Teacher and Students of UH sit down!

[1stwahine]

Eh, just like dem days....UH teachers and students doing a sit down at the University. They made it all the way to wat his office, da president of UH. They are protesting against having the Navy have a Research Facility dea. ;) This should get interesting as the hours go by....... ;) They were told that they can stay overnight but not to touch anything or destroy what he has in his office. Hmmmm....wonder what happens when it will turn into more than just an overnight stay? Pizza anyone? ;)

[1stwahine]

They're still occupying the office of the prez of UH. The teachers and students now told that they could get arrested. It's a non-violent protest...for now. fifty millon dollars at stake. who you think going win?

[terramera]

Link to their website http://www.stopuarc.info/index.html

My question is why isn't this more in the news?

[1stwahine]

Link to their website http://www.stopuarc.info/index.html

My question is why isn't this more in the news?
I assume the same reason why nobody else wants to say anything on this thread? It's obvious that in the end...UH wins. Then again, if people show that they support the teachers and students and send emails, calls or go there to protest to show support. I am outrage at the idiotic proposal of putting a Naval Research Center there for a mere $50 million. It doesn't guarantee the safety and welfare of those who attend, work, or visit the UH. Nah, people are too busy to be taking interest in something like this............thanks to your link, I sent emails.

1stwahine,
momthreesoldiers

[terramera]

Also they have a petition you can sign

http://www.petitiononline.com/stopuarc/petition.html

It's truly frightening how small the responses are about this and the lack of media coverage. Looks like they've sold their soul for $50 million.

[1stwahine]

Also they have a petition you can sign

http://www.petitiononline.com/stopuarc/petition.html

It's truly frightening how small the responses are about this and the lack of media coverage. Looks like they've sold their soul for $50 million.

I signed the petition, my first online. This is also the first "protest" I've ever really took part of. Hopefully, others will join the effort. However, realistically like I said before...50 million is more than enough to sway the votes to the Naval Research Center. shame, shame, shame. Why don't they get rid of whats on Ford Island and put it there? Auwe!

As of 5:33 pm. 116 signatures and counting. come people, show your support!
8:00 pm. 122 signatures, six in 2 1/2 hours? what gives? :confused:

[Miulang]

The Advertiser (http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/May/01/ln/ln07p.html) reported on the proposed $50 million Naval Research contract that the UH wants.

Up here in Seattle, residents in the neighborhoods around the University of Washington are also concerned, because the DoD wants to build a research lab that will be testing biological agents. The neighborhoods are worried that some mutant strain of virus could get loose and cause all kinds of havoc in the area.

Miulang

[1stwahine]

Thank Miulang for the link to the Advertiser.

excerpt from article by Beverly Creamer:

"It's not a situation if you have this kind of funding the Navy is going to take over your lab, take over your program," Ostrander said. "But the fact is that the U.S. government can come in and classify any work or any research at any time."



Got that right. No warning, nothing. all it would take is a leak, an accident...then poof be gone for all of us, eh?

I can not believe that from last night only 150 signatures. The signatures for the home lottery is well over 2,000+...how come?

[1stwahine]

Update: 210 signatures. President McClain will speak to group tomarrow regarding their terms. Hope he makes the right decision and don't sell UH out.

Interesting, will observe. Go BOWS! :D

[Miulang]

Amy Goodman from Democracy Now! interviewed Ikaika Hussey (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/03/1357237), one of the protesters who is occupying the UH President's Office. Too bad these kids and profs can't get their fellow students and teachers to pay more attention to the reasons for the protest.

Miulang

[1stwahine]

Amy Goodman from Democracy Now! interviewed Ikaika Hussey (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/03/1357237), one of the protesters who is occupying the UH President's Office. Too bad these kids and profs can't get their fellow students and teachers to pay more attention to the reasons for the protest.

Miulang

Yes, it's really sad. The online petition only has 286 signatures. I simply can't understand it. Maybe, they need a marketing expert? :confused:

[craigwatanabe]

First you gotta tell the students to take the Ipod earbuds outta their ears so they can understand what the protest is all about :D

Then you gotta pay the professors more salary so they can effectively teach the students why there is this protest. :eek:

With UH students listening to their MP3 players in class and underpaid college professors it's no wonder the response to this protest was dismal at best. Somehow I think the campus culture has lost it's ability to rally. I mean just a few weeks ago we talked about that bizzare rape awareness rally at the base of the Student Center at UH Manoa! :confused:

[1stwahine]

Simply put, they can't top the students of yesteryears! That alone could start another thread. Brains, guts, and awareness not only for our aina but for the world.

