Fugitives' Sign Resurrected on Campus Center

It's a new semester at City College and it'll be a new round of fighting over a campus center's "Guillermo Morales/Assata Shakur" sign. The Daily News reports that City Councilman Charles Barron re-placed the controversial sign for the City College NY community center and vows to re-place it if it's taken down again:

"We are here to say to the City University that we have a right to self-determination, that we have a right to free speech, that we have a right to freedom of expression," Barron said. "We are saying that you can't determine who our heroines and heroes are going to be."

Morales and Shakur, both CCNY ~~alums~~ one-time students, are both living abroad after escaping custody/prison and are wanted by the authorities. Morales was a bomb maker (one bomb at the Fraunces Tavern killed four) for the Armed Forces of National Liberation and Shakur was convicted of killing a NJ State trooper in 1973; much has been made about whether Shakur actually fired a gun.

City College had agreed to open the student center in 1990, but when CCNY student Sergey Kadinsky sent a letter to the Daily News this past December asking why the sign was up, a tempest was born. City College at first said they were keeping the sign.... then explained a few days later - after much outrage from victims' families and others - that the sign would be coming down. Why? Because the school never officially approved the sign back in 1990! Clearly, the other unspoken reason is that it's hard to justify state funds for a community center named after fugitives.

City College students and alumni have sued the school for violating First Amendment rights by taking down the sign.

Update: City College PR director Ellis Simon comments:

The sign erected by Mr. Barron at City College was removed last night (February 7). This is in keeping with long-standing policy that naming of any facility at the College requires the authorization of the administration and University (CUNY). This clearly was not the case in this instance.

Neither Ms. Shakur nor Mr. Morales are alumni of City College. Ms. Shakur attended CCNY for two years but did not graduate. We have not been able to locate records indicating that Mr. Morales ever attended CCNY.

So, does this mean Barron is headed back there? And do students have an unlimited supply of signs?

Photograph of the Morales/Shakur Center from Sergey Kadinsky

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on February 9, 2007 4:32 PM

Comments [rss]

RWS

The sign hangs over the doors of a student club Students For Educational Rights. If it's a club, shouldn't SER be allowed to call their room whatever they want? Afterall, it's student fees that are funding club, not city or state funds.

fugh

The radical left has become so fascist that the irony of it isn't even ironic anymore. If not for blind hatred, they'd have no hatred at all.

IvyLeagueGrunt

Come on City College...

W...T...F...

S.D.

"most bogus shit ever?"

Um, Maybe what you typed...

miquel

"Photograph of the Morales/Shakur Center from Sergey Kadinsky"

This brings up several questions"

Who's bff is Sergey Kandinsky, why did he/she feel the need to manufacture this story by complaining in the first place, what field is he/she in and how does he/she plan to exploit this for his/her own gain, why is journalism as we know it the most bogus shit ever? Such crap I want to pay someone to kill me.

Bull Connor

I'd like to open a community center in my name at Medgar Evers College. I'd also like to fund a memorial scholarship in my name for "Segregation and Peace Studies" at that same, fine institution.

So who's with me? Barron? You know you 'n me are more alike than you think.

Peter

What do you call a City College student with a triple-digit IQ score?

Einstein.

Seriously, is there another college or university in America whose academic standing has fallen as far as City College's? Two generations ago it was the academic equivalent of the Ivies.

Ellis Simon

The sign erected by Mr. Barron at City College was removed last night (February 7). This is in keeping with long-standing policy that naming of any facility at the College requires the authorization of the administration and University (CUNY). This clearly was not the case in this instance.

Neither Ms. Shakur nor Mr. Morales are alumni of City College. Ms. Shakur attended CCNY for two years but did not graduate. We have not been able to locate records indicating that Mr. Morales ever attended CCNY.

Ellis Simon

Director of Public Relations

The City College of New York

uncommon sense.

"Why don't you guys have a meet up and take the sign down?"

Because the school is the one with the right to take the sign down, not that the students respect that right (or the rights of others to, you know, live).

uncommon sense.

"Why don't you guys have a meet up and take the sign down?"

Because the school is the one with the right to take the sign down, not that the students respect that right (or the rights of others to, you know, live).

hype-o-crip

Because ten bucks says that the civil, peaceful, warriors of truth blah blah blah who want the sign kept up would use violence in a nano second against anyone who dared to remove it. These people worship cop killers and bomb makers!

we win hear

The usual gothamist regulars have their panties in a bunch.

Why don't you guys have a meet up and take the sign down?

J to the D

I swear, common sense has become the most uncommon thing.

S.D.

"I wonder if Charles Barron would be just as supportive of the First Admendment Rights of a bunch of Neo-Nazis "honoring" Adolf Hilter."

...

That's a good point. Councilman Charles Barron seems to think Mr. Morales and Ms. Shakur are Heroes, despite the outright terrorist activities of Mr. Morales...

Chris

I wonder if Charles Barron would be just as supportive of the First Admendment Rights of a bunch of Neo-Nazis "honoring" Adolf Hilter.

quick question

and what nation was Morales trying to liberate by killing people in a bar/restaurant?

Also, when I was in the fifth grade, we were doing a group project and the other kids in my group decided we should call ourselves "The Jeffrey Dahmer Society." I got out-voted, and that's what our group went to the teacher with. Fortunately she turned it down and made us come up with a new name... for some crazy reason she didn't think it was a good idea to idolize murderers.

dhex

so this brouhaha has been going on for 17 years?

PleaseShutUp

I'm confused, whose first amendment rights are being violated? Isn't it the school's sign to take down? A preference isn't a form of speech.