Punks rocked

22 Feb, 2009 by Ron Coleman

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NYU’s administration doesn’t think collegiate protest is so groovy when you’re The Man:

After renewed calls for negotiations between NYU officials and student body protestors after a night of intense rioting, those who were still barricaded in the college cafeteria Friday have finally ended their sit-in protest.

I have never understood what leverage students have that they’re allowed to “protest” and “barricade” and “demand” anything. This problem started in the 1960’s and somehow there is still this concept that students have “rights” to force their school to do things. Ah, but see what kind of punks we’re talking about here, after all:

The students wanted NYU to release information on its budget and endowment, including staff salaries and financial aid. The students also wanted the university to release its investment strategy and the names of the people and firms involved in it.

Ooh, yeah. Students are much more knowledgeable about this stuff and they should for sure be in charge of that sort of thing. No, wait, it gets better:

The protesters also have made the Palestinian-Israeli conflict part of their cause, demanding the university donate “excess supplies and materials” to help rebuild a university damaged in December by Israeli air raids. They also want NYU to provide annual scholarships to Palestinian students, beginning in the 2009-10 school year.

Oh, that kind of punk! Well, sure. NYU is pretty much behind that Israeli oppression and stuff. That explains that.

Punks. Give NYU credit for eventually drawing some sort of line, however fuzzy and dotted. Let’s see how fast their daddies run to the courthouse to get those big bad “suspensions” lifted — and how fast NYU folds on the punishment of its punks.

Originally posted on Likelihood of Success, Ron Coleman’s pretty good blog.