uo 'cannot accommodate' #occupy
the occupy eugene protests moved to the uo quad thursday morning, and wer met with considerable resistance from the administration.
by 2:30 pm, every student on campus had an email in their inbox denouncing the relocation as incompatible with general mission of the university, and noting that camping is not allowed on the uo campus. "it would be very disruptive to the university’s core mission of teaching and research," offered acting provost lorraine davis.
evidence that camping has not been disruptive to the "university's core mission" surfaced just two weeks ago when the university invited espn's college gameday to set up an enormous structure in the center of the quad from which to host their show.
though the administration insisted that "the uo cannot accommodate a campground," it hosted an event that encouraged hundreds of students to stay out all night for a chance to get on the show; many camped in tents in the exact same spot where the occupy protestors were threatened with arrest this thursday:
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| photos: oregon daily emerald |
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| protestors speaking out against government corruption. |
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| department of public safety and the eugene police department threatened arrests by 11 p.m. |
p.s. this is my letter to acting provost davis, thanking her for her kind and informative manner. enjoy!
dear acting
provost davis,
thank you for addressing
the issue we all faced of having occupy eugene congregated in the quad. it was
indeed troublesome to have all those dirty hippies standing around innocuously
while we all walked to class and the library.
i also want to thank you also for notifying prominent occupiers that
"camping is not permitted at the university of oregon." i think it's
critically important to make it excessively clear that such a mass of
tent-toting loiterers would be "very disruptive to the university's core
mission of teaching and research." that is, of course, unless those
camping are waving foam fingertips and "go ducks" signs in hopes of
appearing on espn.
erecting structures
in the quad is very obviously contrary to university policy, unless you happen
to be a giant multimedia corporation that brings in a significant amount of
publicity and cash.
thank you most of
all for making it crystal clear that the only thing that matters to this university's
"mission" is it's actual and potential cash flow. if football is
enough reason to suspend all university policies, and student-driven social
action is not, then we are headed down a dark road and into and even darker
alley.
sincerely,
joel devyldere (senior studying english and
philosophy)
feel confused? misrepresented?
you can email acting provost lorraine davis at lgd@uoregon.edu (202 johnson hall), and uo president richard lariviere at pres@uoregon.edu (110 johnson hall).
you can email acting provost lorraine davis at lgd@uoregon.edu (202 johnson hall), and uo president richard lariviere at pres@uoregon.edu (110 johnson hall).
Oh hell yes, I can get behind this.
ReplyDeleteI can't say I disagree 100% with this post, but I think it's incredibly skewed.
ReplyDeleteFirst, Game Day took place on SATURDAY. Saturday ≠ Weekday. They set up during the week day and were not distracting at all. Most my classes are around that field and, had I not seen it, I wouldn't have known they were there. No I'm not sure about Saturday classes, but even if there WERE saturday classes being interrupted, notice how dark the pictures were? Gameday started INCREDIBLY early in the morning, BEFORE classes.
Occupy Eugene on the other hand was on a weekday, and was nothing like represented in the pictures here. Isn't wasn't a few smiling people with signs. There were tons of people, tents everywhere, drums playing, people cheering and screaming. While Gameday was here I didn't notice during class. The one day Occupy Eugene was here our entire class was getting frustrated because we kept hearing all the screaming and yelling. And, moral or not, fair or not, at least Gameday gives us TONS of funding and national recognition to make our education and school better. Occupy Eugene, while it may have big benefits in different ways, does nothing directly to the school except by annoying students.
One last note: Occupy Eugene WAS disrupting to the education environment. If UO has let other similar things slide but not this, then yes, it should be noted. But that does not then excuse someone else to do it. It was distracting and inappropriate no matter whether or not it's been done by other groups before.
I pay a huge amount of money to learn at UO, and being preached to people while I walk to and DURING classes is not what I pay those thousands of dollars for.
@cralls:
ReplyDeletethanks for the comment. i didn't intend to imply that occupy eugene's presence in the quad wasn't disruptive. as to your claim that the protest "was nothing like represented in the pictures here," that has a lot of validity. it would have been a better representation if had included a wider shot so that people could see the craziness that then permeated the quad.
"Gameday gives us TONS of funding"
- uo at least markets itself as a public school, so funding should have little to do with it.
i am sympathetic to the notion that #occupy disrupted uo-as-usual. my trouble is with consistent hypocrisy on the part of the school's administration.
they are too untroubled with the affairs of students to even reply to my letter.
thanks for the comments!
@unknown: thanks for the support
Yessss awesome letter, Joel
ReplyDelete