Buffalo: State of University vs. State of the People

Buffalo, New York

Students, staff, and community members gathered in front of Slee Hall on the University at Buffalo’s North Campus on Oct. 11. Packed in that concert hall were 100 to 120 university administrators, deans, department heads and donors, who were all there to listen to the president’s State of the University address.

Outside the concert hall was a separate event called “The State of the People.” The SOTP is an activity various on-campus and community groups hold each year to represent organized labor, anti-imperialist organizing, and Queer and National Liberation struggles. This year’s SOTP was dedicated to the Palestinian resistance and to promoting unity of action between different spheres of organizing at UB.

The Communist Student League gave the main address outside. The talk highlighted how the university is directly tied into the various modes of oppression of working-class and oppressed folks, including the theft of student and staff labor to fund genocide and oppression both at home and abroad.

The CSL address also underlined how settler colonialism is not just at play in Occupied Palestine, but also in the land of the Seneca Nation upon which the University at Buffalo was built, and at the U.S. Southern border where migrants are detained, and ICE/Border Patrol recruiting and military technology research from the university are employed.

15 demands

The speech ended on a platform of 15 demands:

1. That the University and the UB Foundation immediately pass legislation boycotting and divesting from Israel and any firms supporting the occupation and genocide in Palestine;
2. The University, the UB President, the UB Vice President, and the UB Foundation disclose to the public record all financial interests, investments, gifts, and ties over the past five fiscal years;
3. The immediate expulsion of all military, police, and border patrol recruiters from campus, and a written order banning them from returning to campus;
4. Open investigations, through the office of student conduct, into all-white nationalist groups and activities in support of the Zionist occupation on campus, with students and staff involved in white nationalist and Zionist organizations and activism to be expelled from campus;
5. Immediate enactment of a four-year plan to update and address all ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) violations in all campus buildings by the end of a four-year term. The four-year term is effective starting on the day of publication of the ADA plan: the plan is to be published publicly within four months of receipt of this demand;
6. Partial tuition waiver to all student workers regardless of graduate or undergraduate status, or appointment classification;
7. Immediate increase of student employee wages to $23/hr, with yearly adjustments for inflation and cost of living;
8. Establishment of peer run center to support LGBTQIA2S+ students and students of color;
9. Subsidize the cafe and UB store systems to reduce costs of student food, toiletries, and OTC medicines on campus by a factor of no less than 15% of its current market price (before tax);
10. Yearly surprise safety inspection of all student worker facilities;
11. Expand final tuition due date to one month after the end of the semester to allow students with financial need more time to pay their bills;
12. Expand the office of International Student Affairs to increase the legal resources available to international students;
13. Immediate freeze on any and all police and military-related research within the domain of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence, with a public review process on the ethical use of artificial intelligence;
14. The immediate establishment of an emergency assistance fund, and free and on-going mental and physical health services for students and staff, and their families, who are of the Palestinian Diaspora;
15. Public apology from the President, Vice President, and Chief of UB Police for the violence carried out on May 1, 2024; and for any and all legal or medical fees associated with the events of May 1 to be paid in full by the university; for any outstanding charges to be dropped; and for the immediate resignation of any and all SUNY (State University of New York) officials responsible for the violence carried out on May 1 and the legal violations therein.

These demands have been submitted in writing to the university via email, to the local student-run newspaper, and published to various social media outlets. While they are not exhaustive to the needs of the community, they represent the main points of concern identified by the organizers of the SOTP.

Fight apartheid, fight war!

Following the reading of these demands and the statement that preceded them, the community heard from three more speakers. The first speaker represented SUNY Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions and she connected her experience as a student activist in the 1980s pushing for divestment from South African apartheid to the current struggle to push for divestment from Israel.

The second speaker represented the No CAS Cuts movement (budget cuts to the College of Arts and Sciences) and connected the crackdown on the humanities – including the firing of staff and cancellation of classes – to the current crisis of end-stage capitalism.

The final speaker represented the Buffalo branch of Workers World Party and spoke about his time as a member of YAWF (Youth Against War and Fascism) fighting against Vietnam war recruitment activities on campus. He closed his speech by pointing out a connection between the U.S. military and how college campuses are complicit in U.S. imperialism.