Tent State Three At Rutgers

W hat is becoming a Rutgers tradition started two years ago as a protest organized by members of the Community Empowerment Project (CEP). Founded by Tom DeGloma and Xavier Hansen in 1994, the CEP was created to bring Rutgers students and New Brunswick community members together. In February 2003 when then-Governor James McGreevey proposed to cut state New Jersey higher education funding by an unprecedented $143 million, CEP members planned a 2-day peaceful protest. 

Rutgers alumnus and logistics coordinator Yael Bromberg says that their idea to camp out was intially shot down by the Administration because they were told that the grass had to stay nice for graduation. Says Bromberg, “We asked them, ‘Is this a university or a golf course?’” The Administration then let them use the lawn. On the second day of the protest, McCormick showed up and asked the students how long they planned on staying there. “We told him we planned on staying as long as it was nice out,” says Troeder. “So he said, ‘I hear it’s supposed to be nice until Saturday’.” Due to overwhelming popularity and support, Tent State was continued throughout the week. 

Symbolically, Tent State represents an alternative university for those who are being displaced and ignored by the lack of funding for higher education. Hansen calls it a “university open to everyone,” in which every member has a voice. With its free classes and emphasis on non-hierarchical decision-making, it is also a model for what a democratic community would look like. “Everyone’s voice is heard and everyone’s opinions are discussed to the point of general consent,” explains Troeder. DeGloma stresses the importance of having everyone play a part. “We’re actively encouraging as many students, facuty, staff, and community members as possible to get involved in lobbying both state and federal representatives.” 

Tent State has grown to include colleges across the country. Andrea Mueller, one the outreach coordinators who works for the anti-war coalition United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), recommended that CEP become a member group of UFPJ. The model for Tent State was met with great interest by UFPJ students from all across the country. After taking the model back to their schools, colleges such as Ohio State, University of Texas at Austin, University of California Santa Cruz, and University of Missouri-Kansas City, decided to have their own Tent State. 

Following a year in which the federal government allocated $53.1 billion to the Department of Education and $365.3 billion to the Department of Defense, the organizers have taken an anti-war stance. Bromberg says the anti-war message offers a possible solution of where to take funds from instead of simply identifying the problem of funding. Part of their mission statement reads, “We demand full funding for our public institutions of higher learning and oppose the reckless squandering of life and resources through the militarization of our national agenda.” Though there were no budget cuts proposed for higher education this year, junior Lena Posner, one of the outreach coordinators, warns against giving up the fight, noting that New Jersey ranks 47th among other states in funding for higher education. “Even when they’re not making cuts, we’re still in a dire situation to begin with,” she says. 

On the state level, Rutgers University receives less funding from New Jersey than it used to. “Right now, Rutgers is half a public institution,” says Posner. She notes that in 1992 Rutgers received 64 percent of its funds from New Jersey and now receives about 50 percent of its funding from the state. In addition, tuition has risen over 150 percent in the past 10 years. 

The Week 

T his year’s Tent State was the biggest yet. Posner estimated that there were over 117 tents and 300-400 campers. The event was kicked off with a speech from activist Medea Benjamin. Legislators also came to show their support, such as Assemblypersons Upendra Chivukula, Patrick Deignan, and Carol Greenstein. 

Tent State featured anti-war speeches later in the day. The newly formed Rutgers Against the War (RAW) brought speakers from Iraq Veterans Against the War. RAW was eager to endorse Tent State as its members see a lack of student activism on campus. “Collective student activism has fallen out of our consciousness,” says RAW member John Hayes, a senior. 

The second day’s events included a medic workshop, a presentation on the Zapitistas, and a poetry slam at night. The medic workshop, entitled “First Aid 101,” dealt with basic procedures for an urban protest situation. The training, lead by a well-known Jersey activist known as Charlie the Medic, taught participants how to make a temporary arm sling, how to flush out someone’s eyes after being pepper sprayed, and different techniques for carrying someone with a sprained ankle. 

The Zapatista presentation began with a brief history of NAFTA’s role in redistributing Mexican land, touching on how the U.S. pressured Mexico to change Article 27 of their constitution to allow previously community-owned land to be bought and sold. The latter half of the presentation focused on Zapatista women. The event was put on by the Mexico Solidarity Network and Adrian Boutureira, a member of the Committee of Indigenous Solidarity who stopped by Tent State on her national tour. 

The poetry slam was part of Verbal Mayhem, an open mic poetry reading that occurs every Tuesday night. Regulars and newcomers shared their poetry and cheered each other on. Verbal Mayhem was one of many events that moved to Tent State that week. 

