Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/50712
TAKING A STAND STUDENT CTA MEMBERS CFA ONE-DAY STRIKE BARGAINING UPDATES 26 28 29 CTA SUPPORTS THE OCCUPY WALL STREET MOVEMENT. WWW.CTA.ORG/OCCUPYWALLSTREET PROTESTING CUTS TO HIGHER ED STUDENT CTA MEMBERS SPEAK OUT ABOUT STANDING UP FOR WHAT'S RIGHT ON NOV. 18, UC Davis students gathered, as they had all week long, to link protests against tuition hikes with the broader protests against cor- porate greed of the Occupy Wall Street movement. The UC Davis student protests were really no different from protests taking place on campuses across the state. But this time, upon ignoring an order by campus police to disperse, the student protesters were doused with pepper spray as they peacefully sat, linking arms. The video and image became a viral sensation and led to national debate on the use of force and the right to demonstrate. In the wake, we caught up with a few Student CTA (SCTA) activists to get their thoughts on the importance of standing up for what they believe in. This is what they had to say: People need to start being active and voice their YEN NGUYEN wasn't on the UC Davis cam- pus when student protesters filmed a rogue officer pepper-spraying them in a video that went viral. But she saw it on Facebook min- utes after it happened, and she turned out at the General Assembly the following Monday when thousands of students, faculty, alumni and community members showed their sup- port for the students. "It was so amazing and beautiful to see all those people together," Nguyen says. Although the pepper spray wielding officer was trying to break up the students, his action only further galvanized them to return to their campus encampment, hold "teach-ins," and continue their protests against campus violence and spiraling tuition hikes. Nguyen, an SCTA Board member, says she wasn't motivated to become politically active until recently. "Before, I thought, 'I'm going to be leaving by then' [when tuition hikes were discussed]. But now that I'm involved in SCTA, I think about how this affects future generations. People need to start being active and voice their opinions." 26 California Educator / December 2011 • January 2012 WESLEY PORTER is thinking that once he completes his bachelor's degree at UC Riverside, he'd like to go to graduate school to become a professor of history — if he can manage to overcome a proposed fee hike by UC Regents that may go up 81 percent. "It's completely out of control," Porter says. "Perhaps our public universities are seeing how for-profit colleges are doing so well and think they can get away with it, too." Porter has managed to keep afloat so far by hav- ing attended Riverside Community College, living with his parents, and obtaining low-interest loans. "I'm doing all right for now, but I know people who already have $30,000 in student loans they'll owe," he says. A former sheet metal worker who comes from a family of unionized sheet metal workers, Por-