Students, led by the group Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), will smash a Trump piñata on the steps of Morrill Hall at noon and proceed to the University of Minnesota (UMN) president's office where they will deliver their ultimatum demanding action by the university president by the end of the month. The students' ultimatum letter is modeled on a letter that the University of Utah SDS delivered to their university president demand for a sanctuary campus.

While UMN President Kaler has emailed students, staff and faculty at the university, acknowledging their fear that undocumented students will be targeted by the new Trump administration, he has stopped short of declaring the university a sanctuary campus or taking concrete actions to protect these students. Such actions that have been taken by presidents at other universities.

National Students for a Democratic Society issued a call for actions to be organized in support of making university campuses across the country sanctuary campuses for undocumented students. Like sanctuary cities, sanctuary campuses are universities which pledge non-cooperation and non-compliance with federal efforts to repress, detain and deport undocumented immigrants. At the University of Minnesota and in many places across the country, undocumented students are able to attend the university as students and can in some circumstances pay in-state or resident rates of tuition – this policy is already a recognition that undocumented students should be allowed to attend these colleges and universities and the sanctuary campus designation would further allow undocumented students access to education free of the fear of unexpected detention or deportation based on their immigration status.

SDS at the University of Minnesota is organizing this protest on President's Day, under the slogan Not My President's Day, to draw connections between the sanctuary campus movement at local universities and the broader movement to oppose Trump and his right-wing agenda. UMN SDS has participated in the broad umbrella coalition the Resist From Day One coalition in the Twin Cities, which led large marches a month previous on Inauguration Day.

SDS member Skyler Dorr said, “Our national campaign for 'Education for All' connects student struggles around access to education, from overpriced tuition and student debt to demographic underrepresentation for Black and Brown students on campus to the sexism, racism, anti-queer, and anti-Muslim violence that prevents marginalized students from fully participating in campus life. Right now the struggle is to protect our undocumented brothers, sisters, and nonbinary folk and make our universities sanctuary campuses.”

#MinneapolisMN #StudentsForADemocraticSociety #PresidentKaler #DonaldTrump #sanctuaryCampus

Minneapolis, MN – “Fire Kaler!” chanted roughly 30 University of Minnesota students led by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at the Dec. 7 board of regents meeting. Continuing the national SDS campaign of education for all, students demanded that University President Eric Kaler be removed for the incompetency and scandals witnessed under his administration.

Interrupting President Kaler’s initial report for the semester’s board meeting, students stood to vote on an emergency resolution to fire Kaler on the grounds of his incapability to lead the university with accountability to students and staff.

Read collectively, the resolution cited 13 counts of Kaler’s failure as a university president, including doubling tuition while he got a tremendous salary increase, participating in a cover-up of gross misconduct within the medical school by suing the victims’ families, hiring known sexual assaulters to roles of authority, and openly approving of racist actions carried out on campus. Rather than hear out these concerns, Eric Kaler immediately fled the scene with half of the 12 regents.

“Eric Kaler should be removed from office immediately. A new leader should be put in place through a process involving genuine input from the campus community and the new president must be accountable to the university community,” reads the resolution from SDS. Under the current system, the University of Minnesota president is elected by the board of regents, who are in turn appointed by the state legislature. SDS cites this core lack of democratic input by the students, staff and faculty who make the university work for the misguided policies of the Kaler administration.

With an immediate vote, students unanimously voted to fire Kaler and followed their resolution with a mock farewell party. Wearing party hats and throwing streamers to the song Celebration, students were escorted outside by a force of nearly 15 police officers threatening arrest, a much larger police presence than at any other board of regents meeting in recent past.

Students for a Democratic Society continues to build for the removal of President Kaler and are planning a student walkout on Jan. 20, the day of the inauguration of President-electTrump. The Jan. 20 protest will compare Kaler to Trump and will march under the slogan “Not Our Presidents.”

#MinneapolisMN #SDS #PresidentKaler #sanctuaryCampus

Minneapolis, MN – Members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) delivered a letter addressed to University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler and the university's board of regents, Nov. 6, which put forward student concerns over the sexual harassment and assaults that have been perpetrated by members of the university's own administration.

