Members of the local organizing committee for Free Minds Free People will lead a disorientation tour of the University of Minnesota. The purpose of the tour is to disorient attendees from the sanitized narratives of “diversity,” “campus climate,” “inclusion,” “multiculturalism,” “excellence” and other euphemisms used to mask the violence of the university. Instead, detour guides will orient attendees to past and present sites of resistance and activism. Detour guides will lead participants through histories of activism from the early 20th century to the present. Attendees will be oriented to the immense contributions of the Afro-American Action Committee, the Latin Liberation Front, the General College Truth Movement, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Beaver 55, queer liberation movements, animal rights activists, Students for Justice in Palestine, the U Community of Feminists, Danger Collective!, APIs or Equity and Diversity, Whose University?, Whose Diversity? and Differences organized (Do!). We will center the experiences of student activists who recognized the consequences of living, learning and laboring in a system designed without them in mind. “Being in and not of” means that though we are producers within the university, we need not be products of it. We can work against and potentially do without what we are within. In disorienting attendees from the cosmetic diversity and bonafide bs of the University of Minnesota, we hope to show why we see the University of Minnesota less of a land-grant institution and more of a land-grab institution; an educational system that is more private, than public; a corporation that presents students with more educational opportunists than educational opportunities; and a tower that is as anti ebony as it is ivory.

2. Credits
Thank you to: Lisa Arrastía, Chaka Mkali, Rose Brewer, Zenzele Isoke, Ryan Mur-
phy, Yuichiro Onishi, Jigna Desai, and Sofi Shank for helping me shape the direction
of my studies at the university. In addition, thank you to Lisa Sass Zaragoza, Illenin
Kondo, Steven Renderos, Jake Virden, Vanessa Abanu, Charlene Bogonko, Brianna
Wilson, students from the social justice minor, and the Office for Equity and Diver-
sity for feedback that has led me to develop the framework and content of this text
as it appears today. Thank you to my family, the Individualized Degree Program,
Bryan Kuzel from Global Studies, Tom Fitzgerald from the Honors department,
as well as the entire full time and student staff of the Community Service Learning
Center for helping advise and council me through several years at UMTC. Thank
you to all representatives and supporters of the Whose University? Campaign and
Sustainable Progress for Engaging Active Citizens (SPEAC) for inspiring me to
take on this project. Finally, I am greatly indebted to Bailey Sears for her incredible
dedicated work to help me design this zine as an electronic document so that you
can now read it.
38
About the WhoseU Campaign
In fall 2010, the Whose University? Film Project formed as an
autonomous organization concerned with the lack of support for
underrepresented groups -including students of color and low income
students- at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. We also started
the project to generate critical public conversation around the strate-
gic repositioning of UMTC as a elite research institution. We wanted
to hear new stories about ‘whose’ interests and ‘whose’ communities
should be prioritized at UMTC--- and ‘whose’ needs and ‘whose’ voices
were currently reflected in University policy-making. In the process, we
saw that whether in the struggle for space/resources for student cultural
centers, attempts to challenge university admissions policy, or pushback
against proposals to defund ethnic studies - the effects go beyond indi-
viduals to entire communities.
Yet, as the project continued to grow we saw that what was needed
was more than questions, more than stories, more than voices. We
needed to organize- to build power to confront systematic racial and
economic exclusions at UMTC from the bottom-up. We needed to
show that students have the tools and the networks that are needed to
start change. We needed to grow relationships and literacy that could
connect work at UMTC to broader movements for education justice.
This is why we used our April 20th ‘Day of Education’ event to call
upon the state of Minnesota to be attentive to the struggles around
access for underrepresented groups at UMTC. We made purposeful
linkages between communities, conditions and conversations - from
the Dream Act to the school to prison pipeline- and brought the pieces
together through our programming. The ‘Day of Education’ was a suc-
cess not only because it brought in over 600 attendees, including 300
high school students, but because it showed that what happens at the
University is not isolated from what happens in broader society. While
institutions like UMTC may operate as if there is a sharp divide be-
tween ‘the university’ and ‘the community’ -between ‘the academy and
‘the real world’- we explored the overlap.

3. Preface: Whose University?
Contradictions at UMTC....................................................................................page 4
Timeline: Alternative Histories
Four moments of crisis and change at UMTC............................................................page 5
Chapter 1: Whose Excellence?
Contesting the vision of the elite, research institution ..................................................page 7
Chapter 2: Whose Opportunity?
Racial/economic exclusions in higher education.......................................................page 15
Chapter 3: Whose Education?
Movement Strategy ............................................................................................page 20
talk about the classroom, page 21
deconstruct neoliberalism, page 22
organize people, resources, and ideas, page 23
think through your demands, page 25
don’t depend on bureaucracy, page 26
organize in multiple sites and watch out for divide and conquer, page 27
question the metrics, page 28
pose for your own camera and broadcast your own messages, page 30
Resources: Text & Ideas ....................................................................page 32
References: Appendix & Citations...............................................page 35
About this Zine........................................................................................page 39
About the WhoseU Campaign........................................................page 40
* The star means there is more graphics, citations, and discussion about this topic. See appendix.
Table of Contents
37
THIS ZINE
grows out of the work of the Whose University? Campaign from spring-
summer 2011. My involvement and the amazing leaders I met during this
time has profoundly impacted my life. I make this document as a way to
document conversations and ‘lessons learned’ as well as to offer my own
insights for future leaders, activists, and student organizers-- particularly
undergraduate students.
THIS ZINE
explores several contradictions surrounding the placement of students
of color and low income students at the University of Minnesota- Twin
Cities. Specifically, I critique the current vision of “excellence” at
UMTC as an elite, top three, research institution. I show the ways that
this vision informs institutional priorities and practices embedded in
racial/economic exclusions. This includes who is admitted, what kinds of
“discovery” are celebrated, what notions of “opportunity” are supported,
and how the commitment “diversity” is expressed .
THIS ZINE
shows that how we learn, teach, and work in the education system is key in
shaping which problems are deemed worth solving and whose perspectives
are valued and consulted in the process. Our educations are integrally
connected to what is happening in the world around us.... and our
response is part of framing what we envision for the future.
ABOUT THIS ZINE

