The Open University at Occupy Cal will hold teach-outs from 12-2 p.m. from Tuesday to Thursday on Sproul Plaza to address how education should be accessible to all, according to a Facebook event.
According to the event, Matt Williams, a UC Berkeley senior and candidate for ASUC president with the Defend Affirmative Action Party, will speak about “Why We Need Affirmative Action” tomorrow at 12 p.m.
Open University — a working group within Occupy Cal that is committed to the educational front — has been holding teach-outs throughout the semester, although they were temporarily stopped due to poor weather conditions, according to Navid Shaghaghi, a UC Berkeley senior and member of the group.
“Teach-outs are an alternative view of education … Open University’s vision (is that) anyone has something to teach and anyone can learn,” Shaghaghi said. “Education should be something free, comfortable so people can learn about anything.”
According to Shaghaghai, additional Occupy Cal events are still being planned and are yet to be determined.
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Affirmative action for who though? Whites compose 57% of california’s pop (2010 census) but only around 30% of the Cal undergrad pop (UC Berkeley Board of Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity). I have a sneaking suspicion that very few members of DAAP would be in favor of admitting less qualified White students over the overrepresented but highly qualified Asian students (13% state pop, 39% Cal pop).
Again, this is only speculation, but it seems that DAAP promotes only the inclusion of “underrepresented minorities”. This puzzles me, as it stands every Cal Student worked hard to achieve their acceptance so why should unqualified students be admitted over whites and Asians? Additionally, your party states that education should be free. Among the first things you learn in Econ 1 is that nothing is free, so who should be paying for the education of your “underrepresented minorities”……The parents of the very students who you would deny admission?
In what universe is that fair? How can you possibly justify such racial hostilities? In one of my favorite shows Boardwalk Empire, Nucky Thompson, the show’s lead played by Steve Buscemi, snapped at another Irish immigrant complaining about discrimination saying, “This is America, who the fuck is holding you back?”