Tag: student

As the national conversation about the plight of undocumented immigrants and students escalates, a solution seems beyond reach because gridlock in Congress threatens to foreclose meaningful debate that could bring certainty to the lives of hundreds of thousands of undocumented students and graduates of our public schools. But, it is not enough to grant undocumented students the right to access public education. Without DACA or similar legislation, our schools and communities, as well as our national economy, will suffer. Policymakers’ gridlock puts the nation on a path leading to significant negative consequences for learning in public schools, quality of life for families, and economic well-being in communities. How do we explain to our children that the American Dream is closed to them as a result of the actions of parents or guardians, over which they had no control? The problems of inaction threaten to ripple throughout our schools, beyond the impact on undocumented students. And, the loss of DACA educators will worsen already-serious teacher shortages, deprive students of mentors and role models, and deplete the teaching corps of much-needed diversity. It makes little sense to deport children in whom we have invested — youths we have educated as Americans, who have grown up to be contributing members of our society and who identify as American in all respects but one. Our communities and undocumented immigrant students deserve an answer. Thomas J. Gentzel is executive director and CEO of the National School Boards Association, which advocates for equity and excellence in public education through school board leadership.

Claire, among some of the other students involved, said they were victims of bullying themselves at one point. “It’s taking away the issues at heart and it’s making people feel bad when what really needs to be happening is we need to be making progress as a country,” said seventh grader Julia. The group, known as the DC Bully Busters, asks politicians to sign a pledge promising they won’t engage in bullying and will speak up if they witness it. Especially as a girl it’s hard to watch people who are calling people names for unnecessary reasons,” said Julia. The group writes letters to people in power. They have written 1,200 so far. They were able to get 38 members of congress to sign their anti-bullying pledge. The DC Bully Busters in Seattle already have more than a dozen kids involved and they are hoping to bring on even more young recruits. Only democrats have signed the pledge so far. Click here to get involved and learn more about the DC Bully Busters.

According to Gallup, almost 70 percent of college students believe that colleges and universities are not friendly to free speech or representative of political diversity. But college-aged students still overwhelmingly favor having those diverse political ideologies open for dialogue on their university campuses. Now, a group of students at American University in Washington, D.C., have sought to promote ideological diversity on their campus by creating The American Agora. “Honestly, [creating the Agora] was as simple as having some ideas and wanting a place to put them at. All of us were interested in politics and debating issues out loud in our [dorm’s] lounge anyway.” It ultimately just made sense for the friends to come together and establish the Agora. When asked about his favorite column, Brad de Ramón, outreach director, said he most enjoyed writing “White News: Evaluating Charlottesville Media Coverage.” “I wrote [this piece] a week after the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, V.A., last August. James seemed enthusiastic about the podcast, noting how much fun it had been to produce during the previous year. “I honestly think the sooner we get to expanding the spectrum of views and backgrounds further, the better our site will be for it. The staff currently features nine established columnists, and executive board members write columns as well. Alex de Ramón noted that The American Agora was able to actively recruit writers from the Class of 2021 which allowed the staff columnists to grow more.

By Andrew Nicla | 22 hours ago Welcome to the eighth installment of The State Press Politics Roundup, where we bring you the week's coverage of on-campus and local politics. In recent USG and campus news ABOR approves ASU tuition increases The Arizona Board of Regents approved tuition proposals for the next academic year from the state's public universities Thursday. USG reflects on abysmal election turnout Student government elections ended last week, drawing the lowest overall voter turnout since 2008, despite efforts by current and newly elected USG officials to increase "student engagement." Candidates cited a lack of student interest, uncontested tickets and nuances in campus culture as possible factors for the low turnout. This week's reporting ASU academics "heartened" by funding boost to solar energy University researchers rejoiced over Congress' passing of H.R. 1625, which increases funding by 14 percent to the Energy Efficiency and the Renewable Energy Office. The court is currently hearing a lawsuit brought forth by Attorney General Mark Brnovich in which he claims the group of students are not eligible to receive it. School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership fights national criticism ASU's School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership has faced criticism for its Western-centric philosophy and its financial supporters from some since its founding last spring. Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter. Related Stories ASASU elections end with the lowest voter turnout since 2008 By Tina Giuliano | 04/05/18 9:07pm Arizona Board of Regents approves 2018-2019 tuition proposals By Andrew Howard and MacKinley Lutes-Adlhoch | 04/05/18 1:39pm A conversation about the March for Our Lives demonstrations in Phoenix By Cassandra Laubach | 23 hours ago

John Hickenlooper said Democrats and Republicans should look to the soda industry as a way to improve modern political discourse. “Coke hates Pepsi. Pepsi hates Coke — but you see don’t Coke doing attack ads against Pepsi” or vice versa, Hickenlooper said. As part of the discussion, the governor also mentioned two conversations he’s had with U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions about marijuana. Kim Reynolds. But the state’s status as an early bellweather in presidential races did not go unnoticed in political circles. Republican Gov. He said he liked the “symbolism of it” but that it wasn’t feasible, given the reality of presidential politics — in which big donors support not just people but the parties they represent. “It just won’t happen,” said Hickenlooper, who also swatted away questions about his own presidential ambitions. On Wednesday, Hickenlooper was in New York City for a round of media hits that included MSNBC, Cheddar, Rolling Stone and Politico, according to his staff.

