Sad but committed

I'm sitting at a cafe, grading papers and watching it rain hard outside. I just ran into a graduate student with whom I shared the flight to Montreal where we both attended the Latin American Studies Association conference.She has a background as an activist, and is a scholar and a teacher. She is also one of the students who is on hunger strike. I didn't realize this until halfway through our conversation in which I was railing about how angry the University administration was making me. Her expression was so sad, but she is very resolute. I know another of the hunger strikers, a faculty colleague whose fierce and vibrant spirit has always been the driver for her teaching and scholarship. I hadn't planned to come to campus today, but I will be attending the teach-in by one of my colleagues who will talk about hunger strikes, Gandhi, and the history of this kind of action.

I'm afraid that many Minnesotans regard the hunger strike as "foolish" and unseemly, because it violates the Minnesota norm of not calling attention to yourself because to do so is even more wrong than any wrong you could possible be trying to protest.

Another colleague came up to embrace me. He is someone who has contributed immensely to the University in prestigious scholarship, multi-million dollar grants that have supported literally hundreds of graduate students from all over the world, and who holds the highest honors the University can bestow. He told me that he is so angry and sad about this strike that he no longer wants to work here, he hates what the University is doing. He has a long history as an activist-scholar, but I'm afraid that his response is indicative of the disgust and shame that many of us feel to be working for the University of Minnesota right now.

Yesterday I was on the picket line with Mary, one of the many wonderful child care workers how cared for my daughter with so much love and dedication.When I think of how her work is undervalued in comparison with the athletic directors and coaches who walked away with multi-million dollar bailouts, it hurts and it makes me mad.

No, I had no illusions about the corporate nature of the Big U. But I have a lot of love and respect for many of the people who work here, who genuinely give of themselves to help others learn and reach their life goals, who take pride in what they do and do it well, and it hurts to see the naked contempt with which the administration is now treating us, and the ignorance and indifference of so many of the people around us.