I'm all for student apathy if it lets me sleep!

The BBQ Pit
1

The Irish government released the budget today.
They are considering bringing in charges for third level education.
Students are, of course, protesting.

I agree wholeheartedly with their protest.

I would prefer it wasn’t a drumming and shouting protest.
At 11pm.
Outside my window.

So the drumming is keeping me awake.
The shouting has prevented me from studying effectively all night for my exam on monday.

I’m at my wits end.
I have taken a sleeping pill, and am wearing earplugs.
It ain’t helping.
I thought a rant might.
FUCK YOU.
I DON’T WANT TO PAY FEES EITHER, BUT IF I DON’T PASS THIS FUCKING EXAM I MIGHT HAVE TO RE-SIT THE YEAR AND PAY TWICE AS MUCH!

FUCK YOU FOR HAVING A PROTEST ON CAMPUS, WHICH IS ESSENTIALLY A RESIDENTIAL AREA AT NIGHT.

FUCK YOU FOR SHOOTING YOURSELVES IN THE FOOT BY MAKING ALL 1000 RESIDENTS HATE YOU.

FUCK YOU FOR MAKING ME TOO SCARED TO GO OUT OF MY DOOR BECAUSE OF THE RABID MOB OUTSIDE.

THE POLITICIANS ARE:
IN BED.
FAR AWAY
ASLEEP
THEY CAN’T HEAR YOU.

I can.
And I’m pissed off.

2

Your rant reminded me of a protest this spring. About 200 students drove in busloads 40 minutes to the state capitol building. They had signs and banners and stood on the capitol steps screaming about an unfair tuition hike.
The only problem was the Legislators weren’t actually in session at that time. They were in a two week recess and the protestors hit smack dab in the middle of it. Not a politician as far as the eye could see, but there they were, protesting their little hearts out.
I asked some of them why they chose that particular week when ANY other time would have actually been effective.
Their response: we couldn’t organize it for any earlier and if we waited for them to come back to session it would interfere with our finals schedule.
I found that to be hilarious, so I wrote an editorial for the school paper. I have a few people who don’t like me on campus right now.

3

Enlighten me a bit irishgirl, if you will. What exactly is “third level education”? University? Because if the Irish government pays (or paid, as it were) for college educations, I’m about to go kick my parent’s asses for not moving us there ten years ago…

4

When I was a college freshman I lived on campus in a dorm, the windows to our rooms overlooked a small building that housed a couple of meeting rooms and a small used book store. On the Friday afternoon before final exams, the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) gave a presentation for students who wanted to possibly become INS Boder Patrol Agents. The Mexican American Student Association decided to protest against the presence of INS Agents on campus, right under our freaking windows.

They chanted and yelled for four straight hours. This was right outside our the place where we lived. One of us went down and politely asked them to protest silently. They refused. A small group of us went down after that and politely asked them to please be quiet. They got confrontational and told us to fuck off. They then began to scream even louder. Then I witnessed something truely shocking. The very nice lady who ran the book store asked them to not block the entrance to her store. One of the protestors spit at her feet.

We were all trying to study and we couldn’t due to the noise. Sure, we could have gone to the library or a coffee shop but we didn’t feel that we should have to leave our home so these assholes could make noise outside our windows especially when a silent protest would have been very effective.

We decided to have a little fun with them and staged a sarcastic, mock pro-INS rally. They’d chant, “Raza si, migra no.” We’d chant, “INS, hell yes!” After half an hour we sang a rousing rendition of “God Bless America” and went back to our rooms. They did eventually leave and we got back to studying and thought nothing of it.

When the new quarter started there was an article about the protest in the Mexican American Student Association Newspaper. They described how their protest got the INS to leave early (the left at 4:45 when they were scheduled to leave at 5:00 :rolleyes: ) and described us as right wing counter demonstators. Unbelieveable.

Haj

5

Nicely done Enderw24. My best anti-activism was a couple years ago. Some AI activists were chalking the sidewalks everywhere with “Close the SOA”. So for my own amusement, I printed up flyers that proudly proclaimed “SOA is A-OK!!” and put them up on all sorts of message-board and flyer posting spots around campus (a practice which the university generally found acceptable at the time, as opposed to chalking the sidewalks which was not acceptable.) I attributed the flyer to a phony group called Students Against Student Activism. The AI people had their big meeting that night, a forum on thier hated SOA, so I thought that was the best time to do it. Needless to say, one of them must have noticed and gone hunting, because they were all torn down by the next morning :frowning:

At any rate, pissing off student activists is a great joy of mine, and I was glad to get a lick in against them that time. The particular issue they’re in a huff about really doesn’t matter, they’re all obnoxious. You want to talk to a person who is serious about changing the world, talk to one of the Quakers at an execution vigil. Those guys are really dedicated to righting a wrong, and know how to conduct themselves with class. College student protesters are just snotty rich kids just trying to be a part of something, feel big about themselves by putting themselves into situations in which “the man” will “oppress” them so they can boast of their supposed integrity. Anybody who could miss a week of school to head to Seattle or Canada to get maced has got their priorities mixed up.

