First Ever ‘Take Hold! University’ to Host Press Conference
Tue, 05/13/2008 - 17:31 — smonahan
First Ever ‘Take Hold! University’ to Host Press Conference:
Students and Community Organizations to Speak Out Against the War
and the Proposed UC Tuition Hikes as They Claim Heart of Campus
in their Fight for University Democratization
LOS ANGELES, CA- Monday May 12, 2008 – At 12pm noon on Tuesday May 13th, a coalition of student groups including Students For a Democratic Society (SDS), Student Workers Front, Coalition for Peace, the University of California Student Association, the student union on campus AFSCME, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, representatives from the Undergraduate Student Association, and a representative from Assemblywoman’s Julia Brownley’s office, will hold a press conference on Meyerhoff Park (Kerckhoff lawn) on the UCLA Campus to protect funding for higher education.
This week, the UC-Regents Meeting will take place on campus to vote, yet again, to raise tuition fees. Simultaneously, students from across California will unite at UCLA to demand affordability and accessibility for higher education. From Tuesday May 13th through Thursday May 15th, students will claim an area in the heart of campus where they will build and run a community that aims to foster mutual respect through creating a unified space where people can practice participatory democracy.
Organized by the UCLA chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Take Hold! University (TH!U) will create a structured space for students to actively engage and participate in the educational process by generating awareness of the institutional structures that make decisions on their behalf – specifically, the UC Regents and the California State Government.
According to the University of California Students Association, this week the UC Regents will vote to increase student fees upwards of 20%. UC Tuition rates have already doubled within the last six years. While Governor Schwarzenegger proposed cutting $320 million from the UC system this year, the war in Iraq has cost the state of California approximately $20 billion since its onset.
According to Babken DerGrigorian of Students for a Democratic Society, “The notion of a budget crisis is a myth. This is a crisis of values and leadership. Tuition is skyrocketing due to lack of leadership in Sacramento, while The Chairman of the UC-Regents is directly involved with the military industrial complex, clearly indicating a conflict of interest for the UC System. Sacramento and the UC Regents are pushing higher education onto the backs of students. The average student in California graduates over $20 thousand dollars in debt. We must democratize the UC Regents while advocating in Sacramento to dispel the myth of a budget crisis. Accessible higher education is necessary for the state’s economic well being.”
Throughout the week, participants will hold free workshops, programs, and classes of their own design and direction, covering a wide variety of topics, with a common focus on student empowerment.
"If you're looking for the new, de facto standard in terms of student engagement and empowerment - this is it. If you're looking for a truly public, tuition free, and open educational institution - this is it. If you're looking for what is to become the next, great UCLA legacy - this is it. Don't slip and miss it - Take Hold!" said Evan Shulman, recently elected Internal Vice President of UCLA’s Undergraduate Student Association.
Take Hold! University was initially planned to be housed in several large canopy tents, to build on the legacy of the Tent State University movement, which began at Rutgers University in 2003. Since 2003, Tent State University has spread to over thirty campuses nationally and internationally, become a growing international student movement for “Education, Not War.”
According to Tracy Sachs of Students for a Democratic Society, “Our goal is to build a student movement, a community of progressive students who work together in solidarity to build the society that we want – a society free from oppression on all fronts; a society based on principles of participatory democracy, peace, and justice for everyone.”
TH!U will be located at UCLA on Janns Terrace above Janns steps, & in Meyerhoff Park.
For more information, please contact: takehold.university@gmail.com
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SDS is an education and social action organization dedicated to increasing democracy in all phases of our common life. It seeks to promote the active participation of young people in the formation of a movement to build a society free from poverty, ignorance, war, exploitation, sexism, and inhumanity.