6PM Wednesday, March 27th, 2019
We, students of the Basic Needs Campaign, have decided to go on a hunger strike. As of now, there are 21 students participating. Six of us will not eat until the University of Kentucky commits to the three demands of the Campaign. Seven of us will eat only one meal a day until UK administrators meet the demands. Five of us will hunger strike for between 2 and 7 days. Two of us will skip one meal a day until the demands are met, and one of us will skip meals every now and then.
The three demands of the Basic Needs Campaign are:
A lot has led up to our decision to hunger strike. UK housing recently underwent one of the largest privatization deals in the country (meaning UK dorms are no longer owned by UK, but are outsourced to a private company to make profit). UK Dining was also recently privatized to Aramark (a company that serves 1,000,000 meals to prisoners every day). UK students’ financial well-being and security have been under constant attack with years of rising costs of tuition, food, and housing. With increasing burden on students, we have seen nationwide issues of black student enrollment, graduate student mental health, stagnation of wages for campus workers, and more as a result. So, a group of UK students, faculty, and staff conducted two years of research to find out the magnitude of food and housing insecurity at UK. The administration’s response to the research results is very troubling. The following list of events is in chronological order.
For six months, the Office of the President refused to allow UK faculty researchers to release the statistics that 43% of UK students suffer food insecurity and 8% suffer housing insecurity. That Fall, the Office of the President requested researchers cancel their public presentations where they intended to present the results. For over a year, SSTOP Hunger students have had fellow students approach us for help when they could not pay for housing because so few resources are available for them at UK and in the Lexington community. For a year and a half, the Dean of Students’ Food and Housing Security Workgroup conducted further research and came up with recommendations, which we used to formulate the three demands of the Campaign. We’ve had to sit through a meeting where administrators laughed at us for asking for a Basic Needs Center. For twelve days, President Capilouto ignored our open letter that asked for a meeting to discuss the demands of the Campaign. Only after we organized 40 people to call into the Office of the President in one day in support of the Campaign did President Capilouto finally respond. In one week, we collected over 1,000 student petition signatures. We presented to and gained the support of major homeless service providers in Lexington, including Arbor Youth Services, the Hope Center, the Catholic Action Center, and the LFUCG Homelessness Prevention and Intervention office and board. In three weeks, we organized 25 student and community organizations to endorse the campaign. We sat through another administrative meeting where President Capilouto did not address any of our demands, but, instead, questioned the validity of the faculty-led, peer-reviewed research on food and housing insecurity at UK. For one month afterward, the administration delayed meeting with us again. We hosted four Basic Needs Block Parties where we gave out over 200 pounds of free fruit and told students about the Campaign.
Once we finally had our second meeting with the President, several administrators seemed to make arguments for a Basic Needs Center, but ultimately denied that they needed to open one. They said that their only next steps were more research and launching a website. President Capilouto and Provost Blackwell ended that meeting by saying they would not meet with us further. So, we held a rally in front of the Main Building, where administrators’ offices are. We held a General Student Assembly where nearly 200 students came out and spoke in support of the Campaign. Following the assembly, we read a public statement from UK’s official spokesperson, Jay Blanton, misrepresenting both the UK faculty-led research on food and housing insecurity and our proposal for a Basic Needs Center. On Wednesday, March 27, we hosted a Day of Free Food open to all students. And, now, with few options left, we hunger strike.
Until the University of Kentucky stops denying students the right to food and housing, we will deny ourselves food. If you are able, anyone can join us, and we encourage you to; there is power in numbers. We urge you to call the Office of the President in support of our hunger strike for the Basic Needs Campaign at (859) 257-1701. A hunger strike will seem drastic to some, but we have tried behind-closed-door meetings. We have tried academic research. We have tried developing student-run solutions. We have tried rallies, phone zaps, and student assemblies. Nothing has worked. What we are facing is not just resistance to the Basic Needs Campaign. We face a University of Kentucky that puts profit over people. It is time for UK administrators to acknowledge the magnitude of the problem we face and act in proportion.
This is why we hunger strike.
If you want to join the hunger strike (even by skipping one meal), fill out this short form. Learn more about the Basic Needs Campaign here. To endorse the Campaign’s demands, fill out the short form here. Check out the timeline of the campaign here.