Midterm

Students "Occupy" South Oval
Demonstration part of National Day of Action to Defend Public Education



A small group of students occupied an area of the South Oval on Thursday as part of the National Day of Action to Defend Public Education.

The group, called “The Undercurrent,” set up bikes with signs reading, “Occupy the South Oval” around a large rug to attract attention. Demonstrators played music, handed out fliers, and talked with passersby to raise awareness of tuition hikes in California as well as other states, including Oklahoma.

“Oklahoma’s tuition increases aren’t nearly as bad as California’s, but it’s still a move in the wrong direction,” said philosophy junior, Matthew Bruenig, one of the event’s organizers. “This is really about education rights in general, having access to affordable education.”

Protesters also hung a sign reading “Occupy Everything” from the top of Gaylord Hall during the morning, but OU authorities removed it later in the afternoon. Organizers of the protest did not confirm or deny that anyone of “The Undercurrent” hung the sign.

Oklahoma legislators agreed to a cut state appropriations to higher education 3.5 percent in February.

In a March 3 letter to the Oklahoma Daily, OU President David Boren said cuts to the higher education budget are “much less than the cuts to other areas of the state government.”

“We must all work as hard as possible on behalf of the higher education budget in order to keep university education accessible to all students,” Boren said in the letter.

Bruenig said he believes legislators and OU administrators could have done more to prevent the most harmful effects of the budget cuts from falling on students.

“If they’re just going to make up the budget shortfall by raising tuition and covering everything that way, that’s not really working through it together,” he said. “If we want to work through it together, [OU administrators] are going to need to take some hits themselves.”

Bruenig said cuts to OU administrators’ salaries should have helped balance the budget shortfall.

“Boren makes $700,000 plus a year. Is that really necessary when you live in Oklahoma and you don’t have to pay for your housing?”

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Boren received a $631,000 package for the 2008-2009 school year.

Furzanna Iqbal, letters senior, said the demonstration is also meant to highlight the disparity between administrators, whose salaries often remain untouched in crises, and students and faculty who take the brunt of budget cuts.

“These budget cuts are falling disproportionately on students and faculty workers rather than administrators,” Iqbal said. “It’s not just a problem with the budgets being cut in Oklahoma, it’s a whole structural problem with higher education in this country.”

The University of California Board of Regents voted last November to raise undergraduate fees 32 percent next fall. California's budget cuts have put teachers on furlough and led to the cancellation of entire classes and academic departments.

Students and professors held demonstrations in 32 states, occupying classrooms or skipping classes altogether. Some of the protests turned violent, with students smashing windows and damaging buildings.

Bruenig said he is happy with the demonstration’s small, but peaceful turnout. 


“[The protest] really only started getting organized a few days ago,” he said. “People come and go and there’s been good discussion.”

He said students should demonstrate now to prevent further cuts to higher education in the future.

“If no one does anything, there’s no sense to [lawmakers] that there’s opposition to their decision, so in the future they might feel that they can increase it again,” Bruenig said. “If we let our voices be heard though, it’s not just going to be a story in the newspaper. You’re going to have people speaking out against it, people criticizing it, and making [higher education cuts] more politically difficult to do by raising awareness.”

- The Associated Press contributed to this report