by Jamee Greer
Members of Students for Economic and Social Justice who participated in last Wednesday’s sit-in are being suspended, although it sounds like for varying lengths of time.
At this point, the longest suspension has been five days.
Meetings between the students who were charged with disorderly conduct and the UM Administration will continue through the week.
For background on what these students are working towards, visit http://www.studentsagainstsweatshops.org/, or see previous posts and a recent article in the Missoulian.
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Pingback on May 1st, 2008 at 8:17 am
[...] And the issue isn’t one to be broken down on basic party lines as Steve Dogiakos, a UM student and candidate for HD 93, offered his ideas on the situation here on 4and20blackbirds earlier this week: [...]
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Recent Comments
April 29, 2008 at 12:46 pm
It is an outrage that these students are being faced with academic consequences.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand the need for consequences to their actions, but isn’t the fact the University is already ALSO pressing criminal trespass charges overkill?
Is this the message that needs to be sent from the Administration? That, if you don’t agree with the way something is happening and you try to, peaceably, change it you are labeled a criminal and a criminal and academic miscreant?
The ultimate, and most ridiculous, ramification is that depending on when the suspensions start, these students will have to miss finals and probably repeat all the classes they are in.
April 29, 2008 at 12:48 pm
It should also be noted that there is no precedent for students engaging in civil disobedience on campus to have academic punishment.
April 29, 2008 at 12:54 pm
It should also be noted that some of the students who are being suspended have been awarded Outstanding Student Leadership scholarships, which paid for an entire semester’s tuition — by the same folks who they’re being punished by.
I don’t think barging into PGD’s office should go without consequence — the whole disobedience part of civil disobedience — but it is frustrating that they’d be hit with both an academic and criminal punishment.
April 29, 2008 at 2:08 pm
I’m really conflicted on this issue to be honest. Students commit all sorts of drunken jackassery on campus and face both academic and legal consequences on a pretty regular basis, just read the Police Blotter, so to say that the suspension is going overboard is ignoring the standard protocol of the University. It’s kind of due course. I don’t think you can apply one set of consequences to this group of students because they were politically motivated and a different set of consequences to another group of hooligans because they were drunk or something.
April 29, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Also, part of me feels like this is just Dennison being vindictive, especially after his whole “what we learned from the 60s is that I’m a dinasaur holding this University back in the dark ages and therefore there will be consequences for your actions” speech. Okay so maybe that’s not exactly what he said, but I dislike him enough to assign malicious and conniving personality traits to him that may or may not actually be there. Especially if these students are made to miss finals and repeat classes. I think on one level this may be about him being fed up with having his authority questioned…Which means it’s time to start questioning harder. See, I really am conflicted ):
April 29, 2008 at 2:27 pm
I really do think that the intent of the administration is to send a message to any members of this group or others thinking about civil disobedience on campus in the future.
When my mom was in college during the Vietnam war, her university in California rebuffed the FBI when they requested the help of the school’s administration in dealing with the Students for a Democratic Society on campus. The FBI reacted by doing the threatening of individual students (including my mother) themselves.
Now here we are nearly 40 years later, and we’ve got people who came of age during the 60’s making the same mistakes of their forefathers who meant to quash the social justice movements of their formative years.
April 30, 2008 at 12:49 pm
My impression from the Missoulian article was that the students would not have to miss finals. There was some flexibility in which days would be suspended. The punishment was called “symbolic.”
April 30, 2008 at 4:16 pm
It’s not surprising that the students and their supporters would complain about their punishments. Since it’s all about overturning our current system of laws, anyway, why should they choose to obey them or be subject to the sanctions of the law? The rules are just there to protect those with the money and the power.
Fight the powah!
Tomorrow being may day, it’s a day to celebrate either the rule of law (law day) or the rule of the mob as held sway in the Soviet Union.
April 30, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Mr. Dogiakos, Though I disagree with the will of the SESJ students, I do respect your comments here. Unfortunately, some of your brethren candidates in Missoula aren’t quite as thoughtful.
May 1, 2008 at 11:03 am
@Wulfgar:
First, thank you for the acknowledgment.
Second, Steve didn’t throw me under the bus, he had a different opinion. He’s allowed. It’s the internet, everyone has something to say, and they’re going to.