First.

2nd……

…………………..who cares.

Unclear as to what happened to the non-NYU people? Are they being charged?

TBNYU and its protesters are all a disgrace to our university. They took an entirely wrong approach in making a list of stupid demands. Hopefully administration has the heart to expel them and get rid of them from NYU forever. I’m a middle class student that has many loans coming out from NYU and even I didn’t agree with anything they said.

They made a mistake calling themselves the voice of NYU students. TBNYU represent only a small fraction of the university. They had to bring students in from other universities to push their ideas, they could not even get full NYU support.

Farrah Khimji is an embarrassment and a disgrace to many of us students. Even in the end, she attempts to try to make NYU the evil giant. By the way, Barron was not their friend. Growing up in Brooklyn, I know he is someone who tries to make his positions known at random events. He was there solely for the press, not for the TBNYU protest.

If there is one success they had this week, it was to make known the presence of TBNYU. They made TBNYU a group to be loathed and hated amongst students.

May they all be expelled from NYU.

-NYU ‘12

Suspended and kicked out of housing.

Good write-up, Surekha. Now I have something to link to for people that think I’m crazy, that no-one could possibly be as stupid as these kids .

Also do you know when Charlie’s publishing the planned expose of all the things he couldn’t say while he was inside?

@Henry… right the NYU students are suspended, but how about the non-NYU students?

BTW, TBNYU(!) has claimed victory on their website. Ha.

Nothing has happened to non-nyu students and I doubt anything will, unless their respective university takes action on them

Regardless of your views on the actions of TBNYU, I think we all can agree that something needs to change about the way our university does business. The students have no say whatsoever in how our tuition money is spent. The student government can at best, make polite suggestions to the administration which the administration is not even required to consider. I am personally in a battle with NYU financial aid right now because they have taken away my federal work-study allotment and refuse to provide me with a reason for why they did this. This needs to change. So for all of you who don’t agree with this method of protest I ask you, un-sarcasticly (if that’s a word), what have you done to create change at NYU, and what are your plans for so doing so in the future? If you have better ideas I would strongly encourage you to implement them. I love NYU and I don’t to leave. Instead, I would like to see change.

It’s “up the ante.” Jesus, I now realize what illiterate douchebags NYU students are, but don’t you kids play poker???

@Bob I don’t know what you’re referring to, but please don’t lump the entire university in with TBNYU.

I have one comment to say to the sympathizers about NYU publicizing what they do with your money…when they’re a private university

No. Just…no. I’d agree with you if they were public, but they’re not.

Do you try and find out what is done with your money spent on food? How about the money you spent on fuel, do you try to find out where that money goes? Unless you want to encompass everything about your circular logic, then leave it be. You payed for an education, and that’s what you’re getting.

“At 1.50PM TBNYU! upped the anti* by breaking the…”

*ante

(sorry)

Hey Bob, where did you go to school?

I wish the cops would have shot all those fucks. they are stuck up rich kids who wanna put it on their resume. GO TO FUCKING SCHOOL snotty cunts! have a great day. Jesus saves and Gretzsky gets the rebound and scores. Fuck you!

[...] Fortunately, I didn’t see anyone I knew in any of the pictures. I would’ve been embarrassed for them. Although, I think the police spraying mace at the crowds might have been a tad inappropriate as well. Read the whole story here. [...]

What does suspension mean for a college student? Are they being forced to take the semester off?

Fine May 68ers indeed! Vive la suck!

Sara F: NYU is private they dont have to tell us anything about money. If we don’t like it we can choose not to attend and then our money will not be used by them since we arent paying them anything.

If you want to know where the money is going attend a public (state of city run) school.

I do not in any way support their actions, because I strongly disagree with the manner in which they were carried out. However, I find that a few of their demands, though worded in a rather threatening way, at their heart are progressive, tolerance-promoting ideas. And the one about not letting tuition increases exceed inflation? I’m really behind that one.

None of their demands were met largely because of the way they chose to argue them, in an isolating (both physically and mentally, as now they have a large group of students in arms against them) way. But one thing that they did do, which I can’t help but commend them for, is get everyone from the entire university talking about the same thing. They forced people to talk about their demands, bringing awareness of the changes they think should be met.

Most importantly, a letter was sent by the University Republicans and Democrats afterward disagreeing with most of what TBNYU did, but saying that they were genuinely concerned with some of the demands, and would like to start discussing them. Given the fact that these two groups are rather extremist here, the fact that they want to work together for this common goal I think is impressive.

So although no good has come from TBNYU’s actions (which it shouldn’t), some good might come from the aftermath, as other studentr groups work to make the good changes in a good way.

