H -°, L 28° | Tomorrow: 
H 36°, L 27°Thursday’s rally to protest budget cuts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee ended in 15 arrests and the detainment of the student government president.
As part of the National Day of Action for Education Rights, UW-Milwaukee students gathered to protest budget cuts and an alleged pay increase to UW-Milwaukee Chancellor Carlos Santiago’s salary.
The UWM Education Rights Campaign, which consists of students and faculty, held a demonstration to present the chancellor with a petition to give up his alleged salary increase before making budget cuts and raising tuition by 3 percent, according to Michael Raspanti, UWM Education Rights Campaign spokesperson.
Even after the arrests, Jacob Flom, UW-Milwaukee junior and member of the Students for Democratic Society, which co-sponsored the demonstration, said the organizations involved in the demonstration are sticking by their original goals to push the chancellor to get rid of his alleged pay increase, his mansion by the lake and his luxury car.
According to UW-Milwaukee spokesperson Tom Luljak, the information the demonstration revolved around was erroneous and “intellectually dishonest,” and the chancellor has taken eight unpaid furlough days and not received a pay increase.
While Luljak said the chancellor was off campus at meetings all day, Raspanti said members of the demonstration saw the chancellor, and he did not come out to accept the petition.
“They said he was not available, but people saw him,” Raspanti said.
The students involved became agitated, Raspanti said, when the chancellor did not come out to accept the petition or meet the demonstration.
The incident ended with 15 students arrested and charged with one to three tickets, ranging from disorderly conduct to possession of illegal drugs, according to Luljak.
Raspanti said members of the press were arrested, though he was not sure if they were members of the student newspaper, The UWM Post.
According to Flom, police officers attacked members of the press. He said when two people were arrested and brought into the chancellor’s office, the demonstrators tried to follow and the police responded with pepper spray and physical violence.
Police officers on the scene were kicked and punched by protesters, Luljak said. They were also targeted with snowballs. He said the demonstration crossed over from peaceful protest to violent demonstration, and there had to be consequences for those involved.
Raspanti said the next steps for the UWM Education Rights Campaign will be to go to Santiago and demand pardons for those demonstrators who were issued tickets.
Jay Burseth, president of UWM student government, was not arrested or charged, but was detained for questioning in the chancellor’s office, according to a statement from the student government.
Flom said Burseth was not arrested and was ultimately released because the university did not want bad publicity, but Burseth may face impeachment.
Luljak said the false information the demonstration presented does a disservice to a cause UW-Milwaukee is sympathetic to: Helping students pay for postsecondary education.
“It is our right to protest our education rights,” Flom said. “Students are a powerful force in the university and should have [a say in] decisions.”
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These hippies need to get a real job.
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You need to get a job. These are students, they’re job is to be students you ignorant POS.
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yea because 10% unemployment doesn’t exist…you are an idiot.
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because 10% unemployment means that absolutely no one can find a job….you’re the idiot
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or two or three, in order to keep paying these tuition rates.
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As a UWM student, I think it’s an absolute joke that people are complaining as much as they are about tuition increases. People want a better school but don’t want to pay for it. FAFSA is there for a reason, paying off an extra couple thousand dollars (total) down the road in student loans really shouldn’t matter in the big scheme of things.
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“The incident ended with 15 students arrested and charged with …disorderly conduct to possession of illegal drugs.”
You have money for your favorite weed or blow AND you take it with you to raise a little hell at a tuition increase protest? How hypocritcally ironic!
Plus your dumb enough to get arrested with the dope on you? Priceless!
You do not deserve a college education. You are too stupid to justify the waste of University public resources on your sorry carcass, although you clearly have the financial resources to pay for it yourself.
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Maybe instead of protesting they should get a part time job. I understand being upset about tuition going up, but a 5.5% increase is nothing, especially compared to colleges in California having their tuition go up by over 30%
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I do have a question for the rioting students: “You want me to pay more taxes so that your tuition will be lower. What are you learning that will benefit me? What is it you intend to do that will make my investment worth while?”
I suspect that what I will get in answer is a lecture on human rights and entitlements, not an actual answer to the question.
It is time for the people of the United States to take a hard look at their university systems. Understand, I said hard look: I would strongly oppose eliminating them. What they need is restructuring by people who have their purpose in mind. They are not charitable institutions. The money they spend is not their own, nor is it voluntarily given. Every dime ought to be spent for a real purpose, not because some member of the administration, faculty, staff, or student body is “entitled” to it. Alas, the “entitlement” argument became prevalent back when we were rich and afford to let these institutions be built by intellectuals and unions. We were foolish to listen to those arguments then. Now it is worse than folly: we’re bankrupt, the college and university systems are bankrupt, a crash is inevitable, and what we will lose in the crash is all chance of getting a return on our public investments.
They were not built to distribute largesse to entitled people. They were not built to treat the talented and untalented as “equal” or “entitled”. They were built as investments, and unless they can answer hard and specific questions about how our investments are being handled without invoking entitlements due to administrators, faculty, staff, or students, they are frauds and ought to be closed and their assets sold at public auction.
http://www.jerrypournelle.com/view/2010/Q1/view612.html#Friday
It’s just like the sub-prime real estate mess - people who should know better make loans to “students” for “education” far beyond their needs or abilities, which they will have a hard if not impossible time paying off.
