Rally to Save the U's General College

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The rally to protest President Rubricks plan to get rid of the General College (which allows many poor students and minorities to get into the U) was today. It was really beautiful. Far more people that I expected. I'd say at least 300, probably more though. By the end, quite a few people had left. We had some great speakers. A member of the city council was the best, we had the president of the local NAACP chapter, the Dean of the GC, and many others.

It was right outside the Administration Buidling. Hopefully the got our message.

[loveable liberal]

1. They tried that when I attended 1985-90

I started in General College and graduated in the college of Liberal Arts. General College saved my college career. Back then the U president called it Commitment to Focus (f&%kus). General college is a great place to find your interest, especially if a person didnt do so well in high school.

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4. now they are trying to..

become one of the top research facilities in the world or something.

lets let the ivy league schools do they ivy league thing, and the public schools do the PUBLIC school thing.

[demjuli]

2. It looked like a lot more than 300 people

from inside the administration building! Many in the administration support keeping GC, by the way.

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3. i suck at estimating

i always try so at least people can get some kind of idea. plus, i'm always afraid of overstimating. it was hard, because when the group I'm in puts on our anti-war protests, we face the other way, and are a lot more spread out.

towards the end i'd say 300 was good, but it was almost definitely more during the peak of it.

i saw one lady standing in the doorway the whole time watching us.

if we looked big form inside the administration building, then we rock. :-)

i'm assuming you work there?

[demjuli]

5. I could be wrong, but I didn't even see it at its peak

I saw the protesters sometime between 11:30 and 11:45, and I know the PA system couldn't even be turned on until 12:00, so I'm assuming the crowd grew when there were speakers. But I'm probably not a great estimator either.

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6. i'd say peak time was 12-12.15

about half of northrop mall was full, with people scattered throughout the rest.

[thefriendlytipster]

7. My opinions on GC

I thought the rally went really well. There was at least 400 people in attendance and they somehow got funding for "Save General College" t-shirts.

While although I did not attend GC, I did spend 2 days in front of GC getting people to vote in the student government elections. From my observations the GC is by far the most diverse place on campus. Every race, religion and socioeconomic background was represented.

In my opinion GC will be saved. Bruininks is a pushover and the outrage that develop if GC was shut down would be way too great.

http://www.thefriendlytipster.blogspot.com