Get Involved!
Oct 19th, 2008 by Take Back NYU!
Pledge not to donate! By the time you graduate, you’ll have given NYU, what, $200,000 more or less? And just how exactly is NYU spending all your money? Oh right. We don’t know. Well, heck! Don’t give ‘em anymore until you know where your hard earned cash is going! Tell the administration and trustees that when it comes to transparency, accountability, and democracy, you mean business: pledge that as an alumni, you will not donate to your Alma Mater until NYU discloses its budget and endowment and places a student on the board of trustees. You can sign the pledge here.
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- Top 10 Reasons NYU Should Disclose Its Operating Budget and Endowment JPEG DOC (formatted to print quarter sheets)
- Disorientation Guide Preview PDF (not formatted for printing, sorry!)
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Money for the Kimmel 18’s lawyers! We had friendly lawyers who offered to help out when we were suspended. Get in touch if you can organize a pay-for-a-plate dinner, a benefit show, a keg party, a dance-off, a bake sale, or some t-shirt-/button- making and selling. You don’t have to be ready to do something big, but if you know a band, can make really good vegan brownies, or are a talented screen-printer, we’d love to know.
Join us! NYU’s actions following the occupation made even more clear the necessity for democracy, transparency, accountability, and respect for human rights. Some of the things we’re working on are various forms of propaganda, a shadow SRI committee, and the establishment of deeper ties across campuses. Have ideas? Want to be involved? Get in touch.
Hi there - Please let those of outside of New York know what we can do, who we should email and call in support of your actions. Good luck!
Good demands. Best to you in the struggle. –Neal Resnikoff, NYU School of Education, 1957; Betty Alfini, NYU Washington Square, 1958.
Michael Alfano,
Office of Executive
Vice President
212-998-4090
evp@nyu.edu
I express my fervent solidarity with the heroic, dignified, and ethical students of NYU who recoil from ever intensifying exploitation and dishonor in having to bear the unjust financial burden or the repulsive stigma that stems from US imperialist-Zionist-Nazarene genocide operations against the Iraqi, Palestinian, Afghanistan, Iranian, and Pakistani peoples who also have a right to exist.
I hope and urge NYU to accept all of the student’s demands, including their demand for a “Socially Responsible Finance Committee” to disentangle or disengage the school and its endowment from the bestiality of genocide and from the foul hatred of humanity that genocide presupposes.
I see and find no contradiction between education and the development of intellectual and moral virtues. Moral virtue without intellectual virtue will never attain the ends ethics pursues. Intellectual virtue without moral virtue SHOULD NEVER attain the ends that science and the arts pursue. Education that negates or neglects either kind of virtue or both kinds is a fraud.
Arthur Shaw
The voice of dissent is very much needed within our silent and thus complicit undergraduate student population. Wish I were in NYC. Keep at it!
NYU CAS Alumni 2002.
Ok guys…I’m a huge supporter, an NYU alumni, and a former organizer of the disclosure movement at NYU in 2003. In that light I must say this: The biggest mistake of this movement is that you haven’t kicked out that Charlie Eisenhood guy and established your own voice on what is going on. It is so sad because that is going to perhaps single handedly undo your movement. People, words of advice - Resistance 101 says: establish your own propaganda before someone does it for you. Charlie is not helping your movement because he is cynical. I don’t blame him, I blame you for not throwing him out. If you feel you cannot do that then you can make his life hell. You control the space, you control the terms, you should control the media at this stage. Practically all the press about you at this point is negative. The only problem is that if you don’t have an alternative to him then maybe you should keep him. But I suggest you do something to control the media!!
PS. You should have learned a bit from the New school reporting. This site is pretty bare. Please please get your own voice online SOON!!
You should all TRANSFER… take it from someone who got out of there as soon as she could.
You probably won’t post that previous comment because it doesn’t clearly support you. I’m just bein’ honest.
Anna,
I wish they wouldn’t post your comment. But the problem is that they are not controlling the media. Everything I see is negative to neutral. is there no one from the group who can start a live blog????
You guys are terrific! Keep this up and don’t be intimidated…but please please get a blogger from the inside besides Charlie. He’s killing you. (I must state as I did on his blog that he is a great journalist…but that isn’t what you need right now. You need your own team of reporters!)
you kids ROCK! good on ya from down under!
i’m sure there’s many of us who’d like to write to your uni admin supporting your demands - could you please post some email addresses and simple actions for those of us who can;t come join you?
