by Jamee Greer
Last weekend, several members of the student group Students for Economic and Social Justice received letters from University officials that they may be suspended for staging a sit-in in President George Dennison’s office on Wednesday, April 16th.
The group has been working with UM Administration for the last two years to make sure all GrizGear sold in the UM Bookstore is made with sweat-free labor. Both sides have had setbacks and breakthroughs, and have been at a stalemate since last Spring. In May, the Administration agreed to support the first of SESJ’s demands — alignment with the Worker Rights Consortium.
According to a press release from the group:
Several members of the group have pleaded guilty with the court. The remaining members have a May 6th deadline to enter a plea in front of Judge Louden. The University is stepping above these charges, however, in threatening to suspend the students. Initially the students received letters threatening disciplinary probation, but secondary letters followed informing students that recent evidence has elevated their possible punishment to year-long suspension.
On Tuesday, April 29, each of the students will meet with Dean Couture individually to discuss their academic punishment. One of the eight students is set to graduate in two weeks, while the others face one or more years at UM. Suspension would force some to transfer schools in order to stay on track earning their degrees.
One member of the group was recently awarded with the Outstanding Student of the Year scholarship by the University, covering an entire semester’s worth of tuition — and was awarded for a variety of reasons — including an extraordinarily high GPA, extracirricular involvements and leadership within the community.
I’m not sure the exact process of suspension at UM, but with just a week left of class, there might be the possibility that suspended students will have to repeat the semester — if their finals and end of semester projects can’t be turned in.
Ironic that a student honored by the U with a full-paid scholarship for academic and community leadership would be punished for using those skills to get more students involved.
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Pingback on Apr 28th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
[...] so, when the lefty grass-roots start rallying to make their heroes exempt from the same rules that everyone else would have to abide by, I think to [...]
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Pingback on Apr 28th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
[...] might have to pay a stiff penalty. They ran to their friends at LITW, intelligent Discontent and 4 & 20 for help. Being a martyr is tough [...]
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Pingback on Apr 29th, 2008 at 11:56 am
[...] on what these students are working towards, visit http://www.studentsagainstsweatshops.org/, or see previous posts and a recent article in the Missoulian. No Comments Leave a Commenttrackback [...]
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April 28, 2008 at 3:56 pm
The whole point of civil disobedience is that a person engaging in such is willing to suffer the consequences of his or her action.
April 28, 2008 at 4:01 pm
That’s true, goof. That doesn’t mean that the rest of us should be happy out-of-whack penalties. Would you post that comment if they were being locked up in prison for 1 year? 10 years? Life? What if they were to be executed?
They undertook this action to fight injustice. I am a firm believer in keeping the cost of civil disobedience somewhat high so that the impact it has is also high. That said, I think a year-long suspension is ridiculous for this — especially given that the bulk of SESJers are otherwise upstanding students.
April 28, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Seems more than a bit of hyperbole. Surely they knew the possible consequences of their actions and measured the depths of their commitment by those consequences…yes, just as a Muhammad Ali might have done.
April 28, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Much though it pains me, I have to agree with Goof on this. However, as I pointed out at LiTW, wailing and gnashing of teeth over the unfairness of these possible penalties isn’t really helpful. The point of civil disobedience appears to be to get people to recognize a perceived wrong and change the view of those in authority in mass. Wouldn’t offering the tools to do that be in the least … helpful?