Students protest at NYU

[Donal]

A little swearing, so be careful.

Some students "barricade" themselves in the NYU Kimmel Center. You could play activist buzzword bingo with this kid.

The best part, the students that seem to be leading the whole fiasco aren't NYU students. They are from the New School. They've got no business there what so ever.

Gandhi and MLK are rolling over in their graves.

 

[Skeptic Guy]

A little swearing, so be careful.

Some students "barricade" themselves in the NYU Kimmel Center. You could play activist buzzword bingo with this kid.

The best part, the students that seem to be leading the whole fiasco aren't NYU students. They are from the New School. They've got no business there what so ever.

Gandhi and MLK are rolling over in their graves.

I think your link is broken, at least nothing is coming up on my computer. What are they protesting and why do you think it a bad idea?

 

[Donal]

Damn, I suck. I'll try and fix it.

ETA: OK. Fixed

 

[BPSCG]

Students are so much more involved today. Back when I was in college, we always waited until spring and the weather turned nice before we started protesting the Vietnam war by cutting classes and throwing Frisbees around the quad.

 

[Donal]

I think your link is broken, at least nothing is coming up on my computer. What are they protesting and why do you think it a bad idea?

My problem is more about how they are protesting. It is self important and pretentious. Also, the kids have no idea of the meanings of the words they are spouting.

Don't ge me wrong, the list of demands are simply left wing cause de jour, but they have the right to voice opinions on those. I also have the right to laugh at them.

 

[Freddy]

My problem is more about how they are protesting. It is self important and pretentious. Also, the kids have no idea of the meanings of the words they are spouting.

Don't ge me wrong, the list of demands are simply left wing cause de jour, but they have the right to voice opinions on those. I also have the right to laugh at them.

Don't laugh. All they wanted was a little consensus.

 

[Skeptic Guy]

My problem is more about how they are protesting. It is self important and pretentious. Also, the kids have no idea of the meanings of the words they are spouting.

Don't ge me wrong, the list of demands are simply left wing cause de jour, but they have the right to voice opinions on those. I also have the right to laugh at them.

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you. I couldn't see the video and I like to know what the OP is about before starting the discussion.

ETA: And who knew Jimmy Kimmel had a building named after them?

Ok, watched the video and it was pretty silly. One of the students was just cussing at the staff and security and as Donal sai, the guy video taping the events obviously had just taken a course on Protest 101. Interestingly, they have two issues, financial disclosure and supporting the Palestinian students in Gaza.

From their website:

What do you want budget disclosure for, anyway?

1. Tuition increases: tuition keeps rising above the rate of inflation. We need to know why.
2. Sustainability: how NYU spends its money matters to the environment.
3. Sexism and racism: secrecy protects discrimination in employee pay.
4. Genocide and war profiteering: we need to make sure NYU’s endowment doesn’t support companies that perpetuate war and genocide.
5. Fair wages: all NYU employees deserve a living wage. We need to make sure they get it
6. Animal research: students deserve to know if our tuition supports animal research many consider cruel.
7. Financial aid: it still sucks.
8. Expansion: our tuition dollars fund NYU’s rapid expansion. We deserve to know how our tuition is affecting the community around NYU.
9. Abu Dhabi: NYU-AD is a very risky investment, and is being constructed by a government known for its abuse of human rights
10. Corruption: secrecy protects people with something to hide.

I can only assume that they think NYU is hiding financial support to The Great Zionist Conspiracy or something. And there is the issues with 'animal research' and 'genocide' that just makes me shake my head. Having been to the UAE, I think I can say that it is a pretty stable government and more secular than a lot of ME governments.

I'm going to have to get cable installed in my rock, I work in NYC and did not hear about this.

 

[Thunder]

The demands of the "occupiers" includes:

-end the ban on Coke.

 

[gdnp]

Please tell me this was some sort of parody performance art.

 

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

I heard about this. I live right by there so I also saw the "protest" outside the Kimmel Center while the "occupation" was going on. Pathetic.

Protesting for what's right, being informed, being involved, being active, standing up for your community and fellow people- that's wonderful. That's what every young man or young woman in America should be doing. (Or not doing- a free society should also allow its citizens to not vote, not participate, not be engaged, if that's what they choose to do with their rights.)

