Take Back NYU! Taking Their Message Around the Globe

Photo from Take Back NYU!

With their three-day occupation of the Kimmel Center now in hindsight and eighteen of their members possibly facing suspension, Take Back NYU! is attempting not to lose momentum and forge ahead. Today they posted the above picture sent in from a student group at Loyola University in Chicago. And yesterday it was the famous activist and scholar Noam Chomsky expressing solidarity with the group. Chomsky released a statement supporting their call for "universities to end their participation in the brutal oppression of Palestinians."

Of course the backlash against Take Back NYU!'s actions haven't exactly disappeared either. Washington Square News reports that a couple of NYU alums have created a site named Fake Back NYU mocking the group's demands. The paper also says that when they went out and spoke to thirty random NYU students, not one fully supported the Take Back's demands. One former member of TBNYU criticized the movement saying, "It was a stage, and they just wanted the publicity...[It was] a manifestation of the latest fad."

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

By Billy Parker in News on February 22, 2009 3:55 PM

Comments [rss]

youaretrendy

CHIGAGO? Where is that anyways?

MisterTissue

This, also, is a stupid thing to say.

thefacts

How facilely the protestors are dismissed, when the terrible truth is that:

- NYU destroys neighborhoods, both the East and West Village

- ruins cultural treasures in NYC (Poe House, Provincetown Theater, the Bottom Line)

- has displaced countless mom&pop stores and displaced hundreds of families and senior citizens,

- has built crappy-looking Soviet-style buildings,

- has uprooted stands of NYC Park trees to build an electric-generating plant,

- lies to the community and its neighbors,

- pays off government officials(remember Constance Baker Motley?)

- touts to perspective students what a wonderful neighborhood it is located, when, in fact, it has ruined the very neoighborhood it touts

- is disdained by just about everyone who lives anywhere near its campus

- is run by a Mephistophelian character - in looks and in actions - the egomaniac John Sexton

- etc, etc,

NYU remains a mockery of education. It is a corporation posing as a university. It is all about $$$.

At least these protestors are doing something, not like most of the other 40,000 complacent sheep that attend NYU.

lb1103

It is a corporation posing as a university.

As all private universities are. I went to one, and had no illusions that I wasn't lining someone's pocket with my 10's of thousands of dollars per year.

NannyState

Not to mention all their sub-corporate entities in which they hide bad financial news, subvert compensation limits and terms, and redirect any actual profits into slush funds for the exclusive use of administrators.

Here is a summary of a typical university president's week: Monday, fax resume; Tuesday, trip to Hawaii to meet with other college presidents and compare salaries; Wednesday, return from Hawaii,fax new contract counteroffer with 40% bump in salary demands; Thursday, golf, meet with Foundation benefactors, shill for money; Friday, start three-day weekend, fax resume.

MFer

Ah, then it really says how pathetic these protestors are, doesn't it?--if it were such a slam dunk case.

EastRiver

Want lower tuition? Settle for lousier facilities. Colleges across the country engaged in an arms race of fancier dorms and student centers in an effort to attract students. And cutting edge science labs don't come cheap either.

pete

Science labs that you'll never get to use, and you'll never see anyone using.

see: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1812947/

Avaz383

In summary, these over-privileged and entitlement seeking kids are totally void of any real opinions and further nothing without their precious internet connection and Noam Chomsky is douche bag #1 and Ides of March said it best already...

ides_of_march

Noam Chumpsky is simply a well educated moron. During the Holocaust he would have been what's called a boxcar loader, helping shove his own people onto the trains bound for Auschwitz then shocked when his political masters tossed him in last when the job was done.

MisterTissue

This is a stupid thing to say.

lb1103

Here's an idea if you think NYU costs too much - DON'T GO TO A PRIVATE UNIVERSITY! This is the brainpower of an NYU student? I fully agree that they protested for the sake of being "cool."

gothamguy

Agreed. It seems like they applied to the school, agreed to pay the cost (or let mom and dad pay), moved to NYC and into their nice dorm, and then all of a sudden realized that NYU was really expensive and maybe some of that tuition money could be better spent by donating it to causes.

They should each transfer to a state school and give the saved tuition money to whomever they please.

Morons, one and all.

ides_of_march

'Taking back' something that's not yours to begin with is also known as stealing. Then again, that's what socialists do.

angry_pickle

I thought that was called capitalism as long as you can get away with it.

ides_of_march

There are thieves of all political stripes, however, socialism is entirely based on confiscating wealth created by others and discouraging anyone else from producing it. It's a parasitic system which eventually kills the host.

Capitalism for all its faults at least allows for free enterprise, investment and actual jobs to be created.