Now, say that five times fast. If you master that, try: "Pedro Pérez Pereira, pobre pintor portugués, pinta preciosos paisajes por poca plata para poder pasear por París" or "Tres tristes tigres trigaban en un trigal." But I digress.Today is the official investiture of Harris Pastides as the 28th president of the University of South Carolina. Instead of a fancy dinner with donors and politicians on the eve of his inauguration, he choose to hold a get-together with students with pizza and live music. "Pastides Palooza." Good idea. He also choose to use student government funds to pay for the event at a time when student governments funds for student groups are frozen due to university budget cuts. Perhaps not such a good idea, at least from the perceptions of students.
The symbolic power of the first decision is diluted by the symbolic power of the second, at least from the perspective of students. If the administration had simply footed the bill no one would have said much about.
Speaking of "saying much about it" there was a lot of scuttlebutt around campus about how students were going to protest Pastides Palooza. My students have graduate assistantships in student government and residence life and other such student affairs offices and they told me of the "possible protests." This came up in my class on "comparative and international higher education" on Tuesday after we talked about the role of students in university governance in Latin America.
I gave the history of the student voice in Latin American higher education and showed how, while some note/lament that it is on the decline, it is still alive. For example, in México students shut down la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (the largest university in the Americas) in 1999-2000 for nine months over tuition hikes. We watched two videos of protests by students in Perú. ("What was life like before YouTube, daddy?")
The first took place just before I went to Lima in May. The rector of la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (founded in 1551, it is considered the "dean of the Americas") agreed to a land-swap with the city of Lima so the city could build a bypass next to the University. This necessitated the tearing down of the wall around the campus perimeter. How did the students feel about this?
And then in August students from various universities joined together to protest against the government's unwillingness to enforce the "medio pasaje" laws that guarantee students the right to half-price bus fare. (Why is the important? Dorms are practically unheard of in Latin American universities; students often live far from campus.)
It's not hard to understand why San Marcos suspended classes today in light of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation being held in Lima. If students protest land swaps and bus fare with such tenacity, what might they have to say about the visit of Presidente Bush?
And the protests at the University of South Carolina?A handful of students showed up holding posters.
