May 6 Free U Meeting Notes
 Agenda Item 1: reading the community agreement
o mutual respect and support, non violenece, anti oppression, direct
democracy
 Going over the hand gestures
 Going over the agenda
 Introductions
o Zoltan, Maggie, Sandy, Zack, Chris, Alyson, Carwill, Matt, Ben, Jason,
Shaty ?, Claudia?, Fabio, Jason, Vanessa, Katherine, Jim (WBAI), Betsy,
Imani, Alex, Dave, Alex, Dan, Aaron?, Jen, Daniel, Irene, Nick, Joe,
Connor, Ian, Alexis, Mark,
 Feedback/appreciations
o Congrats to all who did hard work
o Suggestions: yesterday debrief, that should be the function of the Free
U. We have to sit and talk and critique how good and bad things talk
about it. I am not convinced that direct actions work all the times. I
think that this is something like this to do. What next after the march?
Also, in thinking forward, you have the advantage is digital technology
over the 1960s. How do you blend that technology to do things in a
mass way that could not been imagined years ago. Think about open
ways to talk – Jim
o Connor: like the idea of digital technology Freeuniversity.org is not
taken so we should snatch it up. We should have a permanent online
presence for activities in NYC. I liked occupuying the park on that date
with that specific purpouse rather than just occupying for occupations
sake. I like that we got that we had dif people from dif comm orgs in
NYC and not only getting ideas about dif work within various mvmnts,
but shows knowledge is not just ensconced in institutions of
education, but street corners can also be spaces of learning
o Kathleen, there was such a multiplicity of tactics and dif kinds of
courses so I am interested in taking the space as well. What was
interesting was that it was not a campus space, Wash Sq Park is NYU.
It was non-university centric and a lot of the audience were public
school teachers and workers rather than university students and
professors. This is un-permited, what does that imply for what we can
and cannot do and how can we stretch the lines.
o Imani, with food, we initially wanted to serve it within the parks, we
were along the sidewalk and people just walking by ended up
participating as well. We should continue that again having it spate
o Dave, appreciate all of the docs and texts that went out. Written and
video was very impressive all of it was well put together. The list of
courses felt historic a level of where a certain level of consciousness
was at. That was reflected in what K was saying that it almost felt like
a campus. We were all there together as Free U. Students. It is almost
hard to feel that centralization
o Alex, echo Imani, I spent most of the day greeting and did not see most
of the park. There were a lot of people who came for Free U, but there
were also a lot of passer bys who had never heard of free U but ended
up going in and participating. Show sinterest in public debate and
public discussions. It is important to be out ther effecting people
o Shakti, I liked the fact that it waws both a way of imaging what a free
U and pub ed would be like. It was also its own thing. Not just a
strategy but a process. It moved me. It felt like polit strat but was
more than that. I liked how it was orged and how the space had been
mapped and you could decide where you wanted to go. There werew
people coming and going from the public space. I would like to keep
that.
o Nick, it was fun, lovely. U feel w/o bullshit ID cards, registration, you
could wander from one thing to the next, one style of pedagogy to the
next, sitting, standing, diversity of learning skills. People from occupy
print, arts events, that it was outside. It is important that it continue to
be outside. I heard 3 white shirts standing around., one said “I don’t
know what they’re doing” They had no idea. It worked, you did not
feel like if you were involved that you were fitting into a template. The
looseness and the way everyone cooperated was the best of occupy.
o Zoltan, awesome that from the organizing pov that we were able to
org a space that people could come and plug into and do their own
activiites. Our roles as organiers was to create an infostructure for this
to happen,. What was amazing was the amount of people who came in
to share knowledge. Realizing that the huge desire to do this is out
there, the goal is to strategies to figure out where these can happen.
There is a huge thirst for this already out there. I would love to see
this activitiy be a part of our repitoire of our direct action/dissent
o Liza, filming there briefly. ? It took place in Mad Sq park w/o permit.