4. 36

5. Preface: Whose University?Contradictions at UMTC
Preface: Whose University? 4
At University of Minnesota- Twin Cities, as within our public education system
as a whole, it is only in moments of larger ‘crisis’ and ‘contradiction’ that pub-
lic needs and public voices have taken over the institution. Moments of crisis
magnify the pressure of community demands. In 2011, we saw the WhoseU
campaign begin to take up space at UMTC to confront the tensions around ra-
cial and economic exclusions in higher education. This kind of occupation,
whether acknowledged and seen or not, is the basis of continued
movement.
However, the question ‘whose university is it?” extends beyond any individual
organization or group. Rather, it is the question we should ask eachother -as well
as to incoming President Kaler- throughout next five years of “transformation”
under strategic positioning. Necessarily, this question reveals several contradic-
tions between the official rhetoric around diversity and the reality of racial and
economic exclusions at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. I list some
three points here as a beginning, a preface to discussions that follow.
-public celebration of increasing ACT/SAT scores as well as class rank of incom-
ing students every year ...paired with a lack of critical discussion regarding an
admissions process that increasing prioritizes measures and metrics that reflect
disparities from the K-12 level.
-messaging to the state legislature and the media centered around the paramount
importance of UMTC to the future of the state ...paired with a failure to priori-
tize funding and resources on campus in any way proportionate to severity of
racial and economic inequities in Minnesota.
-the marketing of students of color in official advertising and the emphasis on
touring the second floor with outside visitors …paired with a failure to take lead-
ership in affirming the essential value of space for student cultural centers in the
central student union building.
35

6. National Context: American Civil War.
In the convergence of war, race and class tensions, westward expansion,
as well as the rising importance of both agricultural production and
industrialization, Congress passes the Morrill Land Grant Act in 1962. This
is the first instance of federal aid to higher education.*
University of Minnesota: Expansion of admissions.
The University was shut down during the Civil War and reopened in the late
1880s as a land-grant college under the Morrill Act. This act sets forward
the ideal of higher education for a broad layer of society (the “masses”).
In practice, the vision is extremely limited. It will take social movement
and organizing to truly begin to open UMTC beyond the most privileged
stratum of (white, male, upper class) society.
National Context: The Great Depression.
Mass unemployment and a growing movement of low income people
leads to the expansion of the public services, especially under FDR’s New
Deal. This is the idea of the social ‘safety net’ - a basic level of support
for working class families.*
University of Minnesota: The General College opens.
As an access point for low income students, especially the white working
class that had in reality been excluded from the land-grant ideal, the
General College provides developmental education to support first-
generation college students. The college does not grant degrees, but offers
initial coursework that students can then transfer to other colleges in the
Minnesota system. GC also uses a holistic admissions process.
5
1862
1932
FOUR MOMENTS OF
Crisis&ChangE
Timeline: Alternative Histories
34

7. University of Minnesota: Morrill Hall Takeover.
In January 1969, seven black students from the Afro-American Action Com-
mittee -along with some supporters- occupy Morrill Hall after over a year of
organizing. Within the next months, a Black studies program is approved by
the Board of Regents and the same year an American Indian studies pro-
gram is established. Two years later, twenty Chicano students occupy Mor-
rill Hall, making demands that lead to the Chicano Studies. These examples
demonstrate the level of confrontation and pushback that has been needed to
truly open the university to ‘the public.’
National Context: Economic Recession
Unemployment, underemployment, and high levels of private and public
debt are everyday concerns. The public education system is in ‘crisis’ as
well -according to some estimates, schools are more segregated and stratified
today than in the 1960s. What’s more, with the steady withdrawal of
government funding for public institutions and social services in the last three
decades, there are minimal supports. Racial and economic inequities have
increased, with low income communities of color, in particular, suffering
from the effects .*
University of Minnesota:
Ongoing pushback against the exclusive vision of UMTC as a Top Three
research institution.
1969
2000
6
at UMTC
National Context: The Civil Rights Movement.
National unrest and broad-based community mobilizations associated with
the Civil Rights movements end de jeure racial segregation. Laws are passed
ending discrimination in regards to race and other factors across the public
sector. The education system is slowly integrated as affirmative action pro-
grams become standard.*
Timeline: Alternative Histories33
appendix