The New York Times said:
“The N.Y.U. students created a Web site (takebacknyu.com) where they published their demands, including thorough annual reporting of the university’s operating budget, expenditures and endowment. They also want the university to provide 13 scholarships a year to students from the Gaza Strip and give surplus supplies to the Islamic University of Gaza.”
Yet, I can’t find the demand to provide scholarships to students from Gaza Strip or to give supplies to IU of Gaza on this website.
Please clarify whether the NY Times is misreporting.
Reference: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/nyregion/20nyu.html
Wow. I’m so proud of you guys. The world is standing behind you. Be strong. And try not to get kicked out. This is really amazing. <3
Overall, I support your concerns. There should be absolute transparency on many issues from NYU’s fascist administration. How can NYU support civil liberties, education, openness, and international relations, but refuse transparency about incompatible investments or absurd policy implementation?
I only hope you NYU students take this perspective and your great energy and apply it to a larger problem, like demanding transparency of America’s central banks, or the privately held Federal Reserve banks, which are causing many financail problems American university students are experiencing today!
All of this nation’s economic problems today, many of which university students are suffering from right now, stem from the financial racketeering by the private Federal Reserve banks that managed and supplied the directives and policies to the mortgage banks that engaged in predatory lending practices, and the Wall Street investment banks that committed fraud by intentionally misleading investors about the quality and value of collateral debt obligations, or mortgage-backed securities–the repackaged predatory loans for the world market. Every banker in line along the way knew what he or she was doing. It is a complete lie that bankers are freezing loans right now, because they “don’t know how many bad loans they have on their books.” Since when does a banker not know about every risk aspect of their loans? Right down to the penny they don’t know, huh? And they are refusing transparency!
The private Federal Reserve banks and their underlings are freezing credit based upon the very crimes they engineered and committed. In a very real sense, the NYU administration is supportive of this through outrageous tuition increases, less financial assistance, and ultimately less opportunities for education and growth!
And now, after taking billions of bailout dollars floated on the backs of American taxpayers, banks are refusing transparency about what they are doing with this money!
There is some serious hypocrisy going in the United States, and much of it is coming from the private sector of the economy, just like behind the closed doors of NYU’s closely held private administration that says “f*ck you” to its own student body and community!
You have my support, naturally.
Alex Turner
The demands of this student protest are outrageous. The charges of a US Imperialist-ZIONIST- Nazarene (whatever the hell that is) plot has no relation to the truth. The students of Gaza are at present firing Mortars, Grad, and Kassam rockets into Israel and during the last 8 years they have struck many kindergartens, elementary and high schools and Sapir University. Muslim immigrants to Europe are in the process of trashing it, but the United States has stood firm against such Palestinain propaganda. New York Universtiy has a long history of fairness in accepting students of all faiths and national backgrounds and these charges are totally without merit. I call on the administration to expel those causing this disruption and permit the serious students to continue to study.
David N. Schwartz MD
NYU School of Medicine 1962
A few of the demands aren’t necessary. Knowing adminisrators salaries maybe but the Profs…naaah.
I am in full support of the protest because Colleges and Universities haved turned into businesses. That’s a damn shame that NYU students pay close to a Quarter Million dollars by the time they graduate and they have no idea where that money is going.
I find this situation with the banks and college students very disturbing as well. Keep up the hardwork and continue to stand up for your rights. Change will come soon for all of us.
You and NYU will be in my prayers.
Matt L.
My name is Conor Teehan, I am a reporter with WFUV news. I’d like to do a brief phone interview with someone involved. Please call me at 718-817-3695.
From a disgruntled class of 2004 alumni - I’m proud of you guys, and keep fighting. Why is it that a school can take your money, not tell you where it’s going, and continue to ignore your demands? Our attempt to answer this question in 2003 was genuine, but futile. At NYU education is a consumer product, and students are the clients…IT’S TIME FOR SOME DAMN CUSTOMER SERVICE.
