All Week Housing Protest Starts Today
April 9th, 2007 | by David Daddio | Published in Housing | 7 Comments
Dozens of students, led by the SGA, plan to stage a five-day protest against Resident Life for their housing debacle as well as the Board of Regents for their continual refusal to fund new dormitory projects. The protest will kick off at 9pm and be complete with a tent city on Mckeldin Mall and all the local news media imaginable.
April 10th, 2007 at 12:01 am (#)
This protest was already on the news tonight, and there were live reports. Hopefully there will be some additional print coverage tomorrow morning, as well as some more local news spots (pray for a slow news week). I also think that it is more beneficial to the demonstrators to utilize the upcoming Maryland Day (4/28) if the situation is not resolved by then. Not only are they likely to get local news coverage, but by showing prospective students (and more importantly, their tuition check slinging parental units), they will take notice, and start asking questions. As far as any concerns about the University not allowing that to take place, as long as the affected and their supporters don’t disrupt any events, or do anything stupid, there shouldn’t be any sort of reprisal from the University, because honestly, if they try to shut them down, its only going to make them look worse than they already are, and I don’t think they would want the aforementioned prospective students (as well as current students families and rich alumni) seeing demonstrators and University officials and police squaring off in the middle of McKeldin Mall.
Nice pic for the header as well David, Bonus Army? 1932?
Hopefully the UMCP police don’t pull a Patton on the guys outside
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April 10th, 2007 at 8:32 am (#)
Nice photo. Looks like a Hooverville-esque rumble.
I agree on timing your protests around MD Day. The graying and wealthy baby-boomer alumni would hate to:
1. see current students getting shafted by University “authority”
2. see an increase in automobile traffic due to off-campus student commuters (it’s bad for the environment and it hinders their CSPAC/Byrd Stadium/Comcast Center visits!)
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April 10th, 2007 at 2:07 pm (#)
I passed the protest site yesterday evening. Good job!
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April 10th, 2007 at 7:49 pm (#)
I wonder how many of the students camping in “tentville” actually received notices that they would not have housing next year. Some people just like to protest. Glad to see most of the reporters covering this story are doing so with smiles on their faces, they realize they are only covering this because it’s a slow news week. There is no housing shortage, if one student can’t find housing next fall, I’d like to hear their story.
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April 10th, 2007 at 7:49 pm (#)
I wonder how many of the students camping in “tentville” actually received notices that they would not have housing next year. Some people just like to protest. Glad to see most of the reporters covering this story are doing so with smiles on their faces, they realize they are only covering this because it’s a slow news week. There is no housing shortage, if one student can’t find housing next fall, I’d like to hear their story.
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April 10th, 2007 at 9:38 pm (#)
There’s “no housing shortage” if you think that students, too, should not have to cram 5 to a small house or commute from Columbia and even that nearby neighbourhoods should not have to bear the brunt of what *appears* to be a long period of poor planning for housing, which they likely will anyway.
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April 10th, 2007 at 10:57 pm (#)
I meant, if you “…if you *don’t* think…” with all the double negatives that entails :)
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