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Statewide/National Day of Action
In Support of Public High Education

A series of events protesting cuts to education

Local march events:

Meet at City Hall Plaza by 11:45 am to participate in the March

March will arrive at 7^th St. Plaza by 12:15 pm

Rally in 7^th St. Plaza 12:15 to 1:00 pm

Free T-shirts, and drink at the end of the rally

We’re all connected! Keep the doors open!

Info: Contact Sue Pak: spak@calfac.org (510) 290 4308

Endorsers and more info:

• National Day of Action site
• Standup for Schools
• CA Student Walkout Facebook page
• CFA resource page [Read more →]

Please mark your calendars for Tuesday, March 2 for the Women’s Studies Program Open House.  Come share good conversation, games, music, food, and drink as we kick off Women’s History Month and a full roster of events.  In DMH238A from 3-6pm.  Also mark your calendars for these events throughout the month:

3/2 Women’s Studies Open House, 3-6pm  DMH238A
Please join us for conversation, games, music and refreshments with faculty and friends of the Women’s Studies program.

3/3 Chicanas in the Movimiento – 6-8pm  Mexican Heritage Center, 1700 Rock Ave, San Jose
Featuring local activists Elisa Marina Alvarado, Shirley Trevino, Martha Campos, Tamara Alvarado, moderated by Teresa Castellanos.  Part of the MAIZ series on 40 Years of the Chicano Movement in San Jose

3/3  Film Screening of Arusi: Persian Wedding, followed by Q&A with Director Marjan Tehrani, 7pm  Eng189
Marjan Tehrani’s second feature documentary explores the complex and troubled relationship between America, the country of Tehrani’s birth and Iran
Co-sponsored with the Student Association of Middle Eastern Studies

3/6 “Womyn Unite” – International Women’s Day Marcha, 11am
March begins from Roosevelt Park (Santa Clara & 19th) to Biblioteca Latinoamericana, Festival continues from 1-4pm.   Sponsored by South Bay International Women’s Day Network & Cihuatl Tlatocan

3/11 Women’s Studies Alumni Panel, 10:30-11:45  MLK 255/257
Come learn how SJSU Women’s Studies alumni are making change in local communities with Noemi Teppang, Lindsey Mansfield, and Margie Strubel.

3/17 Sex & Love in the Bay Area with Sexologist Carol Queen, 1:30 – 2:45  ENG189
Carol Queen is a writer, educator and cultural sexologist with a Ph.D. in human sexuality.  She is founder of The Center for Sex and Culture, a non-profit sexuality education center and directs Continuing Education at Good Vibrations, the women-owned, worker-owned sex toy shop in San Francisco.

3/17  7pm  Literary Reading with Laleh Khadivi, The Age of Orphans, 7pm MLK Schiro Room, Steinbeck Center, 5th floor
Khadivi’s first novel begins a trilogy that follows the lives of three generations of Kurdish men as they grapple with landlessness, migration and national identity.   Sponsored by the Student Association for Middle Eastern Studies

Great article in the New York Times on the changing American family…

Based on a study of Census data, Pew found that in nearly a third of marriages, the wife is better educated than her husband. And though men, over all, still earn more than women, wives are now the primary breadwinner in 22 percent of couples, up from 7 percent in 1970.

While the changing economic roles of husbands and wives may take some getting used to, the shift has had a surprising effect on marital stability. Over all, the evidence shows that the shifts within marriages — men taking on more housework and women earning more outside the home — have had a positive effect, contributing to lower divorce rates and happier unions.

Story continues here

The Education Trust nonprofit research institute has released a new analysis of federal data concluding that 50 public flagships, one in each state, “continue to enroll students who are far richer and far whiter” than most in their states, says Director Kati Haycock.

“The report also reveals a grievous imbalance in the way many of these institutions distribute financial aid to students. Public flagship and research universities spend millions of dollars every year subsidizing wealthy students who don’t need aid, while providing inadequate support to low-income and minority students who do.  Although low-income students receive higher grant awards than wealthy students on average, flagships spend almost exactly the same amount to aid students in the top two quintiles of family income as they do to aid students in the bottom two quintiles.

In fact, the typical low-income student at these institutions is left with an “unmet” financial need equivalent to about 70 percent of his or her family’s annual income. Meanwhile, students at our leading public universities are looking less and less like the state populations these institutions were founded to serve.”

See news release here (or download complete report)

Following is the transcript of President Obama’s speech at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo on Wednesday, as released by the White House:

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, distinguished members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, citizens of America, and citizens of the world:

I receive this honor with deep gratitude and great humility. It is an award that speaks to our highest aspirations — that for all the cruelty and hardship of our world, we are not mere prisoners of fate. Our actions matter, and can bend history in the direction of justice.

