The Justice for Campus Workers Campaign continues with political actions throughout the month of March in order to pursuit a better contract for UC workers. Such actions include campus black outs in which students and workers refuse to purchase campus merchandise and others include mock worker funerals in order to illustrate the urgency of the situation.
Shadi Matar, Academic Affairs Director at UCR, discusses Divestment from Companies that Profit from Apartheid. The bill was passed by the ASUCR Senate with a vote of 11-5 on March 6, 2013.
To view the presentation Shadi Matar presented to the ASUCR Senate click here.]
Photos by Carina Glasser
The third annual Sum of All Equals Conference was held in the Highlander Union Building on February 9th 2013. Focusing on community building, Ʃ = Δ hosted student workshops ranging from those “Freakin’ Hipsters” to Islam Phobia. Student participants apart from receiving a swag bag also took advantage of the major networking opportunities begetting positive changes for the campus. Do not fret, for Spoiled Minds got your back and will fill you in with the deets.
Spearheaded by Jared Mitchell and William Ibekwe the conference hosted the following workshops: Mithil: Queer Invisibility in The Greater Middle East, Freakin’ Hipster: Exploring the Sub-Culture Everybody Loves to Hate, The Best part of a Disability is the Parking, A “Trap” Influence, Critical Thinking in College, Welcome to the after “Life”, Twisted Fitness, Let’s Get it on, Intersectionality & Social Identity, Mariachi, Media Representation of the LGBT Community, Open Mic with POOR, Towards Sociopolitical Consciousness in Entertainment, Critical Fitness, Pioneering Changes Through ASUCR, The Color of Climate, Frolic with Improve Anonymous. All topped with two guest speakers Scott Silverman, and Captain James Yee.
Summing every workshop is impossible, and we apologize in advance the best we can do is give you the gist of a few. [Read more...]
The following petition was delivered by UCR student Kevin Jo to UCR Chancellor Conoley, Interim Director of Transportation and Parking Services Greg Artman, and UCPD Chief of Police, Mike Lane.
Dear Chancellor Conoley,
Over the last couple months, students have been receiving emails about crime happening on or around the UC Riverside campus. Some of the crimes include 5 robberies in an hour and a student being robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight. The severity and brazen nature of the crimes are a very serious concerns for all students. One path in particular (Rustin and Linden) has reappeared in the crime emails many times.
We appreciate UCPD notifying the campus of a crime and Chancellor Conoley sending an email regarding campus safety, yet we do not feel that student safety has been a priority to campus administration. We are asking for a task force to be setup with UCPD, Transportation and Parking Services, City of Riverside, and the Associated Students of UCR. Some of the issues we would like for this task force to discuss are the following:
- A campus shuttle program to replace the UCR trolleys that are now at UCLA.
- Possibility of installing cameras on areas where multiple crimes have occurred.
- Working with the city to install more street lights (or improve current streetlights) and blue emergency polls on pathways to private apartment complexes with a heavy UCR student population.
- Expanding the Campus Safety Escort Service and including a red UCPD/WRC telephone in all current and future building plans.These are only some of the issues that the task force can start addressing.
Respectfully,
ASUCR Office of Campus Internal Affairs
According to Kevin Jo, the Chancellor has responded with the following comment.
“In addition, I am pleased to announce the formation of a special task force to address safety issues related to recent criminal activity in the area. It will be chaired by Interim Vice Chancellor for Finance and Business Operations Chuck Rowley, and will include representatives from ASUCR, GSA, the Academic Senate, Staff Assembly, UCPD, the Riverside Police Department, Parking and Transportation Services, and other interested groups”
……….MEDLIFE is an organization dedicated to providing communities in third world countries the aid they need through Medicine, Education, and Development. On mobile clinics members have the opportunity to travel abroad to one of three Latin American countries to help on a mobile clinic. MEDLIFE ventures to countries such as Panama, Ecuador, and Peru for the duration of one to two weeks. During these weeks members witness the impoverishment of areas less fortunate than our own and gain firsthand medical experience by helping these communities.Not only does MEDLIFE pursue the goal of delivering healthcare, with trained medical physicians, but they also partake in community projects. These community projects include building staircases, building educational facilities and advocating local community hygiene in these third world countries.
