Different responses to occupy movements

Jiayu Zeng

Section 02

Reading Reflection 4

In response to: “A Tale of Two Campuses: Berkeley and Davis Respond To Occupy Movements”

            Before, when I saw a strike or a protest, I did not try to learn the purpose for it or participate into it; but now, after watching the documentaries showed in class and reading all these articles, I admire the courage and determination of the students who went on strike and what they did not only for themselves, but also for all the students and the school. In this article, it compares the responses of two campuses, UC Davis and UC Berkley’s, to occupy movements. I was surprised and felt disappointed when I read the response from our school. I did not understand why they would complain in the announcement, which was inappropriate and meaningless. In contrast, Berkley’s response clearly showed its understanding and was trying to improve the situation. I believe the difference not only because Berkley had more experiences to deal with the occupy movements, but also it stood on students’ perspective to treat this issue, which allowed the administrators to understand their students easier. At the end of the article, our chancellor mentioned that students were frustrated and angry about tuition increased; I feel they were more frustrated and angry after they read the response from our school since the school did not understand them, which is very sad. Most of the time, students are the first one who sees problems occur in the school, so even though the administrators cannot fix the problems because of some controversial reasons, they should always listen to and understand the students.

How to increase the awareness of school’s administrators for the students’ movements?