Treat students with respect
To Chancellor Linda Katehi and Mrak Hall administrators:
I am writing to express my anger over the “lockdown” of Mrak Hall. I’m a graduate at UC Davis. I’m cobbling together two readerships because I have reached the limit for teaching assistant positions. Due to budget cuts and decreased course offerings, both of the courses I’m reading for are overenrolled.
I’m working 75 percent time and my monthly paycheck is less I would receive for a 50 percent TA appointment. My partner was recently laid off from his job of seven years. We are living on an extremely tight budget and this quarter I was unable to pay the balance on my student account on time and was dropped from enrollment and charged a $110 late fee.
When I put together enough money to pay my fees, I had to take proof of payment to the office of graduate studies in Mrak Hall. This simple task required three trips to Mrak, where I was twice turned away despite arriving during business hours. Each time I was regarded suspiciously by the people guarding the doors and forced to stand outside and present identification. When I was finally escorted to the Office of Graduate Studies, it took less than five minutes to reactivate my enrollment.
On my second trip, I was told the reason for the lockdown was because Mrak had been occupied by students the week before. I was present at that occupation and what I witnessed there was inspiring — students educating and supporting one another. What is the threat here? Why does this require a lockdown of the building?
I find it outrageous that administrators have chosen to block access to important services and treat all students entering Mrak like criminals because of a peaceful protest.
The student movement at UC Davis is not limited to any one building or space. You can’t lock down the whole campus, and blocking access to Mrak will not stop protest. Please reconsider these punitive measures and begin to treat students — activists and non-activists alike — with the respect they deserve.
Sarah Augusto
Davis
Short URL: http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=112635
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Posted by Letters to the Editor
on Dec 5 2011.
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