Over the past months, the University of Minnesota has been appearing in local and national headlines for sexual harassment and sexual assault allegations surrounding members of its administration. Early in the semester Norwood Teague resigned as the athletics director amid revelations that he had inappropriately engaged with two female coworkers, both verbally and physically, at a university senior leadership retreat this summer.

But, records show that this is not just a one-off incident that President Kaler was uninformed about. In one interview, Kaler admitted that this was a “long-standing problem” of getting drunk and harassing women. In his former position at Virginia Commonwealth University, Teague was involved in a gender discrimination settlement with two female colleagues that ended up costing VCU $125,000 and the UMN $175,000. In the $112,000 search the University of MN paid to find Norwood Teague, his predatory behavior didn't come to light. More likely, however, is that it seemed inconvenient and irrelevant to the administration of UMN at the time.

Since Teague's resignation, there have been a series of similar allegations as well as departures from the athletic department. First, information surfaced just in the past month that in the 2014-2015 academic year multiple individuals in the Gopher's football team had complaints lodged against them for sexual assault, harassment and retaliation. To this day, there appears to be no serious investigation and no names have been given with regards to this – various administrative bodies have been virtually silent. After these allegations came to light, head football coach Jerry Kill, at the time facing tremendous pressure in light of recent circumstances for the athletics department, resigned his position for stated health reasons. Now, just over this past weekend, Mike Ellis, the University's Associate Athletic's Director, resigned his position citing that he felt that he was an unfair target in his colleague's [Teague's] investigation. Ellis was on administrative leave while being investigated for sharing inappropriate photos of college-aged women on his cell phone at U-sponsored sporting events.

It is clear that the athletics department is bailing out of a sinking ship. What President Kaler was so keen to ignore is now becoming public scandal after public scandal for the university. To this day, the administration of the university, President Kaler's office, has yet to prove that they are taking these investigations seriously. Members of Students for a Democratic Society are asking members of the university community to sign on to this letter demanding accountability from the office of the president and the board of regents themselves. The letter reads in part:

“The University administration’s lack of serious action on this issue demonstrates to us that it is not only not taking these issues seriously, but also contributing to the culture of rape on our campuses...

“It adds insult to injury for students who are, each year, taking on more and more debt, when we realize that the UMN administration is knowingly hiring perpetrators of sexual violence and paying them large sums of money. SDS demands accountability from the administration for hiring perpetrators like Norwood Teague.

“Additionally, SDS demands further accountability of people in position of great influence over the student body, such as Coach Jerry Kill. Coach Kill seems to think that simply reporting incidents of sexual violence as they come up exempts him from further responsibility for the appalling behaviors of his football players.”

To read the full letter and to support SDS' demands, visit www.umnsds.wordpress.com

Stephanie Taylor is a member of UMN SDS

#MinneapolisMN #SDS #PresidentKaler

Minneapolis, MN – More than 250 university workers, students, faculty and community allies rallied at the steps of Morrill Hall at the University of Minnesota, Sept. 29, to demand raises, respect and a good contract for frontline workers.

The rally was organized by University Unions United – AFSCME Locals 3800, 3801, 3937, 3260 and Teamsters Local 320 – which collectively represent 4000 clerical, technical, health care and building and service workers at the University of Minnesota. The unionized workers are in contract negotiations with the university administration. After nearly four months of negotiations, the administration is proposing raises of less than 1%, which amounts to 7to 15 cents an hour. AFSCME and Teamsters are calling for a $15 minimum wage and raises that will allow workers to get ahead.

Cherrene Horazuk, president of AFSCME 3800 – the clerical workers union – called for an end to the ‘two university system,’ where a few at the top get rich while those at the bottom languish in poverty. 223 administrators at the university, the vast majority of whom are white men, make more than $150,000 per year, while nearly 500 unionized workers, mostly women and people of color, make less than $15 an hour.

Horazuk said, “The Board of Regents are debating a compensation policy which would allow them to give $100,000 incentives to managers, while the raises being offered to frontline workers won’t even cover bus fare, one-way, off-peak.”