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Videos, commentary and a letter from the UWM Chancellor to all UWM students can be found here:
beyondthetalkingpoints.wordpress.com
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I am an honors student at UWM and I joined the March 4th National Day of Action to Defend Education for many reasons. One is that I will have to put off my last year of college as a result of the tuition increases. I have had to do this two previous semesters already even though I have been working full time throughout my college career. I also work at UWM where I am receiving wages that can be considered poverty wages and where I have recently had my hours cut-another way of burdening students and workers with education cuts.
With rising tuition costs that are set to continue and drastic cuts to financial aid, our university is becoming another privilege of the wealthy. Evidence is simply observing our campus population which does not at all reflect the diversity of our community.
Class segregation in our society needs to be addressed and I believe that accessible education can play a great role in this. Seeing as that it is an essential step to achieving a descent standard of living in America, I also believe that education should be a right. Anyone that agrees should join the global campaign for education rights. From California to New York, South Africa and Germany, our voices will continue to call in unity for the right to education.
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Dear Anonymous | March 7, 2010 4:17 PM, IP hash: 851716c4:
Are you asserting that an individual has a ‘right’ to a free college ‘education’? Really? Who would you have pay for that ‘free’ education? Your college education is already heavily tax subsidized yet you find that unacceptable.
I’ve got news for you, ungrateful child. I work every day so that you and all others can access a quality college education. But you’re going to have to work for it also! If you don’t, you and all of the other petulantly demanding and ungrateful progressives socialist will fail to respect and appreciate the gifts you have already been presented with. The only segregation in effect here is between those who are willing to work for their rewards in life… and those that want them handed to to them for free!
Life isn’t fair. We each have to deal with the circumstances we are given. I grew up poor and worked hard for low wages. I worked my way through both a bachelors and a masters degree in the UW system. It taught me discipline and self reliance. It showed me the fallicies of socialism and those that demand wealth without responsibility or labor to earn it. It taught me to never participate in the mewling rhetoric of ‘victimology’ that is so evident in your marxist screed.
Work for it. You’ll be a better person for it. You’ll set a responsible example for those that follow you and society will be enriched by your efforts.
Hope…… Change……
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Since when do only the wealthy have a right to an education? Did you miss the part where ‘Anonymous’ stated that he/she is holding down a full time job while going to school and still can’t afford the tuition increase?
A free post-secondary education is rediculous. The tax payers cannot bear that burden… but an ACCESSABLE education should be a given. No one’s asking you to pay their full ride, but honestly, the opportunity to educate one’s self and better their life through further education should not be a luxury for only those of wealthy backgrounds.
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I was not able to partake in the rally, but i am an advocate for it. Not only are they charging us an extra 5.5% in tuition each semester, but the amount of Pell grant funding his drastically going down. The amount of money I have gotten from the government from being the son of a father disabled and on social security is going down to the point where i am holding down 2 jobs to get by. That is also on top of the 15 credits that I am taking.
And for those who think that it is just a hike in just tuition are not fully informed. On top of tuition, the amount that i find myself paying just to take a class has gone up. That coincides with the amount of classes being cut so we are not able to take the classes that we need to graduate on time so we are forced to spend another semester here.
Furthermore, if you think it will be cheaper to take online classes you are sorely uninformed. We have to pay an extra $250 per class. When taking on online class (I am taking two because the classes i need for my major have less openings) you are only using the technology that is already in place for all students at all times. BUT we pay more and the teachers themselves make no more from it.
Everyone that is simply stating that we need to suck it up because “Life is hard - we need to work for it” don’t understand how much most of the student body is working for it. But there comes a time when the amount that we are getting for the amount that we are paying is strictly insulting. It’s comparable to going to McDonalds where you would spend $5 for a Big Mac meal but go back now only get an order of fries for that same $5.
Lastly, if you haven’t been to collage or had to send someone to collage in the past 5-10 years, I would like to think about your opinion and how outdated it is.
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This goes out to the man replying to anonmynous above talking about free education and how he believes it’s a joke, well, if we students don’t know what hard work is how is it I’m working two jobs while taking 18 credits and I refuse to take a year off only to save up. Now yes I have heard of fasfa, I have applied every year and only to get the bare minimum having to come up with $3,500 from my own pocket plus books and supplies, plus having to pay for my rent and etc. The point I’m trying to get at is it isn’t the lower class that suffers, my parents are living in a nice home making 65,000-75 each but I have not seen a penny from them for tuition or rent, this isn’t a bash to them what so ever what I’m saying is because of their salary I’m penalized and because I am not 25 I cannot file as an independant can some explain why I have lived on my own paying my own bills but yet cannot file as a dependant, I think salary cuts and tuition rising is inevitable, however, I’m sure there are many students in my situation, and for the older lady or gentleman above I’m sure you did work hard however remember that tuition was much lower yrs ago and we weren’t in an economic crises.