Feature Archives

On Wednesday March 21st, the California Faculty Association announced that members had authorized a strike. Faculty at San Francisco State University, San Jose State University, and five other California State University (CSU) campuses could walk out of classrooms as soon as the beginning of April. In the past four years, the faculty has only received a 3.5 percent pay raise, while CSU execs have gotten in 23 percent pay hikes.

On the fourth anniversary of the War in Iraq, statistics recently released by the Pajaro Valley Unified School District (PVUSD) are showing that an increasing number of parents in the Pajaro Valley are choosing to “opt out” of having their high school child’s information released to military recruiters.

Francisco Rodriguez, Candidate for President, Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers, and Jennifer Laskin, Candidate for Executive Vice President of Alternative Ed, rallied on March 13th, 2007, to inform teachers of the campaign to elect Rodriguez for PVFT President in the first contested election in the union since 1993. With handmade signs and chants eliciting honks from passers by, the group called attention to this year's Teachers Union Election. "I believe it is time to have real communication, accountability and collaboration, not only within our Local, but with the other CFT Locals in the Monterey Bay" said Rodriguez.

On Thursday, March 1st, approximately 150 people gathered in front of the University of California, Berkeley administration building, California Hall, to protest the proposed agreement between the university and British Petroleum.
The event was publicized as a clean-up of a toxic oil spill at California Hall. Two students wearing British Petroleum lab coats were detained after dumping a mixture of molasses and water, resembling crude oil, at the entrance of California Hall. Reposted Articles, Photos and Videos of the demonstration.

March 1st update: The School Administrator voted last night to close East Oakland Community High School and several other schools.
East Oakland Community High School (EOC) is under threat of closure by an un-elected State Administrator. EOC is an inovative community school that is "about teaching students to be positive, caring, successful members of our community." Education Not Incarceration has been working with the National Education Association's 3.2 million members to stop students from being pushed out of school and into prisons. Protesters gathered at 2pm on Wednesday, February 28th and reportedly marched 8 miles to the School Board meeting, where State Administrators presented their recommendations to School Board members.

On February 15, 2007, students at UC Santa Barbara, Columbia University, and Columbia College went on strike against the war. Solidarity actions took place at more than a dozen other schools - including 5 in the Bay Area: San Francisco State, Lowell High School, Mills College, UC Berkeley, and UC Santa Cruz. The Feb15 protests were initiated by activists at UC Santa Barbara who have been organizing a student strike for weeks.

Two years ago this spring, Free Skool Santa Cruz started as an idea between friends. It was a resuscitation of an old idea: interactive and informal learning in a non-institutional, non-hierarchical setting outside of the monetary economy. And in two years, Free Skool has offered over 260 different classes on everything from DIY-philosophy such as bike repair and knitting to more academic subjects such as local and radical history.