[Miulang]

That's true Auntie. Not many people will even stop to think about the fact that today is the 35th anniversary of the National Guard slaughter of students at Kent State University in Ohio (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/04/1342257) (remember the song by CSNY "Four Dead in Ohio"?)

I remember attending a large memorial service for the slain at the University of Utah gymnasium. I remember the huge mobilization of students from around the country to the atrocity. I remember the antiwar demonstrations that occurred after that.

I also remember being very idealistic back then. Which is a damned sight better than the kids today who only care about their iPods and themselves. Where did our society go wrong?

Miulang

More history on the events leading up to the massacre at Kent State (http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8742.htm).

[1stwahine]

Mahalo for making me remember. I too, remember the slain students. I too, know that if the students don't get rid of their ipods and whatever's and start caring about the aina and the world...we are definitely in the last days. :mad:

[craigwatanabe]

It's all about immediate gratification. The generation that occupies the 20-year olds now want it immediately. To graduate and get that high paying job without earning it. They believe that four years of college was struggle and now they deserve better...hmmm college couldn't be easier now than ever with the internet to aid in research and online registration (as opposed to Klum Gym and sweating on your registration forms).

This generation is all about "ME" and very little to do with micro tasks in the big picture, like that Volkswagen commercial of that young couple pounding the floor with their bizzare dancing. Instead of just turning the music down, VW suggests that they buy their car, bigger sound system and a new home. Ummm I think that commercial missed the point that we must all act together for a common goal.

And when it comes to campus culture, the Ipod rules. Isolate your world in earbuds and listen to the music you like. Where's the connection to the rest of the world? You become engrossed in the message you choose to listen to with your personalized playlist and it slowly brainwashes you to individualized thinking instead of global thought.

And Hence, this generation lacks the ability to rally a group as one because everyone's dancing to their own drum (Ipod) instead of a common theme. It's all about "me" or "I" as in I in my personal pod...Ipod...

[1stwahine]

Exacto mundo Craig! The current online signatures at this time and date is 322, three hundred and twenty-two.

Students for graduate studies is over 4,000.

IPODS.............. :eek: :cool:

The downfall of society. It's not suppose to be a "ME" :(

It's "US"

"SOLIDARITY!"

[pzarquon]

Good lord. Apathy is as big a hallmark of youth as is blind idealism. Even when students were protesting in the streets in the heady days of yore, no doubt there was a good population that you didn't see getting hosed down on TV, sitting in the library thinking, "Damn hippies."

I discount the value of online petitions anyway, so just as I'd find 5,000 signatures unimpressive, so too would I not judge apparent support too harshly for only a couple hundred.

As far as a lack of coverage, I hope that judgement has changed. These kids are all over the place, and compared to their Bachman-occupying predecessors, they're pretty damn media savvy. Press conferences, prepared statements, organized classes during the sit-in, even extensive KTUH coverage and live internet streaming, for cryin' out loud.

I don't have a strong opinion on the UARC either way (you bet secret military research will take place whether you know about it or not), but I gotta hand it to these kids. You're seeing evidence of apathy and selfishness in this story, and I'm seeing evidence that idealism and activism isn't quite dead yet.

[Glen Miyashiro]

And obviously, it's not a big enough issue for enough people to get worked up over. I think this is pretty much a non-issue. Bleeding heart liberal I may be, but I still acknowledge that there's a need for the country to have a strong and well-equipped military. Now, how and when you use that military, now that's another question entirely. :rolleyes:

[Miulang]

And obviously, it's not a big enough issue for enough people to get worked up over. I think this is pretty much a non-issue. Bleeding heart liberal I may be, but I still acknowledge that there's a need for the country to have a strong and well-equipped military. Now, how and when you use that military, now that's another question entirely. :rolleyes:
Yeah, if we could just get a strong and well-equipped military to begin with. :mad: Did you know that some recruiters, in order to reach their quota, have signed up recently-released psychiatric patients (http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/050305Y.shtml) and others who have medical conditions that during "peacetime" would disallow them from wearing a uniform? Or recruiters who tell potential enlistees how to cheat on drug tests? I wouldn't want that kind of Army. Draft? Did someone mention draft?

Miulang

[terramera]

These kids are all over the place, and compared to their Bachman-occupying predecessors, they're pretty damn media savvy. Press conferences, prepared statements, organized classes during the sit-in, even extensive KTUH coverage and live internet streaming, for cryin' out loud.

And this all done during finals week.

