March 24 Conference

The future is ours! A fight back and organizing conference of the NC Defend Education Coalition

Saturday, March 24 // 9am – 6pm

UNC Greensboro

Graham Building room 212

*REGISTER for the conference today!*

Schedule for the day

Our conference is dedicated to the memory and fighting spirit of Trayvon Martin! Rest in power, presente!

9-10am: Registration opens, breakfast

10-11:30am: Panel of student, worker, and community activists, with 30-40 mins time for discussion from the floor

11:30-12:45pm: Workshop Block I: Organize the South! Digging our roots and expanding our movement

Student Loan Debt: 99% Spring targets Bank of America

Building Worker-Student Alliances on Campus

The DREAM Act and the struggle for access to education for undocumented students

Raising education justice on the world stage: Mobilizations around the NATO/G8 summits, the RNC, and the DNC

Ideology and the right-wing attack on education by Art Pope and his cronies

 12:45-1:30pm: Lunch

1:30-2:30pm: Keynote speech by Waldemiro Vélez Soto, a leader of the student movement in Puerto Rico, where they have been waging a struggle for several years against tuition hikes, budget cuts, privatization and more

2:30-3:45pm: Workshop Block II — Building our skills to build our power!

Media skills training // How to do effective outreach 

Direct action training // Movement building

4-5pm: General Assembly to discuss and decide on next steps and approve resolutions

5-6pm: Closing action => We’ll join the Justice for Trayvon Martin march and rally being planned that begins at the Governmental Plaza on Greene Street!

7-11pm: After-party and hanging out at El Carreton (948 Walker Ave, Greensboro)

Housing + Travel Costs

Please contact at us at ncdefendeducation@gmail.com if you will be traveling from a different part of the state and want to arrange housing for Friday night, or if you’ll need help with travel costs. We have some travel stipends available to help folks get to the conference, but please contact us soon to make these arrangements.

Carpools

There are carpools being organized from campuses and communities across NC. Contact us today at ncdefendeducation@gmail.com and we can help connect you with other folks attending from your area so you can make it out to the conference.

Registration + Food

We’ll be serving breakfast and lunch. We are asking for a sliding scale registration donation of $5-20, although no one is turned away for lack of funds.  You can register today by clicking here!

Parking

There is a parking lot directly behind the Graham Building on UNC Greensboro’s campus. Here’s a map of the Graham Building.

Tabling + Other info

Progressive organizations are invited to set up informational tables during the conference. If you are with an organization that would like to table at the conference, please contact us at ncdefendeducation@gmail.com. We are asking for a $15 donation from organizations wishing to table.

If you’d like to propose a resolution for consideration in the assembly, or if you have another idea for the conference, please contact us at the email address listed above.

You won’t want to miss this conference! Students and young folks from all over NC will be here to discuss and strategize the next steps for our movement, we’ll have organizing trainings with long time activists from across NC, and much more! REGISTER TODAY!

==> Download the conference flier to distribute on your campus!