It’s over. But it’s not. It’s just beginning. It really is. Over 800 students registered for the 19th annual Students of Color Conference. It was held at UC Santa Cruz this weekend and the planning committee prayed to God that all 800 students wouldn’t come because we didn’t have enough space for them all. But, for the 700 students who did come, the experience was beyond amazing. For the volunteers and “people in purple shirts” the experience was inspiring, frustrating, heartbreaking… it was all these things I can’t find the words for.
Can you imagine a sea of brown faces sitting down with a mixture of hope, fear, excitement and love beating through their hearts and racing through their minds? Their right hands are on the shoulders of the person the the right and their left fists are raised high and proud. We created more than coalitions. We created family. We create kapatid which means “brother and sister” in Tagalog.
For students of color in the UC system, we are faced with the many edged sword of privilege and isolation. Love for our education and love for our family. We have “issues” but we also have lives and we are also human. We are hurting but we are moving and organizing so much that sometimes we can’t stop to heal. “Can’t stop, won’t stop,” as UCSA volunteers kept repeating all weekend.
And I don’t know if we stopped and healed in the spaces that SOCC created. I know we listened to our issues; we talked about our families our campuses, our communities and our disunities. I know we danced to good music, ate good food and met a lot of people who we hope to see someday soon.
There’s so much more out there: so much more to tell and so many stories I didn’t hear or capture on camera. I hope in the weeks to come those stories come out and that people get a chance to hear them.
Peace,
-a.
There were people sitting in a tree on my way to work this morning. That should not be unusual for students here at UC Santa Cruz after yesterday’s violent/crazy/loud rally against the Long Range Development Plan. In an effort to get their opinions about the costly plan heard, hundreds of students marched from our little plaza to somewhere near the middle of campus where a few of them proceeded to climb a tree and are now currently chilling there in protest.
The LRDP is UCSC’s answer to inevitable growth. It includes physical, academic and student-life solutions to expansion and has been in the works since I was a freshman (Fall of 2003). At it’s most basic form, it involves cutting down a lot of trees (much of which has already begun with the addition of the Humanities building and the expansion of one of the libraries) to accomplish its goals.
Normally, I’m all for rallies. I have fond memories of speaking out for student-initiated outreach funds my first year at UCSC. Then the enemy was pretty clear. Lack of affirmative action meant underrepresented students had to support and retain each other, but we needed funds to do that and the university was sitting on funds given to us by the state and that was Just. Not. Cool. We eventually passed a referendum which expires this coming spring but has brought much success to the student-initiated outreach and retention realm.
Rallying against the LRDP, however, posed a conflict of interests. As much as I care for the trees (and I’m not just saying that to be spiteful of Santa Cruzians), I care for my fellow students and following generations more. The expansion, though it may seem to many as a mismanagement of funds by the university, is necessary. Without the expansion, we as students of color cannot hope to see more of our communities better represented and supported on this campus. On the other hand, those same communities may not be able to afford their education because they are the ones who will be paying for the massive additions and growth UCSC has in store.
In that case, I don’t think the LRDP is the right force to be fighting. The problem is nationwide. With less and less money going to education and tons draining away in a bottomless war, UCSC has no option but to shift the burden to the students. In California, where prisons are getting more attention money-wise than education, this creates a crisis, one which students should organize around.
Protesting the LRDP is one way to attack the problem of effectively funding higher education; however, as UCSC’s organizing history shows, it’s more likely that the plan will remain in effect until is completion. Taking the issue statewide and forming coalitions with other organizations working to improve California’s education system seems to offer the better benefits.
You can read more about the resistance’s purpose on the “website”: http://www.lrdpresistance.org/learn.php.
The image used for this article was originally uploaded by mrmatthew.
I’ve been to several student-run and student-organized conferences and events over my life span at UCSC. Many of them have been obviously chaotic and many of them have perfected sprezzatura, the art of concealling chaos in the case of student activism.
For the past two months, students here at UCSC have been running around, recently almost like headless poultry, putting finishing touches to the 19th annual Student of Color Conference. Late in the summer, UCSC won the bid to host the conference, to be held on our campus this weekend. Since then, planning committee members have gathered an impressive list of speakers, workshops, performers and attendees. In addition, fundraising has been equally as amazing, with over $9,000 raised in the past week alone.
These are students – first-year through grad students – who, on top of their course load and job requirements, gathered weekly (and recently, daily) to come up with a budget, a plan of action and detailed logistics of a conference that plans to host over 800 people. It’s truly an impressive feat and the planning and steering committees deserve a lot of respect for pulling this off.
Each year, hundreds of students, staff and some faculty from all of California’s UCs and other universities attend the Student of Color Conference (SOCC) to show solidarity for each others’ communities, spaces and issues. SOCC is not just a weekend trip, it’s a lesson in organizing and creating and defending spaces that are left out of California’s Plan for Higher Education.
This year’s theme reads “In solidarity and struggle: the fight for our rights” and many students are coming from campuses where this fight is ongoing. While SOCC offers a place for them to learn, organize and network, it also offers a space to chill out and reconnect through music and arts.
It’s going to be huge and I’m super excited about this weekend. Watch this space for updates as the countdown to the event continues and photos and comments on the weekend.
Peace,
-a.