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The New School Free Press has published a full transcript of an interview it conducted with New School president Bob Kerrey last month. In it, Kerrey talks about how officials monitor Twitter during protests, says that someone getting “knocked to the ground” isn’t police brutality, and appears to promise that a student will be seated on the New School board of trustees before long.
Kerrey has been the subject of intense criticism from students and faculty alike during his tenure at the New School, and the NSFP interview took place just twelve days after a student occupation of a campus building that was aimed — in part — at forcing his resignation. That occupation, the second at the New School in the last six months, ended in nearly two dozen arrests.
Extended excerpts follow…
United Students Against Sweatshops has extended its remarkable string of victories against clothing-maker Russell Athletic.
This week Boston College and the entire University of California system announced their intention to terminate contracts with RA, bringing to fifty-seven the number of colleges and universities that have disaffiliated so far this year.
The campaign against Russell Athletic stems from the company’s history of anti-labor activity in Honduras, specifically its closing of the Jerzees de Honduras factory in the wake of its unionization.
“Freedom is the right to share, share fully and equally, in American society — to vote, to hold a job, to enter a public place, to go to school. It is the right to be treated in every part of our national life as a person equal in dignity and promise to all others.
“But freedom is not enough. You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: Now you are free to go where you want, and do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please.
“You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, “you are free to compete with all the others,” and still justly believe that you have been completely fair.
“Thus it is not enough just to open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens must have the ability to walk through those gates.
“This is the next and the more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity. We seek not just legal equity but human ability, not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result.”
–Lyndon Johnson, Howard University Commencement, June 4, 1965.
Tomorrow (Thursday) night at 8 pm SAFER Campus is hosting the New York premiere of University Silence, a documentary on campus sexual assault which SAFER describes as follows:
University Silence is a short documentary film created by Sarah Richardson. It’s a candid narrative by a survivor of a campus assault, describing her struggles with her college administration, and shows how a lack of effective policy and honesty can further compound trauma. If you have any questions about why policy reform is so crucial, this is necessary viewing.
The screening will be held at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center at 208 West 13th Street, with a Q & A to follow. You can find out more info on the screening and RSVP at its Facebook Event page.
Anita Hemmings, the first African-American graduate of Vassar.
Anita Hemmings became the first black woman to graduate from Vassar College in 1897 — forty-three years before Vassar opened its doors to black students.
The whole story is here, and it’s a great one. (I found it via this excellent post by TransGriot discussing the use of the term “passing” to describe transpeople.)
studentactivism.net 
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