However, anything worth doing is worth doing right. You aren't doing your cause, your group or your school any favors by making such a fool of yourself.

Edit: And protests should generally be conducted in a graceful, respectful and intelligent way.

Throwing a trash can through the window of a Starbucks to protest the violence in Iraq is unacceptable and beyond hypocritical. Carrying pictures of Chairman Mao at a pro-immigration rally is your right but a bad idea, one that does a diservice to your fellow protestors. Drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana or eating at a rally is something you may be tempted to do, given that it's a fun event with your pals, but it's not a parade, a picnic or a block party and not a good way to present yourself. And so on.

 

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

The demands of the "occupiers" includes:

-end the ban on Coke.

It's the exact reverse. Coke used to be banned at NYU, then the ban was reversed. Now the kids want the ban on Coke to be reinstated.

My pal and I actually had a chat about this recently with a restaurant waitress who is an NYU student. She said that the reason for the Coke ban was because of something the corporation had been doing in the third world at one time but had since ceased to do.

When I was in high school, soda vending machines were kept out of the school- probably for health reasons and nothing political- but Snapple had a deal of some sort with the city and so their vending machines were on every floor. And in the cafeteria, if memory serves. The nutritional facts listed the sugar content as pretty much the same as in soda pop. Thirty six or forty grams.

Yeah, that makes alot of sense.

 

[Magyar]

[*]Tuition increases: tuition keeps rising above the rate of inflation. We need to know why.

I don't know hte rest of it, but I was going to start another thread on this topic and
student loans. This guy was on NPR this afternoon and it was interesting to note that
virtually every protection for the borrower has been removed off student loans and it is in the interest of both the school and the lender that you default on your loan.

http://www.studentloanjustice.org/

 

[dudalb]

If Finiancial Aid sucks, they don't have to take it....

Funny how many of the issues boil down to "WE WANT NYC TO PAY FOR OUR EDUCATATION!"

MLK and Gandhi are indeed rolling over in their graves.

 

[WildCat]

I love the demand to pay a "fair wage" to every employee and they also wonder why tuition is going up so fast.

 

[The_Animus]

I'm a little confused as the video doesn't really explain what any of this was about or how this all came to happen.

I personally don't see anything wrong with that list of demands. Is there something wrong with believing people deserve fair wages? That paying people less than the poverty line amount shouldn't be happening? That school money shouldn't go to destroying the environment or supporting sweatshop labor? It is the students money and what it is used for should be disclosed. On my campus there are numerous buildings who's construction and utilities and furnishing was completely funded by students. The university nonetheless continues to charge the same amount as it always did despite no longer owning money on it's construction. In addition they charge students to reserve the rooms which they say is for maintenance such as replacing light bulbs. So we pay construction costs, we pay for upkeep, and then we have to pay to use the building that is ours. And get this, one of the buildings we paid for is being taken away from us so that faculty can use it for classrooms and other administrative needs. And even in the face of the nation wide budget crunch our school still decided it's a good idea to waste our tuition money by putting $25,000 worth of dumbass plants in one of the buildings or spending $1500 for rings for one of our sports teams that already received plaques. I whole heartedly support some sort of accountability. And good luck trying to get it through official channels.

I don't know about anyone else but I've noticed that any and all talk of real revolution or protest is automatically considered bad and anti-American or anti-patriotic.

Someone once said to me that rebellion happens because teens/young adults come to realise that adults don't have all the answers and that the way they do things isn't any better than anyone elses ideas. That the young see the world for what it could be and the old have given up and accepted that any real change is impossible.

But then again maybe in this instance they were in the wrong. I don't really have enough information to make that judgement.

 

[WildCat]

I'm a little confused as the video doesn't really explain what any of this was about or how this all came to happen.

