public statement

Statement: Regarding CUSG Legislative Strike

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 22:38:09 +0000

Statement: Regarding CUSG Legislative Strike Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/12/2021 - 16:38

The CU Student Government (CUSG) Legislative Council has recently announced a strike in response to systemic racism within the CUSG system and a transfer of power to university administration which undermines the autonomy of their government. GPSG executives have written a statement clarifying the role of GPSG in this strike and our commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion in our daily operations.

Read the statement here

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Statement: GPSG Requests Holiday Observance Changes

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 21:37:51 +0000

Statement: GPSG Requests Holiday Observance Changes Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/06/2021 - 15:37

GPSG President of Outreach recently released a letter to university administration requesting CU add two official holidays (no work or class) to the university calendar. Specifically, GPSG requests that Juneteenth and Indigenous Peoples Day be added as official holidays.

Read the letter here

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Statement Regarding Chauvin Trial

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 06:00:00 +0000

Statement Regarding Chauvin Trial Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/20/2021 - 00:00

We at GPSG stand in solidarity with the family of George Floyd and the communities in Minneapolis that have too long suffered the fatal costs of institutionalized white supremacy. Today's announced guilty verdict for Derek Chauvin will hopefully bring some small solace to a grieving community. However, we recognize that one verdict will not be sufficient to reform or abolish the socio-economic institutions that continue to marginalize Blackness and carry out arbitrary death sentences without due process. The extra-judicial killings of Daunte Wright and Adam Toledo are sobering reminders of this fact. The University of Colorado is not exempt in this push for reform, and recent debates among student and faculty leaders on campus illustrate the importance of combating hierarchical, xenophobic, and exploitative institutions that continue to denigrate its most vulnerable and marginalized community members. The fight for justice has not ended with today's verdict, but we hope that it offers a small step forward for our Buff Community and the nation as a whole.

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Statement on Law School's Proposed Tuition Increase

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 19:46:44 +0000

Statement on Law School's Proposed Tuition Increase Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 03/29/2021 - 13:46

With relief and excitement, we appreciate today's announcement from the Provost that the University of Colorado will be moving closer to pre-pandemic operations in the next academic year. However, the university's budget has not fully recovered from the past year, and although the state legislature has restored the CU system budget to prepandemic levels, they have not fully accounted for inflation. This creates a budget shortfall, and we at GPSG wish to strongly emphasize that the University should not compensate for this by raising tuition for any graduate or professional program until at least 2030. Currently, the Law School is considering a proposed tuition hike of 3% ($3,000). The University's already grossly inflated tuition costs will only continue to exacerbate future financial crises, and make CU an unaffordable choice for many students. We encourage our students to contact the Board of Regents (CUBoardofRegents@cu.edu) and your local State Legislators and state your opposition to tuition hikes, the desperate need to move away from the restrictive tax structure imposed by TABOR and Gallagher, and for the state to fulfill its mandate to provide an affordable higher education to all residents.

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Statement Regarding March 16 Mass Shooting

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Mar 2021 18:15:20 +0000

Statement Regarding March 16 Mass Shooting Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/17/2021 - 12:15

Read our latest statement regarding the recent mass shooting from the GPSG officer and executive teams:

Yesterday, an individual murdered eight people at three different spas in the Atlanta area. Although the details of this case are still unfolding, we at GPSG recognize that this violent tragedy is part of an increasing spike in anti-Asian discrimination and hate crimes - and that rhetoric from former and current elected officials in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the horrendous stereotyping and marginalization of Asian-Americans.

White supremacy and the institutions that maintain it are a poison to democratic ideals, and to our community at large. To those who subscribe to such an ideology have no place at CU Boulder. To our AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) students, faculty, and staff, GPSG stands with you as members of our Buff community.

