Phyllis Walker

Phyllis Walker

Minnesota SDS

Members of the Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Minnesota Public group in 2017 included Phyllis Walker.

“The People’s State of the University”

Grace Kelley May 4, 2010, On April 28, the Save Our School and Chop from the Top coalitions held a community forum called “The People’s State of the University” in Coffman Memorial Union at the University of Minnesota. Initiated by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the event served to counter President Bruininks’ State of the University address (which was only presented as a written document online) with alternate viewpoints from the University community.

The forum’s speakers included Phyllis Walker, president of AFSCME 3800 clerical workers’ union; Professors Eva von Dassow and William Messing from Faculty for the Renewal of Public Education; Eli Meyerhoff and Elizabeth Johnson from Graduate Student Workers United; Student Solidarity Alliance member Jesse Simmons and SDS member Mia Overly. T

Mia Overly of SDS said, “The [budget] crisis… has been brought on by the greed of the administration and now are they are kindly asking the students to pay a bit more in tuition, the grad students to continue to pay their extravagant fees, the staff to kindly take a few more unpaid days, the faculty to teach more and larger classes, and the list goes on.” Explaining why SDS wanted to have the forum in the first place, Overly expressed doubts about President Bruininks’ intentions, despite his claim to have the students’ and workers’ best interests at heart: “SDS finds this hard to believe when the majority of the cuts to funding and to programs are aimed at the most underprivileged in our community.”

Mia Overly finished her remarks by quoting Howard Zinn: “’The oppressors always try to force victims to turn on other victims.’ This is clearly the way the administration would like us all to see it - one group against the other, let us fight for the limited remaining resources, when in fact we should be allies together in this struggle against the one oppressing us all: the administration at the University of Minnesota.”