I see your location is Lawrence KS. So would you be a KU student? I know from my friend who attended that school that the students don’t think much of the school newspaper generally, I’m sure it didn’t take alot to get them disliking you if they associated you with that publication.

6

Based on this account of their behaviour, you should have called the police and had their riot broken up.

LOL, nicely done. Hilarious. I would have loved to have seen that.

7

My annoying student noise story isn’t about politics:

There was a party next door, one of those big old houses broken up into 5 or 6 student apts with shared kitchen and bath. Stereo still blaring at 1 AM while I’m trying to sleep. Some group arives and I hear arguing, then scuffling. I hear some shout, “I’m getting my gun”, so I call 911. I’m talking to the operator and tell her someone claimed to have a gun, though it sounded to me like a piece of bravado or bluff rather than a serious plan to do violence.

The cops show up, things settle down, nobody is busted or found with a gun, and the cops leave. Some time later I clearly hear gunshots-- five real quick, a pause of several seconds, and then a single shot. Oh shit, I thought, somebidy was making coup de grace with that last shot.

But the noise doesn’t seem to come from next door-- closeby, but in the other direction. Since I’m not sure where it came from, I don’t call the cops and I finally go to sleep, maybe around three.

I wake up a little after 600AM to the sound of someone screaming, loudly and right next door. I immediately thought the body from last night had been found, and that I somehow misjudged the direction the night before.

But the screaming goes on, and then I hear, “Get out, get out!”. So I open my bedroom window (which faces their house), and am stunned that fire is roaring out of the window about 10 feet from me. The whole room at least is completely engulfed, maybe the whole floor. And then everybody in our building evacuates in case the fire leaps across.

I talk to someone else in my building about the gunfire the night before. We agree on every point except the number of shots. He heard five, I heard six, but they were from the other direction.

The FD put out the fire, no people hurt, a pet cat killed.

No one found a body, and I never found out what the gunshots were all about. But it made for a very restless night.

8

Amen! We would have gotten along well had we been in school in the same era. I was in undergrad and grad school for most of the 80’s. The big thing then was anti-Apartheid rallys, a noble cause to be sure, but virtually none of the protestors had a clue about the issues in any sort of detail.

Desmond Tutu came and spoke at our campus and explicitely said that divesting money from companies that did business in South Africa was the exact wrong approach because it would ulitmately take much needed jobs from Black South Africans. I don’t think anyone wanted to listen because it would have ruined the big Divestment Rally that was planned for the next day with a live band. At the Regents meeting a few weeks later a big fight broke out between the students that wanted to storm the building and the ones who wanted the protest to stay non-violent. You just know almost all of them vote Republican now.

Haj

9

Yeah, I’m a grad student at KU. I’ve been on the Ed board for about a year and a half and I’m well aware of the fact that no one reads the newspaper. Alas.

This article did get a few people to e-mail me personally to express their concern about my “protest” of their protest. Here’s a choice quote: You wrote a viciously negative and unhelpful
editorial, which only served to hinder efforts and polarize students who should all be working together.

Now let’s all hold hands and sing kumbaya.

10

LOL, I like your style man. You go onto my list of people at KU who I don’t hate, and you will be spared the wrath of Quantrill when he is reborn to ride against Lawrence once more :wink:

11

My favourite at my school right now is the CSA (Central Student’s Association) which has decided to protest tuition raises. Fine by me, I’d like to pay less, too. Our school has begun to accept more money from corporate sponsors, in order to meet financial demands and try to NOT put too much strain on students (although there is still a hike in tuition fees, its less than it could be). For example. we got a sum of money from McDonalds, to refurnish the teaching kitchens and dining room in the Hotel and Food Administration building.

The CSA protested.

So they dont want to pay more money, but they don’t want Micky D’s to pay either, because they have a “corporate interest in how future chefs/hoteliers are trained”. Well bloody fuck, of course they do! Because all of these people are going to graduate as full chefs, and become bloody burger flippers and McDonalds! It’s not as though McD’s can’t afford to, and it was a DONATION!!

Fuck you, CSA, who doesn’t want to pay for education themselves, can’t get the bloody government to do it, and yet fucking protest when some company with MONEY TO SPARE decides to DONATE MONEY to help the university stay more or less affordable.

