The past week has brought a flurry of excitement, as the Free Cooper Union effort has led to over 50 students, faculty, and staff maintaining a sit-in occupation inside college President Jamshed Bharucha’s office on the 7th floor of the Foundation Building of the Cooper Union.

This occupation comes in response to the decision to begin charging tuition for the first time, ending a 154 year tradition of free education, as well as in the context of the broader unfolding tuition and student debt crisis across the country.

Watch Free Cooper Union on livestream and follow their live-tweets @FreeCooperUnion.

Many Occupy groups have protested outside in solidarity, The Illuminator has projected on the walls, Occupy Museums delivered sushi for dinner.

We stand in solidarity with the students, faculty, and next generation of art students who have lost this amazing gift from Peter Cooper, education which is “free as air and water.”

-- from the ‘Your Inbox: Occupied’ team

United Against Pipelines Update

This Monday, hundreds of occupiers and climate activists from dozens of groups came together to challenge President Obama on the Keystone XL Pipeline and climate change at large during a fundraiser he was holding with the 1%.

Check out photos of the action on Flickr, watch livestream footage from StopMotionSolo, and join the protest this Thursday of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper for his promotion of the pipeline.

Occupy in the News

Allison Kilkenny at The Nation covers developments with Free Cooper Union, and Felix Salmon at Reuters chronicles the tragedy of Cooper Union.

PressTV covered Obama being greeted in NY by Occupy protesters.

The Village Voice blog covers DebtFair, an action initiated by Occupy Museums to draw attention to debt and inequality within the art world. “Turn[ing] art fairs and auctions like Frieze New York and Sotheby’s on their heads” the fairs will display art about debt at many populist venues as well as “in front of banks or ‘more arrestable actions’ inside banks...”

At hyperallergic.com, Debtfair’s mission was described as such: “...to predicate compensation [for an artist] on their debt load, allowing patrons to make direct payments on their student loans or outstanding consumer credit. By correlating the value of an artwork with the fiscal situation of its producer, it’s an objection to capitalist exchange...”

The Arts and Labor Working Group, along with various affected unions, has been agitating for changes in the hiring practices of the Frieze New York art fair. Letters were sent out recently asking participants to boycott over Frieze’s unfair use of non-union labor.

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What can you learn from a zombie? Maybe a lot.

At least that's what a University of Michigan professor hopes her 31 graduate students took away from Tuesday's bizarre, albeit bloody, "zombie apocalypse." The classroom exercise was designed to get School of Public Health students thinking about what the appropriate response should be during a disaster.

Four times as many students who typically attend Epidemiology 651, "Epidemiology and Public Health Management of Disasters," were on hand Tuesday to welcome -- or become -- the undead. The zombie exercise was modeled after a curriculum designed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and a handful of CDC staffers also participated.

"'Zombie apocalypse' sounds a bit silly, but the point of this is to show that if we're prepared for any hazard, even the unimaginable hazards, like zombies -- because we know they don't exist -- we are capable of preparing ourselves for perhaps anything that might occur," said Dr. Eden Wells, the epidemiology professor who teaches the course and serves as the brains behind the exercise.

Wells initially wasn't sure she'd be able to persuade enough students to dress up as the undead. But by Tuesday, 120 "zombies" and other participants were on hand to take part in the exercise. As the doors to the lecture hall on the Ann Arbor campus flung open, an army of the undead unexpectedly lurched in, their arms stretched forward and their faces painted with faux blood as they aimlessly staggered among the smiling students.

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By Marian Wang, ProPublica

At the University of California Santa Cruz, where tuition runs to nearly $35,000 for non-residents, students every year pay more than 30 additional fees — including a small charge for what's billed as "free" HIV testing. Students at Oklahoma State University pay a handsome sum to attend one of the state's flagship schools, but they are also responsible for covering 18 different fees, including a "life safety and security fee."

The $100 "globalization fee" at Howard University is listed — without explanation — in the school's tuition and fees brochure. A school spokeswoman said the fee "supports internationalization initiatives" such as study abroad. Students pay the fee even if they have no intention of studying abroad themselves.

Worcester State University in Massachusetts, however, might have one of the most arresting fees. Students fortunate enough to be admitted face the challenge of paying the required tuition. But before they step foot on campus, they also will be hit with a fee to, well, step foot on campus. A portion of the school's "parking/pedestrian fee" goes to the upkeep of the sidewalks on campus.

Student fees have been something of a known irritant for years, often criticized as a kind of stealth, second tuition imposed on unsuspecting families. But such fees are still on the rise on many campuses. And though their names can border on the comical — i.e., the "student success fee" — there's nothing funny about how they can add up.

