Just an idea

The union members of Faculty House, who have been in contentious contract negotiations for months, voted yesterday to authorize a strike. The full statement can be read below:

To the students, Faculty and the Administration of Columbia University;  We the Local 100 Union members of the Faculty House have made a difficult & heartfelt decision to vote yes to a strike authorization; because Sheila Garvey continues to negotiate our contract in bad faith-a direct violation of the National Labor Relation Board and unfair Labor Practice.  Sheila Garvey continues to discriminate against Columbia students participating in our contract negotiations.  Sheila Garvey continues to deny requested access to Faculty House financial statements. Sheila Garvey has stolen our tips/gratuity/service charge.   Sheila Garvey refuses to pay comparable living wage salary increases.  Sheila Garvey continues to deny workers job classifications, adequate health insurance.  Sheila Garvey insists that a $65.00 weekly stipend is adequate to feed our families.

For all these reasons and more we are desperately asking Faculty members to collaborate with students in solidarity to get the respect, appreciation, justice and monetary satisfaction we deserve.

Protesting via Shutterstock

In their long campaign for Faculty House Workers’ rights, Student Worker Solidarity staged a protest today.

Undeterred by the snow, they stood their ground mid-Nemo and, with their bravery and shouting, gained the attention of Columbia’s campus.

Say what you want about them or their cause, but that takes some serious cojones.

Protest in the Snow from Bwog on Vimeo.

The band and the crowd.

Orgo Night began as a usual night in Butler: as a mass of people intently studying in 209. Nearly all desks were full as the stress of exams bubbled in everyone’s heads. As the crowds started to walk in, three different looks popped on people’s faces. Some looked up from their books, faces lit with the knowledge and anticipation of the exciting school tradition that was to come. Others looked up confused at the crowd, unaware of what was about to happen. An older-looking man asked, “How long does Orgo Night usually last? Can I study in here?” The reply was, “you’re in the wrong place.” And the third look was a look of confusion and fascination about the large number of people who were gathering around holding signs.

Bwog was getting tips about an upcoming protest against the flyer that had sparked so much controversy earlier in the day. When Bwog asked one of protestors their opinion, they replied that they were unhappy with the advertising for this event and would silently protest with posters during the band’s event.

As the crowd began to gather, another student joked, “This is a microcosm of the Columbia community. 5% of the people are here protesting, 5% are just laughing at them, and the other 90% are super stressed out and studying.” Soon, all the people studying left and the tabletops were occupied by the audience and protesters.

Enter the band.

With all the controversy the CUMB has been stirring up in the past few hours, you’d be a fool to miss Orgo Night. You’d also be a fool to give up your hard-won Butler seat, though, and to stuff your way into a crowd of desperate, tired people. Below, the best of both worlds: a live stream of all the political incorrect insanity of CUMB, five inches away from your face. Enjoy (or be offended by) the show. Bwog will be updating this post throughout the night, as well as tweeting from on the scene.

The band’s live stream isn’t working yet, but you can keep checking here.

Check out the rest of our coverage after the break

Student-Worker Solidarity and other groups demonstrate against economic injustice

The SWS is a group of students striving to promote support and solidarity between students and workers both on the Columbia campus and outside of its gates. On Saturday, more than 70 Columbia community members rallied against worker inequality at Domino’s and at Indus Valley.  Here’s Student-Worker-Solidarity’s press release on the event:

Over seventy members of the Columbia community rallied last night at the Columbia gates to protest against sweatshop conditions and union-busting at Domino’s, Indus Valley, and Faculty House. After a short speak-out on campus, the group marched to Domino’s at 108th St. and then to Indus Valley at 100th St. & Broadway.

With chants, signs, and flyers, members of Student-Worker Solidarity (SWS), Justice Will Be Served (JWBS), the Columbia Democrats, and the International Socialist Organization demonstrated against a number of economic injustices in Morningside Heights. They called for Dave Melton, owner of four Domino’s franchises, and Phuman and Billa Singh, the owners of Indus Valley, to pay their workers millions of dollars in stolen wages. They also called for Sheila Garvey, Columbia Vice President of Labor Relations, to negotiate in good faith with Unite Here Local 100, the union representing workers at Faculty House.

“Student-Worker Solidarity is renewing the long tradition of students and workers at CU fighting together for justice,” said SWS member Yoni Golijov, “And in the context of the upsurge in workers’ struggles across the country like at Walmart and in the fast food industry, we’re only going to see more and more student-labor solidarity groups popping up at universities everywhere.”

Columbia, Barnard, and Teacher’s College support staff are protesting today, right now, just north of the gates. UAW 2110′s contracts come up for review this year, and the University is asking for cuts, which the unions do not wish to grant.