Lovely beautiful location. How can it be continued outdoors on an
unpermitted basis. I know there was a variety of people who are
professors and instructors with jobs. Are you just counting on people
coming to give classes for free? What is the economic logic? How will
it support itself spacialy and financially as pro bono? ? to discuss.
o Joe, was at a occupy U meeting and someone said about what a
Eutopia would look like and she said May Day Free U. A lot of people
felt that way.
o Sandy, liked that it was an alternative to doing Bryant Park type work.
But it also made it, not competing in a negative way, but people
wanted to go do that, but couldn’t. It is nice to have that, but it is such
a powerful action that it needs its own time and space. But it is also a
really great alternative. I liked that it was not permited. I would like to
see more ed asd direct action that are in spaces that are un thought
of… shutting down street and setting up classrrom in the street.
o Carwill, I appreciated how much fun it was to be in the space and
having multiple activities that people could do. I wish we had more
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time to build more relationships with movement spaces. I would like
to flip the dynamic of space at somewhere that is part of an ongoing
struggle. Lets tell each other how to support struggles in our
communities and get academics to go there. How to host a free
university tool kit. Other places want this, Denver, LA, Quebec, Boston.
Think about fulfilling that need.
Alexis, Addressing specific issues that specific communities are
dlealing with: ie harlem,… Also, Circus Amok that performs in a large
amount of city parks over the summer. Having a place in different
communities and coordinating what they want out of this
Ian, the idea that the Free U of NYC, thinking about being in different
spaces and locations. I like the idea of talking with the community and
having a dialogue of what is wanted what is needed having it be
cocreated.
Alex, re: community outreach: localized outreach, or bringing Free U
there… That is the larger struggle within the occupy movement. How
does the presentation of that information become transferred to those
spaces. That becomes a huge part of it. If we are talking about public
ed, what about free U as a location that sets up teachins ABOUT public
education in this city. We think of East Harlem, IS 209, Ocean Hills
Brownsville The education where there were these really large shifts.
For ourselves. Thinking of where education starts to happen.
Answering and engaging the communities.
I like the way of thinking about that spacially again. Reaching out to
smaller communities and localized communities that might get their
educations to. Although many of us do come from a place of
priveledge, but we are still a struggling community that is doing
something. How has our community been working towards public
education. How can we figure that out in the city.
Connor, appreciates Elizas questions. Just to say about those who had
coordinated a lot of free labor was donated and expended to
coordinate, and we asked others to do the same. Envisioning the Free
U’s next steps should include how having free U enclaves is not
enough. I hope we do not see this as a eutopia, but challenging
obsolete models of education. If we can imaging our work as Free U in
becoming more deeply rooted in communities, we have to think
about. What about kickstarter/donations for substantial donations?
Free U scholarships? Get other ways for people to get involved and
still make ends meet, w/o saying give up your time and energy for
free U.
Matt, We modeled an amazing space/reality that allowed a lot of
people to question the reality they are in. I sat in on classes. Two of
the most progressive profs taught and walked out of the space reengaged, reengergized and recommtied in a new way that was
amazing. What we modeled was amazing. In that scale, but also think
about a smaller tactical scale. We have to ask people in those spaces
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how to re-envision how to do this. We can use their minds. Idea of a
toolbox, as a mental scale, not just a special scale. Sustainability, I do
question the idea of free labor, we cannot just take the labor off of one
pop and put in on another. How we sustain this long term is a big
question.
Dominique – other kinds of knowledge shares… some other types of
advocacy, of some other types of knowledge
Andrew, I have a comment about the Free U’s relation to the Occupy
Mvmt. I am in favor of the goals, but I think that other than those
issues of process, there is a challenge of coming up with an issue of
product. Free U could come up with knowledge that would be very
usefull for the mvmt as a whole. To draw upon the expertise of
educators to generate a mvmt of ideas. They feed off of one another,
but they do exist in different temporalities. Organizing, and generating
ideas happen on different temporalities. Free U is an ideal structure
for doing so. That could be part of the work goin forward to think
about the kind of knowledge that Free U is generating.