Email me if there’s anything I can do.
saw you guys on the news last night then came here to read more about your issues and i just cant get on aboard with you guys to many issues that have nothing to deal with NYU. Gaza?!?!? Heres an idea stick to the orignal idea of the money issue drop everything else then add the cost of books and the kick backs the school gets for selling the books. Then you got me
We’re thinking about y’all here in Texas at UNT. Yall are doing terrific work. Please don’t give up.
These criminal actions will do nothing to advance the cause that motivates the perpetrators. Almost everybody else can see agree on this.
If you truly believe in free speech, you will post this on your site.
Please, if you so incredibly unhappy with NYU, then LEAVE! This is a private institution that you chose to attend, so choose to transfer!
Many people do not believe they have the power or right to demand change. When I heard about you guys occupying Kimmel I thought it was pretty lame; I didn’t understand why or how that would make a difference. I think that everyone has some issues with NYU, the way it is run, things that can be improved, and we do have the right and power to change these things, or at least make progress on having an institution built primarily on our tuition give us the education we want.
Anyway, I think that people who don’t agree with the way protests and things are currently being carried out (myself included) should join in so we actually CAN do things right and make a difference.
As someone who graduated from NYU I am so proud of you guys! To all of those who suggest that these students transfer, my hope is that these headlines grab the attention of prospective students who are on the verge of paying tuition deposits. NYU is a very wealthy institution that does little to nothing to support the large population of students going into debt for the honor of their diploma. While I was a student I was treated disrespectfully repeatedly by the financial aid department and housing department, found the “work study” program paying minimum wage to be a joke, and was further upset to find that the grad students who receive reduced tuition in exchange for teaching are actually paid barely enough on which to live in New York.
Any student considering attending school - public or private - has the right to know how their tuition money is being spent.
Emily is right; if you dont want to be here then leave. we dont want you here either. why did you even apply here if you hate it so much? you all deserve to be expelled!
If you hate NYU so much then go find a fine university run by Hamas and see if they are more open and democratic. All students are guests of NYU and are given every opportunity to learn in a free society. It is thier responsability to respect NYU for this chance.
The demands made by Take Back NYU are quite naive and are only an anti Israel agenda under the giuse of helping students in Gasa.
Shame on you!
E
Liberal, “left,” “radical” activism is useless. You are wasting your time, energy and probably your academic careers. Nothing short of a socialist revolution will bring anything like permanence to the kind of social justice you demand. Consider working with the Socialist Equality Party and helping to build a worker’s party that can finally overturn capitalism and thus private education, bringing equality to peoples of the world, including in the Middle East.
Here is the text of the letter I sent:
Dear President Sexton and NYU Administrators,
As an NYU alumna (GSAS 2005), I am extremely ashamed of the actions of the university administration regarding the student protestors at Kimmel. As a full-time faculty member who is also concerned with issues of university transparency, and has been frustrated by the peremptory actions of my own university administration, I applaud the students’ initiative and many of their demands as they are focused on issues of university governance. I am especially disturbed at the university’s manipulative and deceitful actions by holding out the carrot of negotiations — and then slapping the student negotiators with the stick of dismissal. The university’s decision to suspend students smacks of police state tactics. Instead of treating this matter through the normal disciplinary procedures, the university has carried out a pre-emptive strike and suspended students without regard to due process. At a minimum, the students should be re-instated, moved back into their dorms and given their rights to due process through the appropriate university disciplinary hearings.
Of course, this action does not come as a complete surprise. Unfortunately NYU has a long history of opacity regarding its internal operations and belligerence towards student activism. I was an organizer of the graduate students union, GSOC-NYU, during my time at NYU, and remember well the university’s efforts to prevent the union from succeeding. A few years later, when GSOC went on strike because the university would not negotiate a new contract, I watched with dismay as the university used strong-arm tactics to effectively break the graduate union.
I urge you to change course, to reinstate the students, and to proceed through normal disciplinary channels.
Sincerely,
Lisa Maya Knauer
Assistant Professor, Anthropology
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Great work, keep it up. A voice of solidarity from a teacher in Los Angeles. Thank you for your demands to divest from Israel and to donate the extra equipments to Gaza University.
Keep you faith in each other, nothing good comes out from any official leaders, let alone university leaders, they are all cowards and punks.
You morons. The “Palestinians” would kill you in two seconds and revel in your blood. What fucking idiots you are. Go volunteer in Gaza, put your moolah where your mouth is. Dare you.
