The Common Room

About last night…

One Thing I Love: “Take Back NYU!’s” Idea



So as you all probably know, a group of students known as “Take Back NYU!,” barricaded themselves into the Kimmel Dining Hall a couple nights ago. (Side note: F. Scott Fitzgerald said that using exclamation points is like laughing at your own jokes. I find that oddly accurate in this case). Their initial reasoning seemed to be a protest of NYU’s lack of transparency with regards to the budget and endowment (specifically while in the context of the current economic crisis and the resulting cutbacks). In my opinion, that is a completely worthwhile cause. One worth fighting for. Protesting over. I believe we have the right to see where our tuition money is going, particularly when we are being asked to accept cutbacks (which are of course inevitable in this economic climate) University-wide. I’m not saying the cutbacks shouldn’t happen, but we should at least get to look over the budget ourselves. So I love the idea of protesting for this cause. It is both rational and seemingly achievable.

One Thing I Hate: “Take Back NYU!’s” Execution



Here’s the problem. Rather than sticking with one, legitimate and possibly achievable cause, TBNYU! allowed that message to get diluted by many other messages. All of a sudden it wasn’t about transparency, it was about transparency and Gaza. Now this is the problem with TBNYU! It is a non-hierarchical group, meaning all decisions are made communally. That’s fine and good, except it meant that everyone got their cause added to the list of demands. Much like the legislation produced by the United States Congress, all of these conflicting amendments made supporting TBNYU very difficult. If you were for transparency, but not for Gaza, how do you support this wholeheartedly?

And that’s the major problem with not having a leader to focus things. An action like this requires overwhelming student support to work. By simply mentioning Palestine you are guaranteed to alienate nearly (if not more than) half of the student population that you absolutely require to succeed. This protest never had a shot at success for that reason. They either did not thin of the political consequences of their strange brew of demands (which would be disappointing and illustrate a certain ignorance, naivete, or plain stupidity), or they knew they would never succeed and simply wanted to “raise awareness” (which would be absolutely, maddeningly, frustrating). I tend to believe that most TBNYU! members would now claim the latter, when the fact is they thought they had a chance (According to The New York Times, one senior who had been in Kimmel “said she was unhappy that the administration had, in her view, not negotiated with the students and listened to their grievances. ‘It makes disturbingly clear how the university feels about social justice issues’”). Stupidity it is I guess.

Also, I just want to say that the whole “radicalism raises awareness that leads to change” argument doesn’t hold ANY water here. Radicalism can work in that way, but usually, it only works when there is a clear right and wrong. Apartheid was clearly wrong. The treatment of black people in the hundreds of years leading up to the Civil Rights Movement was clearly wrong. Of the things they were protesting very few, if any, have clear right or wrong answers.

Overall, I’m disappointed. I’m for protesting. I’m for taking over Kimmel even. But more importantly than that, I’m for intelligent, practical demands and methodology. Well run political theatre. None of that was on display at NYU this week.