We're no stranger to student protests here at Penn State -- United Students Against Sweatshops is on the Collegian's front page today after holding a sit-in inside Penn State President Graham Spanier's office to protest the university's contract with Russell Athletic.
But besides an Old Main sit-in in April that led to 31 students being charged with defiant criminal trespass, we don't generally see protests like the NYU demonstration that's wrapping up as I write this post.
In my two semesters as a campus reporter, I saw a few sit-ins, a lot of press conferences on the steps of Old Main, and several megaphone-fueled trips to Graham Spanier's office. But our collegiate neighbors to the north in New York City tend to take things a bit farther.
Besides last year's hunger strike at Columbia University, the protest going on now at New York University -- a student group's occupation of an on-campus dining hall -- is by far my favorite student protest story ever.
It has everything -- barricades, police, furious administrators, passionate students, and the most disconnected set of demands I've ever read. Among other things, the students of Take Back NYU, who have literally barricaded themselves inside NYU's Kimmel dining hall for the past three days, are demanding everything from full disclosure of the university's budget to scholarships for 13 Palestinian students to a committee to "investigate war profiteers." Good luck with that one, kids.
Hundreds of students have gathered outside the dining hall over the past few days, either to express their solidarity with the students inside or to protest the protest itself. (My favorite sign so far: "Protesting: You're Doing It Wrong.")
Apparently, about half of the students involved don't even go to NYU; many are from New School, where students staged a similar protest a few months ago over their university president. Those students will likely be arrested for trespassing. An NYU spokesman issued a statement earlier today that the NYU students involved in the protest will be suspended. As I'm writing this, all but four of the protesters have left the building.
In some respects, it's kind of admirable that students are showing this much concern and passion in how their school is run. For the most part, though, I think the NYU protesters' biggest mistake -- besides risking arrest and expulsion for occupying a university building -- lies in their list of demands.
Protest rising tuition costs; protest the situation in the Gaza Strip. But lumping everything you're angry about into a giant list of demands and then expecting an administration to try to parse through the whole thing -- all while you're fighting with security guards and barricading yourselves in a dining hall -- is not going to lead to any sort of coherent discussion. Debate, dissent and freedom of speech are intrinsic and necessary rights. But when the importance of your message is lost in the chaos of your protest, no one benefits.
No word yet on where this is all going to lead, or whether NYU's administration will consider the group's demands. For now, I'm just having fun following the story.
- Aubrey.
