2010–2011 University of Puerto Rico strikes

[1] The UPR operating costs are provided by a variety of sources, including federal, state, and private grants and tuition and fees paid by students; however, they are mostly provided by the state government based on a fixed formula of 9.6% of the average collections deposited in the government's General Fund during the preceding two years, which was established in the university's organic law in 1966.

[3] In 2007 and 2008, the General Fund collections ceased to grow, and even began to diminish, as a recession took hold of Puerto Rico's economy.

Following the implementation of Law #7, declaring a Fiscal Emergency, government revenues going to the General Fund were further diminished or were reassigned to other areas of the budget.

In assembly, students approved a motion to create a Negotiating Committee which would be delegated to discuss several issues with the university administration.

[citation needed] Students from the Mayagüez Campus of the University of Puerto Rico also held a general assembly, in which they ratified the indefinite strike vote.

The ratification vote led to a long and heated debate during the assembly, as students took turns in favor and against the strike.

[9][10] Before the strike began, members of the Negotiating Committee of students attempted unsuccessfully to meet with President José Ramón de la Torre and Interim Chancellor Ana R. Guadalupe, but the administration maintained its stance in favour of the quota and budget cuts.

Interim Chancellor Guadalupe ordered an indefinite shutdown of the campus around 9:35 a.m., and denounced that 19 university guards were harmed in the takeover.

[13] At the Rio Piedras campus students remained inside throughout the strike, using portable showers and stoves in their makeshift camps.

In May demonstrators and police clashed outside the Sheraton Hotel where a PNP fundraising event, which the governor Luis Fortuño attended, was taking place.

The hike, unveiled by the President of the Board of Trustees, Ygrí Rivera, made the previously negotiated achievements on the waivers or exemptions almost inconsequential.

[19] Some of the artists present were Antonio Caban Vale (El Topo), Tito Auger, Los Rayos Gamma, Andy Montañez, Danny Rivera, and among many others.

[22] During that assembly, the professors voted to continue the strike should university officials end it by using police force against students.

On April 29, the Río Piedras campus chapter of the "Asociación Puertorriqueña de Profesores Universitarios" staged a one-day walk-out in support of the students, and called on its members to respect the picket line.

The chancellor of the Arecibo campus, Ana Gómez, resigned to her job because José de la Torre asked her to do so after she supported the strikes.

[27][29] The president of the organization, Wilberto Jiménez Rivera wrote a series of articles in newspapers like "El Nuevo Día", where he expresses his solidarity with the strike.

[citation needed] On Friday May 21, the professors of all 11 campuses met in a General Assembly held at the Cayey Municipal Arena.

They voted to ask for the resignation of the President of the UPR and of the President of the Board of Trustees, the elimination of the 98 certification, the assignation of 9.6% of the government's money to the university, and they threatened the government by saying they were going to participate in the strike if the board of trustees did not reunite with the They also expressed their objection to the presence of riot police around[citation needed]the different campuses.

Broadcasting from within the blocked Rio Piedras campus, producing a wide variety of shows (including its own soap opera, Amor de Barricada) and featuring many young, enthusiastic DJs, it shared relevant information about breaking news occurring at different campuses all over Puerto Rico during and after the strike.

It also broadcast solidarity concerts from the Rio Piedras, Bayamón and Mayagüez campuses, as well as a "clandestine" acoustic program by members of the Puerto Rico reggae band Cultura Profética[32](which sneaked into campus at the moment where the Puerto Rico Police Department blockade was most stringent).

Due to FCC regulations the geographic coverage of the station is limited to the Hato Rey and Río Piedras subsections of San Juan.

The ads varied each day, calling on the students to stop the strike, warning that a semester cancellation was due.

Just before the administration's advertisements came out, the NNC shot a commercial intended to encourage students (and now all of Puerto Rico since the strike turned into an island-wide issue) to keep supporting them.

On the night of June 16, 2010, after 5 days of court-mandated mediation, the board of trustees voted 9 to 4 in favor of entering an agreement with the students, attending their claims against the tuition increase/special fee, summary suspensions and expulsions, as well as the aforementioned issues about financial aid.

[39] In October the board confirmed Ana Guadalupe as rector of the Río Piedras campus which students considered an act of defiance.

[43] Around 3 a.m. of that day, three Río Piedras' UPR students were arrested trying to jam the locks of several Natural Sciences and mathematics classrooms.

[51] On December 13 the resident commissioner Pedro Pierluisi, called for an end to the strike and to resume dialogue between the UPR and the students.

[60][61] The local media coverage on the deployment of "elite" Puerto Rican Police units inside and outside campus, showed images of students and other activists, allegedly arrested using excessive methods.

As part of the events taking place, students used smoke bombs to drive students out of their classrooms,[64] The protest and backlash against police presence on the campus resulted in the end of Jose Ramon de la Torre's term after he resigned to the Presidency of the UPR on February 11, as well as the removal of all tactical police units from the Río Piedras Campus, as ordered by Governor Luis Fortuño on February 14.

On March 13, 2012, during a student assembly members of the Unión de Juventudes Socialistas (UJS) tried to organize a vote for a definite-duration strike in favor, among other things, of free university education.