Operation S.O.S.: Remind Legislators to [S]upport [O]ur [S]tudents!

Click on image for the Facebook group

North Carolina is currently facing one of the worst budget crises in its history. As our elected legislators in the North Carolina General Assembly finalize spending plans for the 2009-2011 biennium over the next couple weeks, they will be considering budget cuts that will dramatically impact the entire education sector in North Carolina.

This group is a collaborative effort by student leaders in North Carolina’s public and private universities, community colleges, and K-12 schools to rally all students, alumni, faculty and staff over the next few weeks.

We are asking for *your* help to encourage our elected representatives to continue investing in North Carolina’s future — and remind them to support our students!

You can help out in a few very important ways:

1) INVITE YOUR FRIENDS!
Protecting taxpayers’ investments in our students is going to require strength in numbers, and the more people we have involved with this Facebook group the more effective we can all be. Invite your friends, colleagues, and anyone else who believes in supporting our students!

2) GET KNOWLEDGEABLE!
Adopting a state budget can be a complex process to follow, so we’ve tried to help make it easier by including information on each of the budget proposals floating around. See “WHAT BUDGET CUTS ARE PROPOSED?” in the Recent News section of the group.

3) CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATORS!
Once you’re comfortable talking about the budget, get in touch with your legislators and let them know what you think! We’ve included a sample list of legislators to contact in the “Contact Info for Legislators” topic on the message board, located here:
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=91280052996&topic=8601

You can also find some info on how to be a more effective citizen-advocate in the “Basic Advocacy Tips” message board topic, located here:
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=91280052996&topic=8603

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EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL

On Saturday, UNCA SDS members and the Asheville community came together to fight back against the recent Prop 8 ruling:

The decision was released on Tuesday May 26, 2009:
The court ruled that “The Amendment to the State Constitution referred to as Proposition 8 is valid and enforceable from the moment it was passed. Justice Moreno in his lone dissenting opinion to the above ruling stated, “[T]he aim of Proposition 8 and all similar initiative measures that seek to alter the California Constitution to deny a fundamental right to a group that has historically been subject to discrimination on the basis of a suspect classification, violates the essence of the equal protection clause of the California Constitution and fundamentally alters its scope and meaning. Such a change cannot be accomplished through the initiative process by a simple amendment to our Constitution enacted by a bare majority of the voters; it must be accomplished, if at all, by a constitutional revision to modify the equal protection clause to protect some, rather than all, similarly situated persons. I would therefore hold that Proposition 8 is not a lawful amendment of the California Constitution.”

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2009 SDS National Convention

When: July 10-12, 2009

Location: Middle Tennessee State University

Address: 1301 East Main Street

City & State: Murfreesboro, TN

Join students and youth from across the United States for Students for a Democratic Society’s 4th National Convention. This year’s convention will be in the lovely town of Murfreesboro, Tennessee (nearest airport is Nashville), on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University.

It’s just six weeks away on the weekend of July 10 – 12, so make your travel plans now! The convention will begin Friday during the day and run through Sunday, so try to arrive Thursday night and plan on leaving Sunday afternoon/evening.

Please register using this form: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=cm84c0dGU29va1JFb1p4dnZremJ0VkE6MA..

In addition to discussing SDS work over the past year, we’ll have lots of exciting workshops, anti-oppression and collective liberation work, trainings, and discussions of campaign strategy for the future. You don’t want to miss it!!

We’ll send out more information in the next two weeks with information about how to submit workshop, discussion and campaign proposals. In the meantime, if you’d like to get involved in the nuts and bolts of planning the convention, click on this link to get connected with the national convention planning group: http://groups.google.com/group/sds-national-convention

Don’t forget to check out our website for updates:
http://www.newsds.org

And follow us on Twitter!:
http://twitter.com/newsds

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