8. 32
Chapter One: Whose Excellence?
7
chapter One
Whose Excellence?
Contesting the elite research institution
In recent years, the advertising campaigns of the University of Minnesota-
Twin Cities increasingly orient the school as a flagship institution for research
and excellence globally. We are used to seeing the tagline -’Driven to Discover’-
on all official university communications, as well as on floor decals, billboards,
television ads, and glossy magazine inserts around the state. However, fewer
students know that the entire University of Minnesota system, has undergone
a comprehensive strategic positioning “transformation” since the
early 2000s that set forward this vision for the university. Specifically, the goal
of achieving status as a TOP THREE research institution in the world
was officially established in March 2005, with the Board of Regent’s unanimous
endorsement of the University’s Strategic Positioning report.
“ To become one of the three best public research
universities in the world requires institutional focus and
a fundamental transformation of both administrative
operations and cultural expectations across all University
campuses. ” (2006 Administrative Service and Productivity
Task Forces & Steering Committee final report, page 12)
“More than ever, we must look beyond our past and beyond our
borders to thrive in an increasingly competitive and global higher
education scene.” (2005 Academic Taskforce final report, page 6)
“Consistent with the University’s mission and values, the University
is committed to achieving excellence through a diverse student
body.” 2010 Accountable to U Report
“I want to assure you that the leadership of this great University is fully
committed to achieving excellence in every aspect of our mission, in
fulfilling the promises we have to the University community and to the
state of Minnesota.” (President Bruininks Inaugural Address, February
28th, 2003).

9. • The vision of the University of Minnesota is
to improve the human condition through the
advancement of knowledge.
• We will transform the University by improving the
education of our students and our commitment
and people around the world.
• This focus sets us on the path to become one of
the top three public research universities in the world.
• We will accomplish our goals by cultivating
outstanding students, exceptional ,
dedication to innovation.
• Thirty-four task forces have submitted recom-
mendations on a wide range of University
objectives.
• University leaders have begun implementing
recommendations and will continue to evaluate
them as they are submitted to identify key
transformational initiatives that will propel the
University toward its goal.
-
tives will be announced in early fall to the Board
of Regents and the University community.
Key Messages
• The vision of the University of Minnesota is
to improve the human condition through the
advancement of knowledge.
• We will transform the University by improving th
education of our students and our commitmen
and people around the world.
• This focus sets us on the path to become one o
the top three public research universities in the wo
• We will accomplish our goals by cultivating
outstanding students, exceptional
dedication to innovation.
• Thirty-four task forces have submitted recom-
mendations on a wide range of University
objectives.
• University leaders have begun implementing
recommendations and will continue to evaluat
them as they are submitted to identify key
transformational initiatives that will propel th
University toward its goal.
-
tives will be announced in early fall to the Boa
of Regents and the University community.
Key Messages
Chapter One: Whose Excellence?
831
resources

10. 9 Chapter One: Whose Excellence?
This is the current vision of UMTC: a ten year plan for ‘excellence’
through strategic positioning.
“Strategic positioning is essentially a public relations campaign. It corrupts the ambitious
goal of truly becoming one of the top three research universities with cynical tricks so that
the University merely appears like it is in the top three. The vapidly titled report, “Achieving
Excellence,” is littered with examples.
In that report, the University touts figures that show total financial aid to undergraduates
has increased by 50 percent since 2005. Nowhere does it mention that tuition went up by
almost exactly that amount in the same period of time. Loans are included in the financial
aid numbers, so while the University claims that it is giving students a better deal, cost of
attendance and student debt loads are actually rising significantly.
The report pulls the same trick when it brags that research expenditures have risen by
$192 million over four years. Spending more does not necessarily mean higher quality, it
means just spending more.
It is painfully obvious that the strategic positioning agenda is obsessed with rankings.
Much money and energy has gone into raising the University’s retention and graduation
rates since the start of strategic positioning, and it’s easy to see why. Graduation and reten-
tion rates count for 20 percent of the formula U.S. News and World Report uses to create its
rankings. The standardized test scores, class rank and acceptance rate of the incoming fresh-
man class counts for another 15 percent, and sure enough, the University is trying to drive
up those numbers as well. While these statistics can be symptoms of a healthy institution, the
University is trying to boost them in order to help itself in the U.S. News and World Report
rankings, which do not provide a true picture of university quality.....”
[excerpt from MN daily article from 3/31/11]
30
Library. Twitter and Facebook are key tools as well as well as creating informal
pamphlets or zines.
In the pages that follow are some resources to use for generating alternative nar-
ratives around the problems/solutions in higher education.

