You may have seen the fliers around campus, with a fist on a background of blue and red. You may have also seen or heard the rally on the Quad this past Thursday, with chants such as “AU, step off it, put students over profit!” and “When workers and students are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!”
You may be wondering what this is all about. The New AU Campaign is being organized by the Community Action and Social Justice coalition, together with clubs such as the Latino and American Student Organization (LASO), the Student Worker Alliance and AU Students for Choice, among others.
We have had many conversations with students from different backgrounds about their grievances with the University and one concern came up nearly every time: the University is not responsive.
Specifically, students brought up concerns of worker rights on campus, University investments in unethical corporations, the lack of student representation in University decision-making and the confusing process that is accessing information regarding financial aid. Club leaders and other students shared their stories of frustration at our town hall last Tuesday, and a plan of action was drawn up to address these issues.
We want to voice our grievances with the University through the most direct and effective means possible, so that we know that they will hear us.
All of these points have been synthesized into a few proposals that the University could easily enact if they chose to.
The first proposal is for a board to be formed that would consist of students, faculty and staff that would review our own policies of social responsibility and make sure that all contracts the University enters into with outside corporations follow these policies.
The second proposal is for an opening of the University’s financial records, so that students would be able to actually see what their tuition money is being used for.
Finally, the third proposal is for there to be three student members of the Board of Trustees, representing the undergraduate, graduate and law student populations that would have full rights as voting members of the board. These students would be democratically elected by the student body.
All of these structures have either existed at this University in the past or exist currently at other universities. AU used to have a social responsibility board that included students and faculty who set labor, environmental and humanitarian standards and made sure University apparel was being produced in decent working conditions.
At public universities, students have the right to file requests through the Freedom of Information Act, which then releases any or all university documents into the public sphere.
Lastly, at many different institutions, including Cornell University, students elect a voting representative to the Board of Trustees.
We believe that as the principle shareholders of the University, our concerns should be considered in decision-making processes. The proposals that we have outlined would go a long way to making this University the community that we came here to be a part of.
The University professes that it seeks “inclusive participation in university governance.” So far at AU, we have not seen this, but that does not mean that it cannot happen.
AU students have a tradition of being politically active. It is time for us to act on this tradition and stand up for what we believe in: student democracy.
Ethan Miller, Chris Litchfield, Mitch Ellmauer, Michael Dranove and Rachel Mandelbaum are the organizing collective of the Community Action and Social Justice Coalition. They can be reached at casj@american.edu
