BY VANESSA KNAPTON
MEXICO CITY, Mexico - Ten thousand students marched
across campus to the administration building here October
2. They were protesting attempts by university officials to
limit the number of students who attend the National
Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the largest
university in Latin America.
This march, organized by the University Student Council, was part of a series of student protests against recent government decisions to limit public education in Mexico. The protests began this fall when students realized that the university administration had denied admission to 8,200 students who had successfully passed the entrance exams. There are slots for 40,000 new students every year, but this year officials admitted only 31,800.
Many of the "excluded," as they are now known, along with other students, launched a 34-day hunger strike, which ended when the students occupied the administration building and forced university officials to listen to them.
The students demanded to maintain the number of newly admitted, maximize the total number of new students, stop selling the entrance exams to certain students, and end corruption in admissions.
Student organizers noted that the government is also trying to cut admissions to the Science and Humanities Colleges (CCH), preparatory schools that are an organic part of UNAM. Those who graduate from the CCH are admitted to UNAM without further entrance exams.
The administration had already "reduced the number of CCH students admitted from 15,000 to 7,000," said Araceli Murillo Rodríguez, one of the organizers of the student protests. She noted that, when students took over the University tower for a week after the hunger strike, they used the time to establish links with CCH and high school students as well as others affected by the new policies.
"The problem is that the University is too small for a city of 20 million," said Hugo Gómez, a political science student. "They want to privatize the university, but this kind of neoliberal proposal is not best for a country like ours."
Many of the leaders of these protests have also participated in other political activities, above all in solidarity work with the peasant struggle in Chiapas. They have organized caravans of humanitarian aid to Chiapas and successful fundraising events at the university, such as a rock concert that attracted 15,000 people.
In addition, they have participated in youth work brigades to Cuba. "When we were there, we discussed the question of human rights in Latin American countries and denounced the Torricelli law [which tightened the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba]," said Gonzalo Badillo, one of the students.
Barry Fatland from Los Angeles and Marilee Taylor from Chicago contributed to this article. Fatland, Taylor, and Knapton are railroad workers and members of the United Transportation Union.