So I took a lunch hour break from my working day that started at 5:25 this morning to attend the high-noon Umass Strike Rally in the Student Union Ballroom. Yeah, that would be the very same premier facility on campus that students are protesting is not available to them. Hmmm.
And let me get this strait: They are protesting the high cost of education by boycotting classes over the next two days they have already paid (too much) for? Isn’t that kind of like Mobile Oil Company management saying they are gong on strike by locking out employees for two days but the workers will still get paid?
I guess if it were sunny they would have had the rally on the Campus Center steps (like in the good old days). But hey, it was raining.
They just want to see what it's like to organize and be activists.
ReplyDeleteI bet the adminstration and board of regents would listen to a well reasoned argument. But no, instead, the only way to get things dome is in (to create) a crisis.
A mob of students with placards won't do a thing except bring publicity.
I wonder who sets the tuition rate and why students who have been able to afford it are protesting.
Well, I did notice the NECN mobile satellite truck was there (the reporter had perfect hair doing a stand up in the rain) so protestors got their publicity.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many students who actually work to pay their own way rather than rely on mommy and daddy took part in the strike.
I'm 29 years old and had to work in factory for 7 years to save up enough money to go to college. Most of the people I know at UMASS are paying their own way but maybe that's because i'm older and most older students pay their own way. However, I didn't see a lot of the young mommy and daddy leeches at the protest so I think the people that attended were people that so pay their own way...mostly graduate students.
ReplyDeleteThanks Marcie. Good luck with the movement. We certainly have a governor in the state house who would be willing to listen to issues such as the cost of tuition at the state's flagship university. He is the beneficiary of a subsidized education and acknowledges it was the main reason for his opportunities and success since.
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