@Mike M, Your argument is Bullshit. As has everyone else who has arrived at the same conclusion.

Due to the incredible demand “choosing not to go to NYU” will have no effect on the school since there are about 6 kids who get rejected for every 4 that make it in. The only way to make any awareness of tyranny and allow for any change whatsover is to change it while already attending the university.

as someone involved with the occupation from start to finish, i appreciate this post–even if we went from being “disliked to loathed,” this particular timeline is overall accurate and downright decent. thanks.

“Due to the incredible demand “choosing not to go to NYU” will have no effect on the school since there are about 6 kids who get rejected for every 4 that make it in.”

I think this says more about the lack of a real demand for NYU to change than it does to discredit Mike M’s point (or anyone else who has expressed it). Perhaps if TBNYU had done a better job of educating the public about their cause and the reasoning behind their demands, perhaps if TBNYU actively protested during admissions tours (which is a much better idea than this stupid stunt), there would be more people willing to join the cause. Perhaps there would be more students second-guessing their college choice.

NYU isn’t breaking any laws in their non-disclosure. It’s not tyranny, it’s their right to run their for-profit enterprise in this way. As long as there are enough students willing to ignore what TBNYU sees as unconscionable actions by the administration, TBNYU will make absolutely no traction, and NYU has absolutely no reason to change.

You kids should be AShamed of yourselves. Don’t you have any values or morals? Listen to yourselves. You swear and you resort to name calling. Your are ignorant !!! you need to be RESPECTFUL to those who are trying to help you succeed in life.Rich white kid? What is that.? Do you really listen to yourselves? I have a white kid and he is there paying his own way because I don’t have the money. YOU are the future of this country and think of the young child you are influencing. Change comes from within first. When you behave like adults then you will be taken more seriously. You have a mouth and a voice use it the right way. Please do not include JESUS or any other religious figure in with your filthy language and negativity. Think of how they would have handled themselves. Every kid should be as lucky as you to have a college education. Show us that you use your education. Yes you have a right to ask questions but do it in a manner that is worthy for an answer. Love Your, parents and caregivers

In one sense, I can admire their willingness to make a change in something they care about. With that said, I cannot condone their medthods and somewhat ridiculous demands. I mean, come on. Did they really think that they coud get NYU to make Bobst public (I still don’t get that one), rebuild the university at Gaza and get a bunch of Palistinians free rides. That is a serious overestimation of their power. It was a bit sad to see something that could have been in some way positive turn into a just a bunch of kids dancing (or more flailing their arms and legs around wildly) on a balcony while attempting to be taken seriously. I think one of the first rules to have your protest be taken seriously is not turn your protest into a dance party. They have a diffrent opinion.

Pimpin’ aint easy, nuff said

@ ACG: My follow-up piece will likely be published on Monday.

I really thought NYU students were better then CUNY-SUNY students but after this. I really must retract that thought. I go to St John’s University and I am really glad I declined to go NYU because of its massive costs. I have been to NYU and I know where the money goes. If students don’t agree which NYU’s actions then the student body must gather up. Personally as a School I would not use it so much on looks I would spend it on education which I know the money disappears. For St John’s University it is considered a NON-profit org so it can have money disappear. I don’t know about NYU.

I stil don’t understand the rationale of “If you don’t like it then leave.” If the government of the US were corrupt, most Americans would not leave. They would create a change because they love their country, but not necesarily their government. I don’t see any difference here. I love NYU: the faculty, students (most of them), the classes, etc. I don’t love the administration. I don’t like that President John Sexton gives himself raises which are (percentage of salary-wise) more then double what faculty members get. Even though our tuition increases every year because “it has to” according to Sexton, he still recieves very large pay increases. And I still don’t know where my work-study money went. These things are wrong and I want to see them change. I don’t want to see my school run like a corporation where the people at the top make a ton of money and do not have to answer to anyone. It doesn’t have to be that way. They could change it if they wanted to. The fact that they aren’t proves they have something to hide and they count on those who don’t like it to simply leave so that they can continue doing what they are doing. Maybe you don’t mind these things but I would like to see things get better for all our sakes.

@ Charlie – thanks, and great job again. What a triumph for new journalism and NYU Local.

@ Sara F:

You clearly don’t know how a corporation works because corporations have to be transparent. The executives of publicly traded companies must answer to the owners and to the government if they are not transparent with financial information. You may have heard of Enron and WorldCom; if not, look them up as they are relevant.

NYU is a private not-for-profit organization. They have no such legal obligations. Would it be nice? Absolutely. But you cannot make a comparison to a government, especially the United States which was founded “by the people for the people” because NYU is for the people but not by the people, and therefore do not have these particular obligations to the people.

