‘Walk Out’ to aim at recruiters
by Elyse Ball
Staff Writer
eb105303@ohiou.edu
A coalition of four liberal campus groups held a press conference yesterday
urging students to walk out of class Nov. 2 and march to the Ohio Army
National Guard recruiting office in Athens to show opposition to President
George W. Bush’s policies.
Students taking part will walk out of class at 10:30 a.m. and converge on
College Green at 11:30 a.m., said Damon Krane, leader of the Athens Can’t
Wait Coalition. The students will then march Uptown to the Athens military
recruitment center and attempt to stop it from operating.
The aim of the walk out is “to form a grassroots campaign and take action
ourselves to push the Bush regime from power,” Krane said, adding that the
date for the march was chosen because it marks the one year anniversary of
Bush’s reelection.
Marc Fencil, Vice President of the College Republicans, said those walking
out of class cannot claim to support U.S. troops in Iraq.
The Athens Can’t Wait Coalition is loosely affiliated with the World Can’t
Wait Coalition, an international group, and was formed from existing
registered Ohio University student organizations Positive Action, Students
for Peace and Justice, Interact and the Federation of United Queers, Krane
said.
“We’re interested in social and economic justice,” said Kyla Kazuschyk, a
speaker for Positive Action, adding the Bush administration’s policies are
“negative and unproductive.”
Each group has its own reasons for joining the coalition. Students for
Peace and Justice joined because military recruitment is often forced upon
the poor of southern Ohio, said founder Kelsey McCoy.
Members are “disgusted” at how Bush’s administration has dealt with the
poor, McCoy said.
Fencil said this argument was invalid because the military provides good
career opportunities for the poor.
“If they want poor people to not join the military, they should come up
with other jobs for them and ways to pay for their college,” he said.
Those taking part in the march “hope November 2 will serve as a way to
mobilize more people,” Krane said. “The walkout is to signify that the
situation is urgent enough to break business as usual.”
Cultural studies and education professor Jaylynne Hutchinson was the only
faculty member to take part in the press conference.
As faculty, “we cannot abdicate our responsibility to direct the university
through democratic means,” Hutchinson said, adding that she hopes the
university will realize students have a right to participate in the walkout.
Anne Lombard, director of student activities, said she was unaware of the
groups’ intentions to walk out of class and could not comment.