"It's a way for colleges to increase the cost that may not be as apparent to as many students," said Mark Kantrowitz, a financial aid expert and the founder of finaid.org and fastweb.org. "You focus in on tuition and when you get the bursar's bill, there are lots of little lines for all these fees, but because each is a relatively small amount, you may not notice it as much. You focus in on the big figure but not on these little figures that collectively add up to a lot."

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Video streaming by Ustream

On Monday morning, over 100 students and community members marched into TransCanada’s Westborough office and held a funeral mourning the loss of their future at the hands of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would transport the tar sands that climate scientists say will lock us into irreversible global warming. More than 25 protesters were arrested for refusing to leave the office in an act of civil disobedience.

From Funeral for Our Future:

On Monday, March 11, over 100 people representing a coalition of students, members of the Massachusetts Methodist clergy, mothers fighting for their children, and concerned community members marched into the Westborough, MA office of TransCanada Corporation and held a funeral mourning the loss of our future at the hands of the Keystone XL Pipeline. The pipeline will transport the tar sands that climate scientists say will lock us into irreversible global warming.

Of those 100 protesters, 25 of us locked themselves together with handcuffs and were arrested in an act of civil disobedience. Carrying a coffin emblazoned with the words “Our Future,” we held flowers and sang an elegy as we marched in procession.

Our action comes a week after a week after the US State Department released a widely criticized Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Keystone XL. While admitting that rejecting the pipeline would have little effect on jobs, the document minimizes claims about the pipeline’s impact on climate change and on communities who would be at risk for devastating pipeline spills like the 2010 Kalamazoo spill, from which the affected communities are still recovering. The impact assessment also makes the assumption that the Alberta tar sands will be developed regardless of whether Keystone XL goes forward—an assumption that we stand with indigenous communities, whose treaties the Canadian government is violating by allowing development of the tar sands, in rejecting.

“If the tar sands are extracted and burned, it will wipe out my future and the future of my entire generation,” said Will Pearl, a Tufts University freshman arrested in the action. “If President Obama will not reject the Keystone XL pipeline, we will stop it ourselves. We will rise up and resist -- from the backwoods of Texas, to corporate offices in Massachusetts, to the steps of the White House.”

For updates on this action, you can follow along on Twitter here.

H/T Brad Johnson

Der Spiegel:

The men from the collection point for the nameless dead always come during the morning. They descend from a major intersection in the Bustan al-Qasr district to the small Quweiq River and bring the bodies that have washed up overnight to a courtyard, where they are wrapped in white sheets and photographed before being left there for a day. This is the place where people looking for missing relatives come to find them.

For weeks now, the river has brought new bodies almost every night. The corpses arrive without any identification and the hands are generally tied together with plastic strings. The men have all been shot.

The week before last, the river carried three bodies on some days, and seven on others. Last Monday there were five, but on Tuesday there were almost 80. There had been heavy rain in the night, the river level had risen, and now corpses were lining the muddy river bank

As it turns out, many of the dead were students who lived in other towns, and had come to take exams at the University of Aleppo. The campus is in an area still controlled by Assad's troops, and unfortunately, had to pass through their control posts.

"It appears that Assad's people arrested the men, brought them to jail and shot them before throwing them into the river."

At Cary-Grove High School in Illinois, students and staff are participating in a "code red" drill on Wednesday.

"It will include somebody shooting blanks from a gun in the hallway “in an effort to provide our teachers and students some familiarity with the sound of gunfire.”'

School spokesman Jeff Puma said that only a small number of parents have contacted the school regarding the drill (Possibly because, according to one parent, not everyone has received the school notification about the drill.) and it's an even split for and against the drill.

"Substitute teacher Debbie Gummerson said, “Let’s put the kids through some training, and maybe we could save some lives that way, should something ever happen.”'

Parent Sharon Miller called the planned drill "absurd," and thinks shooting blanks in the hallway is unnecessary.

“If you need to run a drill, you run a drill,” she told WBBM Newsradio’s Bernie Tafoya. “They run fire drills all the time, but they don’t run up and down the hallway with a flamethrower.”

Full text of the letter sent to (some?) parents explaining the "code red" drill after the jump.

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New details have emerged about the deadly fire that swept through a Brazilian nightclub. Guards reportedly first tried to prevent people from leaving, but the death toll was also increased because there was only one door through which club-goers could exit. Once firefighters arrived, they were unable to enter due to “a barrier of bodies blocking the entrance.” They later tried to cut their way in through the walls, but most of those who died suffocated within minutes after the fire started. Many of the victims were younger than 20, and the Federal University of Santa Maria confirmed that 101 of its students were killed in the blaze. Officials believe that the fire started when band members held up a flare and ignited soundproofing in the ceiling. Police have now arrested three people in connection with the fire, including the nightclub's owner, a vocalist in the band, and a person in charge of stage safety.

