News and Views from the People's Struggle
Minneapolis, MN – On May 10, the UMN Divest Coalition gathered 100 people, who first rallied outside the McNamara Alumni Center and then packed the meeting room of the board of regents at the University of Minnesota, despite intimidation from campus police.
Minneapolis, MN – On November 29, over 300 students, staff and faculty members at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities skipped class and work to participate in several events throughout the day as part of the Shut It Down for Palestine International Day of Solidarity.
These actions were called and led by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), and several faculty members such as Sima Shakhsari of the Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies department.
Minneapolis, MN – Over 500 University of Minnesota community members gathered on the Northrop Mall and inside of Morrill Hall over the course of two days for a public reading of the known names of thousands of Palestinian civilians killed during the ongoing genocide in Gaza since October 7.
Minneapolis, MN – On September 14, 50 University of Minnesota students, staff and faculty gathered outside of the Student Union to join Students for a Democratic Society at their first rally of the semester to demand that the administration chop from the top and fully fund their ethnic and gender studies programs.
Students and other members of the campus community have been putting pressure on the UMN Board of Regents to defend ethnic and gender studies programs within the College of Liberal Arts through financial means since April, when university faculty from these departments reached out to SDS regarding alarming budget cuts that had been proposed by administration. Had these cuts been approved, American Indian studies would have seen a 50% decrease in its departmental budget. African & African American studies and Chicano and Latino studies Departments faced a 30% decrease, and Gender, Women & Sexuality studies a 10% decrease.
After outrage from university stakeholders and protests held by SDS, GLU-UE, AFSCME, and AAUP, the College of Liberal Arts Dean John Coleman publicly claimed that these proposed budget cuts had come about due to an accounting error and that they were no longer being considered, after $2 million that had allegedly been misplaced was relocated. Despite this, the College of Liberal Arts, which houses all the aforementioned departments, had its annual budget slashed by 11% across the board.
Regarding this supposed accounting error, SDS member Natalie Rath stated, “For a university of this size and stature, making insanely large ‘mistakes' like this is absolutely laughable and ridiculous. Keeping things like this hidden from the public also reflects very poorly on the university. We demand full transparency about where our tuition money and labor is going.”
The approach SDS suggests that UMN administration take to ensure funding for these programs is to chop from the top. As SDS member Fa’aumu Kaimana states, this is because “The issue is much more systematic than the threat of looming cuts. Ethnic studies are chronically underfunded, workers are chronically underpaid, all while top university executives get paid six and even seven figures!”
Kaimana continued to list SDS’s other demands for administration, including meeting the demands of the Towards Recognition and University-Tribal Healing (TRUTH) Project and employment security for untenured instructors and other departmental workers.
The budget cuts UMN SDS is fighting against come at a time when ethnic and gender studies are under attack at colleges and universities nationwide, especially in Florida, with Governor Ron DeSantis’ House Bill 999 which outlaws all diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives on college campuses. It was this legislation that the Tampa 5 were protesting against when they were brutalized and arrested by University of South Florida Police Department officers. It is vital that we stand in solidarity with the Tampa 5 and all other progressive forces fighting for the protection of these programs that were hard-won by student organizers of the past to protect the rights of Black, brown, native, trans and queer students.
Other speakers at this rally were Sasmit Rahman from UMN SDS, Juli von Zenker from AFSCME 3800, and Jae Yates from Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar.
To keep up with the fight for ethnic and gender studies in the Twin Cities, follow @UMNSDS on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
Minneapolis, MN – 30 people gathered at Mayday Plaza on July 12 to demand that charges be dropped against the Tampa 5. This was also the day of the Tampa 5’s second court appearance. They chanted, “Justice for the Tampa 5! Down with Desantis! Protesting is not a crime!”
Minneapolis, MN – 20 people gathered at a busy Dinkytown intersection for a rally organized by Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Minnesota to show solidarity with the Tampa 4 and demand that all charges against them be dropped.
Minneapolis, MN – 15 University of Minnesota students and staff members gathered in the rain outside of UMN’s Morrill Hall on February 14 for a Valentine’s Day-themed rally hosted by Students for a Democratic Society and AFSCME demanding the expansion of abortion access across all University of Minnesota campuses.
Minneapolis, MN – 45 University of Minnesota students and community members gathered November 11 outside the Prospect Park location of First Care Pregnancy Center to demand that crisis pregnancy centers be removed from campus and defunded by the state. A classroom projector was used to display slogans such as “Abortion is healthcare” and “Fake abortion clinic” on the front of the building as protesters chanted.