11. 29
movementstrategy
Develop a precise, shared, and well-circulated
counternarrative.
The University of Minnesota spent over $1 million dollars this year
on advertising for the Driven to Discover campaign. A few years ago, it
was double this amount. The images and soundbites produced by this
campaign – of students cleaning test tubes and building robots- tell a story
about UMTC that is detached and decontextualized from the communities
surrounding it. Through the repetition of the same imagery and narratives
the goal of a ‘top three research institution’ comes to seem more feasible and
more logical. The fact that the billboards, television ads, and floor decals
are everywhere only works to further flood our minds and lives with messag-
ing that affirms the exclusive values of strategic positioning in the first place.
On-the-ground organizing at UMTC must confront and reframe the domi-
nant narratives around the purpose and goals of higher education. We need
to tell own stories about “what’s going on” and “who is affected.” After all,
we know what policy ideals look like on the ground.
The recent ‘Because’ campaign asks the question ‘why are we driven
to discover?’ Some examples of taglines: “because the unsolvable was invi-
tation enough”- “because we can change the course of history”- “because
tomorrow’s visionaries need focus today” and “because creativity fuels the
new economy”. At WhoseU, when we solicited our own ‘because’ state-
ments, we talked about textbook prices, about belonging and community
on campus, about concerns regarding the content of curriculum, and about
forgotten histories and events at the university,.
We also used the equipment available to broadcast on our own net-
works. Currently, we have been focused on retelling the story of WhoseU
and the organizing of the ‘Day of Education.’ Our film will use individual
interviews and strategic footage from the event to help tell a story about
underrepresented students organizing at UMTC. Many students have ac-
cess to cameras and video equipment at Rarig Theater as well as at Walter
10Chapter One: Whose Excellence?

12. 11 Chapter One: Whose Excellence?
Elite ‘talent’
Admissions practices at UMTC have shifted dramatically in the last
decade to favor competitive and high-stake test scores as well as students
who graduate at the top 10% of their class. Specifically, since 2004 the
average ACT score has gone up to 27.2 points, the number of National
Merit Scholars has doubled, and close to nine out of every twenty incom-
ing freshmen are in the top 10% of their high school class. These kinds
of numbers are extremely important for the college ranking process. Of
course, one should also note that these same numbers tell us little about
the university’s value or the quality of learning in the classroom. Test
scores have also been shown to be inadequate as the primary measures
for assessing future aptitude or potential within students.* Yet, the admis-
sions figures for incoming students continue to fulfill a key function: they
feed narratives and practices of elitism at UMTC. They actively exclude
students have more complex placement in relation to high school achieve-
ment and help to groom a student body that willingly accepts notions of
excellence at UMTC regardless of actual classroom content or support.
Uneven investments in ‘discovery’
The goal of becoming a research one university inevitably celebrates
and rewards certain kinds of ‘discovery’ and not others. Specifically, un-
even investment limits the scholarly research agenda as well as devaluing
the work of educators with their students. The CLA 2015 report describes
the way that the College of Liberal Arts, the largest college on campus,
was the only unit to lose revenue since 2008. This will force several CLA
programs/departments to downsize or merge in the next years. Those
with smaller class sizes and enrollment (as well as less income from re-
search grants) are particularly threatened -including ethnic studies depart-
ments. The survival and autonomy of these units is tenuous, regardless of
the ways that they serve individual students, the mission of the university,
the pursuit of knowledge within the academy, as well as the surrounding
community. In general, professors and departmental units at UMTC are
28
movementstrategy
...questionthe METRICS
Demography:
noun, the study of statistics such as
births, deaths, income, or the incidence
of disease, which illustrate the changing
structure of human population.
Demographics assist in regulation of a
population -charting who people are,
where people live, and what they do.
This process is supposed to ensure that
the needs of a population are met and
resources are distributed.*
The development of demography
in the United States is embedded within
the university as a site and subject
of analysis. As a starting place, the
university is crucially linked to the
conceptual grounding and technical
innovation of the national census- the
largest demography project in the
country. The first official census in the
United States emerges in 1790. The
politics of these ‘numbers’ are clearly
wrapped up within issues of racialized
labor and citizenship as well as the
economics of industrial production.
At the time, African Americans are
‘counted’ as 3/5th a person while most
American Indians are not ‘counted’ at
all.
1960s and 1970s social movements
brings a different meaning to the
census project both in higher education
and elsewhere. Comparison of ‘the
numbers’ becomes a key tool for
assessing the progress of civil rights and
antidiscrimination policy; accordingly,
the politics of collecting racial/ethnic
demographics become part of the
national debate for the next several
decades.
Our narratives as subjects who are constantly ‘measured’ within the education
system is important. The reality of demographic shift and the news that the United
States is close to ‘minority majority’ in the next few decades means that it is a perfect
time to develop a more critical approach to use of racial/ethnic demographics. This
critical approach quickly reveals all the ways that changing ‘the numbers’ -increasing
the faculty of color employed, numbers of students who graduate each year - cannot
be the sole focus of our demands. There are so many other factors that are still un-
measured- including campus climate for underrepresented groups, support structures
for first generation college students, culturally responsive and critical curriculum ma-
terials, and the presence of staff and faculty who are accountable to students’ needs
and experiences. ‘The numbers’ will always erase, limit, and exclude so we must
center voices-- not just percentages and pie charts. Thus, our wording and analysis
has to become more nuanced and sophisticated. In WhoseU we made an effort both
to point to numbers that yet unaccounted for publicly- admissions from the MPS and
SPSS school system for example- while also being attentive to the ways that often
stories speak to current conditions more than any number.
Demographics are a useful tool but they can also unnecessarily work against the
kinds of broad critique we want to develop.

