. Since then, we’ve launched a social media campaign, “Make Penny Proud,” to uphold her legacy, as well as #BlackTransLivesMatter, a campaign to promote the positive visibility of the trans community. Meanwhile, we’ve obtained access to and designed a billboard to honor Penny, and community members have been planning direct actions that include a t​rans-led march this month. BreakOUT! will continue to honor Penny’s life as well as other trans women and men of color whose lives have been taken.

—Shaena Johnson



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/students-walk-out-testing-rise-black-trans-lives-and-unionize/
What Are ‘Nation’ Interns Reading the Week of 5/4/15?https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-are-nation-interns-reading-week-5415/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Lauren Massing,StudentNation,StudentNation,Alex Press,StudentNation,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,Zachary R. Wood,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,StudentNation,Jailyn Gladney,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationMay 4, 2015

Queen Arsem-O’Malley focuses on grassroots labor organizing, youth-led social movements, anti-carceral feminism, and critiques of mainstream media.
@qaween

Towards a Black Muslim Ontology of Resistance,” by Muna Mire. The New Inquiry, April 2015.

“Black Muslim existence as black resistance is as old as America itself.” In a time when black resistance is at the forefront of public conversation, former Nation intern Muna Mire highlights and discusses the role of Black Muslim struggle throughout the history of the country.

Cole Delbyck focuses on LGBT politics, East Asia, and representational issues in film and television.
@cdelbyck

Rent-a-Foreigner in China,” by David Borenstein. The New York Times, April 28, 2015.

I’m clearly in the wrong line of work. This fascinating entry in the Times’ Op-Doc series follows a Chinese housing developer who hires foreigners (whites are the most profitable) to make her properties seem attractive and “international” to potential buyers. Borenstein beautifully captures the expanse of China’s towering—and often empty—high rises, while exposing the disturbing racial hierarchies at play.

Khadija Elgarguri focuses on MENA issues including women’s rights, the relationship between foreign policy and cultural change, and women’s roles in protest movements in the region.
@dijaawad

Argan oil: the cost of the beauty industry’s latest wonder ingredient,” by Josephine Moulds. The Guardian, April 28, 2015.

Argan trees are grown “almost exclusively” in indigenous areas of Morocco, where the women who produce the oil have suddenly found themselves at the mercy of global companies (like L’Oréal) that have “cottoned on to this apparently magical resource.” Although women’s co-operatives, created by global entities to source the oil, provide indigenous Moroccan women with a source of income, there is still “plenty of scope for exploitation.” Fortunately, NGOs are beginning to step in to “professionalize” the women and help ensure the process is mutually beneficial, at least on some level.

Benjamin Hattem focuses on Israel/Palestine and the broader Middle East, as well as economic inequality, homelessness, and the prison system.
@BenHattem

Phantom Troops, Taliban Fighting, and Wasted Money—It’s Springtime in Afghanistan,” by Gary Owen. Vice News, April 29, 2015.

This exposé details the US reconstruction program’s inability to stabilize Afghanistan’s economy, monitor the Afghan military, or track its own huge expenditures. It’s detailed and damning, and it suggests that the US is beginning to back away from even trying to rebuild the country.

Nadia Kanji focuses on foreign policy, political art & alternative economic structures.
@nadiakanji

Who Killed Pakistan’s Sabeen Mahmud?” by Jahanzeb Hussain. Ricochet. April 26, 2015.

In this article, Hussain delves into the murder of activist Sabeen Mahmud, who was killed on April 24 in Pakistan for speaking about the rights of Balochistan. As natural resources continue to be extracted from Balochistan for the benefit of the state, Hussain describes this as “land theft” and “a new form of imperial subjugation.” “It has now come to the point where supporters of Balochistan in the country’s major cities are being shot for expressing solidarity with the Baloch, or for merely organizing an event to discuss the issue,” he says.

James F. Kelly focuses on labor, economic inequality, world politics and intellectual history.
@jamesf_kelly

What to Say When the Police Tell You to Stop Filming Them,” by Robinson Meyer. The Atlantic, April 28, 2015.

Whether you’re a journalist, activist or bystander, it’s important to know your rights when filming the police. Any ambiguity is often the result of intimidation.

Ava Kofman focuses on technology, popular science and media culture.
@eyywa

Empathy Isn’t Everything,” by Alex-Quan. Rookie, April 20, 2015.

