Photo courtesy:  Daily Sun/Francesa von Rabenau O’Reilly
Riot Squad members take position in front of the UPR gates on Barbosa Ave. blocking access to campus.

May 15, 2010

Student Strike escalates at Largest Caribbean University
Strike now in its 24th Day

(Puerto Rico, USA) A student strike at the largest University in the Caribbean, the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) now in its 24th day is escalating with a university shutdown, students being ordered to leave their on-campus residences, increased active police involvement, a parent manhandled and a judge ordering that food and water must be allowed in to the campus.

Students are striking at the Rio Piedras campus for the rights of all 4 million Puerto Ricans on the island to have an affordable education. They claim that children of the rich mainly attend private universities in Puerto Rico or the United States, but that the UPR is the peoples' university. The full fledged strike began after university administrators and the Board of Trustees refused to negotiate alternatives presented to them on solving the institution's fiscal woes. Students are demanding the repeal of Certification 98, which limits and in some cases eliminates tuition waivers for students; ask for guarantees there will be no tuition increases and no privatization of services or campuses; and to implement their alternatives for the budget cutbacks.

Despite the no confrontation policy enacted by Certification 90, which states that Police officers will not access campus grounds unless requested by UPR administrators and "only when life and property are at risk" and the assertions by Río Piedras campus Chancellor Ana Guadalupe that she has no plans to allow entrance of Riot Police Squads to evict the striking students, police actions have been increasingly aggressive.

During one confrontation, some 20 students and demonstrators, including a TV journalist, were forcibly removed from the University's Río Piedras campus gate by Riot Police officers. At least six students were injured, including journalist Mayra Acevedo, from Channel 6, and had to receive medical assistance. One student had been beaten on his face with a baton.

Police Col. Leovigildo Vázquez later admitted that the officers "could have gone a few feet into the campus but it was not because university authorities had requested it."

Then on Friday, Riot Police agents cut through the locked slip bolt of a gate and tried to get inside the campus at 4am. A group of students blocked their entrance, and reminded them that "these are campus grounds, you cannot come in." After a few minutes of "light pushing and shoving" the police officers retreated and surrendered control of the gates.

Police then nearly completely surrounded the campus with riot squads and police cadets standing some 20 feet apart along the campus fence that extends from Ponce de León Avenue to Gándara and Barbosa Avenues blocking entrance to the few pedestrian gates still open. They prohibited pedestrians from going near the fence, and stopped anything, including food, from being taken in.

San Juan police Division Cmdr. Miguel Mejías expained later that the agents had their orders to protect the university perimeter. "We are not going to allow anything or anyone to come in," Mejías said.

When questioned about what kind of threat pedestrians or demonstrators outside the gates posed for the university, Mejías reiterated, "those are our orders."

The father of one student trying to pass a bag of food to his son suffered a cut over an eye when violently manhandled by a police cadet. Late Friday, San Juan Superior Court issued an injunction ordering the delivery of food and water be allowed on campus.

UPR Board of Trustees Chairwoman Ygrí Rivera then announced that the campus will be closing down until July 31, but added that negotiations with the students will continue. Nevertheless, Rivera did not specify when the Board of Trustees will meet again with the Student Negotiating Committee.

In the meantime, students living in Resi-Campus (the on campus coed student residence) are being evicted and were given until 3 p.m. to vacate their apartments by the Office of the Dean of Students. Many students reported that they had been threatened with forceful eviction by University Police if they did not comply with the order, and that they were also ordered to leave their apartment keys at the lobby desk.

Auxiliary Dean of Students José A. Nieves denied the possibility of a forceful eviction of the students who decided to stay, but did admit "we will work that out on another level."

"We will notify the [university] administration and they will take the necessary steps," said Nieves. "There is a 30-day recess during which we cannot guarantee their safety here," he added.

More than 350 students live at Resi-Campus, of which some 30 still had not checked out as of 3 p.m. Friday. Those leaving their apartments had to carry their belongings all the way to Gándara Avenue where their cars, or their relatives' waited because no vehicle was allowed to enter the campus.

Despite rumors, spokesmen for local utilities denied that any request had been made by university officials to shut off water and electric services to the campus.

However, demonstrations in front of the gates at the Ponce de León and Barbosa Avenues have only grown stronger with support from students' families and friends, labor unions, performing artists and media personalities as well as the general public.

In the continental United States, a number of Puerto Rican organizations, including the Puerto Rican Studies Association (PRSA), have publicly supported the students, and are planning a demonstration in support of the students outside of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration in New York City.

UPR president José Ramón De la Torre nor Chancellor Ana Rosa Guadalupe have had no official reaction to these demonstrations as of this writing.

Founded in 1903 the UPR has grown to include 11 campuses throughout the island, offers many subsidies, grants, scholarships and work programs that make it accessible for low-income families guaranteeing access to low-cost quality education for thousands of students. The Rio Piedras campus alone has more than 18,000 students.

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Compiled from stories at:
http://www.prdailysun.com/news/UPR-strike-flares-as-Police-move-in
&
http://www.workers.org/2010/world/puerto_rico_students_0513/