U. Wisconsin-Superior students protest program cuts

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SOCIALIST ACTION DECEMBER 2017 5 and ADAM RITSCHER SUPERIOR, Wis.—On Oct. 31, Hallow­ een, the administration of the University of Wisconsin-Superior (UWS) decided to give a trick instead of a treat to faculty and students. Without any warning be­ fore making the decision, the administra­ tion decided to cut (they use the word “suspend”) many of its major and minor programs. At least 25 programs are af­ fected, including political science, sociol­ ogy, and theater as majors.

The initial reason that the administra­ tion gave for its action was that students have too many choices and therefore can­ not finish their degree. The administra­ tion also claimed that there was low en­ rollment in many of the programs.

The last of the forums given by the ad­ ministration to explain the cuts included 200 to 300 students, faculty, allies, and alumni voicing strong concerns about the decision. The opposition yelled, laughed, and clapped in standing ovations against the administration’s answers.

Theater major Christopher Linder said the decision to suspend the programs doesn’t fit with what a university’s mis­ sion should be. “Imagine a hospital that only treats popular illnesses,” he said. “Is education supposed to be business as usual?”

Chancellor Renee Wachter’s comments at the forum were akin to talking down to students and allies as if they were naugh­ ty children having a temper tantrum. But nothing that was said by the administra­ tion could soothe the frustration of hav­ ing the futures of students abruptly de­ stroyed.

Megan McGarvey, a digital cinema ma­ jor, expressed the view of many students that they should have had a voice in the process. She told National Public Radio: “We spend thousands upon thousands of dollars. I’m going to be in debt at least un­ til I’m in my mid-30s—and that’s only if I can have a job right after I graduate. ... For the choices that we wanted and had here to be just cut without our acknowledge­ ment, without our knowledge, I think it’s just disrespectful to the students and the student body.”

On Nov. 6, students organized a sit-in in­ side the student union. Participants wore black and had red squares (akin to the 2012 student Quebec uprising) pinned to their clothing. An on-line petition against the cuts was circulated; it gathered over 5000 signatures by Nov. 6. The next day included a protest in front of the admin­ istration building.

The next week, faculty organized a teach-in to discuss campus strategy, so­ cial movements, and college activism. The teach-in was well attended by many faculty, alumni, and students. The faculty senate has been discussing a vote of no confidence in the chancellor. Many alum­ ni donors are pulling their money out of the college.

On the evening of Dec. 2, two-dozen spirited students, faculty, alumni, and community members braved the cold to protest in front of the UWS Yellowjacket Union. The action was held outside the glitzy Chancellor’s Ball fundraiser to show outrage at the program cuts. Pro­ testers wore costumes to symbolically reclaim the Halloween that was ruined by the announced cuts. They handed ... Tax bills (continued from page 3: “Tax bills give huge benefits to the super-rich”)

where the ruling class looks for more.

Whether it’s cutting retirees’ pensions out from under them, raising the price of insulin 300 percent, or closing down schools and packing more kids into overcrowded classrooms, they squeeze a little bit more every time because capitalism demands profit at the expense of human life, and driving down the average quality of life of the workers increases profits.

As Marx wrote, the way capital­ ists see it, “a quick succession of un­ healthy and short-lived generations fundraiser attendees candy with the fol­ lowing message printed on them: “Thank you for supporting UWS students! Please ask Chancellor Wachter to reconsider the program suspensions at UWS. More choices for students, not fewer, are what makes UWS great.”

The response from those attending the fundraiser was overwhelmingly support­ ive, demonstrating yet again how deeply opposed our community is to the gutting of the university. The action closed with a rousing chant of “We’ll be back!” And rest assured, we will be—again and again— until these draconian cuts are consigned to the dustbin of history! n will keep the labor market as well supplied as a series of vigorous and long-lived generations.” Only a social­ ist society, in which production is not based on profit but on human needs, can change this.

Capitalism will always seek to pull ever-greater profits out of the hides of the workers. It is the nature of the system. Only by having the means of production not in the hands of a tiny few—the 0.1 percent or less—but in the hands of the many, deciding dem­ ocratically how to meet their needs, can we break capitalism’s need for in­ creasing impoverishment of workers in order to suck ever greater wealth upwards. n