For the event — which will run from Jan. 11 to Jan. 18 — organizers are arranging buses to next week’s Jan. 19 UC Board of Regents meeting at UC Riverside.
“We want to recreate the energy we had when tents appeared in front of Geisel Library [last quarter],” Thurgood Marshall College senior and organizer Kevin Quirolo said. “We would like to get more core people who are really involved and not just on the sidelines. The central goal is creating more of an activist community. We already have one, but [we want] to expand the one that exists and make it more visible to the public eye.”
According to Quirolo, Radical Rush Week was created to commemorate the 20th anniversary of January 15, 1992 — the date on which UCSD police broke into the General Store to seize the building after failed negotiations between Groundwork Books and UCSD administration.
According to the Nov. 7, 2004 UCSD Guardian article “Property of UCSD?”, then-University Center Director Jim Carruthers had informed Groundwork Books that it had 30 days to decide whether or not to become a commercial vendor or to be controlled by the university.
Radical Rush Week celebrates the enduring Co-op Union and hopes to continue the development of a progressive political community on campus, Quirolo said.
The week-long rush features different events at and around the Old Student Center, ranging from panel discussions at Porter’s Pub, performances, workshops and a documentary marathon at Groundwork Books. Radical Rush Week culminates Jan. 18 with buses leaving from campus to UCR for the UC Regents meeting.
The first event, a panel on “U.S. militarization from Guantanamo to Home Soil,” coincides with an international day of action for Guantanamo Bay. Sociology professor Charles Thorpe, visual arts professor Ricardo Dominguez, literature and ethnic studies professor Fatima El-Tayeb and literature professor Luis Martin-Cabrera hosted the first discussion Jan. 11 at the Porter’s Pub. panel “Reclaim Education: Why We Must Act,” which continues today at Porter’s Pub.
Radical Rush Week continues with Disorientation Day, a quarterly event that features live music, spoken word, workshops and film screenings.
As part of Disorientation Day this Friday, Jan. 13, the Black Student Union, People for the Elimination of Animal Cruelty through Education, the Food Co-op, the General Store and Company 157 Theater Production, among other student orgs, will be tabling and recruiting in the Old Student Center for students to protest the UC Regents meeting.
According to the event’s Facebook page, members from the resource centers, campus departments, faculty and staff will attend.
Disorientation Day culminates with Disorientation Disco, a benefit concert for the Che Café hosted by MEChA.
The concert, organized by MEChA officer Amanda Baines, will feature live music from local bands The Shag Rats, The Sloths, The Short Eyes and Eskera.
The organizers of Radical Rush Week also aim to educate students on why they choose to protest, Sixth College junior and organizer Sean Estelle said.
“Part of the reason we planned radical rush week was to hopefully get more people involved rather than just the core group,” Estelle said. “We want to educate the people about the issues of why we protest.”
Radical Rush Week, unique to UCSD, intends to increase student activism on campus, Quirolo said.
“A lot of it is because there isn’t a lot of political consciousness on this campus compared to other UC campuses,” Quirolo said. “There may be, but it’s focused more on national events and not the events that affect us here. There are a lot of politics that affect us here, like the California government and the Regents.”
