More May Day events:

Occupy May Day
Solidarity Lunch
on May 1, 2012
from 12 noon – 2 pm

Local 153 OPEIU (Academic and Administrative Support Staff)
is inviting faculty, staff and students to join us in Solidarity
with the “Day Without the 99%”

Wear Red (for May Day) and or Black (for OWS)
Brown Bag Your Lunch (OWS is calling for “no shopping” on May Day)
and break bread together by the Cannon.

The teachers have been working without a contract for almost a year, our union and
the other unions are coming out to show solidarity with the faculty and the students
who have been subjected to annual tuition increases during a time when many
of our students are struggling to continue and complete their educations.

Once they graduate most of our students will find themselves burdened
by student debt at a time when finding employment is very difficult.

May Day is “International Workers Day” and has a long history of militancy, especially in NYC.

A presentation by Gregory Flaxman

Thursday, April 12, 5:30
Alumni Reading Room
Pratt Library, 3rd Floor

Gregory Flaxman is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, and Adjunct Professor of Communications, at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

His book, Gilles Deleuze and the Fabulation of Philosophy, Volume 1 (University of Minnesota Press, 2012), explores the centrality of aesthetics to project of philosophy as an ongoing creation of new concepts. He is also the editor of a collection of essays on Deleuze’s film theory, Cinema 1 and 2, The Movement Image and The Time Image, entitled, The Brain is the Screen: Deleuze and the Philosophy of Cinema (University of Minnesota, 2000).

This event is co-sponsored by Humanities and Media Studies, the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the United Federation of College Teachers 1460. Please contact Suzanne Verderber (sverderb@pratt.edu), Associate Professor of Humanities and Media Studies, for further information, or for an excerpt from the Fabulation of Philosophy.

–Suzanne Verderber

For the Spring 2012 issue, we’ve chosen the theme of “Occupy Hall Street.”  We’re seeking contributions from both union members and students that consider:  who are we, the 99%, at Pratt Institute?  What are the experiences and activities of this “we,” an amazingly diverse set of educators, artists, students, workers, and activists?  What practices and structures at Pratt need to be identified and critiqued as advantaging the 1%, often to the detriment of students, teachers, and workers alike?  What are we already doing to create communities that can resist the fierce and merciless brand of capitalism that holds sway over so many aspects of our lives–especially our work lives?  While the rhetoric of the 99% might just be a jumping-off point, we want to hear about how we’re already part of the larger labor and student movements spurred by OWS in NYC, and how we understand our concerns at Pratt in that broader context.

We’ll hold a editorial meeting on Tuesday, March 6th at 5:15 in the Union Conference Room, North Hall 123.  Open to all, please join us!

If you want to contribute or have any questions, please send an email to both Suzanne Verderber and Emily Beall –  suzanneverderber@gmail.com & emilybeall@gmail.com

In solidarity,
Suzanne and Emily