I personally don't see anything wrong with that list of demands. Is there something wrong with believing people deserve fair wages? That paying people less than the poverty line amount shouldn't be happening? That school money shouldn't go to destroying the environment or supporting sweatshop labor? It is the students money and what it is used for should be disclosed. On my campus there are numerous buildings who's construction and utilities and furnishing was completely funded by students. The university nonetheless continues to charge the same amount as it always did despite no longer owning money on it's construction. In addition they charge students to reserve the rooms which they say is for maintenance such as replacing light bulbs. So we pay construction costs, we pay for upkeep, and then we have to pay to use the building that is ours. And get this, one of the buildings we paid for is being taken away from us so that faculty can use it for classrooms and other administrative needs. And even in the face of the nation wide budget crunch our school still decided it's a good idea to waste our tuition money by putting $25,000 worth of dumbass plants in one of the buildings or spending $1500 for rings for one of our sports teams that already received plaques. I whole heartedly support some sort of accountability. And good luck trying to get it through official channels.

I don't know about anyone else but I've noticed that any and all talk of real revolution or protest is automatically considered bad and anti-American or anti-patriotic.

Someone once said to me that rebellion happens because teens/young adults come to realise that adults don't have all the answers and that the way they do things isn't any better than anyone elses ideas. That the young see the world for what it could be and the old have given up and accepted that any real change is impossible.

But then again maybe in this instance they were in the wrong. I don't really have enough information to make that judgement.

The time to querstion what they are doing with your tuition money is before you give it to them. Then you have negotiating power, because you can take your money elsewhere.

All these idiots accomplished was getting suspended and kicked out of student housing. I have a feeling they'll figure out why their tuition is so high once they find out what market-rate rents are in the neighborhood.

 

[The_Animus]

That didn't really address anything...

And how a university spends money is constantly changing. I could pay tuition and halfway through the semester they could pass funding for something I strongly disagree with. Also universities are a public institution. They use tax money for their funding and as such all their finances and budgeting should be public information.

 

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

I don't know about anyone else but I've noticed that any and all talk of real revolution or protest is automatically considered bad and anti-American or anti-patriotic.

Someone once said to me that rebellion happens because teens/young adults come to realise that adults don't have all the answers and that the way they do things isn't any better than anyone elses ideas. That the young see the world for what it could be and the old have given up and accepted that any real change is impossible.

But then again maybe in this instance they were in the wrong. I don't really have enough information to make that judgement.

I don't object to what they were doing or why but how. The way they did it, they probably did more damage to their cause than anything else.

The probably accomplished absolutely nothing. Except looking very silly.

 

[The_Animus]

I understand what you mean and in all honesty I'm a little torn on the issue of what is and isn't needed when it comes to protest/rebellion.

A good example comes from the Republican National Convention. A protest or rally, especially for something like that requires going through proper administrative channels far far in advance and even then many groups who wanted to be allowed to protest were denied that ability. When you have to schedule and get permission from the very orchestration you are protesting doesn't it indicate a problem? And then at that point what do you do? People poured into the twin cities and protested anyway.

Now you can say that them blocking traffic, even if it was peaceful, hurt their cause because then the media portrayed them as instigators and problem causers. But what alternative is there? Just don't protest? Or protest in a small caged area? At what point does it stop being a protest or stop being possible to have a real protest?

The police by the way broke numerous constitution rights.
-Illegal entry.
-Illegal search and seizure
-Illegal arrests
-Repeated police brutality

I mean jesus the police were even arresting medics and shutting down the medic stations that had been set up.

And what was done about any of that?

And we payed $50 million for these 'security measures'.

I think it gets to a point where you have to do what you have to do because otherwise all your efforts amount to is angry muttering but ultimately accepting the wrong and continuing to go about life as if there were no problem at all.

 

[jimtron]

These seem like nice kids, who might have worthy goals. But it does (as has been pointed out) almost look like a parody. It seems like they didn't think this through. There are lots of people who want to change things, but too often people choose ineffective methods.

I appreciate the fact that they seemed to be avoiding violence and vandalism, and were polite and reasonable. But what did they expect, taking over a private space? The cops and security are going to have a debate with them about school policy?

But what alternative is there? Just don't protest?

I think protesting is good, but in this case it seemed ineffective (afaik, which is not much at this point, about this situation). I do agree that during the Bush years many protesters were treated unfairly, and that shouldn't happen. On the other hand there may be more effective ways to make change happen, especially with the Internet. Making documentary films, organizing people with similar views and goals, creating PACs, having talks/lectures, etc.