#student action

“We Are Striking to Disrupt the System”: An Hour with 16-Year-Old Climate Activist Greta Thunberg

Democracy Now has the complete transcript of the interview #GretaThunberg  #StudentClimateStrike  

In her first extended broadcast interview in the United States, we spend the hour with Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist who has inspired millions across the globe. Last year she launched a school strike for the climate, skipping school every Friday to stand in front of the Swedish parliament, demanding action to prevent catastrophic climate change.

Her protest spread, quickly going global. Hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren around the globe have participated in their own local school strikes for the climate. Since her strike began in 2018, Greta has become a leading figure in the climate justice movement.

“And now she is in New York to join a global climate strike on September 20 and address the U.N. Climate Action Summit on September 23.” 

A couple weeks ago I was hunting around in the archives for the Wisconsin Student Association’s (WSA, precursor to ASM) Student Power Report. The usual and simple search methods weren’t working so well, so I sat down with one of my coworkers at the desk to look into the murkier depths of the internal archival databases.

We discovered a single box labeled “P. Altbach” with a few promising folders. What piqued my interest, though, wasn’t the “WSA” folders, but a few others labeled, “Student Protest Policy”, “UW-Government-Military Links”, and “E.P.S. 900″, among others. It looked good on screen, so we grabbed the elevator key and began the journey down to the archives basement.

Finding a box like this is a lot like finding hidden treasure.  Following the coordinate map of shelf location, we pulled off an old box that had been accessioned in 1980. When we opened it, it seemed like the materials hadn’t been touched since. Excitedly, anxiously, I brought it upstairs and placed it at the table like a huge present. Since I’m Jewish, I can only imagine that this is exactly what Christmas morning feels like.

Curious about the ambiguity of the “E.P.S. 900″ folder, I set it down on the table and opened it up. Inside were documents on documents regarding a class entitled “Educational Policy Studies 900: Experiments in Teaching and Learning,” an entirely student-run class created by a student group called The Center for Radical Education.

The folder contains lists of projects, letters between administrators and the students behind the Center for Radical Education, correspondence between students, a letter from a Harvard professor interested in recreating the course, class descriptions, and reports on the course itself written by students.

The folder contains a report on the first time the class was offered, as well as a report on the second time in Spring 1969, the course having been moved from EPS 900 to 350 to allow undergraduates the chance to enroll.

According to these reports, the class exists because of the activism of students and collaboration with some of the more progressive members of the Educational Policy department’s faculty (including Associate Professor Philip Altbach, the compiler of the collection for whom the box is named). According to their own report, the idea for the class came about in the summer of 1968, within a small community of Education School graduate studentsr. In Fall 1968, sixty grad students took this class for credit.

The class was structured around student-generated projects with a huge range of topics. A list published after the initial Fall 1968 class named 20 projects, including “Theater, Education, and Politics”, “High School Social Studies Curriculum”, “History of the Blues”, “Film Project”, “Black Employment Problems in America”, “Rent Strike Project” (lead by now-Mayor of Madison Paul Soglin), and a reading group on “cybernetics and technology”. The cybernetics project is described in detail in the report as gathering once a week “in one of the students apartments about eight at night and lasting until eleven or so before breaking up (and until one before total disbanding).” Though the cybernetics discussion group was one of the more successful projects, it seems like the energy of the participants was far from unusual within the course.

The second time the course was offered in Spring 1969, concurrent with the Black Student Strike, according to a letter sent out by the Center for Radical Education, the course had to be capped at 500 students because if enrollment were to be kept open, they would “end up with 1000 or more students in the course” and they simply could “not handle that number of students under our present set up.” In short, the course was wildly popular, but clearly lacked the resources that its organizers and participants needed.

The project list expanded in the course’s second run in Spring 1969. There were projects listed as “Black Studies Curriculum”, “Madison Tenant Union”, “Women’s Liberation”, “Free High School”, “Contemporary Poetry”, “Contemporary Radical Student Movements”, “New Theater” & “Community Theater”, “The Nature of Self Discovery”, “The Consumer and the Community”, and more.

As of my finding this box in Fall 2018, I haven’t found much of any secondary sources expanding on this class (though doubtless there are more materials tucked away in the archives directly related to this course and its organizers). On some of the project lists, there are names of project organizers attached, many of whom are likely still alive and could be interviewed for oral histories. With 500 students attending, this was no small phenomenon. I wonder about its impacts for student organizers and how it functioned within a greater contemporary scene of activism and student radicalism.

