Although a major purpose of the rally was to express solidarity with those arrested, many speakers addressed the need to keep pressure on the administration. David Melendez, one of the 13 arrested, spoke out at the rally to acknowledge the organizers behind-the-scenes, the less glamorous aspects of Whose Diversity?'s organizing which are neglected in the media, and the long term work of building this current campaign, stating, “The idea of the UMN 13 is not true. We are the Whose Diversity? 13 plus. Whose Diversity? has been working on this for a long time.”

Shortly before the rally began, Dean John Coleman of UMN's College of Liberal Arts announced that the university was now working towards meeting at least one of Whose Diversity?'s demands, as the College of Liberal Arts has begun redirecting resources to make a “cluster hire” of four new tenure track faculty within the ‘RIGS’ departments. RIGS represents the ethnic studies departments, as well as the departments of American Studies and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies. Coleman has promised that at least one of these four new faculty will be in the Chicano Studies Department, which has been a major focus of student activism on campus in recent months.

While Coleman's announcement indicates progress towards meeting Whose Diversity?'s demands, speakers at the rally asserted that all eight demands needed to be met by the university administration and that the struggle against racist discrimination and inequality at UMN needs to continue.

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #UniversityOfMinnesota #MorrilHall #WhoseDiversity #UMN13plus

Minneapolis, MN – On Feb. 9, two simultaneous actions occurred on the University of Minnesota campus to demand racial justice and substantive diversity. The protesters’ eight demands can be found here: http://www.fightbacknews.org/2015/2/9/university-mn-students-start-sit-demands-targeting-institutionalized-oppression.

While scores of students rallied outside Morrill Hall, the University of Minnesota’s (UMN) administration building, and listened to speakers from the Department of African and African American Studies, the Social Justice minor, Black Lives Matter, Whose Diversity? and AFSCME 3800, 16 activists affiliated with Whose Diversity? slipped into the president’s office and began an occupation in Morrill Hall. After meeting with UMN President Eric Kaler and other top administrators and being given formal written responses to their eight demands, 13 of the 16 activists were arrested around 7:00 p.m. by the University of Minnesota Police Department (UMPD) on trespassing charges.

According to one of the activists, there were police present in Morrill Hall before the action even began. Both uniformed and plainclothes police appeared prepared for the occupation in advance, indicating a high level of surveillance of campus activists by both UMN administration and the UMPD. When Morrill Hall closed at 6:00 p.m., police gave students the option of leaving the building with citations or facing arrest.

The 13 activists arrested on trespassing charges were told by the UMPD that they are banned from entering Morrill Hall for one year, unless given explicit written permission in advance. While Whose Diversity? was able to bail the 13 out immediately, the activists were still held overnight in jail and weren’t released until 4:30 a.m. on Feb. 10. The court date for the activists is set at 8:30 a.m. on Feb. 24.

Beyond legal action, the 13 activists could face further political repression by the university administration. Last spring semester, 8 Whose Diversity? and Students for a Democratic Society members were given disciplinary letters by the Office of Student Conduct threatening them with punishment, including the threat of expulsion, for their actions in leading protests on campus.

Jesus Estrada-Perez, one of the 13 activists who occupied Morrill Hall, indicated that the next steps in the struggle for racial justice at UMN are to counter any attempts by the administration to spin portrayals of its actions and those of the protesters, and to hold the administration accountable to its promises. On this, Estrada-Perez stated, “The U is spreading tons of misinformation, but remember, as Assata Shakur said: ‘We have nothing to lose but our chains!’”

#MinneapolisMN #OppressedNationalities #StudentOccupation #AfricanAmerican #UniversityOfMinnesota #MorrilHall #WhoseDiversity

Minneapolis, MN – More than fifty students marched from Coffman Union to Morrill Hall today at noon. They marched to Morrill Hall, the administration building, to support a group of students that had started a sit-in in President Kaler’s office in Morrill. The students have a list of 8 demands and they have pledged to maintain the sit-in until President Kaler negotiates with them or they are arrested and removed.

The march was organized by the group Whose Diversity?, which was formed last school year to fight against institutionalized oppression at the University of Minnesota. The U of MN administration talks constantly about their commitment to diversity, but Whose Diversity? and other activists on campus have decried a disconnect between the administration’s words and students’ lived experience.

The eight demands of the students sitting in are:

1. Provide the support necessary to help the Department of Chicano & Latino Studies thrive by renewing the senior full-time faculty line, increasing the outreach coordinator’s position from 50% to 100% time, and hiring two more faculty in the next year with one additional faculty hire each year until the department reaches at least eight faculty.

2. Remove descriptions of race and complexion from UMPD [U of MN Police Department] crime alerts.

3. Reverse the decision to close PsTL [Post Secondary Teaching and Learning] by the 2016-2017 academic year.

4. Initiate a cluster hire of faculty of color as per the proposal put forth in 2014 by the Consortium for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, Gender and Sexuality (RIGS).

5. Establish a program that recruits high school students from working-class neighborhoods of color in the Twin Cities.

6. Require all students to take at least one class offered in one of the three ethnic studies departments (African American and African Studies, Chicano and Latino Studies, American Indian Studies) or the Asian American Studies Program.

7. Ensure at least one restroom in every building on campus is accessible to all genders.

8. Remove language from the admissions application that questions prospective students about their prior convictions and criminal offenses, as well as their history of expulsion, suspension, and probation in their former institutions.

The struggle around the Chicano Studies Department has been particularly sharp. Students, staff, faculty and community members have been organizing since last year to save the department. Chicano Studies has been reduced to a perilous existence with only one professor. The administration has repeatedly refused to commit to hire any more professors so the department can continue to function, let alone grow.

The students are asking people to support them by contacting President Kaler's office at 612-626-1616 or emailing him at upres@umn.edu and demanding that he implement the students demands. The students are asking people to follow @WhoseDiv on Twitter and and tweet at @PrezKaler. Their hashtags are ‪#‎KalerUPromised‬ and ‪#‎MoralMarchOnMorrill‬.

#MinneapolisMN #Antiracism #ChicanoStudies #WhoseDiversity

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