Mick Kelly, a member of the negotiating committee for Teamsters 320 told the crowd, “We will only get what we are organized to take. The U will not listen to reason. It’s what we do that counts.”

Solidarity and support for the frontline workers was expressed by prominent trade union leaders, including Brian Aldes, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters 320, and Eliot Seide, Director of AFSCME Council 5, representing 43,000 workers statewide. Seide gave a fiery speech and led the attendees in chanting, “Who does the work? We do!” Pat Guernsey, President of AFSCME Local 552 – Hennepin County Probation Officers – offered the solidarity of Hennepin County workers, who are also in a contract battle, and said, “We know as a union that we are stronger together!”

Banners and t-shirts from many other unions could be seen in the crowd, including St. Paul Federation of Teachers, Education Minnesota, SEIU, Communication Workers of America, ATU 1005, Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, MN AFL-CIO.

Heartfelt thanks was given to the frontline workers from Charmaine Chua, a graduate student in the Political Science Department, who talked about the day in the life of a grad student, and the many ways clerical workers helped make her research possible. Gratitude and solidarity was also expressed by Manu Berduc, an undergraduate student and member of Students for a Democratic Society, and Michele Lekas, contingent faculty member, who is helping to organize a faculty union at the University with MN Academics United.

Cherrene Horazuk ended the rally by saying, “In its strategic plan, the university is asking its best researchers and brightest minds to solve society’s grand challenges, and hopes to answer the question, ‘How will we ensure just and equitable societies?’ The administration should start by ensuring a just and equitable university.”

Rally participants then marched to a nearby building where clerical contract negotiations were taking place. Horazuk invited people to join the bargaining session, where rank-and-file workers would be giving their personal testimonies to the university negotiating committee. Two dozen people joined the bargaining session. Clerical workers talked about the importance of dignified wages, equitable parental leave, restoration of the regents scholarship and an end to workplace bullying.

Janel Mendoza, member of the bargaining committee and clerical worker on the University of Minnesota Morris campus, spoke about parental leave. Unionized and civil service workers receive two weeks paid leave after the birth of a child, while management receives six weeks paid leave. The unions are fighting for the same leave that management receives. Mendoza said, “When my youngest child was born, I had to rely on short-term disability to supplement my income. Short-term disability only covers 66. 67% of our already low pay – for an Office Support Assistant, we are talking $9.61 an hour. After nine months of satisfactory employment, faculty and professional employees receive 30 days paid leave. We receive ten. Tell me again, how this is fair? The idea that we do not deserve the same paid time off as professionals and faculty is absolutely shameful and infuriating.”

Mendoza continued, “We must plan, prepare, work and save up enough time so that we can have the same time off given to faculty and professionals. We must earn our time to spend with our newborns. Instead of relaxing and acclimating ourselves to our newfound parenthood, we are worried about how to make our house payment, or searching for a daycare will take our few weeks old infant.” Mendoza closed by saying, “Our children deserve the same time with us as those of faculty and professional employees. It’s high time the university closes the gap between the haves and have-nots.”

#MinneapolisMN #Teamsters #UniversityOfMinnesota #AFSCMELocal3800 #PublicSectorUnions #PresidentKaler #TeamstersLocal320

Minneapolis, MN – More than 60 members of AFSCME and Teamster Local 320 marched to the office of University of Minnesota (U of MN) President Kaler, where they delivered thousands of petition signatures from staff, faculty and students calling on the university administration to give U of MN workers raises and respect. The chant, “President Kaler hear our call, your crummy offer is way too small,” echoed through the halls of the administration building.

President Kaler is currently in contract negotiations with unionized worker at the university. After nearly two months of negotiations, the administration is proposing raises of less than 1%, which amounts to 7 to 15 cents an hour. 223 senior administrators earn more than $150,000 a year, while more than 475 unionized workers make less than $15 an hour, or $31,000 a year. AFSCME and Teamsters are calling for a $15 minimum wage, and raises that will allow workers to get ahead.