13. 27
movementstrategy
Divide & Conquer
The idea of “divide and conquer” has been a standard practice in Western
political strategy going back for over a thousand years. Breaking apart
alliances by manipulating self interest (whether through “the carrot” or “the
stick) should be understood as an essential tool for empire building. In fact,
the “divide and conquer” strategy was explicit in many campaigns in the
colonial age, including the take British takeover of India, the German rule
of Rwanda, and Spanish rules in the Americas. It can be seen through the
tactics of purposefully spreading uneven resources, creating new social
categories to enforce hierarchy, using language as a tool for isolation,
and exploiting cultural differences.
The university is a workplace and a life chance-- this means that the stakes
are high when the context of organizing on campus may threaten salaries, class
credits, scholarships, coursework, and key relationships. Organizing work will
always have consequences for individuals and units who are committed to building
larger movements and critique. However, the precarious placement of individuals
in relation to their jobs, their research, and their coursework can also be targeted
and exploited, particularly in context of fears over the current economic recession.
At UMTC, we see the ways that the interests of undergraduate, graduate student,
faculty, and other staff are often divided against eachother. We see how struggles
over college access through admissions become separated from the fights on campus
to ensure social support for the student population already admitted as well as
organizing to ensure adequate wages and feasible schedules for the people who
would ideally work with these students.
From the beginning, WhoseU organized across sites to connect high school
students, educators, workers, and community members. We purposefully built up
understanding and capacity around several issues -admissions, cultural centers,
ethnic studies- that connected to different core constituencies. We saw that these
linkages between sites are incredibly necessary, particularly when the divide and
conquer tactics often prove so useful in the university.
Specifically, the more than our struggles as individuals and communities are
embedded within eachother the more difficult it is to drive a wedge between them.
An essential move in this process is to take speak to the larger communities off
campus in the way we frame the issues at any given institution. As pressure builds
to silence individuals who are inside the institution, community memory and
community leaders can help preserve the message and the demands. This is why
speaking to the broader city, nation, and state is essential for any description of
events on campus.
12Chapter One: Whose Excellence?
constantly under scrutiny for the kinds of research they take on and how.
It is beyond the scope of this text to explore all the connections between
broader social/political/economic interests and the research/work we
do inside the university. However, at a minimum it is important to note
that with the reduction in state funding since the 1980s, budgeting at the
university has become overly dependent on generous private/corporate
grants for research. Teaching often must take second place in this context,
leaving little space to prioritize lasting community engagement work and
student-professor relationships. Instead, we see the increased presence of
poorly resourced graduate student instructors and P&A instructors. These
workers have temporary contracts with the university and few benefits.
Thus, the conditions of the workplace are another factor that confines pos-
sibilities for ‘discovery’ in the classroom and beyond.
Incoherent and unaccountable internationalism
Even as the university becomes more unaffordable to local resi-
dents each year, including the increasing numbers of students from im-
migrant backgrounds in Minnesota, the numbers of international students
at UMTC has easily doubled since the early 2000s. At the same time,
many course titles and class descriptions have changed to include the
word ‘international’ ond ‘globalization.’ The university has expanded its
internal student exchange programs alongside options for UMTC students
to study abroad. The Institute for Global Studies has grown notably in ad-
dition, as well as the Learning Abroad Center, the International Working
Group, and the International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS). Yet,
‘global’ movement on campus often grates against the particular context
of UMTC within urban Twin Cities. Rhetoric around internationalism
unwinds when we look at the crumbling of key pipelines for students from
the Minneapolis and Saint Paul public school systems as well as tensions
around many of the university’s “community-based” extension programs,
service initiatives, and research, the rhetoric. Are conditions in Cedar
Riverside, Frogtown, Midtown, or North Minneapolis somehow not “glo-
balized” enough for attention? When will UMTC prioritize responsible
and critical engagement with the global communities in its backyard?