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Statement Condemning Dr. John Eastman

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 17:56:48 +0000

Statement Condemning Dr. John Eastman Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 01/15/2021 - 10:56

Read our latest statement regarding the promotion of violence, treason, and sedition by visiting scholar Dr. John Eastman from the GPSG officer and executive teams:

Over the course of the Fall 2020 semester, we at GPSG have issued several statements on the xenophobic, anti-democratic sentiments that John Eastman has perpetuated with vitriol during his tenure as a visiting scholar at CU Boulder. On September 4th, we categorically condemned Dr. Eastman's revival of the racist 'birther' argument to question Vice-President Elect Kamala Harris' eligibility for elected office, based on the VISA status of her parents at birth. On November 11th, we condemned Dr. Eastman's repeated appeals to thoroughly debunked claims of voter fraud in urban areas with a majority non-white populations, in a clear case of racist voter disenfranchisement. These claims were repeated at the Washington D.C. rally that led to the violent storming of the Capitol on January 6th, and Dr. Eastman's response to the Chancellor's condemning of these falsehoods has simply been to hide behind a thin veil of 'academic freedom' as a defense, in a petulant and shameful display.

We at GPSG support free-speech, but also recognize that Constitutional protections of free speech do not extend to the promotion of violence, treason, and sedition. Put bluntly, John Eastman has proven himself to be an unapologetic promoter of xenophobic rhetoric and anti-democratic sentiments, and is unworthy to continue his appointment as a member of our CU Boulder community. We at GPSG call for his immediate removal from his position, and for him to be formally censured.

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Response to College of Arts and Sciences Statement on the Budget

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 19:21:39 +0000

Response to College of Arts and Sciences Statement on the Budget Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 12/04/2020 - 12:21

Read our latest statement regarding the statement about the College of Arts and Sciences budget from our Director of Legislative Affairs, Matt Harvey:

On Wednesday, December 2^nd, the Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences released a statement illustrating the dire forecast for the university’s fiscal budget. In order to meet a 4.8% budget reduction, the College has announced that fifty tenure-track positions will be eliminated in favor of adding 25 instructors. Overshadowing this statement is the veiled threat of “eliminating about three medium-sized departments or disbanding the college and reforming it with fewer faculty from many units.”

The Dean’s statement asserts that the reduction of tenure track faculty will mean “investing in more staff, infrastructure, better support for research and creative work, travel, an ‘excellent new ideas’ fund, faculty retention and the like. With somewhat smaller ranks of tenured faculty, we would be able to better support the faculty, staff and students we have.” However, we fully recognize that this transition will place an undue labor burden on contingent instructors, while the university can conveniently eradicate the fiscal costs of benefits associated with a modicum of job security. This is a blatant means of cutting expenses by marginalizing labor within the university, and it is particularly telling that administrative salaries are left untouched in these desperate fiscal times.

The end result of these cuts will be the marginalization and exploitation of a temporary workforce, poor continuity of education for our students, and likely the continued systematic undermining of the humanities – all made under the cover of a pandemic-generated fiscal crisis. Despite what our administration might believe, the university is not a marketplace. The university is not an investment bank. The university is not a corporation. And these appeals for a “nimbler” College of Arts and Sciences predicate cuts that we vociferously oppose.

We at GPSG stand in solidarity with our tenure-track faculty, instructors, and staff. We call for university administration to readily embrace the financial cuts to their salaries that they are so ready to inflict upon an overburdened workforce with little to no bargaining power or job security.

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Statement Regarding Visiting Scholar, Dr. John Eastman

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 23:23:45 +0000

Statement Regarding Visiting Scholar, Dr. John Eastman Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 11/11/2020 - 16:23

Read our latest statement regarding recent claims made by visiting scholar Dr. John Eastman from our Director of Legislative Affairs, Matt Harvey:

We at GPSG recognize that the past week has been harrowing and exhausting for our Buff community. Graduate students, undergraduates, faculty, and staff have carried the physical and emotional burdens of continuing the university’s mission while navigating a pandemic, and the challenge of a charged election does little to alleviate those stressors. In these tumultuous times, we stress the importance of temperance, patience, and respect for our fellow Buffs as each state follows its own legal procedures to certify votes and deliver them to Congress in December.