With all the repression in the world–in China, Russia, Iran, N. Korea, Cuba, every Arab country, etc.–singling out the only Jewish country on earth is anti-Semitic.
Hey,
So first of all, let me say as a participator in the rallies over the past couple days, I’m disgusted by the way the NYU administration has endangered its students and staff in order to remain stubborn and immature in regards to speaking to its students. I’ve already written emails and made phone calls to all the parties I feel could do anything about the situation at hand.
In addition: I’m a part of the Tisch School for film, taking Sight and Sound: Doc, and I have to pitch a proposal for a final project on Monday. In light of the events of the past few days, I’m extremely interested in making a documentary following one or a few of the students who are being unjustly persecuted for their participation in the occupation, and their efforts to oppose the school and their own expulsions. I’m not sure the best way to try to get a hold of any of these students, but if you could help me in anyway, I’m eager to get in touch with one of the bold students on the inside who would want to participate in this sort of project.
Thanks in advance for your reading this message, and I hope to hear back from you.
In solidarity,
Alex Keipper
ajk376@nyu.edu
Dear TakeBackNYU: I support you and your cause. I was an adjunct instructor at NYU for seven years and quit my position in disgust.
My department rented classroom space in a sub-standard bldg. We frequently didn’t have heat during the winter months. I was appalled that my students were paying an enormous amount of money for tuition, yet this was the learning space we were given: Sitting in class through January and February wearing our coats, hats and gloves.
As an adjunct, I was treated horribly by my department head. The consistent unspoken message from day one was: “There are hundreds of other instructors in this city waiting for your job. Bring up your issues or those of any of your students and we’ll replace you tom’w.”
In retrospect, I realize I was foolish to expect NYU to exhibit any integrity in the way it treated me or my students. I accepted my position believing that NYU was an institution of higher learning. It is not. It is a corporation. Students are a commodity to be processed through its system as quickly as possible and at the highest possible profit margin.
I strongly encourage (a) any prospective students to look elsewhere if they want a real education (b) alumni to direct their money to other charitable causes (c) any instructors considering teaching at NYU to redirect their job search to institutions that respect their faculty and students.
Again, I salute you, courageous members of TakeBackNYU.
May the struggle continue! I only wish I were in New York to stand beside you. To those students and professors who have indicated “if you don’t like it, leave”, I would posit that these students have a right to have their point of view heard, and that ultimately failure of NYU to divest from Israel will be viewed in the future as similar to the failure of insitutions to divest from South Africa during their apartheid. As far as the “You are singling out Israel” argument…Israel has the 3rd largest military machine in the world, and they have brought their full force to bear against Gaza. This is bullying on an epic scale. Furthermore, it’s worth noting that while 9 Israelis were killed from 12/27/08 through 1/18/09, 1314 Palestinians are dead, 412 of them children.
My greatest hope is that these kinds of actions begin on the west coast, and throughout the country and the world, not only to protest Israel’s apartheid, but all injustice throughout the world.
John Sexton is preaching at Judson Memorial Church on Washington Square on March 8. . .
sorry, guys, but it seems to me that you live in a parallel world! am I wrong or the Palestinians danced, full of joy, on the streets of Gaza on September 11th, 2001? was that a sign of civilization, democratic spirit, humanitarian attitude? do you really know what are the islamists fighting for? is that democracy, human rights, politically correctness? did you ever read the texts of Jihad? did you learned about the islamist terror attacks, all around the world? are they justified? by what? blowing up a discotheque in Bali is part of the fight for freedom or is part of a plan to terrorize the world, in order to obey the Islam? you’ve really needed some decades of communism, as we did experience in Romania, in order to understand the real mean of the things… by the way, a former political prisoner bitterly laughed in 2003, when the leftist press presented us “the abuses” from Abu Ghraib; he said that if that were tortures, then the nightmare he lived, for 17 years, in the communist prisons was what? the Hell of the Hells? please, try to be reasonable and don’t trust every idiocy which comes to you covered by leftist messages! it’s pure suicide…
last, but not least, think at you and let the Palestinians to manage themselves; I’ve known lots of them here, in Romania, during the 80s, and my opinion about them is not good at all; justified by realities, not by theoretical principles!
Sarah Lawrence Students in Solidarity with NYU Protesters Call for End to Retaliation
Students at Sarah Lawrence College have been following the events at the Kimmel Center closely and with concern.
