University President Dave Frohnmayer is back in town and ready to meet with anyone concerned about the Worker Rights Consortium and other issues that Johnson Hall protesters have underscored since the protest began Monday, April 3.
Today’s meeting time was set Saturday during a 45-minute meeting between Frohnmayer and eight students, a steelworker union representative and a graduate teaching fellow inside Johnson Hall. It will take place at 6 p.m. in the EMU Fir Room and is open to the public.
Over the weekend, students maintained their occupation of the lawn of Johnson Hall and showed no signs of letting up until all of their demands are met.
“It’s sad we’re out here on the steps,” said Laura Close, who has been one of the most vocal protesters.
She said students feel that they have little power in the University’s decision-making process, which is one of the main reasons for the protest.
Since the protest began, students occupying the space in front of Johnson Hall have emphasized the importance of each decision being made by the group as a whole. Though the Saturday morning meeting was amplified, allowing about 50 students and protest supporters outside of Johnson Hall to hear, they said they feel it is essential that all involved with the protest be physically present when any decision is made.
Frohnmayer, who returned from Washington D.C. Friday, said his staff went straight to work to set up a time to meet. The decision to meet Saturday morning took about four hours. He is prepared to announce his support of the WRC, but the final decision will depend on what the University Senate decides Wednesday.
Laura Gurley was one of the few students who did not leave Johnson Hall Sunday to catch up on homework.
“I don’t think [the meeting] was progress; I think it was a stalling tactic,” she said.
Close said she wants to make sure other student demands are addressed at today’s meeting. She said the protest is starting to look as though it is only about the WRC.
“I hope we can move forward to taking some things off the table,” Frohnmayer said in anticipation of today’s meeting.
Students want to open the lines of communication because they have felt ignored by Frohnmayer, Close said. Close was one of the students arrested Monday, April 3 in Johnson Hall on a charge of second degree trespassing.
The students stayed after 5 p.m., when the building officially closed, because they could not get a phone call with Frohnmayer to set up a time to meet, Close said.
Frohnmayer said he thinks the students who were arrested were unreasonable because his secretary told them he could not be reached at the time. When the protest began, he was attending a banquet dinner and was not carrying a cellular phone.
Some of the demands, Frohnmayer said, need to be reworked.
“Some of the proposals are off the mark,” he said.
In addition to the University joining the WRC for a period of five years, protesters demand more input in University decisions.
The demands call for a change in structure in the University Senate. The University Senate currently operates as an advisory body to the president, with legislative voting power on issues such as degree approval.
“It’s meant to strangle the power of the president,” Frohnmayer said of the demand for advisory committees to have direct decision-making power. “To turn it into an issue of University governance I think is a mistake.”
Close said she does not see it that way.
“We need decision-making power that doesn’t rest on one person, like the president, who is vulnerable to corporate influences,” she said.
Though students understand Frohnmayer’s reasons for waiting until Wednesday’s senate meeting before deciding whether to sign on with the WRC, they are concerned with the system as it stands at the University, Close said.
“We’re in support of the University Senate,” Close said. “We’re not in support of the larger system, but you have to use the existing structure to change the system.”
Others think students should not have significant power to make University decisions.
John Condie, a senior majoring in biochemistry, said he supports the WRC but disagrees with the anti-Frohnmayer sentiment within the occupation zone and the idea that students should have voting power.
“We’re not ready to run the school,” he said. “People need to trust our leaders more.
“It bothers me that when [Frohnmayer] gives his word that it is going to go through that people get angry that he won’t cater to a date set by someone else,” Condie said. He said he thinks the University is best run by people with experience.
“Everybody I know thinks [Frohnmayer] has done an incredible job,” he said.
On Friday, another handful of students staged a protest of the protest and held signs in support of Frohnmayer.
James Eddy’s sign read: “Don’t cave Dave.”
Passers-by shook Frohnmayer’s hand and expressed support for his effort. He talked to students about what is wrong with the protesters’ demands.
“I don’t think the University should take a stand on such a political issue,” said Eddy, who is a junior majoring in economics and business administration.
“I’m always trying to bring diversity to issues,” said Eddy, who also participated in the Honesty Campaign against OSPIRG last year. “I’m not here just to be the opposition.”
Though some of the protesters found Eddy’s presence annoying, they said they believed he had a right to be there.
“I like the fact that these other people felt secure enough to come out,” said Ann Strahm, who is a GTF and has been at the protest since it began. “It shows democracy in action.”
Frohnmayer also said he sees the protest as an exercise in free speech and said it can continue as long as it is peaceful and sanitary.
“After we settle the WRC issue, the students should declare victory and go home,” Frohnmayer said.