The following was sent via a social network. I have since been found some articles covering the storyHello,
I am writing to inquire whether your newspaper has any plans to cover the
historic strike that has been taking place for several weeks at the
University of Puerto Rico.
Students have been occupying the university for weeks, and have shut down
the entire university system for 22 days now in order to protest recently
proposed budget cuts (which would increase tuition costs and eliminate much
merit based aid and athletic fellowships etc), in addition to the general
corruption and mismanagement of the institution.
The strike speaks directly to the issues being faced by universities across
the United States in the face of reduced government funding and the move
towards greater privatization of public education.
Today is proving to be particularly important, as students voted yesterday
to continue the strike indefinitely and the university administration is
threatening to cut off water and electricity in the campus as a way of
smoking them out. They have also increased police presence and there have
been incidents of police brutality against parents trying to bring food and
water to their children on strike.
These events are crucially important not only to the residents of Puerto
Rico, but to the wider landscape of higher education in the US as they
bring into stark relief the obstacles that university faculty and students
face in protesting recent changes at their institutions (most notably in
California), as well as the increasing turn in academia towards
antidemocratic governance and the denial of public education to its
citizens.
I feel like if these events were happening within the continental US they
would have received substantial news coverage and I do not understand why
there has been no mention of this in the New York Times, which is such an
important source of news for the broad US public, including its many Puerto
Rican readers.
I urge you to please cover this important current event, and extend myself
to you as a resource (I am a political anthropologist and a Caribbean
specialist). I would be happy to collaborate in any way and to help you
connect to appropriate informants in Puerto Rico.
Thank you, I look forward to your timely response.
Sincerely,
Articles on the story
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=student+protest+puerto+rico&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=
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