14. 26
“Today, the project of transforming the University…. does not rest solely on the shoulders of
university administration but increasingly depends upon the active participation of undergradu-
ate and graduate students, tenured, non-tenured and adjunct faculty, and staff…Many of us have
sat on dead-end university committees, taskforces, and “representative governing bodies” simply
to signal to employers and tenure committees that we have participated in the governance of our
institution. This bureaucratic laundering of time and labor is not just an innocent waste of time;
it helps stabilize the image of the University as a democratic and collectively managed institu-
tion.” -from paper by Kamola and Meyeroff, ‘Creating Commons’ page 1, page 21-22
movementstrategy
Let’s face it: what matters are the outcomes and effects of a given policy de-
cision, regardless of individual intent. These effects are never “neutral” or “un-
biased.” All decisions come from somewhere and have certain consequences-
they are not flat, random, abstract choices that fall out of the sky. So, constantly
negotiating over the details and minutia of bureaucratic process and policies in
order to make things more “objective” is not a good use of time. UMTC has
enough layers of decision-making to run anyone to burnout. Depending too
much on bureaucracy is a sure path to failure.
Of course, it is important to understand how the UMTC bureaucracy
works. Yet, it is more essential to see that substantial change comes only through
organizing and mass movement. As a student, it is especially unlikely that you
will have much more than a symbolic “voice” in the process unless you have rela-
tionships and connections within the university that allow you to bypass bureau-
cratic hurdles. This is why lobbying the MSA, or sitting in other tedious meetings
mostly run through popularity contests, was not the main focus of WhoseU.
Instead, we built an autonomous student organization connected to an extensive
network of community support.
Bureaucracy – layers of hierarchical authority that are part of the ‘govern-
ing’ structure of liberal institutions– appears to disperse power and decision-mak-
ing away from any one centralized decision-maker.* Many people participate in
the bureaucratic ‘governing’ of UMTC- a school of some 60,000 students. This
includes individuals well beyond what we call ‘the administration.’ Participation
could be part of paid full time employment (as staff or faculty of the Univer-
sity), a part of involvement in ‘voluntary’ decision-making bodies (committees,
working groups, boards, taskforces, advisory councils), or an outgrowth of having
to adhere to official codes and policies for conduct (as registered student groups,
teams, clubs). Regardless of the form, this participation requires a level of “self-
regulation” – that is, we have to police our conduct and politics carefully to work
inside bureaucracies. In general, the consequences for failing self-regulation will
usually appear to be carried out by peers and colleagues. Just think about tenure
review.
13 Chapter One: Whose Excellence?
Disinvestment in key support structures for students
of color and low income students
According to many students, faculty, staff, as well as college guidance
counselors, and high school applicants, and parents that met with WhoseU in
2010-2011, the lack of an accountable and comprehensive support structure
for students of color, low income students, and first generation students is hav-
ing extreme effects at UMTC. This crisis around college access begins but also
extends beyond admissions. It is seen in the current struggle over the second floor
of Coffman Memorial Union where is clearly impossible to limit discussion to the
procedures of space allocation when the stakes are so high for the communities
represented. It is also seen in the ongoing debates over suggestions to downsize
the ethnic studies departments.
A good place to begin understanding the current moment is with the clo-
sure of General College. GC closed in 2005, amidst mass protests and communi-
ty push-back. The proposal was a key element of the initial strategic positioning
plan even though today many new students don’t realize that GC even existed.
GC used a holistic admissions process to admit student who may not have ben-
efited from AP, IB, and Honors in high school but still had promise and potential
and promise as university students. As such, the college was key pipeline for stu-
dents color and low income students from Minnesota. It was also nationally rec-
ognized as a site for developmental education- supporting and retaining students
who otherwise would not be able to access the resources of the university.
Since 2005, many key components of GC have re-purposed and quickly
forgotten. Initially, a ‘general studies’ program was integrated into the College
of Education and Human Development, a school which now definitely does not
reflect the racial diversity or the mission of the original GC. Other measures
were also put in place, most notably the Access to Success (ATS) program and
the Summer Bridge Program. Resources for these programs were substantial for
the first couple years even though the scope of ATS was much smaller. However,
ATS has been weakened through defunding and a lack of administrative support
and commitment. Scholarships from the Multicultural Excellence Program and
the Founders/UPromise have also been downscaled.

15. 25
movementstrategy
“We demand....... that the University of Minnesota establish at least 200 full scholar-
ships for the graduating class of Black Minnesota high school students. We demand....
full consideration of a proposal to eliminate tuition for underprivileged Black high school
students. We demand.... the establishment of guidance counseling and recruitment agencies
geared toward the needs of Blacks students. We demand... the establishment of a board to
review the policies of the athletic department towards Black athletes. We demand... that
the new library on the West Bank be named after Martin Luther King, Jr. We demand...
equal representation of Black students on all major university policy determining groups.
We demand... educational curriculum at the university to reflect the contributions of Black
people to the commonwealth and culture of America.” -list of demands from the 1969
Morrill Hall takeover
Think through
your demands
A demand is a concise and pointed statement of ‘what we want specifi-
cally and immediately’ that can help catalyze and focus energy. In context
of a movement, well employed demands will allow tangible, concrete ‘wins’
and build political literacy. However, a risk in the process of synthesizing
down a demand is that you can easily start generating demands that are
addressing the symptoms of the problem rather than the root cause. For
example, one has to consider, ‘should our fight be over a 3% raise in the
numbers of faculty of color at the institution or is it about redefining tenure
or is it about both as well as a racial equity analysis of hiring and faculty
placement decisions across the college.’ Find ways to make demands that
address the overall priorities and vision of UMTC as well as specific policy
and practices.
Also, remember that demands alone are not sufficient to organize a
group. You can send out an inflammatory email, visit classrooms to say
‘end student debt now’, or take a megaphone out on the mall. In fact, you
can make demands all day long. But, most likely you won’t be able to turn
out many more people than those already mobilized. It can be hard to
break through the layers of apathy, cynicism, and indifference. In a society
where we are increasingly encircled within ‘private spaces and private lives,’
demands are most useful when developed collectivity in ways that speak to
multiple constituencies and stakeholders.
14Chapter One: Whose Excellence?
Five Pillars of
Strategic Positioning

