Admin response pending; Stop UARC Rally at 5 pm today

Not In Our Name Hawaii reports as follows:

The proposal was delivered to McClain at 8:30 and he was given until noon to respond. At 11:45 McClain responded with a somewhat ambiguous statement that there were points in the proposal with which he could agree, that he had forwarded the proposal to UH counsel, and that he would respond tomorrow (Tuesday). Another press conference was held at noon, where the Stop UARC Coalition said that they looked forward to Dr. McClain's response, and they would continue to occupy Bachman Hall until their demands were met.

If he accepts the proposal the occupation of Bachman will end; if he rejects the proposal the occupation will continue.

The occupation is in its fifth day and it has gained national and international attention. It was on CNN yesterday; today it is on the front page of Michael Moore's website. More than 100 supporters showed their support by coming to Bachman yesterday. The coalition is unified and strong.

But much more support is needed! Students and faculty are in their last week of the semester; some of the occupiers are graduating in a few days. You can support them by attending a rally at 5 pm today in front of Bachman Hall! Stop by on you way home from work; call your friends and urge them to come. Spread the word. Healthy food and financial donations are welcome.

Letters of support are also crucial. Send letters to saveuh@stopuarc.info. For more information go to StopUARC. Be sure to visit the blog linked to the website.

UPDATE: UH paper Ka Leo covers the weekend's events, and the Advertiser has an AP story as breaking news covering the events of the morning and the new demands. Doug at Poinography continues to follow the occupation and offer thoughts, and says "with this latest release [the protesters] have staked out the moral high ground quite well."

And this Ka Leo editorial gives tactical advice to the protesters, basically saying they should be involving the UH students more and sending letters to the editor at Ka Leo. The idea of involving students more is fine, and a comment on one of my DailyKos diaries from a student there agrees: "Being effective would include the student body of UH. However, the protesters have made little attempt to unite students, failed to circulate a petition on campus that people could sign and failed to convey how UARC will affect the general student population as a whole. [...] I want the protests to succeed, but to do that, the stop UARC people need to convince the students that this is worth the fight." But Doug provides a nice critique of the editorial advice, basically saying that the protesters need to "gain the attention of people outside the UH community" (his emphasis). The protesters have managed to get on CNN and Democracy Now and into numerous national and international publications, as well as a huge plug on the front page of Michael Moore's site. I don't know how many visits he gets a day, but I bet it is more than the number of Ka Leo's readers! I am not here to second guess their tactics or their outreach, but strictly as a way to raise some awareness about this issue, the sit-in has already been pretty successful, and if they manage to get McClain to accept their proposal that will be much more important than whether mostly apathetic students grok the whole situation.

Posted: Mon - May 2, 2005 at 03:47 PM

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Admin response pending; Stop UARC Rally at 5 pm today

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