Not only are the research prospects of this course exciting, but its implications for the University today are enormous. As a student in 2018, what does it mean to me to know that there were student-run courses at this school just fifty years ago? It was hard-fought for, and unfortunately died away. Why? Why couldn’t this happen again? Could it?

In a moment of intense political upheaval, for me, a course like this feels like lifeblood. Could the work of these former students be a precedent or map for creating newly radical courses? I don’t know how many students have the time and energy for an undertaking like this. But there’s something electric in knowing that it is possible, that is has been done. As I continue researching this particular nook in UW’s Vietnam War-era activism, I hope my understandings can act as a talisman rather than a relic.

- Rena Yehuda Newman, Student Historian in Residence

👏👏👏 NYC Public Schools   

📣  #ClimateStrike Friday, Sept. 20.

"Holy cow!" tweeted Bill McKibben, a co-founder 350.org. The environmental group is helping plan a week of action that will feature thousands of events around the world to coincide with a United Nations climate summit in New York City.

Another 350.org co-founder, Jamie Henn, also welcomed the NYC announcement on Twitter Thursday. He wrote, "holy smokes, this thing could get HUGE."

"This September, millions of us will walk out of our workplaces and homes to join young climate strikers on the streets and demand an end to the age of fossil fuels," read the organizing website. "Our house is on fire—let's act like it. We demand climate justice for everyone."

.@NYCschools will excuse absences of students participating in the #ClimateStrike on Friday 9/20. Students will need parental consent. Younger students can only leave school with a parent. https://t.co/hcBO1Cnb3m

— NYC Public Schools (@NYCSchools) September 12, 2019

We will share guidance with schools, and encourage class discussions about the impact of climate change, and the importance of civic engagement. #ClimateStrike

— NYC Public Schools (@NYCSchools) September 12, 2019

Alexandria Villaseñor, a 14-year-old NYC leader of Fridays for Future and the first American to hold a school strike for climate, noted in a statement that the New York City Department of Education's decision came "after many months of hard work and conversations between we activists and the city."

"They are finally treating the crisis like a crisis and this will make sure that September 20th is the largest mobilization that New York City has ever seen," said Villaseñor. "Now, I am calling on every city in the U.S. to follow New York City's lead, and support their students in striking for their futures. We need everyone in the streets next Friday!"

The University of Liège[1]’s Green Office tries to stimulate students to take action in favour of a more sustainable society, by offering them challenges throughout the year. University communities are gradually mobilizing around climate issues.

Cars are crisscross parked around the roundabout at the entrance to the Sart Tilman university site and in the adjacent streets. "There are not enough bike parking spaces", explains Cécile van de Weerdt. The habit of traveling on two wheels still seems little shared by the 25,000 students and 5,000 members of the staff of the University of Liège. "Mobility is one of the aspects that we have to address thoroughly ", continues the coordinator of the Green Office (GO) of ULiège[2]. From this office located in a wood siding building, Cécile van de Weerdt and some twenty students reflect on a daily basis on how to involve the university in a sustainable transition. "There is an interest of students in the climate cause and a desire to act to limit their own impact ... but questions about how to achieve it", recognizes Ms. van de Weerdt from the outset.

"The Green Office was created just before the first containment," she recalls. A year and a half later, its members are fine-tuning the main lines of action that they intend to put in place during this academic year. These will be broken down into five projects (chosen by the student community) and as many themes: waste management, short food supply circuit, access to water, digital technology and eco-packs facilitating sustainable consumption.

Daily challenges

To link these projects together, the Green Office has devised a series of challenges that it will offer students throughout the year. Proposals for concrete actions concerning eating habits, recycling objects, waste management, consumption of energy, water, plastics, etc. So many roadmaps that fit with the daily life and behaviour of students. Thus, "we absolutely wanted the challenges to meet economic and practical criteria; they have to be easily achievable and economically accessible", specifies Cécile van de Weerdt. "The objective is to succeed in making everyone reduce their individual carbon footprint by half thanks to new consumption habits", explains Charline, just graduated in History and a student part-timer at GO.

