"It is no dishonor to be in a minority in the cause of liberty and virtue." -Samuel Adams
We have a problem, Humboldt State University advertises social and environmental justice but is quite the opposite. HSU promotes dictatorship, serial tree killing (Lumberjacks!?), vanishing corporate accountability, closed-door meetings, privatizing student resources, debt, sweatshop products, corporate mass produced inorganic processed food products (ex: Coca-Cola owns Odwalla), racist drug wars, intolerance and prohibiting free speech. Nothing is what it seems, marketing, the artificial flavoring of reality, misleads the masses. I tried exposing HSU's true nature and was rewarded with lessons in bureaucracy and corruption.
I was elected spring 2007 to Associated Students (HSU's student government) Legislative Affairs VP 07-08, and later illegally impeached, subsequently removed from office and my presidential candidacy removed mid-election spring 2008 of Associated Students. My candidacy ran on a revolutionary anti-administrative platform. The impeachment was narrowly approved by elected shoo-ins and unelected nominated student council "representatives." My presidential bid was blocked after a disciplinary hearing, held hours prior to the election, made me ineligible. Administrator's self-serving policy interpretation removed me from activism despite securing a runoff election spot. Ironically my previous position was to chair meetings and uphold the law, counter-intuitive to the interests of a willfully negligent criminal administration.
My catalyst for campus activism was HSU President Rollin Richmond telling students concerned with rising living costs to "get a loan; debt is the American way." After joining four AS committees, five including Community Action United to Save Education, I was an unrelenting critic against administrative bodies. My instincts predicted the student loan industry scandals by acknowledging the benefits to financial institutions at the expense of students. While administrators shamelessly accept pay raises, students and faculty struggle. Faculty workload increased with larger class sizes, diluted education, stagnant salaries and added stress. Students pay more tuition and fees while receiving less quality education, services and access to faculty.
Solutions proposed by administrators to HSU's perpetual budget crisis focus on reducing academics and student services. The administration has been unpopular with faculty, students and other university personnel, limiting participation as frustration culminates in protest and scathing criticism after immense expenditures of energy in vain. Diplomacy failed on a massive scale; those who tried were betrayed by false hope and hollow promises. It is impossible to resolve our issues as a whole when overpaid minority bureaucrats call the shots and control the university police. If the deck is stacked you can't turn the tables while holding a few of the cards, unless you stop playing their game. It is paradoxical to be successful in revolution while obedient to oppressors.
Our main barrier to justice is the conservative power structure, with student and faculty power dependent on administrative appeal. Nobody is held responsible, that might damage the university's image or some careers. Some believe that a "blame game" gets nothing accomplished, so is there no accountability? Accountability is difficult without knowing their administrative duties. For over a year Richmond's job description remains elusive. Richmond has been incapable of gaining support from his community beyond institutional cronyism since he has hired many new administrative positions (allies?) or replacing others like Provost Rick Vrem during summer 2007.
Will you let them remain in power as public budget meetings are canceled, pivotal hearings scheduled to prevent community participation, free speech "zones" restricted, KHSU's director forcefully "retired," activists made inactive, the German program eliminated at our German named university, our Native American Studies cut among other unique HSU programs, allowing Chevron to "support" alternative energy on campus, taking $14 million in loans for computer systems while destroying academics and get paid your tax dollars to do so?
Resistance is futile for the few; we need power in numbers to take control. You've got to say, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!!!" Don't delay or the battle will be more uphill. I beg you all, speak with friends and family about issues concerning this campus and our country. The revolution must be exercised, do not go along to get along, that is not what this country was founded upon. In the following weeks I will address education, environmentalism, elections, freedom of speech, 9/11, the war on terror, the war on drugs and more on this campus specifically with some solutions in place of criticism. I leave you with another Samuel Adams quote:
"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds."
Jason Robo is a political science/economics double major and activist involved in 9/11 Truth and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
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