This morning at 11:00 a.m. UW-Madison students will join state employees in marching to the Capitol to demand the state of Wisconsin straighten out its budget priorities. Sponsored by the Student Labor Action Coalition, Associated Students of Madison, Multi-Cultural Student Coalition, Green Progressive Alliance and MEChA, the purpose of the rally is to roll back tuition to 2003 levels, provide good contracts for state and campus workers and ensure affordable healthcare and education for all.
Though the reasons for wanting lower tuition vary greatly, virtually every student on all sides of the political and economic spectrum can agree that lower tuition is a good thing. It is therefore important that students show state legislators they have a powerful, uniform voice. We urge anyone who supports more affordable tuition to attend the rally.
While we support the cause of lower tuition in general and today's rally specifically, we suggest that organizers work to bring politically and socially diverse students together. The organizations sponsoring today's effort are outspokenly leftist. This is not a bad thing, but a more representative slate of organizations would add a tremendous amount of strength to the cause. ASM Representative and rally organizer Ashok Kumar agrees that \putting partisanship over actual issues is not the way to go."" In that vein, we applaud some groups' labors to reach out to centrist organizations, forgoing their ideological differences to work toward a common goal, but more consensus building actions are a necessity.
For the sake of fair-minded public perception, we hope students across the political landscape temporarily put aside their differences and turn out for the rally, because the state legislature is the only body that has the authority to provide tuition relief. The more students who attend, the more likely legislators are to realize that this is an issue of the utmost significance.
In an epilogue to last week's rally against the presence of military recruiters on campus, activists challenged Chancellor John Wiley on the merits of military recruiters' presence on campus. We share the concerns students and community members voiced, yet we do not condone their methodology. Although clutching to the best of intentions, anti-recruitment activists failed to advance their agenda in three ways.
First, Chancellor Wiley is the wrong person to attempt to convince. Even if he wanted to change recruitment policy, Wiley is powerless in the matter. Military recruiters have a First Amendment right to recruit in a variety of places, college campuses among them. Second, interrupting and yelling at the chancellor is never a constructive way to sway him. Third, the tone of protests thus far have inadvertently alienated UW-Madison ROTC members who sympathize with the efforts.
Despite a gaping lack of discretion, activists have been on track in their positions. Few would argue that military recruiters do not target minority and low-income students. Moreover, the current state of the American armed forces is disheartening. The unilateral war in Iraq, an ever-growing military-industrial complex and the manner in which homosexual servicemen and women are mistreated is enough evidence of that. Yet, we believe that recruitment, even with these military flaws, is infinitely better than a draft.
We urge those fighting for change to take their efforts where they matter most??-the students. A public education campaign that highlights the problems plaguing the military can serve as an excellent anti-recruitment measure. This would create a situation in which both activists and recruiters will be able to exercise their freedom of speech while competing in a war of words for the future of Wisconsin students.
In the meantime, take your message to the students where it may actually make a difference.
