Excuse us, but we are building a public university...or so we say.

So the blog owner graciously allowed me to post an op-ed on this blog and despite my much advertised dislike of the DC Chancellor, my first contribution will not be about her, but about the status of the PR Public University System.

For those of you who have no idea what is going on, definitely start here.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/23/1644735/student-strike-in-puerto-rico.html


I don't even know where to begin. First of all, Puerto Ricans are american citizens by birth and entitled to all federal programs and services using the same federal guidelines. The catch is, we don't pay federal taxes. In theory, I do believe higher education SHOULD be free and accessible to all who wants it and is willing to work hard for it. What I disagree on are the methods and multiple agendas that the so-called student advocates are pushing for and their reasoning behind it. The part that the mainland (because we are all american, including PR) newspapers are not covering.

It started small, closing down the 4 main campuses after the administration talked about tuition increases and other fee/tuition/grant adjustments. People were not allowed in or out. Professors were not allowed to pick up their laptops, books or any other things from their offices. Research labs have been left untouched, lab rats are probably dead by now, petri dishes dry. All in all, the estimated costs to the university 2 weeks ago was already at 52 million dollars. It gets worse, the professors are now not getting paid, until summer starts. Technically that it their vacation and they have said that they will not finish out their semester until next fall, because they will not work for free. So 3 weeks left to go for graduation and the university if closed down. Closed down because people feel the governement should pay for their cell phones, their cars and their food. Because even though their tuition is covered by the Pell Grant, they feel like they need more.

What makes it worse is the silent majority, the people who do want to go back to school, the people who had applied to grad school, TFA, jobs and internships, people who had plans to go abroad to do something with their degrees and they are sitting and waiting in limbo.

The propaganda by the media is even worse, they feed off each other by calling those who oppose the strike, elitists and capitalists and evil dictators. People are talking about asking the university president to resign. An island wide strike happened about a week ago and demonstrators lowered an American flag from the capitol and switched it with a second PR flag. At another rally, they went after the governor, who was having an event at the Sheraton, they went in there demanding to speak to him and people got maced and hit by the cops. They outcried about police brutality and the "massacre" that is ocurring, even though no one has died yet. People have gone as far as writing a letter to the United Nations, decrying about human rights violations, because the cops would not let parents and grandparents bring food to the strikers. This week they took over a shopping center.

At this point no one even knows what the strike is about anymore, I think the article nails it in the head when it talks about frustration and helplessness. Puerto Ricans are fed up. The situation on the island is unbearable. Every day, 2 or 3 murders, the unemployment rate is in the double digits, the heat is at record highs. I agree that PR needs a revolution, that the status quo is unacceptable, that a new generation deserves much better. I don't think the way they are doing things is the right way, though and I think that the university is probably the little that PR had going for them and now it's closed. So there is nothing left. Everything in the island is shit now.