On Wednesday afternoon, members of the Rutgers American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) gathered students together for a group reading of the First Amendment followed by a speech by Ed Barocas, the legal director of NJ-ACLU. Barocas spoke about free speech cases involving students. He went over about ten cases, all of which ended in a victory for the NJ-ACLU, and reminded students of the importance of exercising free speech. He ended by saying, “You have the right to remain silent…and you have the right not to.” 

Later in the afternoon, the New Brunswick Bicycle Network teamed up with Rutgers Sustainable to host a cars vs. bikes race. Pitting nine cyclists against three drivers, the event was dubbed the “paper chase.” Each person had to deliver a term paper from the College Avenue campus to the Douglass campus and return. The nine bikes beat the three cars. The founder of the local bike library said, “We support student issues. We are working on transportation issues at Rutgers and we want to get more people riding bikes.” The bike library offers a place for community members to borrow bikes, learn how to fix bikes, and hang out. 

The next event of the day was a Sweatshop Fashion Show put on by Latino Unidos en Poder (LUEP). The LUEP brings cultural and political events to Rutgers. The Sweatshop Fashion Show is an annual event whose purpose is to raise awareness to an important issue using creativity. The group decided that “it fit in with the mock university.” 

Thursday kicked off with a workshop on the Women’s Center Defense Coalition by junior Lindsay Napolitano. To show solidarity with Tent State and also increase visibility, the students who run the all-student all-volunteer Rutgers women’s center decided to move the center to Tent State for the week. 

Napolitano was eager to have the women’s center endorse Tent State. “Obviously we have a lot of similar interests,” she says. “The women’s center is an advocate of a progressive agenda and this is something we’d like to show solidarity with.” Also, “The issue of funding for higher education hits close to home for the women’s center because we’re grossly underfunded,” says Napolitano. “It’s also important to maintain a sense of community within the progressive sphere.” 

Friday afternoon, vice president for Student Affairs Gregory Blimling sat down with Tent State participants to go over their list of demands. In addition to stating their own demands, Tent State organizers asked each sponsoring organization to list a demand on behalf of its group. Most of the meeting time served as a discussion forum. Students viewed it as a good step towards getting their voices heard. Blimling says he supports Tent State’s goals and its participants. “They are very organized and I like working with them.” 

At night, Rutgers Culture Jam put on a globalization teach-in. The teach-in, run by junior Vincent Trivett, sophomore Kyan Bowman, and junior Stephanie Basile (the author of this article), focused on the general effects of globalization, the effects of globalization on Rutgers, and feminism in globalization. “TSU is a university of self-made student-run classes, which is the ideal environment for such a teach-in,” says Bowman. “Culture Jam as an organization has and always will advocate the essential necessity for immediate affordable access to higher education.” Bowman’s part of the teach-in is especially important to the school right now, as Rutgers’ ten-year exclusive contract with Coca Cola is up in May. Students have been raising awareness about the issue for years and have been especially active in bringing it to light this past semester. Culture Jam has teamed up with several other organizations, including Rutgers Sustainable and Killer Coke, to kick Coke off campus. Bowman explains that Culture Jam is not only concerned with Coke’s human rights violations but also exclusive contracts in general, saying they “leave no headway for fair market and sell students to corporations as permanent consumers.” 

Tent State extended through the weekend this year, putting on a variety of activities. The weekend saw a teach-in about empire sponsored by NJ Solidarity and a wide range of performances by local bands and musicians. 

A week after Tent State began a small group of organizers attended a meeting with Rutgers President Richard McCormick in which they broke their demands into four parts, which consisted of (1) increased legislative activity with students; (2) space and allocation of resources; (3) increased student representation within the school; and (4) taking a critical look at university policy. Posner said the meeting went well and that McCormick “was very receptive.” In response to their first demand, McCormick asked organizers to write up a list of students who would be interested in sitting on various planning committees. 

Hostility In Santa Cruz 

U nfortunately, Santa Cruz’s Tent City was not met with the same support that Rutgers has received. After their Administration told them they could not camp out, about 100 Santa Cruz students decided to go forward and occupy the base of the campus. According to Santa Cruz Indymedia, University of California police arrived at 9:53 PM and declared an unlawful assembly. A video clip shows police using pain compliance techniques to violently pry students apart from their arm-locked circles. 

At Rutgers, organizers received a call from Santa Cruz explaining what happened. Before long, students everywhere had seen the footage and were outraged. “The kind of police brutality we saw, there’s nothing that can ever make that okay,” says Bromberg. She notes that the local media failed to cover it, reporting only that 19 students had been arrested that night. The situation was a reminder that as Tent State expands, new issues are going to pop up that Rutgers organizers haven’t encountered. “It’s something we have not had to deal with,” says Troeder.