Student Action: The first NYC Student Union meeting of the year

Posted by Seth Pearce at 6:55 PM

The first NYC Student Union meeting of the school year will be held on Monday at 5 p.m. at the UFT (United Federation of Teachers) offices at 50 Broadway (between Exchange and Morris), on the 2nd Floor, in Room B. (Map) If you want to learn more about the union, check out this post from last week.

As always, there will be pizza and snacks. All public high school students are welcome! Email union@nycstudents.org if you need more info, want to add an agenda item or just want to let us know that you are dropping by.

Student Thought: Notes from the Inside Inside

Posted by Seth Pearce at 6:03 AM

Hi, Insideschools readers. I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier but here it goes. My name is Seth Pearce, I am a senior at LaGuardia High School, an active Student Government and School Leadership Team representative, and a proud member of the NYC Student Union. There it is. On to the blogging:

On Insideschools, I am going to blog about two themes: Student Thought and Student Action.

In Student Thought, I will be writing about the students' perspective on issues in our school system. For a long time our views have not been taken into account, many times. Part of this comes from apathy and a lack of respect from higher-ups toward our feelings. Part of it comes from our own failure to organize and express our opinions to the larger education community. Through these posts, I seek to add our ideas to those of parents, teachers, and other members of New York City's education community.

In Student Action, I will be sharing news about student organizing and action around education and other issues in the city. This is another place where students have been underrepresented. However, with the creation of the NYC Student Union, students are starting to organize. The Union, which has representatives from schools all over the city, is expanding after a very successful first year. I will keep you all apprised of their actions as well as those of other students and student groups around the city.

Anyway, I look forward to hearing your opinions on everything that goes on over the next ten months. Here's to a great school year!

If you are student who wants to join the NYC Student Union or just want more information, email union@nycstudents.org or visit NYCStudents.org. To see all of my posts on education issues visit NYC Students Blog

Student Action: What is the NYC Student Union?

Posted by Seth Pearce at 9:30 AM

In my first post, I made a quick reference to the NYC Student Union. You might be wondering (and for purposes of this post I hope you are) "What is this so-called NYC Student Union?" Ashu Kapoor, an NYCSU member and organizer puts it this way:

The NYC Student Union (NYCSU) is an emerging collective organization of NYC high school students whose goal is to be a voice for student issues and rights, empower students to take ownership of their education, work with administration and DOE officials to secure an education students deserve, build connections across the NYC school system, and take collective action. The NYC Student Union is entirely organized and run by NYC high school students and is open to all NYC high school students interested in working to make a change in our schools.

The union was started by students from three Manhattan schools in spring 2006 to combat the cell phone ban. Representatives testified at the City Council Hearing on the issue, protested on the steps of Tweed (using cups and string as cell phones), and later had a letter to the editor published in the New York Times. From there we decided to expand.

After launching a student-created and run web site, the union held its first citywide student meeting Sept. 25, 2006. Students from around 15 schools attended. At the meeting, students aired their grievances about their schools and the school system.

For the rest of the year, NYCSU tried to take action on these problems. In addition to holding meetings like the first one every other Monday at the UFT, the union lobbied politicians on issues such as class size, security and funding; conducted workshops with middle school students on becoming engaged in their high schools; held a forum on youth involvement in the education system at Pace University with Future Voters of America; and then ran the Education committee of the 2007 New York City Youth Congress.

This year NYCSU wants to do even more. I'll keep you posted.

If you want more info or are a student who wants to join the union visit NYCStudents.org or contact union@nycstudents.org.