By Surekha Ratnatunga
Published: February 20, 2009

Amidst the swelling crowd at Kimmel’s cafeteria Wednesday night, NYU Local’s Charlie Eisenhood began what has now become a legendary lesson in liveblogging with the prophetic words:

Somebody just asked me if I needed a number for legal counsel if I get thrown in jail. Looks like this might be a bit more than a dance party.

Just before 10PM, TBNYU! [Take Back NYU] barricaded the doors to the cafeteria and began reading out a list of demands, which included budget disclosure, making Bobst [library] public and giving aid/scholarships to Gaza. Half an hour later, NYPD had a small presence outside Kimmel. According to Charlie’s coverage, TBNYU! members were open to negotiating with administrators from the start.

Before protesters started taking naps around 3.30AM, the occupation seemed somewhat wholesome. Charlie got some great pictures of people dancing, painting posters and playing cards. One NYU Security guard was quoted as saying, “It’s not a barricade, we could tear that down anytime. Get something heavier.”. . .

Charlie's complete blogs with his photos and video: Day One, Day Two, Day Two Night, Day Two Late Night, Day Three

Click on sub-heads to continue reading the original articles from NYU Local. If your Feed Reader doesn't support videos, click on [Video] to open them on Youtube.




Day One, February 18, 2009 NYU Kimmel [Video] Occupation Starts

Charlie Eisenhood NYU Local blogs live from inside:

9:54 PM - Doors barricaded. [3rd floor student center dining room] “This is now an occupied space!” . . .

10:04 PM - This is for real. A Take Back NYU student leader just read the list of demands. . .

11:14 PM - I sat down with Maria Lewis, a TBNYU member and major organizer (although she wouldn’t admit to that since TBNYU is a non-hierarchical group), a moment ago to discuss why the group decided to make such a drastic move. She told me that they’ve been trying to “work with the administration for 2 years,” and their letter writing, press conference holding, and calm discussion failed. They can’t understand why there is “no transparency with our tuition dollars.” She told me that, since being nice didn’t work, “[they] decided to take it up a notch.”

Lewis continued, “We want to be democratic participants in this institution of learning…We decided to physically reclaim the space, to take back the space.” She also stressed that they were doing this in solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza strip. . . .

12:31 AM - Fearless prediction: The administration isn’t going to have any of this. . .

5:13 AM - Only a hardcore handful remain awake. The lights can’t be turned off so it’s pretty difficult to drift off, even at this hour. I’m wishing I could sleep, but prowling addictinggames.com instead. . . .




Day Two, February 19, 2009 NYU Kimmel Occupation / Balcony Liberated [Video] / Street Rallies

Charlie Eisenhood NYU Local still blogging from inside:

10:11 AM - The smokers are going crazy. They haven’t been able to smoke since around 9 last night. One guy just said to me, coffee in hand, “When I get a cigarette in me, I’m gonna pass out from ecstasy.”

10:29 AM - Negotiations beginning now.

10:35 AM - I have been informed by the girl who dislikes me (”fucked up” comment last night) that I am not allowed to listen to the negotiations because I am here as press and not as an activist. I did catch the first part - no concessions to open the balcony for smokers/press conference. Not a good start…

12:27 PM - The delay of the press conference seems to be caused by a desire to wait for more students to gather out front.

12:45 PM - Straight up ridick. There is a girl topless outside standing by the barricade. [Feminist Ninjas from NYU, "Show your tits for TBNYU! . . ."] Lots of people. No press conference yet. . . .

2:52 PM - BREAKING: Between 20 and 40 guards just entered Kimmel. Fear is setting in.

4:58 PM - Chant begins: “Disclose it/Get off it/Put students over profit”



5:02 PM - Conference underway. [Balcony Rally Video] “We will not stand for these scare tactics!” (referring to threats of expulsion). “We demand the administration negotiate with us now!”

5:09 PM - Protesters just asked for support from crowd all night, particularly at 1 AM at which time they are supposedly illegally here. . . .

Day Two Night, February 19, 2009 NYU Kimmel Occupation / Street Rally

Charlie Eisenhood NYU Local still blogging from inside

8:19 PM - This is the most negative I’ve seen the group tonight. I’m overhearing talks of failure and fear. People are worried about being arrested and/or expelled. A little tense in here.

8:23 PM - @Kristen: As long as they need to, they say. However, people keep leaving - that could end up causing trouble. Which leads me to @Avery: my current count is 33. It’s definitely dwindled.