We protest NYU’s unwillingness to recognize the student protesters’ actions as legitimate, negotiate with the protesters, and fulfill the protesters’ demands. It is inappropriate when an institution of higher education trains its students to be scholars of conscience and action, yet reserves for itself the right to determine when and how “robust dialogue” occurs between “students, faculty, and administration”*. As critical thinkers, we have a difficult time reconciling NYU’s purported pedagogy of “commitment to free exchange of ideas, reasoned debate, and legitimate forms of protest” with the distinctly authoritarian actions of the administration in recent days*. We feel strongly that current and prospective NYU students, their parents, alums and the general public experience that same dissonance.
We demand that the participants in the student occupation be granted full amnesty and that there be no change in their status as enrolled students.
In addition, we affirm the demands of the protesters and insist that the administration grant them in full.
As a Sarah Lawrence student, I stand in Solidarity with my peers at NYU during this time of extreme financial crisis and political upheaval, and strongly urge NYU to cooperate ethically with the critical mass and lifeblood of its institution.
Sincerely,
Erick A. Paulino
Sarah Lawrence College ‘11
*
Congratulations to all who took part of this. I applaud those who aren’t afraid to stand up for their rights. Regardless of your beliefs on the standings of this NYU group, credit must be given where its due. These students that are paying over $50,000 a year for tuition, ridiculous in itself, deserve to know where this money is going. NYU, while a private institution, is still a school, and its one priority should be its students’ well-being and quest for knowledge, and NOT corporal interests. These students had a peaceful demonstration to show their disgust with the current administration and to punish them without due process would be heartless and criminal. I just heard some of the students are being asked to leave the dorms, and if this is true, something is really wrong here. Its February in New York right now, not a very warm time up there, and these kids might not have a place to stay. Other students are being suspended and even one arrested. This is unbelievable, and I hope these students keep up with their ideals. Keep up the good work.
We support you.
TAKEBACKNYU!
As an alumni of NYU, class of 2002 and a husband of an NYU alum, class of 2001, I have read your demands and watched your protest on television and all I can think is how immature and childish you all are. Being accepted into NYU is a privledge that many people only dream about. Your actions are a slap in the face to all those hardworking individuals who worked so hard in school to attain that dream. Your fight has made me want to give more to NYU and I am glad to hear that you will be punished. Hopefully they will replace you with students that will make a meaningful and lasting impact on the community.
Dear Take Back NYU,
I wanted to let you know that you have my support. I am an NYU graduate and currently I am on faculty at a college in the city. I am ashamed of NYU, ashamed at its repressive actions, and its ever-intensifying corporate mentality. I plan to no longer advise students to consider NYU for graduate school.
Good luck.
Way to go! NYU tuition definately sucks. They were stupid enough to invest with Madoff and do not have balls to disclose where else they invested the money. Expect tuition hikes. NYU investment officer should be a persona non grata non students. I am an NYU graduate student. NYU would kick the students out if they had to deal with like 200-300 protesters. It might make sense to stage a larger protest.
I support the NYU students and applaud their participation in the struggle for human rights and their efforts to ensure that the NYU endowment be used to promote these. I urge the NYU administration to reinstate the students it has suspended. To do so would demonstrate NYU’s recognition of the need for continued dialogue on the major issues that the students have raised. To maintain the suspensions would constitute a serious blow to the principle of academic freedom.
I was a graduate student at Harvard in the late 60s/early 70s. I am proud to have helped then to organize students in elite institutions such as Harvard and NYU to raise their voices and sing in harmony with all those who fought for justice within this country and in its international relations. Today I support the NYU students.
Paddy Quick
The purpose of this letter is to put to a close any dispute of $8,601.06 that your front offices claim I owe to NYU. These charges are for a semester in housing, which I had clearly stated I would not be using as I was withdrawing from the university for a variety of reasons that I won’t go into in this letter not because they’re irrelevant - they’re quite relevant and would shed light on my disgust with your university and my decision to leave - but rather for the purpose of brevity (ie I’ll take one fight at a time). I don’t exactly know the hardworking geniuses at NYU who thought it would be logical to drop me from the register (and cancel all charges and existence of me as an NYU student) yet keep me on the list as someone residing (and apparently, paying) in NYU housing. But that’s what happened, and I ended up getting stuck with this nonsense bill.
