NYU Student Protest take over Cafeteria; List of Demands
Members of the coalition Take Back NYU! have been occupying the cafeteria of the Helen & Martin Kimmel Center for University Life for more than 24 hours.
The students are calling for a series of changes, including increased transparency of the school's finances. They want full budget and endowment disclosure, affordable education, and increased student participation in the university's operation.
Tuition at NYU annually is about $50,000, including room and board. Some students told CBS 2 HD they had no idea the cost was so high; they just want to know where their money is going.
While they want budget reform, they also want things which are not related such as 13 scholarships a year provided for students of the Gaza Strip, and to give surplus supplies to the Islamic University in Gaza.
Why should these two items matter to this budget transparency thing? Is there a hidden agenda behind this group, or just another way to get the media to do more increased exposure?
Stick with the main objective of the protest and not these friviolous requests.
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There are 13 demands overall and they cover students rights, labor rights, transparency of university money trails, support for palestine and palestinian students, and divestment of israel and coca-cola.
In detail:
1. immunity for all student occupiers and back pay for nyu campus employees affected by the action
2. transparency on NYU’s budget and endowments
3. fair labor practices: between nyu and all employees, including renewed labor negotiations between nyu and gsoc/uaw local 2110 (grad student union)
4. responsible spending: the addition of a new “socially responsible finance committee (srfc),” to nyu’s board of trustees, with equal voting rights.
5. divestment: the srfc will investigate nyu investments in war and genocide
6. money and goods to gaza: 13 full scholarships to palestinian students, and that nyu donate excess materials to help rebuild the university of gaza
7. equal access to nyu buildings: including public access to nyu’s main library (one onlooker said, “um, thats what the public library is for”) and priority given to student groups trying to reserve space at the kimmel multi-use, performance center.
Comments
Posted by: View from Here
Posted on: February 20, 2009 05:50 PM
It should be pointed out that seedy academic corruption seems to run quite deep at NYU. Take, for example, the allegations of plagiarism that have surfaced against the Judaica department chairman; they were initially made in an Israeli newspaper years ago, but the matter appears to have been hushed up and never investigated, in violation of the university's own regulations. For details, see
http://my.nowpublic.com/world/plagiarism-and-dead-sea-scrolls-did-nyu-department-chairman-pilfer-chicago-historian-s-work
Posted by: marie
Posted on: February 20, 2009 08:22 PM
I completely understand taking a stand for what you believe but have the students read a newspaper lately. There are so many students in the US that need scholarships - enough with being concerned about sending money to others. Don't misunderstand me because I believe in giving and am all for supporting students abroad but, when you walk out the doors of your campus and see so many homeless people especially young children do you fight for what they need? As for the budget, what gives you the right to demand to see the budget? Think before you act and stop making demands just because you can. The students that were yelling, pushing and spitting were a poor representation of what NYU produces.