Vol. 74/No. 22      June 7, 2010

On May 22 the administration conceded on one of the central demands of the strike, agreeing to not reduce the number of students receiving tuition waivers.

Some 30 percent of the 62,000 students at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) receive waivers, including athletes, musicians, and honor students. More than 60 percent of students receive U.S. federal education grants to help cover their expenses.

In the midst of the negotiations with student leaders, Ygrí Rivera, president of the university board of trustees, claimed the strike was a maneuver by “radical forces” that want to destabilize the university and install a “co-government.”

The strike by students at 10 of the 11 UPR campuses began April 21 after the Board of Trustees voted that students would no longer be able to receive both tuition waivers and federal grants and announced plans for tuition hikes. Students also fear the Puerto Rico government plans to privatize the university.

In November, Gov. Luis Fortuño began laying off 17,000 government workers as part of the “Fiscal State of Emergency Law,” passed in March 2009 in spite of massive protests by unionists and students. Fortuño claimed the measures along with a prior hiring freeze and an across-the-board 10 percent spending cut were needed to close a $3.2 billion budget gap.

The austerity measures have also affected the university.

Jorge Giovannetti, a sociology professor at the UPR Rio Piedras campus, told the Militant in a phone interview from San Juan that since the law was passed “there are fewer classes being offered, campus staff has been reduced, and professors are required to teach more classes.”

In an attempt to end the strike, the university administration, backed by Fortuño, sent cops to surround the campuses and block the delivery of food and water to hundreds of students camped out there, but backed down after just a few days.

Alyandra González, 20, a student at the private Polytechnical University in San Juan, supports the strike. “The university should be for everyone, not just those who can pay,” she said.

Striking UPR freshman Mariana Lima, 18, agrees. “That’s the beautiful thing about the UPR,” she said in an phone interview. “Precisely that the working class can get a university education.”

At one point the administration convinced some students to call an assembly they hoped would vote to end the strike, Lima said. “We went to the assembly anyway and beat them at their own game. Students voted overwhelmingly to continue the struggle.”

Students and labor unions have called for a march to the governor’s mansion May 27 to support the strike.
 
 
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