After having calculated his carbon footprint, the student has the opportunity to register for the challenges offered to him via a collaborative digital platform. There are thirty over the year and they have been reflected on by the students, supervised by a scientific expert. "The challenge is placed in a context, we explain the reason for it, the stakes and the quantified impact of a particular action, explains Anthony. “We also give the students tips and tricks and alternative solutions to support them in their realisation: if we challenge them to consume local food products or buy their clothes second-hand, we will give them store addresses, " he continues. "It is also a way of placing the process in a broader context and of creating links with local actors of sustainable development" , motivates Cécile van de Weerdt. After having carried out and "validated" them on the online platform, the student observes the quantity of carbon saved on his personal meter. "The collective counter allows for its part to see the impact that we can have as a group," adds Judith, a student in the Language and Literature Faculty. Together, the challenges aim to gradually reduce the annual individual emissions of students from around 12 to 6 tonnes of CO2, in line with the objectives of the Paris climate agreement.

By 2030, "the dream" is for each member of the ULiège community to get involved in reducing their individual carbon footprint by halving it. "It's a strong commitment program", comments Cécile van de Weerdt. The objective is effectively to take the greatest number of students in the wake of the "GO pioneers". If they are currently 1,300 to have registered on the platform, the GO hopes to reach 2,500 participants this year, or 10% of the population of ULiège. To do this, it relies in particular on the fun aspect of the challenges, with gifts (eco-responsible or in the form of amounts donated to local NGOs). “The rewards are an incentive - which the students can take or not. It helps to reach an audience that otherwise might not necessarily be sensitive to the cause,” says Charline.

Immediate actions for long lasting effects

While it is essential "to put actions into practice" and to be able to see their impact immediately, the objective is to anchor a lasting change in consumption habits. Arriving on a college campus seems like the perfect time to install new habits. "We are more autonomous and make more choices for and by ourselves", explains Judith. "Be careful, we are not in dogmatism", defends Cécile van de Weerdt. "We try to give explanations and weigh the impact of a particular action, we give guidelines so that everyone can think for themselves, make their own choices and act with discernment", explains Anthony. "This is also the critical spirit advocated by the university", supports the coordinator of the GO.

“Students embody change”

Going down the street, the youth carried - and embodied - the mobilization for climate justice and a transition to a sustainable world. It is therefore not surprising to find these movements within academia, in Belgium and abroad, in different forms. "The Harvard Green Office has existed for 10 years, with remarkable results!", Raises Cécile van de Weerdt, coordinator of the ULiège GO. "The students embody the change they want to see happen, they are a force for change and carry the project at arm's length by promoting collective values ​​and respect for the planet", insists Ms. van de Weerdt. Currently, there are about twenty - including 12 student part-timers - at the University of Liège, from different faculties and years of study, getting involved on a regular basis. "By taking action, we want to create a virtuous circle and bring as many people as possible with us, motivates Charline. It is no longer possible not to take climate issues into account."

Winner of the UNO campus competition[3], ULiège's G0 benefits from four months of support to create a toolbox that will make it possible to replicate the challenges program elsewhere and in so doing, reach more students. "The 500,000 Belgian students, to begin with," ambitions Ms. van de Weerdt. "There is a common will of the actors of higher education registered in the approach, to share their experience and their tools", she notes. And thus create a "community of students" united around these issues. "It's stimulating to see that we are not alone," insist the members of the GO. The latter, although addressed to the students, does not intend to act in a vacuum. Changing the nature of demand also means weighing on supply. "Through our actions, we aim for the political and economic world to take up these issues and amplify the movement," Charline hopes. ULiège students thus intend to "participate in cultural change".

What happens at other Belgian French speaking Universities?

ULB and UCLouvain in transition Since October 11, the Solbosch campus of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) has been welcoming two new services promoting the transition in favour of a sustainable society. The restaurant La Turbean, managed by the non-profit As Bean, offers every day "a unique dish at an affordable price promoting seasonal vegetables and vegetable proteins, while supporting local and ecological production". Espace Vélo, co-managed by the non-profit Ateliers Roue Libre and Ateliers de la Rue Voot, organizes participatory bicycle mechanics workshops, a way for cyclists to carry out repairs "at an affordable price". These initiatives intend to "reconcile sustainability and financial accessibility", underlines the ULB.

On the other hand, UCLouvain has placed transition at the heart of its Horizon 600 strategic plan and offers, among other things, an introductory Mooc [4] to the challenges of sustainable development and ecological transition while giving greater visibility to courses and to programs on this subject.

Source

Valentine Van Vyve, Des challenges pour relever le défi climatique à l'université, in : La Libre Belgique, 18-10-2021, https://www.lalibre.be/planete/inspire/2021/10/18/des-challenges-pour-relever-le-defi-climatique-a-luniversite-O5PS6G3TYJC25NNMZFUAPAS36E/