……….MEDLIFE @ UCR is a UC Riverside chapter part of the nationally renowned MEDLIFE organization that holds unique events to raise funds and awareness to the MEDLIFE cause. Throughout the year, MEDLIFE @ UCR will work to raise funds and supply donations to send members on a mobile clinic trip. This year MEDLIFE plans to accomplish this task primarily through large scale events, such as Empty Bowls. Empty Bowls is an annual MEDLIFE event that began last year. The event, Empty bowls, is a hunger awareness event that serves not only to raise awareness, but also to acquire donations to send students and supplies overseas. During this event, guests are able to purchase a handmade ceramic bowl filled with their choice of soup. However, MEDLIFE @ UCR hopes to expand to different fundraising events this year, including concerts and on campus events in order to draw more attention to their cause.
……….MEDLIFE @ UCR not only works to assist those in need from other nations; the UCR chapter also seeks to take an active role in the Riverside community by participating in local community service events. Last year, MEDLIFE @ UCR formed a team to participate in Relay for Life, a cancer awareness event. The chapter hopes to continue this tradition and expand to participate in our local community of Riverside. If you are interested in Medicine or not the journey alone is fulfilling in itself. Get involved in your local community and your global community and join MEDLIFE. With our hands we can change the world.
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Feb. 6, 2013 – ASUCR passes a resolution in support of the nationwide fight against the Citizens United ruling. For more information regarding the ruling click here..
Photos by Vincent Ta
The ongoing debate concerning how California’s teachers should be evaluated—by misleadingly simplistic quantitative analyses of student test results (as administrators prefer) or through more well-rounded (and administratively time-consuming) in-class observations–is a red herring. Looking at the facts behind the State’s educational priorities tells a much different story of where the problem with California’s educational system lies. With the highest student-to-teacher ratios of any state in the country by a wide margin, the biggest problem California’s schools face is not the quality of teachers. It’s a lack of teachers, period.
According to the NEA’s statistics for the last available school year (2010-11), at an average of one teacher to 23.1 students in daily attendance, California has the most overburdened teachers in the nation by far. Not only is that ratio 65% higher than the national average of 14.9. Incredibly, California’s ratio of teachers to students in daily attendance is 24% higher than even the next worst state in the nation in this category, Nevada, with a ratio of 18.6. When it comes to overburdening our teachers, California truly is in a league of its own. One can only cringe when imagining what these statistics would look like if Prop. 30 failed and the state’s K-12 schools had to make due with about 7% less revenue in 2012-3. [Read more...]
Kwanzaa is one of those holidays that are rather foreign to many. For the most part, when one asks about the weeklong holiday, the usual response is something like, “There’s something about candles involved, right?” or “It’s that ‘black people’ holiday.” Perhaps not so bluntly in the latter, but you get the idea.
It is unfortunate that such ignorance of the holiday prevails, and I began to feel a bit guilty as a black woman, knowing that I knew nothing of the holiday as well, or the events surrounding its formation. So naturally, I resolved to change that; after doing a bit of research, I found Kwanzaa a much more fascinating cultural celebration that exceeded my rather meager expectations of it.
Kwanzaa is a cultural holiday founded by Dr. Maulana Karenga, a professor and chair of Africana Studies at CSU Long Beach, during the Black Power Movement in 1966. The holiday is a celebration of African-American and Pan-African culture, family, and tradition. There are seven core principles of Kwanzaa, entitled the “Nguzo Saba” – or “The Seven Principles” in Swahili: Umoja (Unity), Kujichagulia (Self-Determination), Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility), Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics), Nia (Purpose), Kuumba (Creativity), and Imani (Faith). These seven principles alone reflect the core purpose of the holiday itself, that is, to uplift, to inspire, and to continue the growth of a respect for African and African-American heritage, for a unified and successful black community. [Read more...]
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On Jan. 31, 2013 AFSCME 3299 held an action at University of California, Riverside in order to raise awareness of unfair working conditions within the campus.
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Photos by Carina Glasser
Q. In 2010 the Supreme Court decided that “Congress may not prohibit political speech, even if the speaker is a corporation or union.” The court wen’t on to state that “prohibition on corporate independent expenditures is…a ban on speech.” Essentially, the Supreme Court gave corporations the same protections as people. What are some of the effects that this legislation has had on politics?
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Q. How has the current Presidential election been effected by this legislation?
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Q. One of the bi-products of this Supreme Court ruling is the “Super PAC.” These “Super PACs” can raise an unlimited amount of funds for a political campaign or piece of legislation as long as the two parties do not “coordinate” with each other. How do Super PACs effect the political process?
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*Interview recorded by Kennington Cung.
