Between April 21-23, students from the University of Puerto Rico held an indefinite strike that went on for months. The strike was held because of disagreements in issues with the school’s administration and the board of directors. Some of the were recommendations to solve the budget deficit problems, guarantees of stopping tuition hikes, and guarantees that campuses will not be privatized. After negotiations failed, the students began their 48 hour indefinite strike around 3 Am on April 21. Negotiations failed again and the students continued to strike and by May 4 all of the university’s campuses joined the movement. The University of Puerto Rico (UPR) is a state university system of Puerto Rico. The University consists of 11 campuses and has about 65,000 students and over 5,000 faculty members. UPR has the largest and most diverse academic offerings in Puerto Rico. It is also the largest and most diverse in the Caribbean with almost 500 academic programs and over 32 doctoral programs. Even though the strike reached media and government attention, it accomplished very little in goals.
Source: n.a. (2010, Apr 30). “UPR: Indefinite Strike, CMI- Puerto Rico,” Independent Media Center http://www.indymedia.org/en/2010/04/937186.shtml
Background Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Puerto_Rico_at_R%C3%ADo_Piedras
Student Researcher: Paul Craig
Faculty Evaluator: Dr. Christina M. Knopf Department of English & Communication, SUNY Potsdam
photo from indymedia