NYU’s Crackdown
Feb 21st, 2009 by Take Back NYU!
NYU is taking immediate steps against protesters, at risk of its public image and the wellbeing of its students. Right now, several protesters in university housing are being evicted from their residences. This is not OK. Dissent should not displace people. Please contact NYU Housing to insist they allow students to stay in their dorm:
Phone: 212-998-4600
email: housing@nyu.edu
Kick ‘em out of housing and send them to the Univeristy of Gaza to help rebuild the damage there!!!
Don’t tell me that the protesters didn’t make for contingency plans…
Honestly, what is this? Amateur hour? Did they somehow think that occupying a cafeteria would cause the powers that be to “crumble and fall?” Seriously…
Haha agreed, let me know which dorm they are at and i’ll help NYU move them out myself. I love you NYU, thank you for taking care of the interests of the rest of the student body by removing these idiots.
You’re not ‘homeless’ when you can go back to your parent’s house in whatever shitty suburb you’re from.
Gaza is on my mind, as I read this news.
i sent them an email. i really wish the best for the protesters, who are respectfully speaking their minds. this is coercion and cracking down on freedom of speech on NYU’s part.
No its not OK. they shouldnt be able to just kick you out. You pay damn good money! I wouldn’t leave. or i’d get naked and smoke cigs like that hot chick
So wait, you insist that NYU listen to your demands after you occupy one of their buildings for 24 hours, but refuse to accept the negative consequences? It’s a two way street, guys. No wonder most of you turned coat and ran the minute the police showed up. Pathetic.
One word comes to mind…schadenfreude.
Just emailed housing. Good luck.
YOU SHOULD ALL BE EXPELLED
We love you and support you until the end! We won’t let these evictions or suspensions stand!
I called. Stay strong.
Sounds like you people want the freedom to protest, but also the freedom not to have to endure any consequences if your protest doesn’t work out.
Cowards.
you idiots deserve whatever happens to you. you’ve ruined all your credibility and now nyu admins will never take your demands seriously (even the ones that are actually good ideas). form a picket line. distribute flyers. hold open meetings. start petitions. do it LEGALLY. don’t occupy a building for which so many thousands pay for access.
why not just transfer or drop out if you’re so against NYU’s policies? your actions are akin to someone staging a hostile takeover of a mcdonalds because they don’t like the fries. you could just as easily take your business to burger king.
arrest and expel the tbnyu morons!
I’m totally going to email Housing and encourage them to evict the students. You guys could be like Bobst Boy!
Go Violets!
Kick the crybaby rich-kid scum out of the school.
I just emailed housing. It read as follows “thank you for evicting those of us at NYU who should not have got in to begin with”
I’m trying to imagine what Gandhi’s protest against the British occupation of India would have looked like if he adopted these students’ tactics.
“Article 1: You shall grant amnesty to any and all parties involved in this March to the Sea. Please, please, don’t throw us in jail! It’s so scary!”
etc.
LOSERS
Hey everyone, I copy/pasted this together.
I figure putting the pressure on three folks might be useful.
here are their phone numbers, fax, and emails.
We should flood them with calls and all to meet the demands
of the occupying students and to grant everyone amnesty!
Im at work right now, but someone should maybe come up
with a quick blurb about what folks should say on the calls, etc.
AND FORWARD THIS WIDELY.
In solidarity,
kenken - NEIU Chicago
David W. McLaughlin
Provost
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South, Room 1221
New York, NY 10012-1091
Telephone: (212) 998-3077
Facsimile: (212) 995-3190
Email: david.mclaughlin@nyu.edu
Marc Wais, Vice President for Student Affairs
Phone: (212) 998-4410
Fax: (212) 995-3506
Email: sa.questions@nyu.edu
Executive Vice President Michael Alfano
evp@nyu.edu
212-998-4090
Solidarity!
What these students are doing is completely justified. Standing up for a democratic school and for GAZA is the right side of history. Justifying and excusing the repression of activists taking a stand for justice put you down as opposing that which is just.
what bothers me the most is that NYU’s own PR’s underhanded way of dealing with the situation, describing their own actions through glaring euphemism and stirring half-truths in their descriptions of “negotiation”. A broken lock hardly presents the same contempt as vandalism for political statement, and likewise, students were not attacking officers indiscriminately last night. That’s just incorrect.
awesome
too bad, these kids are gonna have to move back to central jersey or connecticut and live with their parents and housekeepers for the next few months. that is, unless they can convince their parents to get them an apartment on the lower east side so they can keep pretending to be totally radical and stuff
NYU — STOP THE OCCUPATION OF STUDENTS ROOMS!
