Welcome to the Ohio State University Week of Action homepage!
Update: The Letter March
Students and allies delivered the following letter to the office of President Gee on April 21.
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To President Gee, the Board of Trustees, and Other Administrators of the University,
Gathered today are students concerned about the prospect of the University’s future
affordability, safety, and dignity. While we all may be living in trying times as a society, it is no reason to make such drastic and harmful changes to the University and its community. But it is also no reason to neglect other needed changes.
We know that the privatization of the University through the proposed Charter Initiative, the
Governor’s proposal to cut funding to education, and the Board of Trustees’ proposal to simultaneously raise the tuition hike cap from 3.5% to 8%, will make OSU even more unaffordable. It will also make OSU an even more undemocratic place to learn, work, or research.
We are concerned for the faculty and the workers, who will be hurt by Senate Bill 5 and the recent proposed cuts to education by Governor Kasich.
We are unhappy with the fact that the sexual violence policy on campus is weak and does very little to protect students, workers, and staff on the University campus.
Finally, we are concerned for the treatment of workers on campus and would like the Administration to respect their right to organize and exercise their rights. We work for all students to participate meaningfully in University governance. Because of this, here is a list of demands that we believe the University’s administration needs to act upon:
1. Publicly denounce the transformation of the University into a charter University and
aggressively campaign to prevent it from happening.
2. Provide support for those about to gather signatures to repeal Senate Bill 5, particularly in the campus area.
3. Publicly oppose the budget cuts proposed by Governor Kasich, while supporting, instead, a roll back of taxes on the top earners in the state that were cut earlier this decade.
4. Publicly push for getting rid of tax loopholes that favor the wealthiest of this society.
5. Publicly support the right of Sodexo workers to unionize by threatening to cut the contract with Sodexo, in light of recent abuses to their workers.
6. Publicly support the rights of unionization and collective bargaining for all work performed forthe university by student workers, staff, graduate students, non-tenure track faculty, tenure-track faculty, and contractors. Maintain the trades-union approved practice of prevailing wage on contracted labor.
7. Create a new, more comprehensive sexual violence policy in order to create a learning, living, and working environment that is safe for people of all gender identities.
8. Push for ways the University’s community at large can direct the governance of the University through the use of an online vote to supplement the decision making of both University Student Government and the University Administration.
9. Disinvest from companies that engage in environmentally harmful practices and publicly
oppose any legislative measure to drill in state parks or implement natural gas hydrofracturing, a practice known to cause irreparable damage to natural and human ecologies, to public health and to the drinking water supply.
In doing so, we believe this will minimize the harm done, despite living in trying times, re-affirm the University’s commitment to a community of respect and dignity for those that work to make it a better place, and fix things that have been too long neglected to be fixed by the University administration.
Students of the Ohio State University
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You can check out events and updates here and on Facebook Week of Action including the walkouts and rallies scheduled for Thursday and Friday, April 21-22.
A quick summary about us: We’re OSU students and concerned community members who are tired of irresponsible actions by our university administration and government. Governor Kasich is calling for massive cuts to higher education funding and dozens of other areas, and plans are underway to turn OSU into a charter university – something that would compromise the quality of jobs offered by the university, as well as likely raise tuition by a large percentage. Privatization of our university is NOT the answer to our state’s budget problems, especially since weakening higher education will cause more students to leave the state, further weakening our economy.
So we’re taking action to make our voices heard, and make President Gee and the rest of the administration protect the integrity and quality of The Ohio State University and other public schools statewide. Will you join us?
