On Campus - by Lily Q on Thursday, December 4, 2008 17:01 - 6 Comments - 43 views
Remember that “In and of the City Financial Aid” flyer that had tipsters and NYU Financial Aid all in a tizzy yesterday? Well, Students Creating Radical Change (SCRC), an arm of Take Back NYU, is claiming credit for the stunt and NYU PR (aka John Beckman), is stiffly laughing the whole thing off.
“The way that NYU has been talking about the financial aid during the economic downturn is unacceptable,” says Duncan Meisel, a TBNYU/SCRC member who participated in the fakery. (Careful not to call him the leader, he’ll tell you that “both organizations are non-hierarchical and we do not assign leadership roles” and you won’t be able to stop laughing). As for how fake flyers are more acceptable, Meisel maintains that none of the statements contained in the flyer are false and bringing it all together was a logical way to stir up conversation.
Beckman’s taking the high (read “haughty) road on the matter and making clever (read “confusing”) analogies: “being asked to comment on a hoax flier feels a little like quizzing the Army about its plans to battle Martians because of Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds” broadcast,” he says.
Here’s what I get from that: Beckman thinks that asking NYU (the Army) how it will address financial aid issues (plans to battle Martians) because of the flyer (”War of the Worlds” broadcast) is as sensationalist as grilling the US Army on its Martian invasion policy. There’s one basic problem with that comparison: Martians never invaded the US, but the economy is in the shitter and paying our offensively high tuition actually is becoming much more difficult.
So while I agree with Beckman that “we should all be more dubious and more skeptical about arguments that need to be dressed up with misrepresentations of officialdom to be made,” I can’t help but think that NYU is shrugging off more than the flyer scheme here. They’re shirking the whole financial aid issue.
6 Comments
Farah Khimji
Farah Khimji
And as for this tasteless comment:
“Careful not to call him the leader, he’ll tell you that “both organizations are non-hierarchical and we do not assign leadership roles” and you won’t be able to stop laughing”
Your attitude towards non-hierarchical organizing is evidence of your ignorance. Duncan is not the leader of either of those groups, any more so than I am. All of our members work together to reach decisions through consensus, and it works out fantastically. It is unfortunate you can’t conceive of a group that doesn’t depend on one leader to function, and that your only reaction to this is an (unsuccessful) attempt at sarcasm.
Farah Khimji
“NYU is shrugging off more than the flyer scheme here. They’re shirking the whole financial aid issue.”
Bravo, you actually managed to say something of importance in this article! You are coming along!
Lily Q
@Farah:
1) From Duncan’s email: “the TBNYU! coalition of groups (there are 16 groups right now, SCRC is just one).”
2) Whoa calm down. The formality of the way that he said it was very amusing. That said, Duncan was very helpful and coherent in his interview. He, unlike some, did not come across as obnoxiously enraged and whiney.
3) Aww, thanks.
Bravo, D! I’m glad you guys pulled it off. This was a great way to get the discussion going on financial aid issues; I hope people realize what a huge problem this is.
@ Farah:
I love that what constitutes an “important” statement, and shows that an online newspaper is “coming along” is a sentence that strokes your group’s egos and aims. And yet wisecracks at your group’s expense are “tasteless” and clearly show “evidence of ignorance.” I suppose it IS better for the student press to jump on the bandwagon of any tired student resistance organization with tired tactics to institute the same tired changes that they’ve wanted for almost 50 years, rather than remain skeptical of vapid student rebellions.
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SCRC is not an “arm of Take Back NYU!”, we are a separate student organization that has been at NYU for several years. Take Back NYU! is a relatively newer organization – it does not have “arms”, it’s a coalition of dozens of student groups on campus. We have explained this distinction countless times. Why is this fact so difficult for you “journalists” to understand?