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Our ongoing coverage of the NYU takeover continues here and on our twitter feed.
Most of the Take Back NYU protest’s demands relate to campus governance and accountability — student representation on the NYU board of trustees, disclosure of financial data, fair labor practices within the university. In that list, two demands stand out:
- 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.
- That the university donate all excess supplies and materials in an effort to rebuild the University of Gaza.
A lot of people are asking where these demands came from, and an overnight statement from TBNYU provides a partial answer. Here’s an excerpt:
By demanding investigation into war and genocide profiteers, providing aid to Gaza, and offering scholarshipts to Palestinian students, we are demanding that the University heed our own voices immediately. Through these demands we are also stating our solidarity with the students who have occupied their universities in the United Kingdom and elsewhere demanding aid for war-torn Gaza.
That last sentence is crucial. Since early January, students at more than twenty universities across Britain have staged sit-ins demanding administration action on Palestinian issues. Two weeks ago, students at the University of Rochester in upstate New York held a similar protest. Today’s NYU occupation follows those actions in form, and by making Palestinian issues part of their list of demands, TBNYU is linking its protest to the others in content as well.
By calling for support for Palestinian students and the University of Gaza, TBNYU is sending a message to student activists on both sides of the Atlantic. It is declaring itself to be part of a new international student movement.
Will that movement materialize? Will student sit-ins start to spread in the US as they continue to do in the UK? Too soon to tell, obviously. But the inclusion of the Palestinian demands wasn’t random, it was calculated.
Observers, like commenters here, who claim that it shows a lack of strategic sophistication on TBNYU’s part have it exactly backwards.
Our ongoing coverage of the NYU takeover continues here and on our twitter feed.
About sixty activists from Take Back NYU barricaded themselves into a third-floor dining facility in the Kimmel Center on Washington Square Park last night at about 10 pm, presenting a 13-point list of demands. They occupied the space without incident overnight.
The university barred students from entering the occupied area, but made no move to force the protesters, who included NYU students and others, to leave. Dining services in the building were moved to another floor.
The students at NYU barricaded themselves into the Kimmel dining facility shortly before closing time last night. They’d planned the occupation surreptitiously by Facebook, billing it as a dance party. More than sixty students participated in the initial takeover.
Not long after noon today, about twenty students rushed past university security to join the protest. A little later, protesters broke a lock and gained access to a balcony adjoining the occupied space.
A student is liveblogging the protest here. TBNYU has a twitter feed here. A short statement of justification for the sit-in and explanation of its demands can be found here.
3:30 Update: A new post from Charlie Eisenhood, liveblogging from inside the sit-in…
Here’s what TBNYU and the protesters have requested: a student rep for direct negotiations (and no go-between), permission for a group to travel to tonight student Senate Council meeting, permission for delegation of student Senators to come to Kimmel for talks, permission for food (vegan) to be brought by friends, permission to enter the balcony.
Here’s what NYU granted: Nothing. Zero zilch zip nada. They’ve also closed the 3rd floor “officially” and are only granting access to students with class in the building or students attending a specific event. They also said that Kimmel closes at 1 AM and that TBNYU has no authorization to be here after 1. And they stressed that any breaches of conduct (like breaking the door and entering the balcony) WILL have consequences.
Interesting.
6:00 Update: Coverage continues here.
Our ongoing coverage of the NYU takeover continues here and on our twitter feed.
Students at New York University took over the Kimmel Center Marketplace, a dining facility on campus, late last night.
The occupation website is here, and a list of the students’ demands follows…
Nelson D. Schwartz, “Job Losses Pose a Threat to Stability Worldwide,” The New York Times, February 15:
High unemployment rates, especially among young workers, have led to protests in countries as varied as Latvia, Chile, Greece, Bulgaria and Iceland and contributed to strikes in Britain and France.
Ian Traynor, “Governments Across Europe Tremble As Angry People Take to the Streets,” The Guardian, January 31:
Europe’s time of troubles is gathering depth and scale. Governments are trembling. Revolt is in the air.
Hugo Rifkin, “Student Activism Is Back,” The Times of London, February 16:
For decades, student activism has been in the doldrums in this country. It is hard to think of any large-scale student protests since busloads descended on the capital in the late 1980s in a wave of anti-apartheid rage. But that may be about to change.
Venezuelans are voting on term-limits today, in a referendum that president Hugo Chavez hopes will clear the way for him to remain in office indefinitely.
Students handed Chavez a defeat on this issue in December 2007, but he’s cracked down on their organizing efforts in recent months, and polls show the Chavez forces leading by a slim margin this time around.
Update: No. No, they won’t thwart him again.
studentactivism.net 
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