Over the past week, Dr. John Eastman, a visiting scholar at the Benson Center for Conservative Thought and Policy, has made a series of statements on Twitter that call into question the legitimacy of our electoral process. Time and again, Dr. Eastman has amplified anti-democratic sentiments and has blatant falsehoods on the legitimacy of voting by mail (1). As President-Elect Biden opened leads in Wisconsin and Michigan, and as mail-in ballots swung Milwaukee and Wayne counties in the respective states, Dr. Eastman asserted those urban, majority non-white cities as areas where electoral fraud was likely by virtue of their turnout for President-Elect Biden. (2, 3)

We at GPSG recognize Dr. Eastman’s right to free speech, but this is not a mere partisan conflict. This is a scholar appointed to a position at CU Boulder actively propagating talking points designed to cast the incoming administration as illegitimate, in defiance of the elected will of the people, and in defiance of repeated studies that have found mail-in/absentee ballots to be largely free of voter fraud. (4, 5) Given that these talking points are promoted by the same scholar who alleged (in an argument rooted in xenophobia rather than law) that Vice-President Elect Kamala Harris would be ineligible to serve due to the VISA status of her parents at the time of her birth, we are disappointed and troubled but not surprised by this conduct. (6)

Again, we respect Dr. Eastman’s rights to free speech and to use his platform as he chooses. However, in light of the challenges facing American democracy and an outgoing administration that refuses to concede, GPSG condemns Dr. Eastman’s subversive and dangerous rhetoric as an appointed member of our Buff community.

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Statement Regarding Anti-Bias Training

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 19:22:31 +0000

Statement Regarding Anti-Bias Training Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 10/19/2020 - 13:22

Read our latest statement regarding the recent executive order barring anti-bias training from our Director of Legislative Affairs, Matt Harvey:

On September 22nd, the Trump Administration issued an Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping. This order mandates that institutions that receive federal funds are barred from holding anti-racism or anti-sexism training, which the Administration has perversely labelled as un-American propaganda. This executive order has already had some chilling impacts, including ending anti-bias training for federal prosecutors. This executive order is plainly an extension of the Administration's xenophobic marginalization of vulnerable communities, while the presence institutional racism and sexism in academia and in the workplace is uncomfortably clear in the United States.

Despite the vagueness of the order's language, CU Boulder as a recipient of federal grants is subject to this executive order. Although university leadership has signalled that the vagueness in the executive order's application allows the university to continue business as usual, we at GPSG note some concerning common language between the Executive Order and the office of President Kennedy mandating 'purple-ink protocol' in moderating statements on 'divisive concepts.' We at GPSG believe that addressing institutional racism and misogyny, including mandatory training, can help make our community a safer place for all of our Buffs. While we recognize that the university will not be complying with the executive order 'for now', GPSG call on the university to clearly state its commitment to continue anti-racism/anti-sexism trainings on campus (at a minimum), regardless of who wins the upcoming election and whether or not the executive order is enforced more strictly in the future.

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Statement Regarding Law School Dean Search Committee

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 21:59:07 +0000

Statement Regarding Law School Dean Search Committee Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/15/2020 - 15:59

Read our latest statement regarding student representative on the search committee for the next Law School Dean from our President, Matt Vondrasek:

Dear Provost Moore,

I am writing to ask you to reconsider the makeup of the search committee for a new law school dean. The Graduate and Professional Student Government (GPSG) believes that having a 14 person search committee that only includes two students is not appropriate nor equitable. I have spoken to the law school Student Bar Association President Clarke Cooper and he agrees. I have every confidence that Taylor Schad and John Harrison will do their best to represent student interests. However, I fear their voices and their votes will be afterthoughts in the current search committee composition.

We are formally requesting that you add two students to the search committee for the next Colorado Law dean. I believe this change would more adequately represent the diverse interests, goals, and needs of law students. I would also encourage choosing to add students of diverse backgrounds that can help bring a voice to the table from groups that are chronically underrepresented in law schools and the legal community at large.

As a law student myself, I cannot be more proud of the work Dean Anaya has done to make Colorado Law more diverse, inclusive, and accessible for students from a wide variety of backgrounds. I hope that our requested changes can help build on that legacy and propel Colorado Law and the entire Colorado legal community into a more just and equitable world. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Very Sincerely,

Matthew Vondrasek (he/him/his)

President, Graduate and Professional Student Government

You can find a PDF version of the statement here.

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