In a previous post Julie mentioned the protests that had been taking place in some of the local high schools- where students 'took' the schools. This also spread to some of the faculties on the uni campus.
Yesterday, some students were also ready to 'take' the university dining hall.
Every day around 1500 students eat at the uni dining hall (comedor). They pay only $4 (Aussie $1.20) for a pretty solid meal. For many students it is the only decent meal they will eat during the week. Well, yesterday, whilst I was in the line (still registered as a student), they stopped serving. The municipality had arrived for a 'check' of some sort and declared that they couldn't keep serving. Of course there was an outcry- some students had already eaten, others had bought their ticket but not yet received their food. Eventually they came to an agreement- the workers couldn't serve because of the law -but the students could. So various students served the rest- and those who hadn't paid didn't have to.
A little later during the lunch, a couple of students got up on a table and started speaking to the students, asking them what action they were going to take to make sure the comedor stayed open. One suggestion was to 'take' the comedor, whiich would involve a group of students staying there and refusing to move. Others had other suggestions. But it appeared that these two students weren't really getting the kind of repsonse that they wanted- so they kept trying. It was interesting to see that they were wearing T-shirts of one of the political parties in the student elections. I coulnd't help wondering whether it had more to do with publicity the day before the student elections more than anything else.
I'm not sure actually sure of the end result of all this- will have to check it ip tomorrow.
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