A mix of union workers and OccupyCU are walking around, drumming, and shouting things like, “What do we want? Contract! When do we want it? Now!” Signs say things like, “Hands off my pension!” and “CU is the 1%” and “Health care is a right!”

You can see their respective current contracts on the union site, which is pretty cool.

Photo by Matt Horwitz

Students gathering before the march to Union Square

This week is OccupyCU’s Student Week of Action. Read on for Bwog resident #Occupier Jed Bush’s report on Day Three’s speak out and Day Four’s rally and march to Union Square, the latest in our ongoing coverage of this week’s events.

Thursday:

Today, OccupyCU participated in a student strike in solidarity with the OWS Day of Action, whose aims were to “resist austerity, reclaim the economy, and recreate our democracy.” The day began with a “strike party” to celebrate the two-month anniversary of the movement before heading down at 2 pm to join fellow protesters at Foley Square “to show Solidarity with laborers demanding jobs to rebuild this country’s infrastructure and economy.”

Due to rain, the participants migrated from the lawn in front of Butler to Low Steps, before finally huddling underneath the awning of Low. A mini-controversy arose as the demonstrators debated over the issue of becoming a “coalition”, which would give the group the right to reserve the space—though all in attendance quickly came to the consensus that to reserve space would go against the sentiment of “Occupying” a space. The organizers did seem pleased with the administration which, while not particularly happy with the protest plopping themselves directly in front of Low, did not act against them as they waited to leave.

Upon departing, several students in the march from Columbia commented on the highly organized nature of the proceedings. Despite the large number of participants, the OccupyCU coordinators had few problems in keeping their fellow protesters together. The protest’s participants represented a large diversity of the Columbia community. While perhaps the most vocal participants were seniors, many underclassmen told Bwog this was their first time actively participating in an Occupy Wall Street protest, which speaks to the efficacy of OccupyCU’s Student Week of Action. “Going to school at Columbia,” one sophomore explained, “you can forget what’s going on in the real world. We’ve now realized that despite our own privilege as Columbia students, it’s important to show solidarity with the movement. Because education should be a right, not a privilege.” (more…)

This week marks OccupyCU’s Student Week of Action. Read on for Bwog’s resident #OWS correspondent Jed Bush’s coverage of Day One: “End the Sotheby’s Lockout” rally.  

Columbia’s Student Week of Action, orchestrated by OccupyCU, got off to a rather low-key start today, but that didn’t stop the 25 or so protesters planted in front of the Law School at noon from making some noise. They targeted former President of Columbia University, current Chancellor Kent Professor of Law at the Law School,  and current Chairman of the Board at Sotheby’s, Michael Sovern, criticizing his poor track record on union rights.

Protesters in front of the Law School

The issue, according to their flier:

“Sotheby’s has kept its Teamsters 814 art handlers locked out… for the past 13 weeks [because they] would not accept Sotheby’s demand that they take a 10% cut in pay and hours, give up their 401(k) plan, and allow their work to be increasingly contracted out to low-paid workers who have no union to protect their rights. The art handlers at Sotheby’s have historically been majority people of color… This attack is not only classist, it’s racist.”

Sharp criticism, especially when you take into account that Sovern is, according to his Columbia bio, a current board member of the NAACP Defense Fund and a founding member of both the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund and the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund.

Still, as an issue that was seemingly disconnected from the day-to-day runnings of the university, most students that passed by, undergrads and Law students alike, were ambivalent to the cries of “union busting.” Yet where the protest may have failed to resonate with students, it succeeded admirably with University union workers, as a small contingent stood in solidarity with Teamsters 814 in front of the Law School. Maida Rosenstein, President of UAW Local 2110, the union responsible for representing Columbia’s clerical workers, was present and protested with the students on 116^th. (more…)

A group of students assembled on Low steps are currently protesting outside of Michael Bloomberg’s talk “Buisness Innovation and Entrepeneurship: City Strategies Summit with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.”  The students protesting are loosely affiliated with the General Assembly, which will be meeting at 12:30 pm tomorrow at the Sundial. Video and pictures of the protest, and a scan of the students’ flyer below:

Protesters on the steps

Yesterday evening President of Republika Srspska Milorad Dodik gave a lecture titled “An American Foreign Policy Success Story:  The Dayton Accords, Republika Srpska and Bosnia’s European Integration.” Dodik has attracted controversy over statements about the Yugoslav wars. Specifically, Dodik holds that the Tulza Massacre was staged, questions the reports of the Markale massacres, and, though he does not deny that the killings took place, does not consider the Srebrenica Massacre an act of genocide.

