Take Back Our Campus!

 

The University of Florida, like many bureaucracies in our society, is undemocratic, unjust, untransparent, and unaccountable.  We the students, faculty, staff, and workers of the University of Florida make this university possible with our money, time, research, teaching, and efforts. Yet we are not allowed to have a say in the day to day operations of the institution or even to play a part in formulating general policies. Rather, authority is exercised by bureaucrats, administrators, and managers, many with no interest in higher education other than the paycheck they receive every other week.

 

The highest ruling body at the university is the Board of Trustees, a group of a dozen business executives and venture capitalists that do not even live in Gainesville and have little to no appreciation for (or understanding of) education. While the administration preaches a doctrine of "shared governance," their authoritarian actions prove otherwise.  One example is the "the 5 year plan" cutting funding to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS).  Another is the systematic intimidation of student organizations who dissent, take direct action, or otherwise stray from the party-line of Student Government (one of the administration's many instutional arms of control). Furthermore, the administration continues to pay lip-service to the university's well-known and long-time problems with racism and sexism.

 

Since the administration has made it clear that they do not want change, and because they maintain a tight grip on all pre-existing channels like Student Government, we believe it is necessary to stop granting them the power to rule over us. While there are many active student groups and individuals who complain about the university, we remain fragmented while the administration is highly organized. Thus we believe that the first step towards democratizing our place of study and work is to form an alliance to communicate, share initiatives, and coordinate actions in taking back OUR campus.

 

We have seen many individual students and student organizations demanding change from the University of Florida (UF) administration.  Over and over we have seen these demands met with neglect and silence.  The notable exceptions of spying, police monitoring, and physical intimidation are dully observed. 

 

It is apparent that rather than fighting with us to combat the myriad of issues we are devoted to advocate, UF administrators intend to fight against us, the very students they are here to represent.  Due to this common predicament we see a need and opportunity to unite.  

 

We are proposing an alliance of all of the groups and individuals who have experienced disappointment, neglect, and suffering at the hands of UF administration, and those with sympathy for the many who have.  We invite everyone, individuals and groups alike, who rightfully mistrusts UF administration, and everyone who is frustrated with hopelessly pleading for our representatives to represent us.  We believe that continuing to ask a non-responsive person of power and privilege for help only serves to reinforce the false sense of superiority that enables them to ignore us.

 

Our patience has proven to be futile.  It is time to create a truly democratic student body that can implement change without asking for permission.  It is time to create a university that represents the people of which it is composed: the students.  The only option for adequate representation is to represent ourselves.

 

We would like to hold an initial event for the first week of the Fall semester to send a clear message to the university and to reach out to our fellow students who are ready for change. This would allow for a variety of campus groups to not only network, but to share their initiatives and how the university either constrains, impedes, or fails to facilitate what it is that they wish to do, say, and/or study. The primary purpose of this event will be to create a forum where we can come together in large numbers to voice our concerns and begin executing change!

 

 

The event we are planning for next fall will take a lot of logistical work considering the vast number of people that UF administrators have angered.  Below are a list of individuals and organizations from whom we have already begun recruiting for help:

 

SDS

CLASUnite

Campus NOW

500 Nations including NATION and STAAR

The Catholic Worker House

The Presbyterian student organization

F.A.C.E.

The Law Association for Women

The Wayward Council

The Dignity Project

Women in Black

NAACP

NAKBA '48

IOC

The African American Studies department

Argentine Tango Club                                

Association of Black Communicators

Annie C. Higgins Visiting Assistant Prof.

Arabic Language and Lit.

African and Asian Languages and Lit.         

Health Educated Asian Leaders

Pre-Legal Honor Society                        

Red Cross Gators        

Eve Rizzo of Phi Eta Sigma        

Shae Ferguson of the Panhellenic Council        

Amanda Huebner of Phi Sigma Pi

Gloria Tavera of the Universities Allied for Essential Medicines

Unified Student Early Childhood Association

Xxtra Modeling Troupe

Student Finance Group

 

We are keeping a running list of the individuals and organizations with which we are uniting and/or hoping to unite.  If there are people or groups (not already listed) that you know would be interested, especially if you need help contacting them, please let us know.  Furthermore if there is a group above that you are already a member of/have friends in/would like to speak to in general, we can tell you how you can help.  This is a huge project and, as stated above, the one thing that we need in order to challenge the administration is organization.

 

If you are interested please contact:

 

Christina at cebates@gmail.com or 813-310-3926                   

Rob at dejitarob@gmail.com or 352-613-0621

or Kristen at kristen.walberg@gmail.com or 407-227-7652                   

 

 

This is open to everyone; you do not need to be a formal member of any group.

 

Organizational Supporters:

• CLASUnite
• Students for a Human Society
• Nakba '48
• Gainesville Area SDS
• Feminist Activists Creating Equality

 

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