Your argument that NYU’s lack of transparency shows they have something to hide is completely specious. That’s the kind of logic that abolishes any concept of privacy. Whether non-profit organizations, or perhaps just similar non-profits, should be entitled to this type of privacy is debatable. Personally, I think there’s a fair amount of merit to either side, but that’s something to bring up to your congressional representative.

If someone truly doesn’t like the university’s policies as much as TBNYU, why not just boycott the place? Take your money where you won’t have qualms spending it.

Here’s a thought.

Cluster bombs, banned by countries in international treaties, subject to condemnation by Obama, as indiscriminate and comparably horrible as napalm during the Dow Chemical divestment movement in Vietnam…I don’t want to pay Textron, the company that makes them.

Unfortunately, Textron stock is largely owned by the State Street mutual fund. Also unfortunately, I am a student at one of the many colleges and universities that invest in State Street-Textron.

Thus, my tuition creates financial capital for the institution to use as it invests its money in cluster bombs.

Now let’s say I organize a coalition of 21 organizations representing thousands and thousands of students, like Take Back NYU! and include in its purpose, socially responsible investing, specifically for war and genocide profiteers.

Then I spend two years organizing with those groups through Student Senate and escalating and asking in all the right ways that our ethical objections be given some weight.

Do I, or do I not, have a right to demand that the institution hold itself accountable to the ethical concerns of its community? Students are members of the community too and our ethics should not be secretly discarded in Trustee board rooms, they should be represented by a Socially Responsible Investing/Finance Committee! An institutional fix to an institutional failure.

And on top of all that, the power relationships at universities SUCK. Why can’t we sit across the table from administration and be seen as equals? When can we ditch this hierarchy and have our opinions considered to the degree that it affects us?

Take Back NYU! isn’t asking for radical change, even though they are mostly radical students. They are biting their tongues and asking for fucking reforms because that’s what they see as achievable, accessible, and strategic. You should be happy that they aren’t uprising like Greek students did in December.

Disagree on the tactics all you want, but jeez, their demands are to resolve their deep ethical concerns of the University.

Odds are, most people posting here could give two shits about the social justice footprint of NYU…you should be thankful that someone is picking up your shit for you.

@Alex: No, you do not have that right. Look up the definition of the term “private university”.

[...] and see more about the protest here, and here. [...]

“Why can’t we sit across the table from administration and be seen as equals?”

Because you’re not.

Next question…?

Alex,
Your tuition is not supporting Textron. Quite the contrary, Textron is supporting you by producing products which yield shareholders a dividend, thereby growing your school’s endowment, and thereby holding down tuition and other expenses you might otherwise incur as a student. You may want to consider withdrawing from the school if you don’t like their investment practices. Perhaps you can organize others to do likewise. But you should not give up on getting an education. There’s much to be learned.
As for me, I think I’ll increase my holdings (yields are excellent at today’s price), then take a Cessna flight to warmer climate, rent an EZ-Go cart and play a few rounds on a Jacobsen-maintained golf course.
Best regards,
JDA

In the immortal words of the great Jack Handey…

“Sometimes I think you have to march right in and demand your rights,even if you don’t know what your rights are, or who the person is you’re talking to. Then on the way out, slam the door.”

I don’t think a greater blow against “The Man” has occurred since Janet Jackson flashed her boobie during the Superbowl halftime show a few years ago!

I am an NYU alumnus and I am going to contact alumni relations and tell them that I will not donate another red cent to the University until every last one of the spoiled rotten IDIOTS involved with this is expelled from NYU. I am also going to contact other Alumni and ask them to do the same thing.

Actually, that a young person might feel passionate about something or other, this or that, is completely understandable. Also, that they would get swept up on the passion of those beliefs is also quite understandable, and excusable.

That said, what is not excusable is the stupidity on display here. There is a class of protestor, in this country and abroad, that understands their main mission to be to annoy as many people as possible, until their message is heard. Take a walk down the street of any city brave enough to host a G7 meeting, and you will see what I am talking about here. Invariably, you have the usual suspects show up at these things, wtih the black kerchiefs, the intolerable bullhorns (through which the typical inanities are shouted) and the crude paper-machier likenesses of world figures (tediously burned in effigy). There is dancing, singing and bad poetry. There is the anger, the pointless destruction of private property,.

Walk amongst these dolts, if you can stop breathing long enough so as to avoid the body odor, and ask a few questions. Go ahead, I dare you. Most of the people you speak to, you will soon realize, have only the vaguest notion of the issues against which they passionately rail, and have even less of a grasp on how to effect change in any meaningful way. What you will find is that, for at least 90% of those involved, the protest itself is nothing more than a party, with angry cops and burning cars. It is fairly disheartening, for instead of young idealists with visions of change, what you find is a strange mishmash of communists without a clue, nihlistic anarchists who believe in nothing and ordinary kids hoping to get lucky. And yet, here they are, shutting down a large portion of this or that downtown area.