Beginning at noon a group of students and other protesters gathered on the Low steps, chanting and bearing banners. Some stayed until the speech was over to chant as Dodik left the library seven hours later. Opposition to his speaking engagement had been circulating earlier this week in academic and Bosniak expat fora, yet on campus publicity for the event seems to have been minimal. Though the event was open to the public, many non-students who registered online were turned away at the door.

President Dodik’s speech focused on the issue of autonomy for Republika Srpska. Srpska (not to be confused with the country of Serbia) is not an independent country, but one of two autonomous entities (along with the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina) that make up the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as Bosnia. The main difference between the two entities is ethnic: Srpska is mostly made up of Serbs, while the Federation is full of Bosniaks and Croats.

Read the full recap of Dodik’s speech after the jump.

A pixelated version of the poster in question

For the second year in a row, Columbia all-male a cappella group the Kingsmen has sparked controversy around campus with a provocative flyer campaign. Last year’s debacle featured a photo of a Kingsman himself with the text, “Rape me” and was followed up with an apology from the singing group—they had learned their lesson, it appeared.

Flyers that have recently appeared around campus call the sincerity of that apology into question. Another round of offensive advertising, very much following last year’s theme of rape, suggests that rather than take the negative press and condemnations to heart, the Kingsmen are more interested in leveraging them to attract attention.

Tonight, students plan to protest the Kingsmen’s latest oeuvre, a flyer promoting a Fall concert (which has since been cancelled, according to the protesters’ Facebook event) displaying a photo of a priest and the text, “Eleven singing boys, you say?”  The protest is scheduled for 8 pm tonight on the steps of Low, where the concert was originally scheduled to take place.

According to the most recent discussion on the protest page, the event has purportedly been moved to Sigma Chi. The protest appears to have been abandoned in favor of a discussion that will be held at 4:30 in the IRC center, but these plans could be subject to change.

The Kingsmen did not respond to a request for comments.

We’re sick and tired of the man keeping aspiring writers/journalists/funny people down. Wearethe99percent who look at stupid posters and think, “Gee, I bet that a lot of other people would find my shoddy cellphone pic funny.” Well we aren’t going to take it any more.

Join us as we take over Lerner SGO starting at 7pm. There will be free food to sustain our occupation until our demands are realized or it becomes 8pm.

Totally real sign via Sign Generator

Yesterday afternoon, nearly two hundred Columbia students walked and pedalled downtown to join the Occupy Wall Street protests. Some professors ended class early, and even joined the ranks of protestors. Thank you to skillful photographers Caitlin Watson, Wilfred Chan (both CC ’13) and Peter Sterne (CC’14) for providing these photographs. 

Full images and account below

With the Occupy Wall Street movement gaining momentum and national attention, Columbia students and faculty alike have been getting involved.  CU Activists is planning on taking it a step further with a campus-wide walkout of classes at 3:30 pm today. In addition to the current talking points (economic inequality, lack of proper Wall Street regulation, etc.), today’s march aims to draw attention to rising tuition rates and student debt.

The walk-out will is being organized in unison with similar walkouts at SUNY and CUNY campuses. Columbia organizers will be taking questions in front of Butler from 11am to 4pm today. Here are the details from their Facebook event page:

“We will meet outside campus gates and take the subway down to City Hall, where we’ll join the Community/Labor March in Solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, endorsed by dozens of NYC unions and community groups including the United Federation of Teachers, SEIU 32BJ and SEIU 1199, the Transit Workers Union Local 100, Make the Road New York, New Yorkers Against Budget Cuts, the Alliance for Quality Education, and more!”

Spotted flyer tipped by Caitlin Watson

The Occupy Wall Street protests continue on without an end in sight, and things heated up today around the Brooklyn Bridge. The protesters marched down the vehicle portion of the bridge, completely stopping traffic in the lanes. The NYPD responded quickly, blockading both sides and making nearly 400700 arrests, out of a total 1500 marchers. Paddy wagons as well as MTA buses were used to ferry away the arrestees, and those arrested include a New York Times contributing reporter and, according to one tipster, another Columbia student. At one point, almost 19,000 people were viewing the action via this streaming video.

If you still don’t really know what this is, Slate has put together a handy video recapping the events thus far:

Update, 3:00 pm: We just spoke to a Columbia student who was at the protest on the Brooklyn Bridge and nearly arrested yesterday. Her friend, also a Columbia student, was arrested yesterday and released early this morning. We’ve edited her account for clarity and to maintain her anonymity, and it appears below.
Click here for her account of what happened on the Brooklyn Bridge