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Timeline
Summer
2002 - Students, meeting in each others’ apartments,
found the Undergraduate Organizing Committee (UOC) and launch an intensive
organizing campaign.
September 2002 – The UOC sponsors weekly speak-outs
and a large teach-in September 12th leading up to a historic September
25th civil disobedience. 67 undergraduates, alongside 600 workers and
community members, "Stand up For Change at Yale" in the largest
mass arrest of Yale students since 1970 and the largest civil disobedience
in Connecticut history.
October 2002 – Two UOC members are threatened
with arrest by University Police for leafletting during parents’
weekend. 35 UOC members confront President Levin at his ‘closed
door meeting’ with the YCC, demanding open dialogue.
November 2002 – 200 undergraduates confront President
Levin at a YCC Open Forum organized in response to the October action.
A largely dismissive Levin implies that those present are not "representative
students."
December 2002 – 77 undergraduates file formal
charges against President Levin for violations of Yale's Undergraduate
Regulations. The grievance process set forth in Yale's bylaws is eventually
railroaded and students are denied their ‘day in court.’
January 2003 – UOC becomes an adjunct member
of the Pan-Ethnic Coalition.
February 2003 – Over 200 undergraduates attend
the UOC "Reclaim Our Campus" rally, calling for just contracts,
the right to organize for GESO and the hospital workers, free speech
on campus, and a true partnership between Yale and New Haven.
March 2003 - UOC marches with thousands of community
members the first night of a 5-day strike. On Day 3, UOC member Julie
Gonzales '05 addresses a crowd of thousands at a rally featuring AFL-CIO
president John Sweeney. On Day 4, The UOC creates "Education in
the Streets." 500 undergraduates walk out into the streets in support
of Yale's workers. In blizzard conditions, strikers, community members,
and students hold classes on College St., teaching each other about
collective action and social justice, while building an alternative
vision of what our University can look like.
April 2003 – UOC constructs a “Better Way
Village” in front of Woodbridge Hall for three days. The Village
hosts events with Congresswoman DeLauro and Mayor DeStefano, rallies,
theater pieces, discussion groups with founding members of Local 34,
presentations on the Immigrant Workers' Freedom Ride, and a Freedom Seder.
May-August 2003 – UOC continues summer organizing and meetings, planning New Haven events for the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride. On June 6th, at
the climax of the Medical Debt campaign, Rev. Jesse Jackson walked through
Yale-New Haven Hospital and called for immediate reforms in “free-bed” disclosure and debt-collection practices. The full uncovering of the scandal resulted in landmark debt-collection legislation in the Connecticut General Assembly and outright debt-forgiveness for many low-income patients. On July 7th, after intensive lobbying by workers, clergy, community
members and undergraduates, the New Haven Board of Aldermen passed a
resolution to re-assess Yale’s tax status in the city. This represented a major step towards achieving a lasting and equal institutional partnership between Yale and New Haven. On July 23rd 500 workers and community members gathered in St. Rose of Lima Church in Fair Haven to kick off the New Haven branch of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride. On August 15th veteran Civil Rights organizer Rev. James Lawson (L.A. SCLC director) arrived in New Haven. He met with workers and U.O.C. members. On August 25th Sen. Joseph Lieberman came to Yale and publicly urged his alma mater to live up to its standards and settle just contracts with its workers.
August 26-September 18 – Strike. In an uncountable variety of ways, undergraduates engaged with the struggle, in what FHUE president Bob Proto called "the highest level of undergraduate solidarity and participation in Yale labor history." For more details, see "We're Not Gonna Take It": The Official Strike Timeline.
October 4, 2003 – The UOC, along with numerous other undergraduate organizations, sends 90 students to the culmination of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride in Flushing Meadows, Queens.
November 2003 – The UOC helps form a coalition of undergraduate organizations urging Yale to end a policy of urban redlining by extending its Homebuyer Program to the Fair Haven neighborhood of New Haven. On Dec. 9th, the University trustees agreed. More info here. Meanwhile, UOC and GESO members organize forums in six cities around the country on the topic of casualization in the Academy. As a result, parents and alums begin to engage Yale in dialogue on pressing issues confronting the future of the University.
December 2003 – Fourteen undergraduate women participate in Dec. 10th's symbolic civil disobedience, standing up for the rights of women and minorities in the Academy.
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