Standing up for human rights makes you a winner.
Watch more campuses stand up for Gaza, and for their own rights on campus.
Um, this wasn’t standing up for human rights… this was an exercise in childish masturbation. Nobody will take this group of students seriously any more. They have shot their wad.
I wholeheartedly agree with Jan. And you guys can’t claim to be nonviolent when a public safety officer was injured on the head and another one broke his arm because of you people. How is that nonviolent at all? Oh wait. Are those more of NYU’s lies? What did the public safety officers ever do to you? They are the nicest people.
good for them, expel ‘em all. If they don’t like NYU, why are they paying to attend? HELLO!! transfer out.
Of your list of demands, I agree that some could be beneficial, such as the public release of the operating budget, and the disclosure of the endowment holdings. However, that being said, no one has FORCED you to go to NYU. It’s a private university, and you knew going in that it would act as such. If you find NYU’s actions, budgets, investments, etc so despicable, then you are completely free to transfer. Wouldn’t that be a more effective statement? Because even now, as you are ending your protest and whimsically remembering the night you spent in Kimmel having a dance party with illegible signs hanging from the dining hall balcony, your parents are at home filling out tuition checks and funding this school that you are trying so hard to “take back” (or perhaps you pay your own tuition, which would be very independent and noble of you, but even more mind boggling). Transferring would be the ultimate sacrifice, and the epitome of “taking a stand” because you are no longer giving your money to this institution which you so clearly oppose. Only then, after you are completely unaffiliated with the school, and after they’ve taken away your NYU Card, which you ironically had to use to get into Kimmel in the first place, will you realize how lucky you were to be at NYU. Then maybe you will realize that NYU is a great institution of learning, run by smart, business minded leaders who are doing their best to keep the university running in tough economic times. Then maybe, when you are sitting pretty in some state school with a small and dingy library (but one that is open to the public…that’s what you’re after, right?) will you be less critical of NYU- a place that has given you so much, and yet you still feel that you are entitled to more.
And just a quick PS- opening Bobst to the public is the most inane and appalling thing I’ve heard in a while. Have you ever set foot in the library during midterms, finals, or even any random day of the week? It might be the largest open stack library on the east coast, but there are barely enough tables to seat the students who study there. It’s a refuge, but opening it to the public…people who don’t even pay NYU tuition…God, thinking of that makes me sick.
I’m sure that in the days of bus boycotts and lunch counter sit-ins activists fighting the good fight where ridiculed and derided and where told that no one would take them seriously unless they were civil. People who repeat the same tired dogma today forget that this struggle is just and that we have been civil for too long.
Destruction of property is not “dissent,” idiots. You wouldn’t be expelled for circulating a petition.
I don’t see how it’s “childish” to fight for transparency in university administration and the right to collectively bargain as campus workers. These folks put up a good fight, and will hopefully spur more student action in the future.
The “NYU: love it or leave it” crowd seems to think it’s fine for university administrations to treat workers, students and teachers as poorly as they want, because people can “leave” if they don’t like it.
In the first place, this claim is totally impractical (how easy is it for campus workers or adjunct faculty to “just leave” a place that’s treating them badly and find new jobs, when these problems are pervasive throughout all higher ed institutions? what about for students accruing big student debt? At some point you’ve got to pick a place to take a stand and fight.) In the second, “love it or leave it” is another way of saying “if you see something unjust happening, ignore or avoid it.” That’s the real cowardice.
AMEN to everything NYUalum said. I hear community colleges usually accept people who were expelled from real schools.
“public image”?
You folks are the ones who look like spoiled, fame-hungry idiots… The university was too patient with your jouvenille antics, to my mind. Rationality and civility win, “The Man” (which you represent with your ego-driven nonsense) loses.
Hope you get expelled and criminal charges are filed.
If they did this in an Arab country they would be put into prison for life! How dare them use our democratic system and values to support their religious fundamentalist and fascist governments that deny their citizens basic human and civil rights. I WOULD SUGGEST THEY ALL BE TRANSFERRED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF GAZA!