Whatever empathy’s universal value, it often gets emitted in discrete amounts, apportioned out along the lines of those already with privileges, with power. It’s repeatedly called for in heated conversations, even when the subjects of those conversations are still denied basic human rights. “I want to know that you will give me the due respect despite your inability to understand,” writes Alex-Quan.

Abigail Savitch-Lew focuses on urban policy, labor and race.
@savitchlew

Policing the Police,” by Simone Weichselbaum. The Marshall Project, April 23, 2015.

The Marshall Project provides a history of the Justice Department’s efforts to reform police departments over the past twenty years, and questions why the department has failed so frequently to produce any meaningful reform. Is it because conducting a meaningful investigation and monitoring process is politically unpopular, expensive to constituents, and the Justice Department is just not invested in it (especially under Republican presidencies)? Is it because the Justice Department has been unwilling to terminate funding to those departments who fail to comply—and is there any chance that the next president will make funding contingent on reform?

Hilary Weaver focuses on reproductive rights, feminism and related political, health and education issues.
@Hilary_Weaver

The Last Days of Ladies’ Home Journal,” by Allison Pohle. The Hairpin, April 28, 2015.

Former Nation intern Allison Pohle shares an insightful narrative into the history and legacy of Ladies’ Home Journal, one of the seven sisters, or original women-driven magazines. Unknown to many, LHJ no longer prints as a monthly magazine and is available in select locations and quantities. Pohle highlights the importance and necessity of a magazine like LHJ, the original backbone for stories written by and for women—one that is still needed by its audience.

 



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-are-nation-interns-reading-week-5415/
‘And the Youth Shall Lead!’ Ten Voices From a Generational Momenthttps://www.thenation.com/article/archive/and-youth-shall-lead-ten-voices-generational-moment/StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Ilana Cohen,StudentNation,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,Vivek Kakar,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,Lauren Massing,StudentNation,StudentNation,Alex Press,StudentNation,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,Zachary R. Wood,StudentNation,Chloe Maxmin,StudentNation,StudentNation,Jailyn Gladney,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNation,StudentNationMay 1, 2015In Baltimore and beyond, a generational uprising.

]]>

This post is part of The Nation’s biweekly student movement dispatch. As part of the StudentNation blog, each dispatch hosts first-person updates on youth organizing. For recent dispatches, check out April 10 and April 24. Contact studentmovement@thenation.com with tips. Edited by James Cersonsky (@cersonsky).

1. #BlackWomensLivesMatter

On Monday, April 20, all charges were dismissed in the case of Chicago police officer Dante Servin, who shot and killed 22 year-old black woman Rekia Boyd in 2012. In solidarity with Boyd’s family, a rally outside the Chicago courthouse followed the verdict and, on April 22, Black Lives Matter hosted another rally in New York City’s Union Square. From Chicago to New York, Boyd’s name has been lifted up at larger Baltimore solidarity actions, with activists nationally calling for greater recognition of black women and girls victimized by police violence and often left out of narratives that center black men. Black Youth Project 100 has launched a petition calling for Servin to be fired and, in collaboration with Ferguson Action and Black Lives Matter, is calling for a National Day of Action to End State Violence Against Black Women and Girls on May 21.

—Asha Rosa

2. Opting Out

This spring, students at Brighton Park Elementary School in Chicago joined peers from across the country in organizing a mass refusal of the PARCC standardized test. We selected one student in each class as a leader, who made sure everyone knew their rights and passed out an opt-out form to anyone who wanted one. Before the PARCC, we assembled within our school to turn in all the forms. While the school initially dismissed our efforts, we ultimately got the administration to show us respect—“This was very well organized!” When it came time to take the test, 97 percent of eighth graders and 86 percent of seventh graders opted out, leading to normal classes the following week instead of a second week of testing. While there are many reasons to refuse the test, we, a largely Latina/o school, reject it as racist; it’s given only in English and doesn’t respect our multilingualism. And while the media acts like only whites are opting out, we are showing otherwise.

—Jennifer Nava

3. Cutting Prisons

Students Against the Prison-Industrial Complex at Brown University is organizing to combat Brown’s perpetuation of the prison industrial complex. This spring, we led a successful campaign to assign Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow as the summer reading for incoming first year students. From April 20 to 24, we organized a week of engagement addressing mass incarceration, prison abolition and community activism as part of the Prison Divestment National Week of Engagement—which hosted events from community forums in California to a sit-in in New York. Moving forward, we will continue working to get our university to divest from prisons and “ban the box” on student and staff applications to Brown, while supporting the work of Providence community activists.

