Students at New School, NYU Continue to Fight for Student Rights
Friday, March 20, 2009 (19:43:41)

Posted by alvinjohnson

The following story appeared in the Trent Arthur, a student newspaper at Trent University in Peterborough, Canada on [March 2, 2009 ].

As the Financial crisis hits Wall Street, University students in Manhattan have taken to direct action campaigns to fight their administrations policies of centralization and unethical financial practices.

On the evening of February 18 students from New York University (NYU) took over a University cafeteria in Greenwich Village. The protesters demanded an annual reporting of the University’s operating budget and requested 13 scholarships a year to students from the Gaza Strip. Students also want the University to allow graduate teaching assistants to unionize.

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The protest ended on February 20 when security removed the barricades that the students had set up and photographed the two dozen remaining protesters. The University then reportedly suspended those present by distributing letters stating, “You are suspended from, and classified as a persona non grata at New York University.” Following an outcry from students, faculty and the community, the students were finally reinstated by the administration late last week.

The NYU protest continues an active year for student protest in Manhattan. Last December students from the New School took over a cafeteria in order to call for the resignation of President Bob Kerrey and Vice-President James Murtha and Board of Trustees Treasurer James B. Millard. Students at the New School are concerned with the centralization and lack of financial accountability of the administration under Kerrey, as well as his “war crimes” during his tour of duty in Vietnam.

Students have charged Kerrey with only being interested in making the University profitable, while decreasing student space and funneling every decision, both financial and academic, through his office. “When we need more money, enrollment is bumped up,” noted one student at a recent teach-in. “It has nothing to do with what faculties’ needs are, what students’ needs are or what counts as good academic programming.”

Events at the New School came to a head last December 10 when President Kerrey dismissed the fifth provost the university has had in seven years. Kerrey then chose to appoint himself provost. Soon after the faculty conducted a vote of no confidence against Kerrey and students decided to occupy a cafeteria.

In a report by Democracy Now! in December one student was quoted as saying, “It is, by far, one of the most vicious corporate campaigns to turn what has been a progressive and outstanding academic institution into a money-making machine. As a result, not only do we not have a library, we don’t have any student space, any common space to study. It’s finals week. The only space we have is a cafe and a cafeteria.”

There also exist concerns over the connections the administration has with war crimes and military investments. Board of Trustees Treasurer Millard currently sits on the board of L-3 communications, the sixth largest war contractor in the United States. L-3 also currently owns Titan, a company that is being sued over its involvement in abuse and torture at Abu Ghraib.

President Kerrey was also a lieutenant in the Vietnam war and led a seal team attack on a civilian village that killed unarmed civilians, including several elderly individuals killed by stab wounds. Witnesses claim that many in the village were called out of their shelters and shot.

Kerrey has denied knowingly killing civilians and appeared remorseful about the incident, but many are concerned that this is only to save face. Kerrey has defended the incident, stating, “There were enemy operating in the area and even though there were civilian casualties, I had every reason to believe they were at least sympathetic to the Viet Cong and at the very worst, participating in lethal force against Americans.”

During the December protest the University agreed to several demands. Many students are concerned, however, that these concessions will not amount to any meaningful change as long as Kerrey is President. One demand, a socially responsible investing committee, is to be set up but Kerrey has stated that it will not be anything more than an advisory body. Students continue to hold rallies and teach-ins to educate students about the issues.

Students at the New School believe they are following the example of the many Jewish intellectuals who helped to found the University In Exile after fleeing Nazi Germany in the 1930s by drawing upon their actions fighting fascism and racism.

Students have formed an organization they are calling the New School in Exile. One member who Arthur was able to interview in New York during reading break, Chris Crews, spoke at a recent teach-in: “For us one of the reasons we chose the university in exile as a concept or a name behind what we are trying to do here is because the university needs to reclaim that legacy of activist intellectuals engaged in critical work,” noted Crews.

“Because if we are not studying and learning and applying what we are learning then we are just caught in a bubble. For us what this movement is about is addressing internal power structures and internal relationships… keeping in mind how this university was founded in 1933 to 39… this layed the foundation for the New School to be what it is today.”

For more information visit takebacknyu.com and newschoolinexile.com

Interviews conducted by James Burrows and Sara Swerdlyk