[UPDATED] Cooper Union Students Stage Lock-In To Protest Tuition Implementation

December 4th, 2012 by Sydney Smith

Yesterday around noon, twelve students – eleven Cooper Union students and one student journalist from The New School – barricaded themselves inside Cooper Union’s Foundation Building. They unfurled a red banner from the eighth floor which read “Free Education To All.”

Their actions were a response to the decision by Cooper Union trustees and President Jamshed Bharucha to consider charging tuition in light of a waning endowment and rising costs. Cooper Union students currently do not pay anything for their years of schooling.

No matter the outcome of an upcoming vote by the trustees, all current students are grandfathered into the full-scholarship system, and won’t be retroactively charged tuition or be asked to pay for the rest of their time at Cooper.

The demands of the protesting students, detailed in a communique sent to press and distributed to the public near Peter Cooper Park, called for an end to the consideration of tuition implementation at Cooper Union, as well as increased transparency in the school’s administration, and the resignation of President Bharucha. Read more…


[PHOTOS] A Lively Anniversary for Occupy Wall Street

September 17th, 2012 by Rachel Kaplan

Today marks the one year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, the political movement that swept Lower Manhattan last September and was disbanded in December. Although there were plans of a resurgence in the spring of 2012, the movement had seemed to fizzle. Yesterday, the 99% converged in Foley Square to begin ‘Year II’ of the movement. Our photographer Rachel Kaplan joined protestors and captured the nostalgic mood of the occasion. We’ll have an update on the events occurring in Lower Manhattan later, but for now, here’s a liveblog documenting the day’s proceedings. More images from yesterday after the jump.
Read more…


NYU Kicks Off May Day With Bobst Picket Against 2031

May 1st, 2012 by Brett Chamberlin

This morning, a crowd of over 60 students, faculty, and Village residents picketed Bobst, marching around the library’s red sandstone columns in the light rain. For a little under an hour, the group expressed their opposition to NYU’s 2031 plan, which its opponents characterize as aggressive real estate expansion that threatens the historic character of the Village.

The demonstration, jointly organized by NYU4OWS and NYU Faculty Against the Sexton Plan, was the NYU kick off of May Day, a nation-wide general strike called by Occupy Wall Street.

“We’re just generally upset by NYU’s corporate strategy,” explained Peter Wirzbicki, an organizer with NYU’s Graduate Students Union. Wirzbicki expressed optimism that NYU would scale back their plans again (beyond the 16% cut the university announced last month). “We’re trying to publicize the faculty departments that voted against the plan,” he said.

Indeed, faculty represented the largest contingent at the picket. Christine Harrington, a politics professor, marched with a bright sign that read “Politics Department Opposes NYU 2031.”  Read more…