On Campus - by Lucas Pattan on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 9:42 - 21 Comments - 80 views
I normally stay away from writing on university-specific topics because it’s not my normal beat (National issues), but I felt the need to respond to what was said and stated in Dean Stattman’s Take Back NYU! piece.
The main issue I found with those interviewed by Dean was an obvious unwillingness to see what kind of damage TBNYU! has done to intra-university dialogue on the campus. The organization’s goals are noble and respectable, but the actions of its members have done nothing to open up dialogue on the campus.
What I found particularly onerous in the article was Drew Phillips’ statement that the University must defend itself by producing documentation to counter claims against it. “The burden of proof is on them, because they have to show their innocence,” Phillips said. While I respect Phillips’ view, I must point out its inaccuracy. Our nation’s justice system relies on the suspected being brought to stand trial when their accusers have information indicating their guilt, not the other way around, as Phillips states. If his view point was true, anyone could be charged with any crime and the suspect would have to provide alibis and evidence of innocence at every turn, far from how the law is meant to function.
I absolutely agree with TBNYU!’s goal of getting the administration to open its budget and make available the amount spent on facilities, professors, departments, and study-abroad sites. However, screaming and shouting from the rooftops doesn’t have the kind of emotional or political weight it once had. President Obama assured us that there is little that can stand in the way of “millions of voices calling for change.” However, his candidacy proved that only by working through the system can great leaps and bounds in politics be made (I guess this is where my National beat comes in). I hate to be presumptuous, but I know that most would agree that each protest Revered Al Sharpton has hosted is now seen as largely ineffective in comparison to President Obama’s performance in the debates, in Iowa, and on Election Day.
Now, I’d have written an entirely pointless post if I stopped here, but I wanted to go ahead and toss out my own ideas for how to “radically” change the policy of NYU’s budget office.
Step 1) Find Empathetic Voices at NYU – If TBNYU! and Students Creating Radical Change were able to begin an effort to recruit TAs and professors to their cause, there would certainly be a move towards disclosure. The number of prominent TAs on this campus is amazing, and our professors have a large amount of control in how their classes and curriculum are run. If TBNYU! and SCRC students were to sit down with their favorite professors and ask them, one at a time, to sign a petition, progress would happen and dialogue could begin.
Step 2) Host Your Own Town Hall – TBNYU! and SCRC have only used NYU’s sponsored town halls to speak about their grievances, an effort that has led to an impasse between administrators and student body. If a town hall was put together and prominent members of the administration and the local political spectrum were invited, the effort would indicate a certain level of seriousness on the part of the students. If no one from the administration shows up? It shows that NYU is unwilling to talk to its students, which hurts their case.
Step 3) Use the University Student Senators Council – If you don’t know who these folks, then you aren’t going to be able to get any major changes through NYU. The USSC are the ones who decide funding for clubs, students services, sustainability goals, and the like. They also recently rescinded the Coke ban, a ban they put into place in 2004. They have a good bit of control over university policy, and the group consists of undergraduates, graduate students, TAs, professors, and deans. Does this sound like a good group to get on your side or at least to hear your case?
Step 4) Stop Wasting My Time – The Plexiglas, the graffiti, the dance party, and the giggles during town halls are all adorable and cute, but if you want to make any kind of progress, don’t remind the administrators on a daily basis that they are arguing with children. Present a united front, complete with a full list of names on your website, a list of requests (notice how I didn’t use the word demands), a description of how other universities have successfully transitioned from a closed budget to an open budget, what counts as pay equality, the history of educational disclosure, and maybe, just maybe, a word about why you love NYU.
I’ll go ahead and finish on this last point. If I were President Sexton, my opinion on SCRC and TBNYU! would rest solely on what I felt was their objective. What I have seen thus far is a set of students intent on embarrassing our school’s leaders and what this school stands for. Far from celebrating how much NYU has to offer and what it means to the members of SCRC, the only ideals being broadcast to our campus by the group are fringe radicalism and disenchantment.
Bill Maher once said to Ralph Nader as he prepared to run for office in 2004, “You are correct, but you are not right.” This is exactly what I would like to communicate to the officers of SCRC and TBNYU! We think you are correct in asking for pay equality, investment and budget disclosure, and tuition reform. But you’re not right. In your methods, your protests, and your model for action, you have not been right. Sometimes working alongside him as opposed to against him is the most effective way of creating change.
Photo used courtesy of Flickr account Dominic’s pics under the CC license.
21 Comments
Yes to everything said here. TBNYU is living out a ’60’s fantasy form of protest that is neither constructive nor particularly relevant today. Their ideals are solid, but they need a whole new strategy.
This post is spot on Luke – loved it.
Henry Chan
Ditto ^^
Eric Levin
This is awesome.
Pat McClellan
Shameless plug for NYU Students Organizing for America! One of the goals of our organization is to train a new generation of organizers, so a group like TBNYU could come to us and we’d help them learn more effective (and less offensive) organizing tactics. Which is why they and everyone else at NYU should join our Facebook group and come to our first meeting, this Monday night at 7, location TBD.
Dean Stattmann
Very nice work.
Crazy thing is, even though I think you and I come from extremely different political viewpoints, Lucas, Take Back NYU! has already done EVERY SINGLE THING you’re suggesting. Srsly. It’s just that you weren’t in the room “reporting” on each of our individual conversations with faculty, or our town halls (all of which drew out bigger crowds than Sexton’s) or when the biggest college elected an outspoken TBNYU! member to the senate or at the very beginning of our campaign when GSOC (the grad student union) became one of our most supportive coalition members.