Previous report on this story:

Brazil Nightclub Fire Kills Hundreds

Video posted online by Syrian opposition activists appears to show the moment one in a series of deadly explosions struck the campus of Aleppo University on Tuesday as students were taking exams. The clip begins with a view of smoke rising from behind a university building as students mill about. Moments later, following a very loud explosion close to the camera, students run for cover and a much larger plume can be seen above the building.

An estimated 52 people were killed in the blasts, with dozens more injured. Once Syria’s commerical epicenter, the city of Aleppo has essentially been the site of almost constant violence since July, with insurgents and government forces locked in a stalemate over control of the city. The university, which is in a government-controlled part of the city, had been conducting classes as fighting went on.

Antigovernment activists said university buildings had been hit by missiles fired by Syrian military forces. But SANA, Syria’s state-run news agency, indicated that the missiles had been fired by the insurgents.

“The most painful scene was a chopped hand with a pen and notebook right next to it,” an education student who identified himself as Abu Tayem said over Skype. “I saw blood, flesh littered all around.”

In a perfect world, all children would have at least one teacher this special. Jeffrey Wright uses wacky experiments to teach children about the universe, but it is his own personal story that teaches them the true meaning of life.

A now yearly tradition, Mr. Wright gives a lecture on his experiences as a parent of a special needs child. His son, Adam, now 12, has a rare disorder called Joubert syndrome, in which the part of the brain related to balance and movement fails to develop properly. Visually impaired and unable to control his movements, Adam breathes rapidly and doesn’t speak.

This annual lecture about Adam, and the meaning of life, love and family is what leaves the greatest impression on Jeffrey Wright's students.

NYT:

“When you start talking about physics, you start to wonder, ‘What is the purpose of it all?’ ” he said in an interview. “Kids started coming to me and asking me those ultimate questions. I wanted them to look at their life in a little different way — as opposed to just through the laws of physics — and give themselves more purpose in life.”

Mr. Wright starts his lecture by talking about the hopes and dreams he had for Adam and his daughter, Abbie, now 15. He recalls the day Adam was born, and the sadness he felt when he learned of his condition.

“All those dreams about ever watching my son knock a home run over the fence went away,” he tells the class. “The whole thing about where the universe came from? I didn’t care. … I started asking myself, what was the point of it?”

All that changed one day when Mr. Wright saw Abbie, about 4 at the time, playing with dolls on the floor next to Adam. At that moment he realized that his son could see and play — that the little boy had an inner life. He and his wife, Nancy, began teaching Adam simple sign language. One day, his son signed “I love you.”

In the lecture, Mr. Wright signs it for the class: “Daddy, I love you.” “There is nothing more incredible than the day you see this,” he says, and continues: “There is something a lot greater than energy. There’s something a lot greater than entropy. What’s the greatest thing?”

“Love,” his students whisper.

“Wright’s Law” recently won a gold medal in multimedia in the national College Photographer of the Year competition, run by the University of Missouri. The filmmaker, Zack Conkle, 22, a photojournalism graduate of Western Kentucky University is also a former student of Mr. Wright’s. He says that he made the film because he would get frustrated trying to describe Mr. Wright’s teaching style.

Twelve students have barricaded themselves inside a room on the 8th floor of the Cooper Union Foundation Building to protest a decision by trustees to consider the possibility of charging undergraduates tuition due to rising costs.

Protestors argue that charging tuition for undergraduate students goes against the founding principles of the school's founder Peter Cooper. Cooper Union students currently do not pay anything for their years of schooling.

"Students for a Free Cooper Union" issued the following statement on Monday:

We, the Students for a Free Cooper Union, in solidarity with the global student struggle and today’s Day of Action, have locked ourselves into The Peter Cooper Suite on the top floor of Cooper Union’s Foundation Building. This action is in response to the lack of transparency and accountability that has plagued this institution for decades and now threatens the college’s mission of free education.

We have reclaimed this space from the administration, whom we believe is leading the college in the wrong direction. In recent years, plans to expand Cooper Union with tuition-based, revenue generating educational programs have threatened the college’s landmarked tradition of “free education to all.” These programs are intended to grow the college out of a financial deficit caused by decades of administrative mismanagement. We believe that such programs are a departure from Cooper Union’s historic mission and will corrupt the college’s role as an ethical model for higher education. To secure this invaluable opportunity for future generations, we have taken the only recourse available to us.

We will hold this space until action has been taken to meet the following demands:

The administration must publicly affirm the college’s commitment to free education. They will stop pursuing new tuition-based educational programs and eliminate other ways in which students are charged for education.

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