Campus Journalism

I often peruse the UC-Irvine campus newspaper, New University,  and sometimes find something worthwhile posting or commenting on. Obviously, campus papers tend to lean heavily liberal, and that's just a fact of life. I try not to come down too hard on the writers because they are college kids and who knows what they will believe 20 years late? One thing I notice in New University is that front page news articles often resemble the editorial page-opinion-based as opposed to facts not a quality feature in journalism.

This week, I am posting two articles in New University dealing with UCI's reputation in connection with radical activity (in my mind, light years behind most universities) and the UC tuition hikes. It may be nit-picking, but I found a couple of points worth making. (I am deleting the names of the student journalists and any other students mentioned.)



An Ambiguous Reputation

(Name of writer deleted)


"Recently, UC Irvine has assumed a new reputation: one of a revolutionary, riled up and radical university with enough social ripples to rival that of UC Berkeley’s.

According to a Daily Pilot interview with ____________, it seems UCI is reliving its inception in the 1960s.

“In the beginning of UCI, we were a really active class,” _________ said. “When the first-ever fee increases went around, there were 5,000 students outside of Aldrich Hall, and the Chancellor protested with them. I feel like people forget that.”

Certainly, part of UCI’s reputation as a more passive campus can be attributed to its location: tucked away in a cozy, preplanned suburb. According to a study conducted by the UCI Office of Institutional Research, “Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Santa Clara, San Bernardino, Riverside, Alameda and Ventura counties send the most undergraduates to UC Irvine.” As a result, a substantial amount of students are commuters who come and leave campus as schedules demand, contributing to the quiet image of the campus.

Since the events of last year, however, community perception of UCI has dramatically changed.

Throughout the 2009-2010 school year, UCI dominated news networks for protests, rallies, sit-ins and student arrests. Topics the demonstrations confronted include everything from the budget crisis to international conflicts.

Hundreds of UCI students marked the first day of the academic calendar last year by demonstrating against system-wide budget cuts at a midday rally. Sparked by the $77 million cut to UCI’s budget and the mounting fee hikes, the protest included teach-ins, a walkout and speakers at the flagpoles.

Five months later, UCI captured headlines once again for the arrest of 11 students alleged to have interrupted Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren in a speech, leading to the suspension of the entire Muslim Student Union.

On Feb. 24, 2010, a group of students and staff held a sit-in in the corridor leading to the Chancellor’s Office at Aldrich Hall in response to the perceived shortcomings of the administration of UCI. There, they released a list of 12 demands criticizing the budget cuts, outsourcing jobs, racial and gender tensions throughout the system, disciplinary action regarding the 11 arrested students, and lack of attention to minority studies programs. This all resulted in the arrest of 17 demonstrators.

Student activism is a vital part of campus climate, according to Kevin Huie, director of the University of California, Irvine’s Cross Cultural Center.

“Student activism, in its various forms, can have and has had a significant role in raising awareness of important issues, rallying supporters for a cause, and demonstrating resistance to injustice and inequality,” Huie said. “Without student activism on college campuses, I believe that many students could go through their college career without recognizing issues that have an impact on their own lives or blindly adhering to unjust circumstances and occurrences.”

UCI boasts 516 student organizations whose specialties run from community service and religious to recreation and politics. For instnce, the Olive Tree Initiative, a student-led organization sponsored by UCI’s Center for Citizen Peace Building and International Studies Program, has received national acclaim for its effort to educate and promote dialogue about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A student poll about activism on campus revealed that while only 37 percent of UCI students are not registered members of a student organization, 63 percent of the student body considers itself to be active in at least one student organization.

Such a role includes attending weekly meetings on a regular basis, pitching in for various group events and representing the organization at campus-wide events like Welcome Week. Of that majority, 33 percent participate in two student organizations, and 18 percent contribute to three or more."


Fousesquawk comment: I found Mr Huie's (the head of the Cross Cultural Center) remarks noteworthy. He seems to be a fan of campus protest. Depending on the issue and what happens at said protests, not all are praiseworthy-though certainly a protected activity in and of itself.

I really wonder what that CCC at UCI is all about. After the February 8 disruption of the Israeli ambassador to the United States speech, the Muslim Students Union disruptors were caught on tape proclaiming that they had "shut down" the speech and would then meet at the CCC for a "debriefing".

Really?

Is this a purpose of the CCC-to be a debriefing point after a speech by an ambassador was disrupted? Not if I were running that place, it wouldn't.

It should also be noted that the CCC gave a humanitarian award to the MSU not long ago.



Forshadowing Future Fee Hikes

Name of writer deleted

The clouds began to roll in at 11:41 a.m. Amidst the Greeks handing out fliers and the clubs selling boba, a small group of students stood somberly at the top of the steps in front of the flagpoles.


“DEATH OF PUBLIC EDUCATION.”

Their banner spoke for their cause in the way that their numbers did not. By the time the rally began shortly after 12:15 p.m., there were only 30 to 40 people gathered.

“What’s going on?” a passer-by stopped to ask a nearby student who shrugged.

“I dunno,” he said. “It looks like a protest, but I gotta get to work.”