I also advise you and others who advocate for a within-the-system approach to really get to know our system. I could go through the list of your suggestions/our past actions and tell you exactly why each one was ultimately unsuccessful, but I’m not sure you’d really care. It’s much easier to criticize from cyberspace than to hit the streets and put your ass on the line to try and make your school a better place. Unlike President Obama, we are not working within a democracy. We tried, and continue to try, to push through official channels, but after coming to understand how NYU really functions (and I don’t just mean the flow charts posted on the SSC website), many of us are convinced that the only way we can really reclaim our school is by standing up and taking it back.
I like your idea about having more explicit info/history on our website. We have a lot of that kind of information in our flyers/lit, but obviously that doesn’t get into everyone’s hands. Another in-the-system tactic we have really had a lot of trouble implementing is alumni outreach. Apparently it’s a lot trickier than waltzing into an office and asking for the names and phone numbers of the class of ‘67. If you would like to get involved in tracking down prominent or wealthy alum and talking to them about transparency, we would greatly appreciate the help!
“we can really reclaim our school is by standing up and taking it back.”
That’s not a strategy, that’s a slogan. And a clunky, redundant one at that.
Pat McClellan
Claire, I don’t think Luke disagrees with you on your goals, nor does anyone else here. His point (and one I agree with) is that at your town halls you guys went out of your way to be rude and disruptive. If you know to begin with that Sexton is an uptight asshole, why would you go out of your way to be rude to him? Surely that can’t help. And you’re right, NYU isn’t a democracy, which means that disruptive street protests aren’t going to solve anything. Nor will criticizing people who share your goals but not your ideology for not putting “their ass on the line.” Come on. If you want to bring change to NYU it has to be about knowing the right people, who have power, on the inside and convincing them that you’re right. And as many people have pointed out, your tactics only serve to make people who agree with your goals think that TBNYU are a bunch of rude, ineffective amateurs.
Zach
As a TA, albeit not a particularly prominent one, I can assure you that the only time NYU has ever even pretended to care about me is during the strike, and then only in a “go back to work or be fired and blacklisted” sense of the term.
peter c
http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/popular_requests/frequentdocs/birmingham.pdf
letter from a Birmingham jail
Exclusive: NYU Students Barricade Doors, Hold Sit-In In Kimmel | NYU Local
[...] is in response to our posts here and [...]
Sophia Tarabicos
Pat, you literally took the words right out of my…fingertips.
Claire, what makes you think that people like Pat and Lucas DONT know people within the system and understand how it really works? Your problem lies not in the ineefectiveness of the system, but in the ineffectiveness of your organization that has, apparently, a few unpopular or just flat out random positions.
Sophia Tarabicos
Ps. nice point about technicalities of the law (ie: not guilty unitl proven innocent).
Anne O'Nymitty
You’re an abject imbecile.
Sophia Tarabicos
just out of curiosity, was that intended for the writer, or someone else?
suzanne zuppello
Right on. The most level headed response to this whole mess. Hopefully members of TBNYU! and SCRC take this to heart.
Jack De Stefano
Very true. Yelling and screaming for a bunch of “demands” that are not correlated will get them nowhere. I, for one, gladly support giving student groups priority to reserving space, but there’s no way I would support these clowns if that goal is lumped with the other twelve.
And another thing, I know that Kimmel has a very central location, but, symbolically speaking, using it as your base is more of a nuisance for the students (after all, it is the student center) while John Sexton watches peacefully from his office.
Erin Keskeny
“The organization’s goals are noble and respectable, but the actions of its members have done nothing to open up dialogue on the campus.”
Really? Because I’ve seen an awful lot of dialogue on this online today. You even felt compelled to leave your usual “National beat” to enter the dialogue. Hm.
Claire said most of what I was going to say (TBNYU really has already done almost everything you suggest). But one small factual point: The student senators council did not rescind the Coke ban. It was the All University Senate (which has more faculty/administrators than students). Every student council that voted on it voted to keep the ban.
Paige P
As an NYU Student, (An NYU Student Proud of my school and my community) I love my campus, and I love NYU. However these past few days have been both disappointing and saddening for all members of the student body and the NYU community that we have grown so proud of. The fact that 60 people, in a school of 60,000+ students feel that they can voice the opinion of those 60,000 is absurd.
I was at the rally from 11:30-2:00AM last night and while TBNYU felt that they had “5-600″ supporters they were grossly misinformed. AT LEAST half of those individuals were there to boo and protest against the “Occupation” of Kimmel Center and TBNYU’s ridiculous demands and many others were there just witness what we all hoped was the forceful removal of TBNYU when the 1:00 AM Deadline set by NYU Admins was reached.
As for TBNYU’s “peaceful” protest, its a lie if I eve saw one. Guards have gotten hurt and attacked (and NYU’s guards are some of the nicest employees at this school).Also the group against TBNYU (Myself being one of them) had to maintain the peace with TBNYU members and supporters as many “debates” escalated into something further. It is obvious that they are losing their “debates” and thus defaulting to violence and force to argue their points. Those against TBNYU have maintained their arguments through lightheartedness and peace, while TBNYU has not.
NYU Admins need to end this absurd protest now before it divides the school even further than it has already. TBNYU is not speaking for all of NYU’s student body and as shown by the “Huge” turn out of 250+ supporters in a student body of 60,000.
As a student of NYU and a native New Yorker, please don’t judge all of us by the actions of these few misinformed, misguided youths, we aren’t all like this.
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Lucas, I love you, let’s get married.