Ellington

Last night approximately 60 people gathered in the Kane Hall lobby for the first UW General Assembly. The purpose of the assembly was to create a forum where students, faculty, and community members could meet and discuss concerns of the UW community.

Before the facilitators began the assembly, the group rushed into the Kane 130 auditorium. They were immediately kicked out because the building was closing. Two UW police officers asked the students to leave, and they relocated to By George.

The assembly, which was born from the Occupy Seattle movement at the UW, set up an informal area for discussion. The topics last night ranged from student debt to the political issues in the Middle East.

Jasmine Zhang, an organizer of the event, said the casual setting of the assembly differs from the ASUW and other models of democracy at UW.

“The thing about a GA is that it is very, very direct; anyone can come, anyone can speak, and everyone has a direct part in the decision-making,” Zhang said. “ASUW is very formalized. It’s a very institutionalized model, and a lot of the people aren’t engaged at all in that type of political process. They don’t really feel like their voice is represented. It’s distant; that is what it has become: It’s distant and formalized.”

It was this distance that motivated UW graduate student Christopher Patterson to attend the assembly.

“Our direct actions don’t have a lot of impact, partially because we don’t have that ongoing conversation,” Patterson said. “That’s partly why I’m here, to see how this moves and what can come out of it.”

Looking for an alternative forum for conversation led others to the event. Ariel Wetzel, a UW graduate student, said she felt as though the current democratic system on campus doesn’t fully represent the students.

“I feel as though the current process is a top-down system,” she said. “It’s important that we have a direct democratic system.”

Wetzel is a member of For a Democratic University, a UW graduate student organization that promotes democracy on campus. Members of the organization attended the assembly to show their support.

She led a discussion group later in the assembly about the Occupy Student Debt movement. This movement, active on campuses across the country, encourages students to fight back against student debt with a debt strike.

“I am a teacher at UW as part of the graduate program, and I see freshmen coming in who believe that if they take out loans for their college education, there is going to be a high-paying job at the other end that is going to pay for that debt,” Wetzel said. “The reality is that there’s not a job.”

Occupy Student Debt is a localized movement, which Allan Broslawsky, a UW junior, said he felt it was important that the assembly focused on before expanding to larger-scale activism.

“Before we try to change the world, we need to change our local situations within the community,” Broslawsky said.

The community focus was a key aspect for UW senior Anshika Kumar, who said she wanted to see a more inclusive discussion.

“As a student, I honestly don’t really know what’s going on with faculty and staff on campus, and that’s really important and really integral to act as a community,” Kumar said. “This is a forum for all those people who otherwise don’t have one place to gather and discuss matters that affect the university and all of us that we might not otherwise know about.”

Steve Leigh, a payroll clerk for the biostatistics department and a member of the Service Employees International Union, said he attended the assembly as a UW staff member to encourage the joint efforts of students and staff.

“I want to see students and workers working together to improve conditions on campus, lower tuition, and more access for students and also to raise the wages and conditions for workers,” Leigh said.

The assembly, which included multiple breakout discussions, ended with the plan of meeting again next week in By George.

Zhang said she was happy with the energy of the assembly and overall thought it went well. However, it was a little more disorganized then she had anticipated.

“It’s always a process getting people to talk to each other,” Zhang said. “I would like to work on tighter facilitation for the next ones. I do feel it was a little turbulent tonight.”

Patterson, who was active in the Occupy Seattle movement, defended the nature of the assembly.

“It actually seems less chaotic than some of the general assemblies I’ve been to,” Patterson said. “But for the students who haven’t been to other general assemblies, I can see how it might seem chaotic.”

Reach reporter Jillian Stampher at news@dailyuw.com.