16. 24Chapter Three: Whose Education?
movementstrategy
So you have people in the room, what else do you have? An
important part of building power is leveraging resources within
and outside the group. Often, these resources are simple but es-
sential- Who has access to a laptop? What are some skills we can
share in the group through a training or a teach-in? Where can we
get free printing? Where are the pots of money – grants, in-kind
donations, fundraising events- that will help pay for bagels as well
as help account for the labor of the group? For WhoseU, access
to media equipment and space for an unofficial student group to
host meetings was essential. We also had to work hard to figure
out how to fund our ‘Day of Education’ event and how to pool
resources among student groups that may have never collaborated
together before.
Do not assume that ‘everyone is on the same page.’ Ever.
Just because we may be on similar emotional registers or find
ourselves seated together in the room today does not mean that
we have already established ‘what’s wrong’ and ‘what to do about
it’. Organizing ideas requires a willingness to see that we need to
build a shared political literacy to build a shared political move-
ment. And this literacy will require not only that we synthesize
and analyze information -about the policies, histories, and current
conditions at UMTC- but also that we organize messages about
the purpose and practices of the University in the first place.
15 Chapter Two: Whose Opportunity?
chapter Two
Whose Opportunity?
Racial/Economic exclusions in higher education
“As Minnesota’s only comprehensive research and land-grant university, we
have an essential role to play in developing human capital, creating innovation,
and sharing knowledge in support of our businesses and industries, our families
and communities.” - President Bruinicks, legislative testimony February 22, 2011
Lets make it real simple:
Opportunity is...
1.
2.
3.
an appropriate or favorable time or occasion
a situation or condition that promotes the attainment of a goal.
a good position, chance, or prospect, as for advancement or
success.
The University of Minnesota- Twin Cities is a Research 1 university that
provides many options and opportunities for students in Minnesota. It is one of
the largest universities in the nation and has the capacity to greatly impact broad-
er trends and investments within higher education. With 40,000 undergraduates,
high school students from across the state come to campus each year in hopes of
eventually attending the university.
Yet, a local high school student who submits an application to UMTC is really
submitting record of their experiences within a racialized and stratified education
system. Minnesota specifically has one of the largest K-12 achievement gaps in
the nation.* The gap persists even when data is aggregated to account for socio-
economic class. A recent report by the Minneapolis Foundation describes the
situation, “The state’s population of children of color is growing in both size and
diversity. In 1990, children of color represented just 9.2% of the state’s public
school students. By 2004, that figure had more than doubled to 19.8%.” Accord-
...Admission to a four year college

17. 23 Chapter Three: Whose Education?
movementstrategy
ORGANIZE The basic goal of community organizing is to build power for
people solve problems in their lives based on their own networks,
resources, and skills.
The smallest unit you can organize is a relationship between
two people. Relationships are the glue that holds everything to-
gether- your relationships with others and the relationships that are
facilitated (or not) within the group become a key factor in the long
term sustainability of the work. To be clear: Who is in the room
-or not- matters greatly. In WhoseU, we saw that the importance
of actively recruiting students who had not been involved in orga-
nizing work before but were most directly impacted by the policies
under discussion. This was the difference between a campaign
that discussed ‘what’s happening to them’ and a campaign that
actually built power to confront ‘what’s happening to us’. We also
tried to limit participation initially from allies who were more expe-
rienced activists but also did not represent our base constituencies
(i.e. students of color, low income students, first generation college
students). We also asked people to step back who were not actively
committed through their actions to allow new leadership and voic-
es to come forward. Through this process, we saw over and over
again that who is in the room influences the content of conversa-
tion (the results, the questions that are asked, the issues that remain,
the decisions that are made, the topics that are addressed) as well as
the nature of conversation (who speaks and when, how tension or
silence is present, who facilitates, who is able to participate).
16
Chapter Two: Whose Opportunity?
ing to Minnesota Office of Higher Education projections by 2015, students of
color will comprise about 20 percent of Minnesota high school graduates. Yet,
African American and Latino students in Minnesota were only 55% and 53%
likely to be at “proficiency” level on the 2008 MCA Reading tests in 3rd grade,
compared to 86% of white students. By 10th grade they were at 36% and 42%
accordingly in comparison to 78 % of white high school students. Clearly, the
notion of “equal playing grounds for all students” who apply to UMTC from the
local school systems cannot hold up in this context. Rather, unequal opportuni-
ties and outcomes that begin in elementary school become impossible to ignore.
Yet, the college admissions process perpetuates racial exclusions even
beyond what happens on the K-12 level.* In fact, according to National Center
for Education Statistics the racial gap in college enrollment nationwide has grown
since 1977 even as the racial gap in terms of high school drop outs has lessened.
Recent studies also show that elite schools like UMTC are increasingly shutting
out low income and students of color.* Thus, the struggle to expand admissions
to UMTC is central- not periphery- to any discussion of racial disparities in the
Minnesota public education system more broadly.
UMTC could expand its notions of merit and evaluate ‘talent’ in ways that
truly attend to what is going on in our Minnesota K-12 schools. This would
mean prioritizing low-income and students of color from the state who have the
potential to graduate from college with support but who may have come out on
the wrong side of the achievement gap after high school. However, in the last
ten years it seems that just the opposite has occurred- the university has restricted
access points, emphasized racist and classist high stakes testing, and openly pro-
moted community colleges as the ‘alternative’ for this exact cohort of students.
When we talk about admissions to UMTC we are talking about more than
individual opportunity- we are talking about opportunity for entire communities
and populations.