Do you really think it’s going to be completely free, and paid for my some altruistic hippy, non-corporate comapny with no vested interest in ANYTHING this school bloody teaches? Why shouldn’t McDonalds pay for something related to the BLOODY FOOD INDUSTRY? Or perhaps Pfizer (example only) for BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH! They are doing it to get their names public, and hopefully get some rewards in return, yes. But they are also helping to PAY FOR YOUR BLOODY EDUCATION!!! You know, the one YOU DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO PAY FOR YOURSELVES!!!

And don’t get me started on the other stupid fucking things you have done, like deliberately NOT attending a Remebrance Day ceremony because of your personal beliefs (“It promotes war” - fuck you and the shithole you crawled out of), even though you supposedly represent the ENTIRE FUCKING STUDENT POPULATION!!! We wanted you there! We told you to go! You fucking didn’t. And the ignorant, anti-GMO and anti-meat shit you guys spread, full of outdated or just plain wrong “facts”. Leave the fucking coffee house for 30 minutes, walk across the street and ASK THE FUCKING SCIENTISTS or the FUCKING ANIMAL RESEARCHERS for some FACTS rather than randomly making shit up (yeah, like GMO’s have been PROVEN to cause 40% of all cancers in 2000 - fuck you!).

ARRGGGHHHH I hate my CSA. I’d love to get rid of them. I know I should probably join in, and try to change things, but I’m somewhat busy, seeing as I actually attend class rather than proudly proclaim myself to be a “seventh-year undeclared arts major, who wants to make an educated difference!”. Sorry to all of you who are in the arts, but these people give you all a REALLY bad name! Stereotypical “artsies”, through and through. This is one of Canada’s most research-intensive schools, and all they care about is getting their coffee and spreading ignorant, wrong, information about the research that is happening right under their fucking noses.

grrrrr…

Sorry for hijacking this thread a little. I’m a little annoyed at the moment.

12

As for the typos and spelling errors…I’m a chemist. Sue me.

13

Not wanting to sound completely ignorant, but in the spirit of stamping it out, what the hell is an AI activist? Someone with a phobia about computers? How about SOA?

Thanks for the education

14

AI = Amnesty International
SOA = School of the Americas. What precisely that is depends on who you talk to, but I think it mostly concerns US special forces giving counterterrorism training to friendly countries in South America. The Amnesty International types have some hang up or another about it, you’d have to ask them if you really cared to find out.

15

These “friendly” countries then turn around and use their new skills to commit human rights abuses agtainst its citizens, which is why AI have a problem with it.

16

I think 3rd-level does mean uni (i’m not irish, so I’m not certain). And while you’re kicking your parents for that, why not kick them for not moving to England either - although they have just started charging for uni education here now.

17

Third Level does indeed mean University/College. The only college fees I paid were the registration fees at the start of the year, which were refunded to me because I qualified for assistance.

Result.

18

I’m not irishgirl but I’ll do my best on the enlightenment front. Up to about 7 years ago, there were fees for all third level education courses in Ireland (university, institutes of technology etc.). There was also a grant programme, which meant that those whose parents’ income was below a certain thresholds, had their fees paid or part-paid by the State.

Then the Government decided to remove (pay) all fees for undergraduate third level courses, except for some private colleges. Understandably, this was a big hit with the middle classes, who gained most.

This year, the third level registration charge, which is separate from fees, was the subject of a significant hike. This, along with lack of affordable student accommodation and other issues, has radicalised students to an extent not seen for some time. While fees were untouched in the budget itself, there was a report on public expenditure, whose publication co-incided with the budget, which stated that the re-introduction of fees should be considered if the public finances continued to deteriorate. It was the reaction to this that kept irishgirl awake.

There are many good reasons for re-introducing fees, as long as a generous grant scheme is also put in place. Those on low incomes would still not be subject to fees and greater resources could be targeted at the primary and secondary sectors where there is significant under-resourcing. I can’t see why the sons or daughters of the rich should have their fees paid by the state.

Best of luck in your exams, irishgirl. In the unlikely event I’m in the Buttery or the Pav, I’ll be quiet on the way out;).

And sorry for the hijack.

19

cheers for explaining manwithaplan.
you did a better job than i would have done.

i’m not objecting to people paying their way if they can afford it.

but i certainly can’t afford 5000 euros a year, since i’m living on a loan of 4000 euros per year for my food, rent, living expenses etc as it is.

they finally shut up about 12:30am.
grr!

20

The reason for the fees to be removed was to get a higher percentage of low wage families to send their kids to college. This didn’t work. The figures released recently showed that they haven’t really changed and all the removal of fees achieved was to remove a burden from the middle class. Poor kids always got free University and a grant to keep them ticking over (~£300 a term 10years ago).

A free 3rd level system is obviously preferable but in today’s climate I don’t see the point in paying for people to go to college whose families can afford it.

Hope the exams go well :slight_smile: