Let our people go!

UAB is consistently covered in posters and spray painting, usually protesting anything and everything. As standing up for your rights tends to go hand in hand with the local anarchist spirit, most of the signs are in Catalan, limiting my understanding of what exactly is being objected to. One thing we see all the time though are signs arguing against "Bolonya." (Which translates to mean the Italian city of Bologna.)

After doing some research into what this meant (Paige blogged about it a while ago), we unearthed a massive European educational controversy. The Bologna Model refers to the method of schooling most similar to what we're accustomed to: standardized material with frequent assessments. In some of my classes here, the only work I have the entire semester is the final exam. (You're allowed to retake it if you fail, in most cases. Under Bologna this would not be true.) Though Bologna is not an EU initiative, most EU countries are signed on (including Spain), and the idea is that credits will transfer more smoothly from country to country (and just generally make more sense when people cross borders).

At the schools we're attending, only some classes have started to Bologna-ize. (A few of my friends have the lucky opportunity to take midterms and do homework assignments.) As you might imagine, the Spanish students are furious. The sidewalks of UAB are covered in graffiti and it's not unusual to hear someone yell something about "Bolonya" at a random moment.

Today in my Contemporary Political Institutions class (this is where I get most educated about Spanish educational practices), the professor opened class by acknowledging Thursday's potential strike. The students are unhappy with the changes occurring around them, so of course they strike! He said he was planning to still hold class, but would put it to a vote, so that way the few students who showed up wouldn't be punished. (Thank you!) Obviously the class voted to cancel class. But not just so they can take the afternoon off — they all started yelling about marching and protesting and making sure the Spanish government (who run UAB) knows how they feel.

I'm not entirely sure I agree with my classmates, but God bless them for trying...