Teamster negotiating committee member Mick Kelly told the crowd “We have had enough. We are not going to beg our way to a decent contract. What we do, the action we take, will determine the outcome of this fight.”

Cherrene Horazuk, president of AFSCME 3800, said, “President Kaler's wage offer isn't even enough to pay for bus fare. Many of us struggle to earn enough money to repay student loans, buy a modest house, have a child, or to retire. The 0.375% raise being proposed to clerical workers is an insult. It's like giving a one dollar tip for a nice dinner. The money is there – the administration is just not willing to spend it on frontline workers.”

Steff Yorek, an AFSCME 3800 member stated, “With the Kaler administration rocked by scandal after scandal one has to wonder if the administration is trying to hold onto money to pay for lawsuits against disgraced members of President Kaler’s leadership team.”

#MinneapolisMN #Teamsters #UniversityOfMinnesota #AFSCMELocal3800 #PresidentKaler #TeamstersLocal320

Minneapolis, MN – On the evening of April 2, students, staff and faculty of the University of Minnesota gathered for the People’s State of the University, an event held an hour after the university's official State of the University address given by President Eric Kaler.

The State of the University address is used by the administration to lay out its carefully scripted public relations for the media, state legislators, wealthy alumni and corporate donors. In contrast, the People’s State of the University highlighted the everyday experience and struggle for the students, staff and faculty on campus, including rising tuition, administrative bloat, a lack of diversity and increased strain on workers.

The speakers for the event included Skyler Dorr on behalf of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Cherrene Horazuk on behalf of AFSCME 3800 – the clerical workers union, David Melendez speaking about the Morrill Hall occupation of Feb. 9, Bio-Ethics Professor Carl Elliot, a critic of the university's research practices and Lindsay Hendricks of SLAC – the Student-Labor-Action-Coalition.

In his prepared remarks, University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler laid the groundwork for expected tuition increases after a two year ‘tuition freeze,’ explaining, “We will probably get back to a period in which we have relatively modest 2 or 3 percent tuition increases.” Despite his suggesting the university might have to “get back” to these increases he highlighted the fact that in fact it was “double-digit increases” for the better part of a decade.

With regard to tuition, Skyler Dorr of SDS pointed out that tuition in 1993-94 was $3421 and has skyrocketed to $13,626 today, an increase of 143% after adjusting for inflation. SDS member Maggie Kilgo added, “SDS is a group that fought for – and won – the tuition freeze that President Kaler now claims responsibility for. SDS was at the forefront of that struggle dating back before Kaler’s arrival on campus and passed an all campus election referendum by over 85% in 2013 demanding an end to tuition increases and a cut to administrative bloat.”

In addition to President Kaler trying to claim credit for the tuition freeze over the past two years, he also tried to claim credit for changes to the racist university Crime Alert system. David Melendez, one of those who occupied the President’s office on Feb. 9 to demand among other things changes to the crime alerts as well as more diversity and inclusion on campus, was quick to reclaim this victory as one of students demanding change. Melendez called for students to remain “critically engaged” and “challenge power” as essential principles as higher education at the university.

Melendez also works with Adalante! and Students Unid@s for Chicano/Chicana Studies at the University which have been working to defend cuts to ethnic studies programs like Chicano/Chicana Studies and to increase the number of tenure track jobs, calling for five full-time tenured ‘super faculty’ for Chicano studies.

Dorr from SDS added that, when asked about campus climate and safety for women, “Kaler spoke about the resources of the Aurora Center, which is not a preventative measure against attacks…and we need to teach boys ‘not to be jerks.’” This only further highlights how out of touch the administration is with issues of diversity, equality, inclusivity and safety on campus.

Cherrene Horazuk of AFSCME 3800, representing clerical workers at the university also noted President Kaler’s attempt to claim credit for progress at the university that were actually won by dissenting students, staff and faculty. Horazuk talked about Kaler’s speech being full of “buzzwords, elitism, corporate control and corporate budget models,” and described how he attempted to “marginalize the voices of dissent in order to alienate those who challenge the status quo.” For example, while President Kaler proudly stated “we must intentionally reject complacency about diversity and campus climate,” he neglected acknowledging his own “intentional” efforts to avoid meeting with and engaging in dialogue with students of color in the Whose Diversity? collective, who have for over a year tried to engage administration and press them for institutional change to create a more tolerant and inclusive university.