?? Are there folks at local OWS mtgs? When you raise questions of
public schools, consider a community that has been working on pub
school issues rather than going in and saying we want to teach on it.
This is not just common knowledge, but it is practice based and they
arean extremely articulate active group.
Jim, There was a Free U that failed a block away from here bc it could
not pay rent. ? about OWS and long term goals and organizing. There
are folks are knowledgable about the neighborhood. How do you get
academics to get into the bottom up approach to knowledge. I can see
this as a form of community organizing and people in grass roots
giving classes on the neighborhoods that they are in, and other folks
talking about longer term different type of thing. Something where
you work with the neighborhood and combine dif kinds of
pedagogical practices. Lets get some stuff done.
Eliza, I am a film writer, and would like to recommend a film called
Blackboards. It is about Kurdish School teachers who wear
blackboards strapped to their backs. Being a mom and having a kid in
a public school close by and seeing the elimination of artists,
musicians, doctors, foreign languages in the public schools, there are
needs in this and every city in public education. There are people with
skills, what is a way of replenishing that lack. Physical ed too.
Daniel, some of us participated in planning Free U. Maybe we can
share how we got it done, that content was created by people who
submitted workshops instead of Free U coordinators.
OccU participants, we should bring in the varieties of experiences
people had over the last several months with creating alternative
educations.
Alyson: folks involved in OccU and FreeU should pair up within the
working groups
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Small groups (7:15-7:40)
Group reportbacks!
Group 1 (Alyson):
-reach out to different community groups,
-Re-manifest in different boroughs,
-less bureaucratic work and let space unfold more organically,
-work on messaging about what is “education” & “university” in favor
-of a focus on “skills sharing,”
-media focus so our message is on point,
-address ambiguity around “Free University” project,
-how can Occupy University and Free University support each other?
Fall idea: another big Free U event, summer idea: smaller-scale Free U
activities
Group 2 (Vanessa):
-Occupy University had tried to work with horizontal pedagogy
models with some challenges on doing this
-we could host future ed events on specific themes like foreclosure
-we could suggest courses in multiple parts
-connect with other free ed initiatives in NYC
-consider how Free U can contribute to political action (student
movement resurgence?)
Group 3 (Kathleen):
-academic calendar affects what we do (winter and summer slowdowns)
-a few people do a lot of admin/organizing work, and a lot of people
then show up… can we do a rotational model or have a chore list
-we need to identify who can do what kinds of labor (some people
can’t come to all org mtgs, but will give all to the day of action, while
others may take on lots of tasks)
-participants can become co-creators
-not being specifically tied to OWS means people can come who
otherwise have not participated yet
-as students we focus on students a lot
-employ the unemployed?—provide compensation for work that’s
done to those who need work
-future actions: people’s assemblies, think tanks, mobile classes, flash
projections, sallie mae teach-ins, hosting classes inside other official
classes, seed-bombing, pop-up at big city-wide events…
-develop a mythology around Free U—tagging, guerrilla media
-future questions: what is overall process? Permanence? How do we
continue attendance? How do we disseminate information?
Free University mtg NEXT WEEK: SUNDAY, MAY 13, 6PM, location TBA
Announcements:
Summer Disobedience School--May 26, 12pm, Bryant Park:
--direct action in midtown together, then reconvene for teach-ins and skills-shares
--planning mtg for this is tomorrow (Monday, 5/7) @16 Beaver st, 5-8pm
Transforming Assembly Tuesday-Saturday @ CUNY Graduate Center
Saturday May 12, 1pm—anti-war event discussion between soldiers and community
about experiences Fallujah at Mayor’s office of Veterans’ Office on Leonard st.
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Experiences @ Free U or other transformative ed experiences
Visioning of Free University going forward
o We will not be making concrete proposals for how to allocate energy
and labor
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