In the early summer of 2008 - I believe sometime just after my 21st birthday (06.02) - after I became sick and tired of the constant stream of harassing letters from your offices, I decided to go, along with my mother (who had dealt with the financial aspect of my NYU sentence), to the office of the bursar. I was under the impression that showing up in person and speaking to somebody face-to-face would help resolve the lack of communication and unprofessional mismanaged communications (on NYU’s part) I had encountered when trying to resolve this issue through phone calls and emails. Unfortunately, I was mistaken and the person at the desk told my mother and I (after she had gotten off her lengthy non work related phone call) that we were in the wrong place and needed to talk to the housing department. After waiting a considerable amount of time for the staff at the desk and receiving the same cold, unprofessional treatment at the housing office, we were told that the issue was a big misunderstanding and would be taken care of immediately. We also gave our home phone number in case there were any problems resolving the issue but were assured that unless we received a call, this would be taken care of.
(On a side note, I’d also encountered this same breakdown of communication, lack of knowledgeable staff, and unwillingness to help when I tried to work my schedule around the demands of my Air Force ROTC cadetship and was either told that I’d a) have to quit AFROTC in order to continue my NYU career or b) asked, “Air Force ROTC? What’s that?”)
Since that visit, I have received at least two letters a month from the bursar’s office. Although I have made several attempts to talk to someone on the telephone (as I realized that going in person clearly did nothing more than inconvenience myself) more often than not I’ve been directed to leave a message and the voicemails I have left have gone unanswered. Starting December I began receiving threatening letters from a debt collection agency, and on February 12, I received a gem of a letter from one of your attack-dog attorneys. The last sentence of this masterpiece wrote, “Please review your records and demonstrate your willingness to resolve this matter directly with your creditor listed below.”
I’ve reviewed my “records” and on my end they look like repeated, earnest attempts to contact NYU to fix the problem at hand. When the issue was first brought to my attention, I was extremely ready and willing to “resolve this matter.” Now, not so much. My willingness to resolve this matter? None, actually. But don’t worry - it will get resolved, I promise you that. And, I also am going to make all parties involved - including your current and future student body and the press - aware of this situation, the efforts I made to correct it and NYU’s poor communication and mismanagement, lack of professionalism, and unwillingness to cooperate.
If I had the cash to give to NYU’s piggy bank (so they can continue buying up and ruining New York City) I would, just so I could be left alone and have nothing more to do with this overstuffed, overpaid and overwhelmed institution. Unfortunately I make just over minimum wage at my job as a Wilderness Field Instructor/Assistant Medical Director in the northern Adirondacks rehabilitating troubled youth, and the $8,601.06 (as of 2.21.2009 - your greedy interest rates are piling up!) is a figure I can only dream of even having in the bank for myself, much less throwing away as an appeasement to the already bloated wallet of NYU.
Oh, right. I almost forgot: Your “Brine Family Commons” or whatever one of the downstairs floor in Bobst Library is called is named after my mom’s side of the family - thanks to uncle Kev (Brine) who was on the NYU Board of Trustees for some time. And having a father in the media/publications as well as access to his connections couldn’t hurt. Imagine the PR nightmare: overpaid NYU attorneys prosecuting a minimum-wage EMT/rehab counselor (whose family donated a large amount of money to the university) for $8,601.08 for a semester of housing in which said accused wasn’t even registered with the university as a student. So if it goes there, sure. Let’s take it to court and see what happens; but hey, sorry NYU - you’re not covering this one up.
Respectfully,
Jamie Gollogly
P.S - Perhaps reviewing your policies and procedures - as well as developing a more professional, cooperative and helpful attitude in your front offices - would foster the environment expected in a university in which students don’t storm the student center while protesters and police clash outside.
I do agree with some of the demands and I do realize that you have written letters in the past but there were other alternatives to get what you want without making yourselves look like idiots.
BTW that same girl that is complaining about getting grabbed on the shoulders is helping to push the doors in this video right in the beginning of the video which easily could have hurt security officers but i’m sure she won’t complain about that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MizOJq65Gx8&feature=related
Takeback NYU,
If you are going to preach about democracy, shouldn’t you post all comments ?
You guys did not think any of this through. Who was the leader in all of this?
