The Take Back NYU! Campaign now has a website!

Here you can check out background on the campaign at the History page, the demands of the campaign at the aptly named demands, and the groups participating in the campaign.

Here’s a re-print of the letter the campaign sent to the NYU Administration on September 2nd, below the cut

Dear President Sexton –

In the years since you became president of New York University (NYU), our university has undertaken a series of radical changes that transformed our school into a global institution with a high-profile presence in our local community. In the course of these changes, community members and students have expressed their concerns about many of the university’s policies, particularly NYU’s reluctance to share information about its finances and decision-making processes. As students who share your vision of NYU as a progressive, prestigious global university, we call on you to undertake the following policies to affirm NYU’s commitment to accountability and institutional democracy:

1. The inclusion of an elected representative from the student body in NYU’s Board of Trustee meetings. This representative should have rights, including voting rights, equal to that of Trustees, as well as the authorization to make public statements on the operations of the Board of Trustees without prior approval from any administration official.

2. Public release of NYU’s annual operating budget, including a full list of university expenditures, salaries for all employees compensated on a semester or annual basis, funds allocated for staff wages, contracts to non-university organizations for university construction and services, financial aid data for each college, and money allocated to each college, department, and administrative unit of the university. Furthermore, this should include a full disclosure of the amount and sources of the university’s funding.

3. Disclosure of NYU’s endowment holdings, investment strategy, projected endowment growth, and persons, corporations and firms involved in the investment of the university’s endowment funds. Additionally, we demand an endowment oversight body of students, faculty and staff who exercise shareholder proxy voting power for the university’s investments.

As you have publicly acknowledged, NYU’s high-profile transformation puts a strain on the university’s finances. We believe that a culture of accountability and transparency builds faith in the university’s administration in a way that encourages alumni to renew their financial commitment to NYU. Similarly, by fostering student empowerment, these policies will revive students’ enthusiasm for NYU as an institution, thus attracting more students and furthering NYU’s prestige.

Most importantly, disclosure further builds faith in NYU as a progressive university in the public service by opening a genuine dialogue with students, community members and others about the state of our university. Ultimately, students provide the intellectual and creative energy that make NYU the university it is today, and we have the most at stake in the decisions that shape our school. We believe these policy changes will give students a greater voice in our education and ultimately improve NYU.

We would like a public reply from the Office of the President regarding the policy changes listed above within one month of the delivery of this letter. Also, we request that you send your reply to each of the groups listed below.

Sincerely,

The Take Back NYU! Campaign