[pzarquon]

UH protesters declare victory as sit-in ends (http://starbulletin.com/2005/05/05/news/story6.html)
Craig Gima, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Thursday, May 5, 2005
Protesters packed their sleeping bags and tents and ended a seven-day occupation of the University of Hawaii president's office yesterday after accepting a commitment that regents would hold an open discussion on a proposed Navy research center... On Tuesday, UH Interim President David McClain agreed to all but one of the revised demands of the protesters. McClain said he could not rescind the regents' action to grant provisional approval of the UARC at a meeting in November. But he said a final decision on the center will not be made until October, after full consultation on the issue.I think McClain deserves some credit for his handling of this whole thing. It could have gotten a lot messier if he, his staff, and the administration in general were as impatient or aggressive as they could have been. I don't know if I'd say "putting it off" is really a victory, but the dialogue is open and I suppose that's what matters most.

[Miulang]

I just hope the kids who occupied Bachman Hall are going to keep the Administration honest by making McClain stick to his promise about keeping the UH community informed of any other discussions that go on.

Problem is, I understand that many of the protestors are graduating seniors, so who's going to carry the torch and remember to keep the Administration's feet to the fire? Or is this the Administration's sneaky way of pretending to concede and then hoping it will make the problem go away once the seniors graduate and leave campus?

Miulang

[pzarquon]

Interestingly enough, the Star-Bulletin published an editorial in favor of the UARC... UH should proceed with Navy research (http://starbulletin.com/2005/05/06/editorial/editorials.html):The university has conducted military research for a long period and should not be deterred by unfounded complaints by protesters... UH would join four other universities that have such centers: Johns Hopkins University, Penn State, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Washington. Their academic prestige and integrity have not been tarnished by the military research. The Pentagon already accounts for $54 million of the $330 million yearly in outside research and training grants at UH-Manoa.Retorts Ian Lind (http://www.ilind.net/2005/may/may08-14.html):The editorial hangs on a single broad statement by the newly arrived vice-chancellor for research and graduate education, who is quoted as saying, "This is not significantly different from what the university has been doing for decades." Well, I beg your pardon. There is a world of difference between research funded by a Pentagon-related source and research that is classified. Classified research has been barred by UH policy since another round of controversy several decades ago.At least this conversation is happening out in the open, rather than behind closed doors. Though like you, Miulang, I wonder if the fires will be burning quite as brightly six months from now. That's the thing about pesky college students... if you can't beat 'em, just wait 'em out.

[Miulang]

Interestingly enough, the Star-Bulletin published an editorial in favor of the UARC... UH should proceed with Navy research (http://starbulletin.com/2005/05/06/editorial/editorials.html):Retorts Ian Lind (http://www.ilind.net/2005/may/may08-14.html):At least this conversation is happening out in the open, rather than behind closed doors. Though like you, Miulang, I wonder if the fires will be burning quite as brightly six months from now. That's the thing about pesky college students... if you can't beat 'em, just wait 'em out.
I know. I used to be one of them "pesky" college students! ;)

Miulang

[Miulang]

So much for an "open and accessible office (http://www.thehawaiichannel.com/news/4484641/detail.html) of the President of the UH". Personally, I think this is an overreaction. Now the protestors will be COMPELLED to do something even more outrageous to gain attention if McClain doesn't follow through with his promise.

Miulang

[Miulang]

The statement (http://www.thehawaiichannel.com/news/4499461/detail.html) released by Chancellor McClain yesterday claiming he had not made any formal agreement with the protestors who occupied Bachman Hall is a symptom of the way business is being conducted in general in this country right now.

Way back when, there were such things as "gentlemen's agreements" and handshakes were as good as a legal contract. Nowadays, people will say one thing just to make the other side think they are in agreement, and then they turn around and reverse that understanding by stating that they had not formally agreed to anything.

Shame on this country, shame on the UH Administration. There is no such thing as ethical business anymore, and this country is going to pay for it in the long run. As I said before, the protestors will probably come up with some really creative ways to show their displeasure at McClain's betrayal soon.

Miulang

[Glen Miyashiro]

And of course he waited until after finals week to say anything, because there's no way you can mobilize students during the summer.

[Miulang]

Well, it appears that not all the UH students care only about themselves. Ikaika Hussey (http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/May/19/ln/ln02p.html) went back to a locked Bachman Hall yesterday to call on Pres. McClain on his betrayal. The group will probably figure out some way to get their point across that will be even more dramatic than an occupation of the President's office.

Maybe there's some hope left for the youth of today...the ones who care about making a difference and who don't use an iPod to shut out the rest of the world. ;)

Miulang

[1stwahine]

Update:http://starbulletin.com/2006/02/17/news/story01.html

"McClain gives nod to Navy project
Other UH-Manoa officials, citing objections, urge the regents to reject the plan"

How fast times fly!


Auntie Lynn