Speaking of Gaza,
If you were blocking food, power, and water from me, I’d probably launch a few rockets at you, too. What can I say, I’m human.
Well, I guess the question is this:
Are you willing to be martyrs for this cause?
True activists are. By asking for amnesty for all involved, well, gives you a weaker position. Having majored politics at NYU/WSUC (now CAS), I’d ask myself if I were willing to be expelled from the University for this cause.
And then, have the courage of your convictions.
I’m not siding with anyone at this moment for the sheer reason that I’d need to find out more. I only see the overt things you are doing, not the covert, not a detailed listing of discussions, names of people. Perhaps your pro bono lawyers should be directing you to people who have done this before. Nudity gets you on TV, but it’s only a flash in the pan. Taking meetings, asking for their time, geting press coverage…get a publicist.
As a student, I had my problems in my graduate degree, and I’ve dealt with the upper echelon at NYU. I know how frustrating it can be. Antics make you look juvenile, no matter how noble the cause. Treat it seriously, dress appropriately. And ask yourself…would ANY of your pro bono lawyers (advisors?) ever show up in court naked? I think you know the answer.
Hey everyone,
Is the rally at 8 or 7 Tonight?
Just watched the terrifying video of the end of your occupation. Respect to all of you. THIS IS NOT THE END. You have support from students all over the world. I was part of the Cambridge (England ) occupation, and now we are organized into an active group, we’ve been holding debates, we’re planning a big fundraiser, we’re putting on a play for Gaza and looking into new direct action. THIS IS THE BEGINNING.
Solidarity.
Again I write - I have documentation both from Albany - to and from Colleges in the CUNY system in need of answers.
You asked for transparency - and that is what they fear and cannot do.
There are millions spent for non essential offices on every cuny campus times 23 such offices staffed by 3-8 people receiving salaries and referred to as sometimes employees. Publish them - their words in need of explanation - it will lower student tuition. Add missing equipment and repairs that never repair and business expenses not related to business…….or false reports.
It will lower student tuition. I am a whistle blower and will stand up for needed change and it deals with tranparency and the stories I have been told needs public knowledge, not just a sealed verdict when my case comes up in a dozen or so years.
Not a word denied as to where and how theft occurs on campus and the many ways it increases costs. By the way, you lost public support when it became a middle east discussion that has nothing to do with transparency.
Do you understand why head of grants and research have stepped down and a provost left quietly - you can make change, and we can do this together.
VTY
Robert Stein
718-715-2902
You’re bringing CUNY into this?
Let’s talk transparency in tuition.
CUNY’s tuition is about $5000/year. A fraction of the cost of NYU’s and other comparable colleges.
You’ve nothing to complain about, excepting getting what you paid for.
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.” - John F. Kennedy
I DO NOT ADVOCATE VIOLENCE IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM.
But this quote addresses an important point in this context. Students at NYU have been politely asking for changes for years, and the NYU Administration has not made one honest, meaningful effort to engage students in constructive dialogue. When the type of reserved campaigning that was employed in the past merits no progress, what else can be done except direct action?
I am reminded by Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” In it he argues that whereas nonviolent direct action may seem unnecessarily extremist, the less tension-generating road would be to become stagnant and to lose progress. He then argues that in the end the call for “Wait” implies the acceptance of current conditions- the truly extremist ideal that does not merit a positive development in our communities.
I applaud the members of Take Back NYU on what I observe to be a well-run campaign. I hope to see what success and support you have had thus far grow within the NYU community and the world at large.
In Solidarity,
Isaiah Toney
George Washington University Class of 2012
isaiahtoney@earthlink.net
Colleges across the country should be alerted about what is going on. I will try to spread the word at my campus, so that we can help you guys in any way. you will soon have our support.
Bloomsburg University
(in the middle of nowhere, pennsylvania):)
Do you people have any idea how difficult it is to put your life on the line to protet others? Most of you come from rich families… not like the police who serve and protect. You may be intelligent.. but have little common sense if you dont realize that most cops are trying to do the right thing and protect you. They are not out to get you… they need to keep the peace. You should really be ashamed of yourself. If you have any doubt… spend your energy trying to learn what the police have to go through to get their job then deal with the criminals who would kill and rape you just to survive. For bright people, you are rather shallow!