I have a daughter that will be starting college next year. As I read your piece I realized had she committed to Columbia she would at this point in time either sit out a year from college and resubmit all her applications or go to Columbia. I am guessing the administration was well aware of the importance of their timing.
How exactly did this "encampment" disrupt campus? It doesn't sound like anyone is claiming this was anything but peaceful. How has Columbia dealt in the past with other protests? Have there been similar ones with "encampments" that did NOT result in arrests?
And would Columbia have done anything differently if the protestors just marched each day instead of "camped?"
I'm guess the answer is this is a new kind of response, but hard to tell from the reporting.
It's the flip side of all those noble-sounding quotes "good schools" make about "Raising the Leaders of Tomorrow"...by teaching them NOT to rock the boat, and what can happen to those who do.
Isn't this why institutions like The New School, Sarah Lawrence College, and Bard were founded, in response to the extremely White Bread Male Ivy League (and just off-Ivy League) universities?
down the road a bit at NYU, the results have been different I'd wager. No doubt there have been protests there too, but I haven't heard about any of them getting shut down by administrators or university presidents NYU tends to be a more rough and tumble crowd. Which is more my jam anyway...
Bard quickly shut down an Iraq war protest (though with just campus security softies) and threatened all the students involved if we continued to ‘rock the boat’ as you say
Sadly, that figures. My ex-wife's ex-boyfriend went to Bard when she was with him, and I've met a few Bard graduates besides. While it was started as an alternative college, it seems to have descended into having majors in alcoholism and pot smoking, and being apolitical to the point that it's very political.
I support all the student protesters, at Columbia and elsewhere. It is important to reflect, though, on why it is so often elite expensive private universities that are in the limelight. Is it because most journalists went to those institutions and are obsessed with them? Is it because there is a particularly glaring contradiction between having access to an elite education and seeing how the world works in practice- genocide, police violence and all? And/or because lengthy protests, skipping class and putting your degree on the line are acts accessible only to a small group of students? Working-class students also oppose genocide and state violence, but maybe their options for protest and attention are limited.
We were far from elitists, we were outraged
I have a daughter that will be starting college next year. As I read your piece I realized had she committed to Columbia she would at this point in time either sit out a year from college and resubmit all her applications or go to Columbia. I am guessing the administration was well aware of the importance of their timing.
How exactly did this "encampment" disrupt campus? It doesn't sound like anyone is claiming this was anything but peaceful. How has Columbia dealt in the past with other protests? Have there been similar ones with "encampments" that did NOT result in arrests?
And would Columbia have done anything differently if the protestors just marched each day instead of "camped?"
I'm guess the answer is this is a new kind of response, but hard to tell from the reporting.
Columbia has had a policy of *not* calling the police on student protestors since 68, when they did call police and it was a disaster.
Then grrrrr.
Calling the cops is NEVER a good idea unless all parties involved are white and cis
Good points
It's the flip side of all those noble-sounding quotes "good schools" make about "Raising the Leaders of Tomorrow"...by teaching them NOT to rock the boat, and what can happen to those who do.
Isn't this why institutions like The New School, Sarah Lawrence College, and Bard were founded, in response to the extremely White Bread Male Ivy League (and just off-Ivy League) universities?
there's definitely been an effort by some schools to have a different approach, yeah.
it's a longstanding struggle in higher ed, with trying to teach people...and at the same time trying not to teach them.
down the road a bit at NYU, the results have been different I'd wager. No doubt there have been protests there too, but I haven't heard about any of them getting shut down by administrators or university presidents NYU tends to be a more rough and tumble crowd. Which is more my jam anyway...
Bard quickly shut down an Iraq war protest (though with just campus security softies) and threatened all the students involved if we continued to ‘rock the boat’ as you say
Sadly, that figures. My ex-wife's ex-boyfriend went to Bard when she was with him, and I've met a few Bard graduates besides. While it was started as an alternative college, it seems to have descended into having majors in alcoholism and pot smoking, and being apolitical to the point that it's very political.
Sounds like a different school, are there like very recent graduates?
*these*… anyway my point was the admin is not actually that progressive, and maybe run in the shadows by the Zionist pomegranate empire lol
I support all the student protesters, at Columbia and elsewhere. It is important to reflect, though, on why it is so often elite expensive private universities that are in the limelight. Is it because most journalists went to those institutions and are obsessed with them? Is it because there is a particularly glaring contradiction between having access to an elite education and seeing how the world works in practice- genocide, police violence and all? And/or because lengthy protests, skipping class and putting your degree on the line are acts accessible only to a small group of students? Working-class students also oppose genocide and state violence, but maybe their options for protest and attention are limited.
the media is obsessed with elite universities, probably because of who the publishers are rather than who the journalists are, I'd guess.
Interesting POV that rings true.