* * *

Oct. 7 was intended as a “day of action for public education” across the nation. Several groups all over the United States called for people to demand justice for the public education system, one that has been suffering under the failing economy.

Throughout the UC system specifically, protesters have continuously rallied for their vision of affordable education, especially since the historic 32 percent fee increase last November.

With rumors of a one to 20 percent fee increase being voted on at this November’s Regents meeting, protest organizers hoped to raise awareness over the dire situation plaguing UC schools.

At UCI, few students attended the noontime protest, despite the 462 people who had confirmed their attendance on Facebook by the previous night. Across the street from the flagpoles were two UCI police cars, in addition to at least a dozen visible officers spread out around Langson Library and Aldrich Hall.

“Yeah, there are a lot of cops,”___________, a sociology graduate student, said. “It’s kind of unnecessary.”

But the university was not leaving anything to chance. “UCI officials knew something was going to happen on Oct. 7 based on large, vertical banners that were dropped from the Science Library and administration buildings on the first day of school saying, ‘Strike, Walk Out on Noon October 7th,’” a UCI Community Service Officer (CSO) who wishes to remain anonymous said.

The CSO, who agreed to speak to the New University under the name Mr. F, said that UCI officials then searched the Internet for information about the Oct. 7 protest and were led to both Occupy UCI!’s website and event pages on Facebook.

“That website [Occupy UCI!] had links to documents that indicated a communist or proletariat revolutionary slant,” Mr. F said. “It looked like they wanted students to take over the administration of [UCI] … I’m not sure of the rhetoric. It sounds like [it advocates] violence, but there’s been no violence observed yet.”

* * *

“We want money for our jobs and education, not for war and occupation.” –chant, 12:22 p.m.

Students leaving their classes and the library passed by the gathered protesters. Few stopped to listen, and those who did stop had to strain to hear what was being said.

“We were denied a permit for amplified sound,” __________ explained after the protest.

Physics grad student __________ added, “We were told we couldn’t have amplified sound because a fraternity would be playing music down the road.”

The ten-minute rally consisted of words from three speakers discussing fee increases, holding the university accountable for its actions against students and the ramifications of the war in Afghanistan on public education.

At 12:27, the group declared it was time to share its frustrations with the rest of the campus. With four UCI police officers in tow, the protesters began their march, chanting: “No cuts, no fees, education should be free!”

* * *

“We are the students!

(We are the students!)

Mighty, mighty students!

(Mighty, mighty students!)

Fighting for justice!

(Fighting for justice!)

And an education!

(And an education!)”



As the protesters made their way around Ring Road, other students stopped to watch. Some took photos with their camera phones while others ignored the chanting and continued walking to class.

“This is not UC Berkeley!” a passing student shouted at the group.

“Some students have said, ‘We as UCI students already have enough to worry about between school, work, figuring out how to pay tuition and feeding ourselves. It’s not that we’re apathetic, we just need to do what we have to do,’” Mr. F observed. “These seem to be more realistic attitudes rather than the idealistic thinking of the protesters.”

At 12:51 p.m., the protesters reached Aldrich Hall, whose doors had been locked with a sign placed on the front: “Aldrich Hall Temporarily Closed.”

“Where is the administration?” earth system sciences graduate student __________ asked the gathered crowd. “They see us as a threat.”

Before the protest’s end, third-year social science major _____________ stood in front of the gathered crowd to share a spoken-word piece, which she said she wrote after asking herself what she wanted. “Huey Newton spoke about the difference between a revolutionary suicide and a reactionary suicide, the latter is when you die without ever being free or fighting for freedom,” _________ said. “I don’t want to commit a reactionary suicide.”

* * *

“My resistance will seem uneducated, irrational and overwhelming, but my resistance will not budge, my tantrum will be heard and I will never watch, wait or expect.” – “The Ones That Watched, Waited and Expected” by __________

The protest ended at 1:10 p.m.

Though the numbers of the Oct. 7 protest were nowhere near the numbers UCI saw on Mar. 4, protest organizers were not worried. They alluded to future protests and days of action being planned, especially with the Regents’ November meeting coming soon.

As they plan, so will university officials. “What worries me is that they’re pushing this violent rhetoric,” Mr. F said. “Does this foreshadow their future actions? All this raises more unanswered questions. There are so many conflicts between what they say and what they do.”


Fousesquawk comment:

In this article a UCI student quotes none other than Huey Newton, deceased Black Panther figure from the 1960s and 70s, known as a violent revolutionary as well as an Oakland  cop-killer. (He was tried, convicted, the conviction reversed, followed by two mis-trials and the charge eventually being dropped.) His education consisted of graduate work in none other than the History of Consciousness Department at UC Santa Cruz (America's Wackiest University).

I always take note when gullible young students quote such "heroes" as Newton, H. Rap Brown, another cop-killer spending life in prison, or Che Guevara, who was Castro's chief executioner after the Cuban revolution. All that matters is that these figures were "against the system" or "against the "imperialist US' to ensure their everlasting tributes on university campuses.

In most cases, these young folks will get out in the real world and become wiser over the years. The others? Well, there is always journalism and academia.