Of course, what you also find are those ordinary folks on the fringes, watching all of this and wondering what all the fuss is about. And they will never really know because there is not a single message that may be articulately explained. There is radical agitprop, plenty of it. There is cheap thrill seeking. The result is that the kids involved are viewed as silly, and are loathed for their intellectual vacuity. Surely they feel themselves morally superior to the average Joe, just trying to get his nut. But, in actuality, they are light weights, easily marginalized for being annoying, moralizing light weights. And thus whatever cause has so inflamed them is also marginalized. Who wants to listen to a nitwit? Even if they are right, which is open for debate.

[...] Hippies at NYU causing controversy… How a Fringe Group at NYU Went From Being Disliked to Loathed – The Story of the TBNYU! Kimmel Occup… __________________ [...]

[...] • NYU Local recaps the whole thing [...]

Wow. I thought NYU was a selective college. I guess you guys are letting in every douchebag who applies these days. Well, I guess you still own a lot of real estate. I think your police force needs to acquire some devices of force. Like shotguns or chemical weapons in case you get so many turds in one room again.

Hey Alex, you stupid, ignoramus. As others have tried to explain to you

-the owner of stock does not put any money into the company, unless they buy the stock when the company first issues shares. After that, as is the case with NYU’s indirect holding in Textron, payment for the shares goes to the prior owner of the shares, not the company. I’m sure the NYU B School students could explain this, if you could take your head out of your ass crack long enough to listen

-don’t like where your university invests, leave. did they tell you that in return for your tuition, you would get not only and education, but a say in how they invest their endowment. NO! you whiny puke, they did not. Take an extra buck from mommy and daddy and buy a clue!

I always thought the Kent State tragedy in 1970 was horrible and I could never understand how the National Guard could have shot those kids. Now I know.

After seeing those whiny self-righteous TBNYU jerks up there on the balcony demanding that vegan catering be brought in, I wanted to shoot them myself.

If they want to do something for Gaza, maybe they should drop out of school and send Mummy and Daddy’s money over there for relief?

It’s amazing to me that these idiots weren’t expelled.

My only thought is that the administration is filled with misty-eyed ex-hippies who want to believe that there little creeps are re-birthing the sixties.

A. Harris,

I am with you. This is a complete embarrassment to the entire NYU community. I watched the video of the original students occupying Kimmel and recognized one of the students involved. She is currently not suspended. I have seen her attending classes and at other NYU events. I am sure it is her because I previously met her. Everyone involved, whether they left Kimmel or occupied it until the end should have to face the consequences.

“Picking up our shit”? You didn’t accomplish a god damn thing,
so don’t go sucking your own dick over something you DIDN’T do.

[...] police roundup of student occupiers at the New School Friday. All were protesters during the TBNYU Kimmel Occupation in [...]

[...] police roundup of student occupiers at the New School Friday. All were protesters during the TBNYU Kimmel Occupation in [...]

“Cluster bombs, banned by countries in international treaties, subject to condemnation by Obama”

Is there anything useful or productive that Obama hasn’t condemned?

In point of fact, cluster bombs are more useful, less destructive, and more humane than single-ordnance bombs or MOABs. With a single-ordnance bomb the kill radius has a linear fall-off, meaning for greater kill radius you must massively increase the destruction at the epicenter. Cluster bombs disperse smaller packets of ordnance over a wider radius, requiring a smaller overall payload deliverance. They also do less damage to infrastructure.

The ‘ban cluster bombs’ campaign is outdated. The outrage over cluster bombs was that supposedly the bomblets could remain, undetected, and explode on some innocent person at a later date. But that was only true ages ago. New cluster bombs have killswitches that engage or disarm them after timeouts. This idiotic name-check campaign is almost as dumb as the ‘ban landmines’ idea. Try holding a position in enemy territory without landmines, then get back to me.

I’m not surprised that a bunch of hippies don’t understand military technology, any more than I will be surprised when I get the standard nutroot reply about ‘hugging a child with nuclear arms’ or similar nonsense. War exists, and believe me you want to survive it.

[...] at NYU are no strangers to ostentatious forms of protest, but this one certainly generated more fanfare than your average act of rebellion. You might [...]

[...] How a Fringe Group at NYU Went From Being Disliked to Loathed – The Story of the TBNYU! Kimmel… [...]

[...] NYU Local: [...]