And yet I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the considerable controversy that your generous decision has generated. (Laughter.) In part, this is because I am at the beginning, and not the end, of my labors on the world stage. Compared to some of the giants of history who’ve received this prize — Schweitzer and King; Marshall and Mandela — my accomplishments are slight. And then there are the men and women around the world who have been jailed and beaten in the pursuit of justice; those who toil in humanitarian organizations to relieve suffering; the unrecognized millions whose quiet acts of courage and compassion inspire even the most hardened cynics. I cannot argue with those who find these men and women — some known, some obscure to all but those they help — to be far more deserving of this honor than I.

But perhaps the most profound issue surrounding my receipt of this prize is the fact that I am the Commander-in-Chief of the military of a nation in the midst of two wars. One of these wars is winding down. The other is a conflict that America did not seek; one in which we are joined by 42 other countries — including Norway — in an effort to defend ourselves and all nations from further attacks.

Continues here

Here’s a great article about $1 million Opus Prize winner Aicha Ech Channa, founder of the Association for Women’s Solidarity in Casablanca, Morocco, to help unwed mothers become self-sufficient. She is the first Muslim to win the Opus award, an annual humanitarian award which goes to “unsung heroes for their faith-based acts of compassion….”

In the 1980s, she was working for the Moroccan Ministry of Social Affairs, where unwed mothers came seeking help, even though little help was available. Under [local] law, the women were considered prostitutes, and many had their babies taken away over their objections.

Considering that unacceptable, Ech Channa launched her program in 1985. It offers women legal counseling, job training and medical and psychological support with a goal of making them self-sufficient so they can raise their children….

Despite criticism from Muslim clerics, she is committed to her faith, which she approaches from a humanist standpoint.

Humanism is about individuals and the love they have for one another,” she said. “Every human being has a flame [of love] inside them that must be fanned.”

Found this article via Muslimah Media Watch, a terrific blog worth checking out further….

I’m re-posting this entry because Ms. Martin followed up with some terrific responses she got from a host of men’s groups.  Check out the second part here.

And the original post:

Courtney Martin of the American Prospect writes about a new generation of men rejecting “traditional and toxic notions of masculinity…but they’re still figuring out what should replace it.”

While it’s thrilling that there is also a movement of young men all who want to tear down the patriarchy right alongside women, it’s dangerous that they don’t have a clear picture of what they want to build in its place. At the conference, one young man spoke up against the notion of a new “feminist masculinity,” explaining that he feared it would be one more box that young men felt they had to fit into. There’s a lot of validity to his argument, but I fear that the old adage is true: We can’t be what we can’t see. Models help us try on various identities and find one that is truly authentic. The more publicly feminist-aligned men we have, the more opportunities the next generation has to find a positive, masculine gender identity that actually fits.

Continues at What’s the Alternative to Tucker Max? | The American Prospect.

Here’s an amazing graphic that illustrates how different the economy looks when we consider race and gender…..click on the image to see the original at the NYT (courtesy of Prof. Ochoa)

Don’t miss the Spartan Daily article about Women’s Studies student Ari Eldridge, a terrific young transgender student who is enjoying her first year of college, appreciating the SJSU community, and helping educate others about transgender issues.

Ari Eldridge finds comfort in being a transgender student, but believes that too few students are knowledgeable about what transgender is.

“The definition of transgender has different meanings to people in the LGBT (lesbian gay, bisexual and transgender) community, but it means a person who does not identify one’s gender with one’s birth sex,” said Eldridge, whose male birth name no longer works for her.

Eldridge said she is assimilating at SJSU, and is enjoying her first year of college, which includes being a secretary for the transgender support group she is involved with at SJSU.
Though it was difficult for Eldridge to label herself as transgender to some friends and family, she said she is more confident because of it.

“SJSU is my safe space,” Eldridge said. “I feel more comfortable here then I ever did in my high school.”

She said that in high school, it was difficult for her to express herself, because there was not a specific group of people she identified with.

“I wasn’t a very social person,” Eldridge said.
She said high school was a challenge, but despite her insecurities, she tried to seek support groups. She said opening up to her friends and family was still not an easy task.

“In high school, there was a lot of self-suppression,” Eldridge said.” I told one of my friends and it was really hard for me to say it out loud.”

Eldridge said that when she was younger, she was quite feminine, but didn’t know that the word “transgender” existed.
“I’ve always felt different,” she said. “I had a girlfriend, but it felt like I was the more emotional one, like the female in the relationship. When she would call me handsome, I would tell her to call me pretty.”

Eldridge said the LGBT Resource Center helped her adjust to her new life as a student on campus, and that it’s comforting to know that there are people who understand her struggle, and what it means to be transgender.

Article continues here