Teach-ins replace classrooms for some on Monday
Outdoor teach-ins took the place of indoor classrooms on Monday as some students participating in a general strike at UC Davis still spent time learning about and discussing a variety of subjects on the Quad and elsewhere around campus.
While a teleconferenced meeting of the University of California Board of Regents was taking place inside the ARC Ballroom, dozens of students were sitting on the ground and on benches outside, participating in workshops that covered everything from land-grant universities to anarchy.
About two dozen students joined Mark Van Horn, director of the Student Farm at UCD, for a discussion on the history of land grant universities and the federal funding that continues to come to public universities like UCD through their land-grant status.
Van Horn decided on the subject, he said, because “it’s sort of at the root of what is going on at the university campus” — namely, an ongoing decline in state and federal funding for public education.
“I thought it was worth talking about,”he said.
Nearby, Laura Meek and Whitney Larratt-Smith, graduate students in the UC Davis anthropology department, were talking about anarchy in a workshop titled “Anarchist Anthropology: Cultural Anthropolists on Anarchist Politics” as several dozen students and faculty members listened in.
Also leading a workshop outside the ARC was Sacramento City College professor Robyn Waxman, who was discussing with students where the Occupy movement fits in with historical protests.
One of the larger teach-ins of the morning took place in the recently erected dome on the Quad. Titled “Cops Off Campus: Toward a Safer University,” the workshop was the first of three teach-ins scheduled for this week on the topic of police on campus.
The teach-in drew a large crowd before noon, filling the dome, with more students, staff and faculty standing outside.
Inside, English professor Joshua Clover was one of several staff members and students leading the discussion on the presence of police on campus and whether such presence makes students safer.
For his part, Clover called the pepper-spraying incident on Nov. 18 “not an exception, but an acceleration,” of responding to protesters with force.
“It’s heading toward Kent State redux,” he added, saying it’s just a matter of time before someone — “and that someone is a student” — is shot.
One student said the only times he’s ever been afraid on campus were during demonstrations in recent years when campus police were present. A British faculty member noted his surprise at the presence of an armed campus police force, saying that’s not “a normal sight” on European campuses.
Faculty member Bob Ostertag talked about the need for “a fundamental restructuring of police,” as well as the need for a response to those who bring up the massacre at Virgina Tech as evidence for why campus police are needed.
Similar workshops planned for Wednesday and Friday — both at 11 a.m. at the dome on the Quad — will focus on how other universities use alternatives to campus police as well put together proposals for change, Clover said.
Meanwhile, other teach-ins on Monday focused on the financial structure of the University of California, revolutionary war and free speech, prisoners’ rights, hate crimes and more.
Teach-ins will continue through Friday, primarily during the afternoon on the Quad. One exception is Tuesday evening’s workshop on “Privatization of the University,” which will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. in 2205 Haring Hall.
— Reach Anne Ternus-Bellamy at aternus@davisenterprise.net or (530) 747-8051. Follow her on Twitter at @ATernusBellamy
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Posted by Anne Ternus-Bellamy
on Nov 28 2011.
Last Login: Mon 21 May 2012 01:17:01 PM PDT
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