Twitter
Facebook
Reddit
Digg
Tell us what you think!Send a letter to the editor about this or any other article in The Maine Campus.
PORTLAND — About 75 people showed up to a teach-in on the University of Southern Maine’s Portland campus Thursday, just one of more than 100 events in dozens of states protesting tuition hikes at universities.
The March 4 Day of Action to Defend Education grew from the response of university students in California who face a 32 percent tuition hike. Students in California spent Wednesday protesting the tuition hike by picketing their campuses. Elsewhere, walkouts and teach-ins were organized — estimated at 122 events in 32 states according to studentactivism.net, the Web site of student activism and student government historian Angus Johnston.
The Portland teach-in started with a panel of two students — the chairwoman of the student senate, Molly Dolby, and Nigel Stevens, who protested USM’s elimination of its German studies major in December — and an alumnus who answered questions from the audience. The conversation centered around the proposed restructuring of the university, which would reduce the university’s eight colleges to five.
The USM teach-in was organized by professor George Caffentzis and sponsored by the academic freedom committee of the USM Faculty Senate. Caffentzis said the last time he knew of a nation-wide event was in the 1970s, when students protested Kent State and U.S. involvement in Cambodia.
