Why We Strike...

We are on hunger strike because we want change and because we believe
that change is worth sacrifice. We strike against a university that
seems not to care for the well-being of its students or of its
community. We strike because we feel the urgency of a student voice
that is continually being marginalized. We strike because we don't
want students in the future to have to resort to drastic measures to
affect change in this institution.

We strike because student input on these issues in meetings, through
protests, and through other avenues of vocalization has been ignored
or patronized, and the response to our demands for change has been
woefully insufficient. We strike because we abhor, viscerally, the
failure of current administrators to address student concerns on these
issues and because this failure constitutes violence against our
intellect. We strike because these are not matters that will, nor can,
wait.

We have no more words for this university administration. Hunger
striking is an ideal course of action because it does not inflict harm
on others; moreover, it offers strikers the opportunity for
introspection and self-examination. We strike for the opportunity to
reflect. We are peaceful.

We strike because we have inherited a world in which racist,
gendered, and sexualized hierarchies dominate the way power flows. We
strike because the administration consistently resists implementing
structural changes that will allow us to challenge these hierarchies.
We strike because the university does not recognize that the lack of
space for the critical study of race through Ethnic Studies, the lack
of administrative support for minority students and their concerns,
the lack of engagement with the community in West Harlem, and the lack
of true reform of the Core Curriculum are harmful to the intellectual
life of its students. We strike because we want the administration to
understand that these needs are as fundamental to students'
intellectual lives as food is to the human body.

We strike to reimagine the university as a more democratic place,
where individuals are not isolated until communities are attacked,
where we are at school in the City of New York, not making New York
City more like this school, where students have a deciding say in this
university, and where we are not called to a civilizing mission, but
rather, to a process of liberation.

We are not striking to be martyrs for anyone or for any cause. We
know that some may misunderstand our actions, but we strike with the
faith that students questioning, challenging, and taking their own
actions to shift the dangerous path that this university is pursuing
should serve more to unite us than to divide us.

There has been tremendous unrest on campus this semester, these past
few years, this past decade. And people here feel psychically hurt by
Columbia's indifference to our heartache, to our struggle, to our
rumbling need for a better university. With luck, Columbia will see
the starvation of our bodies as a bellwether of our growing
desperation on this campus. It's a shame that Columbia was not more
alarmed when we said our minds, hearts, and spirits were starving,
too.

For more info and details see link below.
http://cu-strike.blogspot.com.
--

Dr. Carlos Muñoz, Jr.
Professor Emeritus
Department of Ethnic Studies
510-642-9134
http://ethnicstudies.berkeley.edu/faculty/munoz/
"Life is struggle and struggle is life,
but be mindful that Victory is in the Struggle"
- Carlos Muñoz, Jr.