—Jamie Marsicano

4. At Marquette, Students of Color Sit Down to Demand Racial Justice

On April 27, the Ad Hoc Coalition of and for Students of Color at Marquette University assembled to address campus policies on discrimination, police brutality and divestment from companies which commit human rights violations—and pressure the university to “do better” for students of color. Alongside local groups including the Coalition For Justice, four students were arrested after joining arms and sitting down in the middle of a busy campus intersection, shutting down traffic for nearly an hour. The coalition will continue to organize until its demands are taken seriously by the administration.

—Curtis Sails

5. At Colby, a Groundswell Takes Over the “Hill”

On April 12, 2010, two students of color were aggressively detained by Colby College Security in the Pugh Center for multicultural affairs. This April, as part of a yearly reminder, Students Organized for Black and Hispanic Unity organized a week of demonstrations highlighting issues of racial injustice underlying the incident. On “Disruption Tuesday,” April 14, we chanted around campus protesting violence against people of color in the United States and around the world—sparking a range of hateful, threatening and racist comments on the Yik Yak app. The next day, which other groups planned as “Well Dressed Wednesday,” we decided to protest respectability politics, which will not save us from bullets or discrimination, as part of a die-in. In response, the school organized a teach-in and dine-in with faculty and students, bringing out 500 people—an uncomfortable experience for some, but a necessary step in creating a supportive community for all students and acknowledging racism on campus.

—Miriam Valle-Mancilla

6. At UPenn, the Africa Center Meets the Global “Compact”

On April 15, the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Arts & Sciences announced that it would eliminate the Africa Center and move its programs to the Center for Africana Studies and the Penn Language Center, effective July 1. In response to this last-minute and unexpected decision, Students for the Preservation of the Africa Center has raised the issue across campus, with protests during Penn’s College Palooza for prospective pre-freshmen, multiple talks with administrators and an ongoing petition. We see a contradiction: the university is working to consolidate the only two areas of study dealing with Africa while simultaneously avowing to increase Penn’s global engagement with Africa. From meetings with SAS deans, we’ve witnessed little attempt to ensure that Africa and its 1.1 billion inhabitants have an independent place of study at the university.

—Students for the Preservation of the Africa Center

7. 100 Years of Genocide

On April 24, more than 130,000 activists took to the streets of Los Angeles to demand justice for the Armenian genocide, the second-largest demonstration in the city’s history. The Armenian Youth Federation, a global grassroots social justice organization, stated in its speech to the crowd, “You do not define our history; nor will you define what our justice is,” in reference to President Obama’s continued denial of the Armenian Genocide on behalf of NATO-ally Turkey. A new wave of activism is escalating demands for Armenian Genocide justice, from recognition to reparations, marked by an AYF-led call for divestment of $70 million from the University of California funds in Turkish government bonds—unanimously endorsed and adopted by UCLA and UC Berkeley undergraduate student governments—along with a newly filed lawsuit in Turkey’s highest court by the Armenian Church.

—Armenian Youth Federation, Western United States

8. No Time for American Sniper

On April 7, Middle Eastern and North African and Muslim students and allies at the University of Michigan wrote a letter to the Center for Campus Involvement asking it not to screen American Sniper, a war propaganda film that whitewashes the racism of former US soldier Chris Kyle and dehumanizes Iraqis, Arabs and Muslims, at UMix Late Night. UMix Late Night is meant to be “a series of fun, late-night activities and events for University of Michigan students… catering to the interests of a diverse student population”; this film incites racism and Islamophobia against communities on campus. In response, CCI postponed the screening, indicating that it would screen it in an appropriate setting of reflection and dialogue. After receiving backlash, including a counter-petition and viral tweet by football coach Jim Harbaugh, the university reversed its decision and reinstated the screening, further marginalizing and demonizing Arab, Muslim and other marginalized voices on campus—and prompting an ongoing, collective response.

—Farah Erzouki

9. “Martin Luther King Didn’t Move to the Side! Malcolm X Didn’t Move to the Side!”

Editor’s note: On April 28, students from the University of Maryland–Eastern Shore blockaded Route 13 in the aftermath of Freddie Gray’s murder. (Video: NEWS 24/24)

—Students from UMD–Eastern Shore

10. “All Night, All Day, We Will Fight for Freddie Gray!”

Editor’s note: After police violence against high school students prompted the struggle for black life in Baltimore—and beyond—to escalate, students gathered at Pennsylvania Station to march on city hall. (Video: video11)

—Students from Baltimore



]]>
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/and-youth-shall-lead-ten-voices-generational-moment/