Solidarity Campus Organizing and Leadership Training

Date: Tuesday & Wednesday, July 30th – 31st, from 9am-5pm

Location: UTLA Union Office, we will provide more details upon registration

Registration: http://bit.ly/SolidarityCampus 

Facebook Event Page: Solidarity Campus

Over the past year (2018-2019), students, faculty, staff, and community members have been engaged in a fight against impaction (exclusion) at Cal State LA. Campus administrators concocted a plan to alter admission requirements in order to reduce the number of students accepted each year with little consideration for “shared governance” or consultation with the faculty. Impaction will particularly limit access to the campus for working-class Black and Latinx students, who can’t afford expensive SAT prep courses. More to the point, Black students at Cal State LA have already been feeling the effects of systematic impaction, even before the official declaration. For example, in 2012, over 50% of the Black students who applied to the university were admitted, but by fall 2018, the acceptance rate for Black students had dropped to 23.6%!

Even though campus administrators ultimately forced through their impaction plan, opposition to administrative overreach led to an Associated Students’ vote of “no confidence” in the President, Provost, and Vice Provost for Enrollment Services in April 2019. The Academic Senate had an opportunity to endorse ASI’s vote of no confidence, but unfortunately, the final meeting of the Spring semester ended with a highly contested split vote (50/50). Despite the “no confidence” vote failing in the Academic Senate, it is clear there remains considerable discontent with the current leadership of Cal State LA. What is more, the anti-impaction struggle coalesced an oppositional group of faculty, students, and staff who remain committed to fighting for educational and racial justice at Cal State LA. 

As a result, a number of education workers (faculty and staff) and students have been discussing the importance of gathering to assess what transpired last year as well as to brainstorm how we can be better organized for the Fall. This is where the idea originated for convening an organizer training centered on building solidarity among the various constituencies on campus. Thus, we are planning the first annual summer Solidarity Campus Organizing and Leadership Training (SCOLT) intended for Cal State LA students, faculty, staff, and community partners on July 30th and 31st! SCOLT will be a space where participants can learn the basic skills necessary to build solidarity and power on campus in order to confront the neoliberal university. 

This 2-Day Training is FREE and will include workshops, role-plays, and group brainstorm sessions concerning all the fundamentals of campus organizing, including mapping the campus, recruiting others through one-on-ones, planning a campaign, and taking direct action. Food and refreshments will be provided. Some organizing topics that will be covered, include:

• Setting Intentions and Group Agreements
• Visioning the Solidarity Campus
• Campus Power Analysis
• Media training
• Security culture (legal, cyber, police interaction)
• Outreach and retention
• Strategies and tactics
• Demand(s) building

If you plan to attend, we ask that you complete the above registration form so we can better plan for the training, i.e., ordering the appropriate amount of food, organizing manuals, and other training materials. The training is being convened by FORGE Justice, the Educational Justice and Solidarity Committee of California Faculty Association, IWW 620-LA, and autonomous student organizers at Cal State LA.