New Zealand students offer new bounty for arrest of Condoleezza Rice for war crimes

IHT:A group of New Zealand students offered a higher reward Saturday for the citizen's arrest of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for war crimes after another group withdrew their own bounty, accusing police of threatening them.

Canadian student faces deportation from Israel following protest

CBC:A Canadian student who took part in a protest against the security wall Israel's building in the West Bank has been arrested and faces deportation from the Jewish state.

Victor McDiarmid, a volunteer for the International Solidarity Movement, had been living in the West Bank for nearly a month when he was arrested Wednesday at a demonstration by women from the village of Nilin, where Israel plans to build the next section of its security barrier.

McDiarmid, 23, was arrested after taking photographs of Israeli soldiers who were breaking up the protest by villagers, who say the barrier will separate them from their farmland.

Successful protest gives Kashmiris in India a sense of freedom

LA Times:The students at the University of Kashmir have freedom on their minds.

Not from the tyranny of exams and professors, or of too-strict parents. What many young people here are dreaming of is freedom for their divided land, instead of being caught in the middle of a decades-old tug of war between India and Pakistan.
[...]

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Okay, check out this awesomeness:

More than 160 students in six different classes at Intermediate School 318 in the South Bronx - virtually the entire eighth grade - refused to take last Wednesday's three-hour practice exam for next month's statewide social studies test.

That's phenomenal! I wish I had that kind of activist spirit when I was in 8th grade! Read on for all the details:

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There's a great op-ed from the Chronicle of Higher Education I just got forwarded. It lays out the case that many athletic departments (especially those in Division I), when their financial books are opened to the sunlight, are draining immense amounts of money from their parent institutions. Money that could be used to fund scholarships, loan repayment programs, and upgrade academic facilities.

No matter if one loves college sports or not, I think the lesson to be learned here is that when budgets are hidden and undemocratic, abuse runs rampant. Whether or not to heavily subsidize college sports programs should be a collective institutional decision, and not the prerogative of those on top. Students - and especially those on sports teams - should be organizing and demanding participatory budgeting.

I've included the article here:

[asset|aid=801|format=image|formatter=asset|title=Concord students protest tuition hike.|width=275|height=205|align=right|resizable=true]Students at Concord University last month protested a proposed 6% hike in tuition. The University's Board of Governors was meeting on campus, and students made their opposition known. The Charleston Gazette:

Concord University students played Darth Vader's theme song as members of the university's board of governors walked through a crowd of 300 student-protesters last Tuesday.

Daily Kos had a post yesterday describing an unsettling move by folks on the far-right to reassert themselves on a campus only now starting to recover from its history as a right-wing institution. The jist:

[asset|aid=782|format=image|formatter=asset|title=For Student Power, not Student Debt!|width=250|height=170|align=right|resizable=true]The New York Times had a pair of articles last Sunday chronicling what seems to be an emerging "race to the bottom" among universities, to see who can most cut tuition, either across the board or for families under a certain income level. They also profile several schools that effectively have zero tuition.

The New York Times - "Keeping the Lid On"

The New York Times - "The (Yes) Low Cost of Education"

I've also included the full text of these articles on For Student Power (in case NYT changes the link or makes your register). Both of these articles are very important for campus radicals to read and chew on; it's a fantastic glimpse into the kind of "peer pressure" that goes on among colleges and universities. Up until recently, the trend was "if you raise your tuition, I'll raise mine," with the added revenue going either to prestige-building exercises (new buildings, facilities, etc.) or financial aid. And of course, there's this:

Donald Heller, director of the Center for the Study of Higher Education at Pennsylvania State, offers one reason: “There’s something we refer to in college pricing as the Chivas Regal effect. If an institution drops its price, it’s seen as a decrease in quality.”

It's sad, but it's something that's true, to a certain extent. And the NYT articles certainly show that in some cases, reducing tuition can have the opposite impact, and actually attract higher-income students, showing that as we look at our own universities, it isn't just the "sticker price" we should be worried about.

Having a good grasp of what your university's peers are doing in terms of tuition can be an effective weapon when fighting for lower tuition and more financial aid, with the goal being tuition abolition. It can also be a key part of any narrative you submit to the press. "All we're demanding X University do is what Y College and Z University have done. They all have similar endowments, so why is X being so greedy?"

Human rights? An end to war? An end to environmental destruction? Members of Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Florida are hunger striking for all three...

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Read more under the fold...

Inside:

- Québéc Students Defy Ban on Protests
- Fiji Students Fight Repressive University Regulations
- A Tale of Two Sit-ins: University of Toronto Students Harassed While York Students Left Alone

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[asset|aid=735|format=image|formatter=asset|title=student-stressed-small.jpg|width=150|height=222|align=right|resizable=true]Why should students get stressed? They're up in that elite ivory tower, removed from the troubles of the world! AP:

College kids are so frazzled they can't sleep or eat. Or study. Good grief, they're even anxious about spring break.

Most students in U.S. colleges are just plain stressed out, from everyday worries about grades and relationships to darker thoughts of suicide, according to a poll of undergraduates from coast to coast. The survey was conducted for The Associated Press and mtvU, a television network available at many colleges and universities.

Four in 10 students say they endure stress often. Nearly one if five say they feel it all or most of the time.

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Inside:

     - Iranian Students Protest President Ahmadinejad

     - South African Students Protest Tuition Hike, Are Met With Rubber Bullets

     - Israeli Blockade Stops Students from Leaving Gaza for School

     - Another Student Union Signs Onto the ASSÉ Strike Plan