Activism – Radical Teacher

REPOST: UC, CSU faculty send open letter to Trump on climate change

Posted onFebruary 1, 2017AuthorradicalteacherLeave a comment

By Robert Sanders via Berkely News (January 31, 2017) Amid rumors that President Donald Trump will soon pull out of the Paris climate agreement that former President Barack Obama signed last year, more than 2,300 faculty from California universities have signed an open letter to the Trump administration calling for sustained action on climate change and urging the president to honor the country’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions as set forth in the agreement.[…] Read the full letter below: An Open Letter to President Donald Trump and His Administration We the undersigned are calling on you, in the most urgent terms Read More …

Responding to Professor Watch List

Posted onDecember 9, 2016AuthorradicalteacherLeave a comment

In response to the Professor Watchlist site that has emerged in recent weeks many campuses across the nation are responding with tactics modeled after the Notre Dame response. Below is a letter faculty at the University of Michigan are encouraging others to consider using or adapting: Dear Professor Watchlist, We, the undersigned faculty at the University of Michigan, write to request that you place our names, all of them, on Professor Watchlist. We make this request because we note that you currently list on your site two of our colleagues, Professor Juan Cole and Professor Susan Douglas, whose work is Read More …

#StandingRockSyllabus

Posted onNovember 23, 2016November 23, 2016AuthorradicalteacherLeave a comment

NYC Stands with Standing Rock Collective has just published the #StandingRockSyllabus, now available for free download. From the organization’s website: This syllabus project contributes to the already substantial work of the Sacred Stones Camp, Red Warrior Camp, and the Oceti Sakowin Camp to resist the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which threatens traditional and treaty-guaranteed Great Sioux Nation territory. The Pipeline violates the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 and 1851 signed by the United States, as well as recent United States environmental regulations. The potentially 1,200-mile pipeline presents the same environmental and human dangers as the Keystone XL pipeline, and Read More …

Repost: Why Our Universities Must Provide Sanctuary to Undocumented Immigrants

Posted onNovember 19, 2016November 19, 2016AuthorradicalteacherLeave a comment

by Alecia Richards | On November 16, students at more than 80 universities, colleges and high schools nationwide staged walk-outs, sit-ins and rallies urging their administrations to protect immigrants at risk of deportation by the incoming Donald Trump administration. The nationwide protests, which took place under the banner of the hashtag #SanctuaryCampus, called on universities to join the ranks of cities that limit their cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). [Read full article]

CUNY Rising

Posted onNovember 17, 2016November 17, 2016AuthorradicalteacherLeave a comment

A CUNY Rising Town Hall at Brooklyn Borough Hall is scheduled for Tue. Nov 22, 6 pm. It’s in support of the CUNY student Bill of Rights, see below. The CUNY Rising Alliance includes dozens of community and labor groups listed on the flier below. What we’re seeking to do is name the crisis of chronic defunding, first of all, and give students, alumni, and faculty a platform to address its impact. From James Davis

Michael Berube’s letter to Penn State’s President

Posted onNovember 17, 2016AuthorradicalteacherLeave a comment

Dear President Barron, I am writing in response to your recent letter regarding the outcome of the presidential election. I applaud your reminder that we are “All In,” affirming “the value of a diverse and inclusive university.” We are, indeed, all in. But I am alarmed by your characterization of the election’s outcome: “I know that many of you are disappointed and disheartened with the outcome, while others see this as an opportunity to strengthen our great nation.” No doubt many Trump voters see the election in this way, and as a member of the Penn State community, I will Read More …

Rustling Signs, Loud Noises, and Progressive Possibilities

Posted onNovember 17, 2016AuthorradicalteacherLeave a comment

On Monday, September 26, 2011, I, along with at least 3 other folks from the RT board, and 500 other members of our union, PSC-CUNY, descended on the CUNY Board of Trustees meeting to demand that the university adequately fund health care for adjuncts, who do more than half of the teaching on CUNY campuses. About 100 of us made it into the meeting room, where we stood silently in the audience holding paper signs urging CUNY to “DO THE RIGHT THING.” Early in the meeting, as CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein was droning on about CUNY’s participation in various economic Read More …

Solidarity With Wisconsin: A How To Guide

Posted onNovember 16, 2016AuthorradicalteacherLeave a comment

To my out-of-state and international friends who want to know what to do: I recommend you do your own phone banking or mass emailing event. With a little review online you can find out the names/numbers of Wisconsin state GOP senators and Assembly reps who are supporting this bill. You can also find out which ones are in danger of recall. Then, you can have your callers explain to the legislator’ staffers on phone or in email that you consider the Wisconsin state line a PICKET LINE. No more dollars into Wisconsin. No more purchasing of Wisconsin products. Publicity ALL Read More …

An Open Letter About the Situation in Wisconsin

Posted onNovember 16, 2016AuthorradicalteacherLeave a comment

I’m writing to you to share with you a little bit about the unprecedented events in Wisconsin, and to ask how you might like to make a presence and show of solidarity with brothers and sisters to the north. As you probably know, the Tea Party-backed recently elected Governor, Scott Walker, introduced a sweeping anti-labor, anti-family and union-busting budget last Friday afternoon, hoping to avoid public discourse and using a trumped-up fiscal crisis as his excuse (http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/editorial/article_61064e9a-27b0-5f28-b6d1-a57c8b2aaaf6.html). He did so with no warning, and refused all negotiation on his measure. In addition, he made a menacing and disturbing suggestion that Read More …