Take Back NYU

Over at Campus Progress, Ned Resnikoff, an NYU sophomore, has a thorough rundown of the fiasco that was the Take Back NYU! protest:

The TBNYU! protest was one of the strangest farces in NYU’s 178-year history. By the end of the 40-hour occupation, only 10 protesters remained, which NYU security* unceremoniously removed from the building. Each one was suspended and kicked out of campus housing, and NYU did not meet a single one of the group’s demands. Nevertheless, the official TBNYU! blog, with characteristic detachment from reality, insisted that the occupation had “made a difference.”

And perhaps it had, but not in the way they expected. The group had managed to unite the NYU Democrats and Republicans in denunciation of the occupation. And as Jessica Roy, another friend and NYU Local staff member said, “The administration will most likely now be more tight-lipped, dodgy and suspicious of the idea of discussing these important issues than they ever were before.”

In other words, the protest was an unmitigated fiasco, and a solid model of how not to effect positive change on your local campus.

Go read the whole piece.

So I haven't yet said anything about the Take Back NYU!. It's not something I've followed, but from what I can tell it was an epic FAIL all around. Exhibit A is this video, which is basically every stereotype about lefty protest rolled into one:

Exhibit B is the list of demands made by the students:

2009 occupation demands:

* Amnesty for all parties involved.
* Full compensation for all employees whose jobs were disrupted during the course of the occupation.
* Public release of NYU’s annual budget and endowment.
* Allow student workers (including T.A.’s) to collectively bargain.
* A fair labor contract for all NYU employees at home and abroad.
* A Socially Responsible Finance Committee that will immediately investigate war profiteers and the lifting of the Coke ban.
* Annual scholarships be provided for thirteen Palestinian students.
* That the university donates all excess supplies and materials in an effort to rebuild the University of Gaza.
* Tuition stabilization for all students, beginning with the class of 2012. Tuition rates for each successive year will not exceed the rate of inflation. The university shall meet 100% of government-calculated student financial need.
* That student groups have priority when reserving space in the buildings owned or leased by New York University, including, and especially, the Kimmel Center.
* That the general public have access to Bobst Library.

Huh? A few of these might actually make for good student campaigns, and indeed some of them have at other schools. Tuition stabilization, socially responsible endowments, TA unionization - these are all individually worthy campaigns that might garner huge support among the student population. But support for the Islamic University of Gaza? Public access to the NYU library? And the kicker: amnesty for all parties involved in the protests. As the #1 demand, really? Not only is this the ultimate muddled message, it's also one that the students obviously don't have the courage of their convictions to fully support.

I think this shows. If you look at the website for TBNYU, only 781 students have signed a statement of support, and only 831 people have joined the Facebook group. This is at a university of 50,000 students. It also shows in the comments of the TBNYU website, where the student "activists" (yeah, I use that in quotes) are catching major flack from fellow students and alumni in the comments, and are responding in an increasingly irrational and defensive manor.

This pretty much the ultimate case study in how not to run a protest. As a colleague of mine noted, this makes all youth activists look bad.