Students are so apathetic today!

Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, April 21

Nearly 100 students marched across the MTSU campus and staged a sit-in in at Cope Administration Building Wednesday in support of a professor who was denied tenure.

Wearing blue T-shirts proclaiming "Save Dr. Kramer," the students said they were seeking answers from the university administration on why their favorite psychology professor's contract was not renewed.

Washington University, St. Louis, MO, April 22

The protest and sit in at Washington University has ended. The Student Worker Alliance spent 19 days in the admissions office.

The group fought for better pay, benefits and working condition for campus workers.

Chancellor Mark Wrighton today announced the agreement. Starting this July, the university will spend half a million dollars towards improving wages and benefits.

Another $500,000 will be spent in the 2006-2007 fiscal year.

The university also agreed to let workers to be represented by a union. Chancellor Wrighton says there is no determination yet if students face consequences for the sit in and hunger strike.

Governor Dummer Academy, Byfield, MA, May 2

Nearly 200 high school students at Governor Dummer Academy near Boston staged a sit-in last week to protest dorm-room searches for alcohol and drugs. ...

The search, held Tuesday night, was conducted on all of the 10 dormitories on Dummer's campus, which is located about 30 miles north of Boston. Alcohol or marijuana was found in 10 of the rooms.

Students staged a sit-in at the school's performing arts center the next morning, remaining there from 7:45 a.m. through the end of the school day. Afterward, school officials agreed to meet with the students to give them an opportunity to voice their concerns on the matter.

University of Hawai'i, Honolulu, May 4

A group of about 60 students and faculty members left the office of the University of Hawaii's president Wednesday after occupying the facility for nearly a week in protest.

The group left claiming victory. The protesters demanded interim President David McClain end talks with the U.S. Navy about establishing a University Affiliate Research Center at UH.

"Today we return the president's office to Dr. McClain, but we will return and reclaim this space in the future if the administration ever again fails to fulfill the duties of this office," UH student Christine Noyes said.

McClain announced that the school will not make any decisions regarding plans for a Navy research center until October. The protesters demanded McClain rescind the proposal from the regents, but McClain said he cannot do that because the board has already given its provisional approval.

McClain said if and when he brings the proposal back to the Board of Regents, he will make sure both sides of the issue will have an opportunity to express their views.

The protesters said although they are disappointed that McClain didn't stop the talks, they are satisfied that there is a process in place for public input.

University of Wisconsin, Madison, May 5

The Air Force Reverse Officer Training Corps (ROTC) annual information day on April 30 was cancelled. ... According to Air Force ROTC representatives on campus, the event was cancelled due to the threat of a protest called by the University of Wisconsin-Madison group Stop the War.

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, May 5

About ten students were arrested Wednesday after refusing to leave a University of Minnesota building where they were protesting a proposal to eliminate the university's General College.

A crowd of more than 100 rallied outside Morrill Hall as speakers supported the role of the college to help low-income and minority students get into the university.

Seven people began sitting in or near President Robert Bruininks' outer office in Morrill Hall about 10:15 yesterday morning and another ten to 12 reportedly sat or stood in the hall outside. Bruininks was not in his office.

Six of the seven in the president's office were arrested shortly after six p-m on trespassing charges, as were three or four others.

Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, May 5

After they coordinated a sit-in at the President's office last week, the Redbud Woods Working Group orchestrated yet another demonstration starting at 1 p.m. yesterday afternoon. To best display their demands to the administration, the protesters dumped several dozen pounds of soil and plants at the entrance to the Day Hall parking lot, in addition to parking three cars on the sidewalk in front of the building.

The roof and trunk door of one of the cars were torn off to make room for the garden they had planted in the back seat and trunk, and was named "The Jeffrey S. Lehman Urban Garden." This particular car was parked directly in front of the parking lot, while containing a wooden coffin with a tree branch from the Redbud Woods. The protesters had removed the wheels from the car and placed them on the driveway as barriers.

(Redbud Woods is the name given to a wooded area near the edge of the campus which the administration wants to pave over for the sake of a parking lot.)

Let's see. In this quick scan (obtained by looking at the first few pages of a Google News search on "student sit-in"), we have protests
- in favor of a popular professor,
- supporting workers' rights,
- against invasions of privacy,
- against establishing a military research center on campus,
- against ROTC,
- in favor of a program aiding low income and minority students, and
- in favor of protecting a wooded area on campus.

Now if only the rest of us could catch up with those apathetic students.

Footnote: The students at Princeton are entering their 10th day. In addition to lots of local coverage, they've made WNBC-TV in New York, the AP wire, the Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger, the Washington Post, The Hill, "Hardball," CNN's "Inside Politics," the Philadelphia Inquirer, and now the New York Times. See what some energy and creativity can do?