18. 22Chapter Three: Whose Education?
“The trouble is, there is a fundamental difference between being a student and be-
ing a consumer. Education is not a product but a relationship and a process... and the
process by which knowledge transforms the individual. When someone buys a car or
a hamburger, he or she is purchasing a pre-packaged, readymade commodity to satisfy
a specific need. Education is about creating critical thinkers whose skill is precisely the
ability to challenge ideas that are pre-packaged or readymade or designed to satisfy such
a need” - malik, kenan. What is education for? goteborgs-posten, 31 december 2010
deconstruct neoliberalism
movementstrategy
A sustained critique of the neoliberal education system is es-
sential for countering notions that education is a private, individual
choice rather than a public, common good. Rather than favoring
private solutions to public problems, we need to respond the lan-
guage of supply/demand and the use of cost/benefit models that
continue to justify making public higher education at UMTC less
accessible and less accountable to the community. In general, we
must contest the logics of neoliberalism - which means confront-
ing the assumed rationality of capitalist economics as the primary
framework for discussing the practices and priorities of the uni-
versity. Students as consumers, retention rates as measures of
customer satisfaction, universities as businesses, research as income
generated, academic departments as financial units, and a degree
as a standardized product... these comparisons are all examples of
these logics. As already described, the basic framework of strategic
positioning at UMTC, the single enterprise institution, perfectly
reflects the neoliberal model as well.
17 Chapter Two: Whose Opportunity?
...and graduation with a degree Graduation from a well-recognized university will influence any individuals’
future economic and social opportunities. According to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, only college graduates, compared with various other education levels,
have experienced growth in median weekly earnings since 1979. This is the
education wage premium- the tangible difference in a paycheck between someone
with a college degree and someone without.* Of course, higher education pro-
vides access to networks of power far beyond actual employment. The internships
at the state legislature through the department of political science, that fraternity
alumni event you attended last fall, your experience doing lab research with pub-
lished faculty in the field, or the connection you made with a guest speaker at the
college job fair last week cannot be underestimated. Even the language and ‘pro-
fessional’ manners one has to master to navigate within the university has value.
Yet, in April 2011, the Minnesota Daily reported that less than half of all
UMTC African American students graduate in six years. Students of color have
much lower graduation rates than their white counterparts in general, and gaps
between four year graduate rates are only worse. According to the National Cen-
ter for Public Policy and Higher Education, Minnesota more generally has one of
the largest gaps in the nation between white students and persons of color when
it comes to degrees awarded per 100 college students. Perhaps it is not surpris-
ing, then, that low graduation rates for students of color at UMTC also align with
the racial employment gap in the state. Statistics show the state unemployment
rate for African Americans in 2010 was 22.5%, compared to around 8% for their
white counterparts. Again, Minnesota is notable nationally for high disparities -
which exist for other communities of color as well.*
Institutional outcomes at UMTC matter. There is incredible potential for
the University to take up leadership in confronting institutional and structural
inequities. As a large state school and a four year university, the trends at UMTC
are part of shaping opportunities and outcomes for communities in Minnesota at
large. Unfortunately, at this point we still see both barriers to access and barriers
to success.

19. 21 Chapter Three: Whose Education?
“The University of Minnesota, founded in the belief that all people are enriched by
understanding, is dedicated to the advancement of learning and the search for truth;
to the sharing of this knowledge through education for a diverse community; and to
the application of this knowledge to benefit the people of the state, the nation, and the
world.” - UMTC mission statement
When we start with the classroom, we are able to develop the
kind of overarching structural critique that is required to understand
what’s going on in our education system and what to do about it.
For example, we start to see that the University of Minnesota- Twin
Cities is more than the campus, the buildings, or the individual
students, faculty and staff who come here everyday. It is part of a
broader intellectual project- the American academy- that has its own
contentious histories and philosophies. This project has for years
supported classrooms based on competition, ridicule, exclusion and
erasure. Talking about our experiences in the classroom in relation
or in contrast to these terms is a good way to begin conversation and
start envisioning solutions. For example, our class sizes, the prior-
ity placed on teaching/learning, and the other kinds of labor that
educators and students have to complete outside of school (in the
workplace, at home, in the military, etc) all greatly affect our educa-
tion. The existence of accessible equipment, critical and provoca-
tive course readings, and varied class offerings impacts how we learn.
Also, the broader political climate sets the stage for any response or
pushback to alternative pedagogy and curriculum. Finally, the ways
voices are valued or not in the classroom ---and students’ feelings of
belonging in the classroom---- are especially important to what we
learn and how. In WhoseU, we found that one of the easiest ways to
start conversations about the exclusive values outlined in previous
chapters was through discussing students’ experiences in the class-
room.
talk about the classroom
movementstrategy
18Chapter Two: Whose Opportunity?
institutionaloutcomesmatter.

20. 19 20
chapter Three
Whose Education?
Chapter Three: Whose Education?
“Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate
integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system
and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the
means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with
reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their
world.”- Paulo Freire
Movement Strategy
Education can provide tools for articulation, ideas for contemplation,
and skills for building new worlds. However, the privileges that place us in-
side the ivory tower in the first place often keep us from raising the stake of
our demands upon the educations we experience in this space. Therefore,
what follows below are some <strategies> for raising our eyes from policy
reform or even institutional reform to education justice- a call for educa-
tion that is anti-oppressive and forwards students and educators as agents
for social change in their communities. Importantly, this text focuses on
‘movement strategy,’ acknowledging any discussion of tactics or specific
campaigns should occur in relation to a broader movement to end to social
disparities, segregation, unfair workplace conditions, the forced isolation of
the classroom from the rest of society, the policing of the bodies, behavior,
and knowledge, the insistence on oppressive and competition-based peda-
gogy, and other forms of violence within our schools and universities.