The New School In Exile

The New School University and New York University occupations were among the first student-led protests to use technology to gain global support for their cause and to get attention from the universities’ administrations.

American students have the last few months, as in Europe, manifested a criticism of conditions at the universities around the country. Criticism and demands are well known. In the city of New York students require the critical university back.

The white noise of commentary of the blogosphere on the occupation has been largely dismissive and knee-jerk conservative, tacitly supporting the administration in the dispute. They have been widely commented on as “spoiled rich kids” with “ridiculous” or “pro-Gazan demands” who are “going about it the wrong way” and “deserve to be expelled.” NY Daily News published a reactionary opinion editorial on Friday that sounded like it was written by a cobwebby racist grandfather, calling the students “whiners, wusses and wheenies” and starting with the line, “What’s the matter with kids today?”

Coming two months after the sit-in at the New School (see article inside), the NYU occupation drew support from students and others throughout the area. Hundreds of people came out on two bitterly cold nights to stand for hours in front of Kimmel Hall, where the “Take Back NYU!” group and others had occupied the cafeteria. Enthusiastic crowds – drawing area residents, students from the City University of New York, the New School, Columbia and other campuses as far away as the University of Rochester – were in no mood to be pushed around by NYPD’s thugs in blue, whose steel barricades, flailing batons and scare tactics only heightened protesters’ determination to express their solidarity with the dozens of students barricaded inside.