December 1: ASUH Rally at State Capitol!

[Daphne Desser]

Forwarded with (implied) permission from ASUH president, Mark Ing. Contact your networks (facebook groups, etc) and rally together on behalf of UH with our students. The students also want help coordinating their efforts. Please see below and see attached ASUH resolution. You can contact Mark at: 808.956.4824 or as...@hawaii.edu.
 

Aloha Deans, Faculty Leaders, and Union Leaders,

Earlier this week, the attached resolution and sponsorship bill was passed by the ASUH senate to conduct a large protest (shooting for at least 500 students to attend) at the State Capitol to be taken place on December 1. The resolution will also be heard on Saturday's UHSC (Student Caucus) meeting to widen our representative voice to approximately 58,000 students.

 

The resolution's primary focus is on reducing the governor's post-session fiscal restrictions to our university system to the "monetary equivalent" of the average recently negotiated furlough days of other HGEA and HSTA.  Such a negotiation will be purely motivated by fairness and could save our university around $47 million.  The protest will be focused on restoring State-alloted funds to our System and we won't be wearing our Manoa hats; at least not yet.

I recognize the passion that you all have for this university and the commitment you shown for the students of UH.  I ask, whether or not you agree with the terms of the resolution or ASUH's approach to this matter as a whole, for your support of a student protest at the Capitol. Given the severity of our budget situation and the irrational and unjustified magnitude of the budget cuts placed imposed on our university system, ASUH feels that such a measure is not only appropriate, but nessesary. 

 

The date is right around the corner and the more help being offered, the more effective the demonstration will be.  As I have confidence that ASUH can handle most of the logistics, we appreciate any help that can be offered.  We have been speaking with numerous bus companies and have set aside a line item to fund 12 buses.  It is important to note that the times seen on the attached flier are tentative as we are finalizing the bus schedule.  Other resources that we haven't secured, but may be valuable to have at the event include a lecturn, microphones/ sound system, t-shirts to give away, etc.  Feel free to offer suggestions on arranging the shuttle bus schedule or ways to obtain any of the additional items mentioned above.

 

Of course, the most important aspect of organizing a rally, and often the biggest challenge, is mobilizing students and getting them to attend the rally while working with or around their class schedules.  ASUH will be doing our best to publicize the event during the course of the next two weeks.  However, any help will be greatly appreciated:

 

Department Chairs, I humbly ask that you send out a message to the professors and lecturers in your department encouraging them to inform their students about the budget situation, rally, and why it is important to get involved.

 

Other Faculty leaders, if you are a part of, or know of any faculty-led groups around campus that could be a valuable resource for the success of this demonstration, please do not hesitate to get involved or to help get me in touch with any valuable contacts. 

 

Deans and union leaders, please get the word out to your contituency and forward to them ASUH's contact information if they would like to get involved with this initiative. Such a seemingly small gesture would mean a lot for the students of UH, as there are surely numerous passionate individuals among your contituencies that could be very valuable to this purpose.

 

If any of you would like to set up a time to meet to discuss any ideas on ways to improve this initiative, or think you will be able to contribute in really any way, please don't hesitate to email as...@hawaii.edu or call the office at 956-4822 to schedule a time to meet.  We are all in this together, and it is about time students step up as well to let the State and the community know that we won't be disregarded.

Mālama,
_____________________________________________________________

MARK K. ING

President
Associated Students of the University of Hawai‘i
97th Senate

Office: 808.956.4824