Student Governance and Campus Administration

Students in the Graduate Employee’s Organization at the University of Illinois rallied Oct. 26 in an effort to persuade the university to give them what they would consider a fair worker’s contract. The GEO is pushing for a contract that would include a minimum teaching/graduate assistant salary at a living wage. Currently, the cost of living on campus for a graduate student is around $16,000 yet teaching assistants are only paid $13,400. The rally was held outside a Conference on Graduate Education and the Economy, hosted by the Illinois Association of Graduate Schools. Peter Campbell,

Amidst heated national debate on a public health insurance option, the undergraduate student government of Michigan State University (ASMSU) is looking into creating their own health care plan for students and alumni. Their proposal would offer a low-cost health care plan for students and alumni that would provide more coverage than the university's existing plan. Specifics of the plan have not yet been worked out. Student Assembly Chairperson Kyle Dysarz said 20 percent of MSU students are without health insurance and the group would likely negotiate a plan with an insurance company and fa

In the month since the American College Health Association released a set of updated guidelines urging all colleges and universities across the country go tobacco free, many colleges have moved to snuff out tobacco use.   Washington University Chancellor Mark Wrighton announced on Monday through the Office of Public Affairs that all campuses of Washington University will be tobacco-free by July 2010, including all University-owned and managed properties.               The University of Texas at Arlington is among those still

Students and faculty at UC Berkeley held another round of demonstrations against budget cuts by holding a teach-in and a study-in focused on the damage funding reductions would do to the library system. Students have already seen a reaction to the study-in from the University administration, which restored reduced library hours after students refused to leave the Anthropology Library for 24-hours. Almost 60 people attended the teach-in at the Education Psychology Library October 16th, calling for an end to the “growing privatization” of the university. Teach-in participant Marika Iver sa

From October 20th through 22nd, students at California State University at Fullerton held a “Furlough Fest.” The event happened while the University was closed in an attempt to save money. Organizers planned the Fest to allow students to continue learning while the University is closed and foster a spirit of communalism to counterbalance what they feel is an acutely hierarchical and dense bureaucracy. The Fest held a variety of open forums and workshops discussing diverse subjects such as sexuality and masturbation and practical presentations such as a demonstration by a record label on sta

University of California Student Regent Jesse Bernal is speaking up for students by trying to stave off tuition increases planned for the UC system. Those same planned fee hikes  prompted one of the largest student and faculty demonstrations in years of over 5,000 people on September 24th.   “We can really almost solidly point a finger at our state legislature and a decline in funding for public education,” Bernal explained. “Students have always been the targets of revenue. I am vocally opposed to the fee increases, especially this midyear increase--it's going to blind-side studen

On Tuesday October 6th, 50 students, faculty and staff members of DePaul University gathered on campus to rally and march following word that Professor Melissa Bradshaw, founder of the LGBTQA minor, had been denied tenure.                Dr. Melissa Bradshaw, an assistant professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at DePaul University, was denied tenure last May. Her students and colleagues gathered for the rally to urge the University’s administration to overturn the ruling.          

The Associated Students of the University of Missouri (ASUM), the MU College Democrats and the College Republicans sponsored a forum on health care reform on October 1st. Five professors presented their opinions on health care and were followed by a vigorous Q&A session. "The main goal of the forum [was] to educate students here at Mizzou," College Democrats President Brian Roach said. "A lot of the discussion surrounding health care has been muddled in the last few months…This [was] an opportunity to get several objective perspectives from those individuals on the panel." Roach s