Horazuk specifically cited Kaler taking credit for the actions taken by Melendez and other members of the Whose Diversity? collective who occupied his office demanding change in February, “When talking about crime alert change Kaler claimed that it was made because of a round table discussion six months ago rather than the forced listening discussion which Whose Diversity? Had with him a few months ago.”

Finally Kaler talked a lot about the extensive criticism the university has received in recent months from two major reviews of the university’s human research conduct. To this Kaler said, “We do recognize that that is a problem.” However for many years now people have been telling Kaler, the board of regents, the national and local media and the community about the issues regarding unethical practices of the university with regard to human subjects. Among the leading and most vocal critics has been Professor Carl Elliot.

Professor Elliot highlighted the profit over people mentality of the University of Minnesota medical research programs, specifically that which saw test subject Dan Markingson die. Elliot said that the “University of Minnesota has consistently made false statements,” with regard to their knowledge of problems with the research programs. Elliot highlighted that Kaler has known of the issues for a long time but has routinely denied knowing or deflected criticism by suggesting it had been dealt with in-house. Two external reports recently found otherwise, describing “a culture of fear and intimidation around research ethics.”

While Kaler and his administrators celebrate another year of bloated salaries, the university’s students, staff and faculty remain resolved to continue to work hard to challenge and change the campus to be more just, diverse, equitable and affordable.

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #Minnesota #PresidentKaler

Minneapolis, MN – On March 12, 35 students interrupted a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the University of Minnesota to protest the lack of real diversity on campus. The protest was organized by a new student group called Whose Diversity? and was supported by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, students marched to the front of the crowd, chanted and spoke to the audience and administration before the event began. As U of M President Kaler begun speaking, protesters raised signs that read, “Support the right to self-determination,” “does my culture make you uncomfortable?” and “We reject racism” between President Kaler and the crowd. Unable to speak clearly or even see the audience, the president made a handful of remarks and then turned the microphone over to the next speaker. Non-white students are silenced every day by university administrators, but Whose Diversity? flipped the script.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony was the public unveiling of the newly-remodeled second floor of Coffman Memorial Union, the Minneapolis campus’ student center. This is where student cultural centers are located, such as the La Raza Student Cultural Center, Black Student Union, American Indian Student Cultural Center, Women’s Student Activist Collective and many more. Students revealed that the second floor remodeling – which students resisted throughout the process – was an attempt to ‘whitewash’ the previously vibrant space because a conservative white man threatened to sue the University for discrimination several years ago.

For years the administration has been tightening the largely non-white groups’ annual budgets and restricting their access to their own spaces, particularly on the second floor of Coffman. At the protest, students demanded “Where are the murals?” referring to historic cultural murals that the administration destroyed as part of the remodel of the student cultural center spaces. The murals were an important legacy of student struggle at the U of M – such as a mural depicting the historic 1969 student takeover of Morrill Hall which resulted in the establishment of the African and African-American Studies Department. Flustered by the students’ disruption of the press event, President Kaler hid in the student government office until it was his turn to speak.

While Minneapolis is 18.6% Black and 10.5% Latino, the U of M remains overwhelmingly white. The U of M’s student body is 4% Black and 2.4% Latino/a in 2014. And the Chicano Studies, American Indian Studies and African American & African Studies departments are continually underfunded, as are non-white student groups. Students demanded that these issues be addressed. After the protest, students gathered to celebrate a successful action and motivate people to keep building the student movement.

Students for a Democratic Society member Stephanie Taylor said afterwards, “The University systematically excludes poor and oppressed nationality students. UMN needs to expand access and support for departments and programs that serve these students. It’s not about diversity for the sake of diversity, it’s about justice for oppressed and exploited communities in our state.”

#MinneapolisMN #OppressedNationalities #StudentsForADemocraticSociety #UniversityOfMinnesota #PresidentKaler #WhoseDiversity