Students at Howard University occupied the campus’s Johnson Administration Building in protest in 1968. Now, current Howard students are in day seven of an occupation of their own. Other demands were more Howard-specific, and a few of those were quite far-reaching: Students want the power to “directly propose new policies and revise existing policies”; ratify all hiring of administrators, trustees, and faculty; and most of all, they want the resignation of the university’s president, Wayne A.I. Two days after that, on Thursday of last week, HU Resist students started to fill the administration building in protest. President Frederick, who had already been speaking to media and issuing statements after the news of the financial-aid scandal spread, responded to a handful of the student grievances the following day. Over the next several days, as the protest drew national attention, there was a war of statements. Faculty announced its support of the students. But many of the issues historically black colleges and universities are in no way specific to them. The students at Howard see power and want more of it. “This entire protest is dictated not by the resignation of the president,” McCollum says, “but by the ideal of student power, and letting students have a bigger voice on their university’s campus.” What’s striking—as other campuses may soon find—is not what they are asking for, but their commitment to getting it.

As activists prepare to take to the streets in Washington and elsewhere on Saturday for the March for Our Lives, students from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school urged lawmakers on Capitol Hill to heed their calls and enact stricter gun laws. Can America's worship of guns ever be changed? We’re trying to take back our lives,” said David Hogg, a survivor of the 14 February shooting in Parkland, Florida. “It’s not a Democrat problem. It’s an American problem.” The Parkland shooting, which left 17 people dead, kicked off a wave of activism that is expected to gain momentum in Saturday’s march. The last major debate on gun laws in Congress occurred in the aftermath of the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut. But despite a national outcry over the shooting, which left 20 children and six educators dead, the US Senate failed to expand background checks after a Republican-led filibuster killed a bipartisan compromise. Some states, including Florida, recently enacted such a law. The bill is also co-sponsored by the Democratic senator Jack Reed, whose home state of Rhode Island is considering similar action. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, said it was no surprise that young Americans were leading the movement for change.

While Rajini urged students to not indulge in politicking, Kamal said that students owe to their nation to remain politically vigilant. “I ask you the same question former President APJ Abdul Kalam asked. I’m not asking you to become politicians. I ask you to carefully watch your politics. On the other hand, Rajinikanth, addressing students at MGR University, said, “I ask students not to participate in politics. “Because students of my generation failed to stay vigilant about politics, I believe we are in this situation right now. “I thought I'm an artist … I’ll stay away and let them do their job. Meanwhile, Rajinikanth said that he had decided to enter the fray to fill the vacuum the state was seeing: “They ask why I didn't enter when Jayalalithaa was ruling. Did I come to politics because of a vacuum? There is a vacuum ... for a good leader.

Meanwhile, dozens of D.C.-area students have already staged a “die-in” outside of the White House — and more are in the works — and national school walkout days are planned for March and April. With the U.S. national voting age at 18, such actions are one of the few ways available for most high-school students to make their voices heard at the national political level. As Amy Campbell-Oates, a 16-year-old who organized a protest at South Broward High School near Parkland, told the New York Times, “Some of us can’t vote yet but we want to get to the people that can.” And, while the platforms that young people are using to speak out may be new, there’s a long history of Americans who were too young to vote shifting the national conversation on social and political issues. A Children’s Crusade In fact, because the national voting age wasn’t lowered to 18 until 1971, it’s worth remembering that a fair amount of the most memorable civil rights and antiwar protests of the 1960s were staged by people who couldn’t vote yet. But children — children much younger than 18 — were also part of the history of activism before that point. During that episode, dozens of children were among the marchers who followed Jones from Philadelphia to New York to protest labor conditions, earning the event the moniker of the “children’s crusade.” (The name comes from a 13th century youth movement.) The Brown ruling, argues Rebecca de Schweinitz, a professor of History at Brigham Young University and author of If We Could Change the World: Young People and America’s Long Struggle for Racial Equality, put “school children at the center of the nation’s struggle for racial equality.” In explaining why she had to act when she did, Johns quoted the Bible: “Our parents ask us to follow them,” a classmate later recalled her saying at the time, “but in some instances…a little child shall lead them.” People too young to vote played a key role in the movement in the years to follow — for example, four college freshmen led 1960’s famous Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-in — and soon Martin Luther King Jr. and his fellow activists realized another unique role that children could play in their movement. Inspired by the student protests at Berkeley, student demonstrations spread at campuses nationwide, especially as the war in Vietnam escalated. Along with the War in Vietnam — which led to the refrain “Old enough to fight, old enough to vote” — recognition of that generation’s high level of formal schooling and civic education was a factor that led to the movement to lower the voting age to 18. Bettmann / Getty Images What Comes Next It’s too soon to tell what kind of impact the survivors of the school shooting in Parkland will have on the national gun-control debate, but American history suggests that there are two sides to the matter.

DeVos Wants to Right the Pendulum on Campus Sexual Assault. One assault is too many. One aggressive act of harassment is too many. And then, as happens, the movement to stand up for victims morphed into something different. The burden shifted from the accuser to the accused. But the university restricted Bonsu's movement on campus while investigating him. "Definitions of sexual wrongdoing on college campuses are now seriously over-broad," four Harvard law professors wrote in an August paper, "Fairness to All Students under Title IX," that challenged the Obama policy. "They go way beyond accepted legal definitions of rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment. Nonetheless, the White House released a statement that applauded DeVos' decision "to overhaul the Department of Education's approach to campus sexual assault enforcement under Title IX. These efforts will produce better policy -- one that ensures that sexual assault is taken seriously on campuses without denying the accused the fundamental protections of due process."