Kilroy: There is a difference between the relative nobility of a goal and the means by which one attains that goal.
NYUalum: You make some valid points about the protesters, but your defense of the university’s administration lacks the objectivity of your other arguments. NYU has the 2nd-worst financial aid of any school in the entire country, something that could be improved as has been shown time and time again, but has been ignored in favor of the expansion of the University (in terms of real estate, not the actual services provided to students.) NYU’s administration has also been notoriously undemocratic, or at least insensitive, when it comes to making changes based on the welfare of the student body.
The sudden sadism that’s coming from NYU students and alum with respect to these students and their punishments is bizarre. Even if one grants that the protesters were misguided, the anger directed at these students seems excessive, especially since I don’t see the student body up in arms about any other apparent wastes of their tuition, like John Sexton’s weekly, first-class flights to and from Abu Dhabi.
Why would they allow you to stay? So you can do this all again in a few months?
They want rid of you for obvious reason. You’d do the same in their position.
Logic: Because those flights don’t interfere with getting to and from classes.
So what are you saying that because you are aware of a situation before entering it you should accept it? No it measn you can change it. Martin Luther King Jr. knew he was living in a racist country so what he should’ve moved somewhere else? Rosa Parks knew the laws of this country but she didn’t give up her seat. You are not suppose to settle for what is when you can settle for better. It is not about conforming.
and that was directed to nyualum
I am not taking sides but did you really think you could enact a civil protest and have absolutely no back lash and consequences. For being this organized this seems to be a naive oversight. Civil activism almost always results in consequences for the activists even if they succeed at their goals. Look at history and the civil rights movement, look at what those individuals had to endure and experience. While blogs before this one were informative and sharing the goals of this group, this reminds me more a kid constantly trying to stick his hand in the cookie jar because he believes he should be given two cookies instead of one but complaining when ever mommy or daddy smacks his hand for trying to get in the jar. There are going to be consequences. You must remain strong if you want to succeed and complaining about something like this is showing weakness. So if you really believe in this protesting don’t complain, take your lashes willingly, and stand strong in what you believe. strength of will is stronger than strength of number.
I hope that this comment is viewed as informative and not bashed. While the critique may be negative it does not denounce your groups core actions and ideals.
Is this not illegal to kick them out?
OH suck it up, the people brought it upon themselves.
Go back home.
Isn’t this good for them? they don’t have to pay exessive amounts of money to attend this “evil institution”. Good for them! Now they can go to college where they don’t have to bear down on loans for good education. Find a cheap school and go!
Transferring would not accomplish anything. Someone else will enroll in their place. If you want to change something, you have to fight for it. The same type of things go on at every university.
@ Logic,
Do you have records showing Sexton takes “weekly, first-class flights to and from Abu Dhabi?”
And I think I know exactly why NYU students and alum are demonstrating such a great antipathy to TBNYU. I completely understand where you’re coming from regarding financial aid at NYU. However, I think a lot of the “sudden sadism” comes from the liberal majority of the student body having such an insurmountable domination with their ideology. This is an understandable phenomenon. NYU students are predominantly liberal, therefore we mostly hear liberal ideas. But it can be so intimidating that I never feel comfortable expressing my any of my non-liberal opinions. And then for this TBNYU Campaign to behave in such a disorganized and self-righteous fashion, claiming to represent NYU students at large. It can cause some to get emotionally political, for lack of a better phrase, as opposed to sympathetic or whatever.
NYU doesn’t need to increase the amount of financial aid they give… they are a private institution. Read the news story on http://www.nyu.edu a few down from the press release regarding your idiotic protest. Applications set a record high.
There are plenty willing to waste $50k/year on a private education.
emailed them just now. all the best.
You wanna take a stand then you take the consequences that go with them.
I sent an email to housing@nyu.edu telling them they should kick the protesters out on their butt, ASAP…
They got what they deserved, I just wish there were arrests made.
Logic: I’m sympathetic with several of the goals of TBNYU, but still, there are just too many contradictions and oversimplifications here.
I don’t know where the bit about “2nd worst financial aid school” comes from, but I would guess that the schools with the best financial aid are the ones with the largest endowments –and guess where those endowments are invested? NYU’s endowment is miniscule, which, in a weird way, insulates the university somewhat from the current depression.
