LOLSAM

Last night a group of NYU students organized under the moniker “Take Back NYU” barricaded (and I use that term loosely) themselves in the cafeteria in the Kimmel Center. I’ve been getting all my updates from the incomparable Charlie Eisenhood’s coverage over on NYU Local. Apparently they have a list of demands and are prepared to “occupy” the building until they are met. Here are their demands (according to Charlie’s eavesdropping according to the Take Back NYU! blog), and below is everything thing I have to say about them.

1. Full legal and disciplinary amnesty for all parties involved in the occupation.
2. Full compensation for all employees whose jobs were disrupted during the course of the occupation.
3. Public release of NYU’s annual operating budget, including a full list of university expenditures, salaries for all employees compensated on a semester or annual basis, funds allocated for staff wages, contracts to non-university organizations for university construction and services, financial aid data for each college, and money allocated to each college, department, and administrative unit of the university. Furthermore, this should include a full disclosure of the amount and sources of the university’s funding.
4. Disclosure of NYU’s endowment holdings, investment strategy, projected endowment growth, and persons, corporations and firms involved in the investment of the university’s endowment funds. Additionally, we demand an endowment oversight body of students, faculty and staff who exercise shareholder proxy voting power for the university’s investments.
5. That the NYU Administration agrees to resume negotiations with GSOC/UAW Local 2110 – the union for NYU graduate assistants, teaching assistants, and research assistants. That NYU publicly affirm its commitment to respect all its workers, including student employees, by recognizing their right to form unions and to bargain collectively. That NYU publicly affirm that it will recognize workers’ unions through majority card verification.
6. That NYU signs a contract guaranteeing fair labor practices for all NYU employees at home and abroad. This contract will extend to subcontracted workers, including bus drivers, food service employees and anyone involved in the construction, operation and maintenance at any of NYU’s non-U.S. sites.
7. The establishment of a student elected Socially Responsible Finance Committee. This Committee will have full power to vote on proxies, draft shareholder resolutions, screen all university investments, establish new programs that encourage social and environmental responsibility and override all financial decisions the committee deems socially irresponsible, including investment decisions. The committee will be composed of two subcommittees: one to assess the operating budget and one to assess the endowment holdings. Each committee will be composed of ten students democratically elected from the graduate and under-graduate student bodies. All committee decisions will be made a strict majority vote, and will be upheld by the university. All members of the Socially Responsible Finance Committee will sit on the board of trustees, and will have equal voting rights. All Socially Responsible Finance Committee and Trustee meetings shall be open to the public, and their minutes made accessible electronically through NYU’s website. Elections will be held the second Tuesday of every March beginning March 10^th 2009, and meetings will be held biweekly beginning the week of March 30^th 2009.
8. That the first two orders of business of the Socially Responsible Finance committee will be:
   a) An in depth investigation of all investments in war and genocide profiteers, as well as companies profiting from the occupation of Palestinian territories.
   b) A reassessment of the recently lifted of the ban on Coca Cola products.
9. That annual scholarships be provided for thirteen Palestinian students, starting with the 2009/2010 academic year. These scholarships will include funding for books, housing, meals and travel expenses.
10. That the university donate all excess supplies and materials in an effort to rebuild the University of Gaza.
11. Tuition stabilization for all students, beginning with the class of 2012. All students will pay their initial tuition rate throughout the course of their education at New York University.  Tuition rates for each successive year will not exceed the rate of inflation, nor shall they exceed one percent. The university shall meet 100% of government-calculated student financial need.
12. That student groups have priority when reserving space in the buildings owned or leased by New York University, including, and especially, the Kimmel Center.
13. That the general public have access to Bobst Library.

So. Stupid. Apparently no one in TBNYU realizes that they go to a private university.

1. Some of the financial demands, like making NYU affordable, are good ideas. I mean, I think we’d all like to pay less for this glorious designer education, but there is no way the administration is going to allow the creation of a student-run finance committee “with the power to override the administration’s finance decisions.” Ha!

2. This is a private university, why should the general public be granted access to our university library? It’s ridiculous. I pay my tuition in part so I have a library to go to where I don’t have to share with the general public. That’s what the New York Public Library is for. Undergrad, educate thyself.

3. What does NYU have to do with Gaza? Why should our private university have to shell out money to rebuild the Islamic University of Gaza? It would be nice, sure, but what does it have to do with “taking back” NYU? Also, scholarships to 13 Palestinian students? As if our financial aid isn’t strained enough as it is, if there is a Palestinian student who applies to NYU and merits a scholarship, I’m sure he or she would get the same consideration as any other applicant. We are actually a very internationally diverse university, if you haven’t noticed. Half of my classmates don’t speak English as their first language.

4. Enough with the Coca-Cola ban!

I mean, I think they had good intentions, but their “demands” are moronic. Also, I was planning on going to Kimmel tonight to do some reading because I have some downtime between two obligations on the west side and it doesn’t make sense to trek all the way back to Second Avenue in the interim, BUT NOW I MAY NOT BE ABLE TO DO THAT. Stupid NYU kids.

UPDATE: Wow. This has gone way farther than I ever expected it to. I still think they are a bunch of unorganized morons with bullshit “demands,” but I have to admit their chutzpah is admirable. Check out NYU Local’s coverage, though. The reporter they had inside, Charlie Eisenhood, had been there for some 30 hours and finally decided he needed to eat something and go to sleep. I think he deserves it, and then some.

As badly as I want to ignore this whole fiasco so as not to give it any more attention, I really want to find out what happens in the end. What is inevitably going to happen is that either the protesters will run away once police action is imminent (should be about now, 2:26 am), or they will be arrested, and no progress will be made. There really is no other possible outcome. As for me, it’s sleepy time. I’ll update this post in the morning when more is known. I can’t give enough props to NYU Local, though. Good reporting, Charlie.

Life of LOLSAM Kimmel Center, nyu, occupation, protest, Take Back NYU