Think what you want about Abu Dhabi; but it seems pretty naive to state categorically that John Sexton’s “weekly first-class flights” (are they really weekly? are they really first class? are they really charged to NYU’s operating budget) are a waste of tuition.
What do you think drives NYU’s real-estate expansion, if not making the place better for students, faculty and administrators? Is the charge that someone is pocketing money? That the administration is perversely trying to take over the Village so that the trustees can live in big apartments? What exactly is the charge here? World-class faculty and academic programs want and need space; students want and need space.
People’s comments about a “private” school being a take-it-or-leave-it situation raise a big question… What parts of our lives are ours? For the many people who go from schools (perhaps private, perhaps public, but rarely accountable to students and parents) to universities to workplaces, there is always an institution that they don’t control which is the site of most of their daily life. The occupation forces us to ask not just whether we can define the institutions that define our lives, but how we can best do so.
An important aside: NYU student affairs called me back denying that students are being expelled from housing. Any update?
OH my GOD! You broke the law, and now you’re being PUNISHED?!? Why, that’s BANANAS!
Adhering to the capiitalist & bourgeois idea that property is sacred will only leave/lead you to the death trap that is bourgeois capitalism.
Destroying property that is oppresive and repressive to democratiic liberatiion seems like a rational and logical course of action to be acceptable to all seeking a democratic and liberated existence.
If an action occurs with not a single part of living tissue results in, or is intended to be, harmed how is such an action violent?
Violence is what non-democratic institutions like NYU, CUNY, the New School, NYPD, US DOD, Israeli IDF and their supporters perpetuate on a daily basis. Violence is fundamental to their dominance and their existence. Abolish them as need be!
Hope to assist as capable and needed.
Peace, Love, Solidarity & Democracy for all who want it and need it
you guys deserve what you got. it is not “your” university. it is a private university and the people that run it have the right to put into place whatever policies they want. it is not a democracy….duh. If you hate its policies so much, transfer! and if you guys are so bold and fearless and whatever else you would like us to think of you, stop crying about being kicked out of your dorm. you morons. you didn’t simply dissent, you took over a part of the school that was supposed to be available to everyone that goes their and you embarassed the university and all the other students who go there or who have NYU degrees. you are a total laughingstock.
You deserve what ever comes your way. You are a disgrace to students and to our school. Go find housing with the random schools that supported your stupid cause.
First, how can you “take back” something that never belonged to you? Kind of reminds me of “Palestinians” who claim to belong to a country that never existed.
Second, I believe College of New Hampshire still has some room… Nobody wants it, you can “take it back” any time.
As a student who has work at NYU housing, you should know know that you all BROKE the housing contract. Maybe you should READ contracts you sign and, if you in fact WANT to stay in housing, don’t break the rules. You have NO right to stay in housing. Moreover, having people call or write on your behalf is a useless task. It is against federal law for us to comment about a student’s housing to anyone other than that student.
Just in case you needed to know the exact wording on the contract they signed:
9. Regulations
You agree to review and abide by all policies and regulations of NYU and Housing that are or shall become effective during the License Period. These policies and regulations are included in the NYU Student Handbook, Housing and Residence Life Handbook, and other publications distributed by and available at Housing. If you violate any such policy or regulation, you will be subject to disciplinary action and/or termination of this License without refund by NYU, in its sole discretion. All meal plans are subject to Dining Services policies, procedures, and service schedules; violators will be subject to disciplinary action and/or termination of their meal plan without refund.
Directed to analysta:
Your argument is so unbelievably insane that it defies the principles this country was created on. There is no use arguing with you since you clearly would not listen to reason or logic. You are basically asserting that nothing is sacred, how can one argue with that? It goes to the core of your personal beliefs. Once you start going down that path, where does it end?
What you are saying is not democracy, it’s anarchy. You are denying the rights to propery and unlawful seizure which is guaranteed in our Bill of Rights. The protesters seized a private building. Other students, as well as the university (who owns it,) were not able to access this property while these protestors carried on their antics.
You’re saying NYU property isn’t sacred–so they [the protestors] have the right to destroy it in the name of their cause? It is no longer non-violent or democratic. Like it or not, we have property rights and you can’t just wish away other people’s rights because you don’t like what they do with them.