8:37 PM - @Kate Turtle: I think you’re right. The people remaining here are brave; they are aware of the fact that this probably won’t end well. I’ve been thinking about what the endgame might look like. I don’t foresee negotiations - there hasn’t been even an inkling of a serious offer on the part of the administration to talk to the protesters. I think it could get rough. Discuss. . . .



8:57 PM - BREAKING: More people just busted in through the barricade [Video] to join the occupiers.

9:05 PM - Lots of people just got in. Takes a little time to post to YouTube but i’ll have it shortly. Not surprisingly, people are hyped again.

9:15 PM - Well over 50 people got in. Guards are pissed, Bob is red-faced angry. Guard broke (correct to: hurt) his arm too. Yikes. . . .

11:41 PM - . . . Fearless Prediction: This is all over by 2 AM. The more little snippets of conversation I hear, the more I think NYU’s just gonna bring in the NYPD at 1. Every “negotiation” put on the table by NYU seems to have a “You’re outta here by 1 AM tonight” provision.

11:46 PM - Overheard: “Let’s not get scared, guys.” ==> Get scared, guys. . . .

11:54 PM - “Negotiations about the negotiations” have begun. The administration offered, as a “favor,” a “safe haven” program which allowed students to leave and get only NYU probation. TBNYU rejected the offer. . . .

Day Two Late Night, February 19, 2009, NYU Kimmel Occupation / Street Rally / Police Scuffle / Take Back NYU Retreat

Charlie Eisenhood NYU Local still blogging from inside

12:24 AM - More confirmation of lots of cops on east side of Kimmel. Anastasia called me out in the comments as a fool — remains to be seen.

Also, fellow NYU Local staffers aren’t being allowed into the building, although WSN staffers are. Let the heat of 1,000 suns pour down upon the scuzball who decided on that policy. . . .

12:44 AM - What’s going to happen at 1 AM? Everyone has an opinion. Give yours.

12:47 AM - I’m sitting in my chair hearing the cries of hundreds of TBNYU supporters in front of Kimmel chanting, “Take! Back! NYU!” and catching vague clips of the TBNYU meeting I’m not welcomed into. All this while guards lurk to my right and cops are an eerie presence. The room is bristling with anticipation. 1 AM approaches. . . .

1:01 AM - The calm before the storm?

1:04 AM- We’ve been offered a chance to leave now. I can’t leave. I’ve been following this story for over 28 hours straight. I know you all are waiting to hear what happens. I got you. I’m in it for the long haul.

1:09 AM - Violence in the streets [Video]. People are actively fighting cops.

1:17 AM - Definitely follow the twitter feed but it’s now 1:16, there’s ACTUAL rioting in the street i have video of everything it’ll go up as soon as i can put it up. Negotiations seem ongoing here in the room with Bob.

NYU students face arrest and expulsion I’m hearing.

1:21 AM - Documents were just handed out to everyone. They are “safe harbor” agreements that suspend any disciplinary charges for the remainder of student’s tenure at NYU. Photo coming.

1:27 AM - TBNYU is having another secret meeting. More in a second.

"NYU Occupation Riot and TBNYU Scurry Away" [Video]

2:08 AM - Correction: They will be allowed to stay the night but there will be NO amnesty and NO negotiations. They have no safety net. They can be fully prosecuted by NYPD and NYU. (at least for now)

As for me, this must end my time as a liveblogger here at Kimmel. I absolutely need sleep. But we’ll be back tomorrow with the final story of what happens to TBNYU.

Day Three Kimmel Occupation Ends

Charlie Eisenhood NYU Local Wrap-up

12:13 PM - Hey, all. Charlie here. I just spoke to Emily Stainkamp and she informed me that administrators and security guards raided the 3rd floor and rounded up the remaining protestors. They are all being suspended.

The team of five negotiators (before this raid) went to negotiate and were apparently detained and suspended as well. It’s currently unclear if any negotiations actually took place.

Charlie Eisenhood NYU Local Final Thoughts
Published: February 23, 2009

Three days have now passed since the end of my long stay inside the barricaded Kimmel dining hall and I’ve finally had a chance to sit down and collect my thoughts about the experience. I have some information to share that I couldn’t publish during the occupation (for various reasons) and ideas about why the response from the NYU and outside community has been resoundingly negative. . . .

Other NYU Local Stories on Kimmel Occupation Ends and [Index]

No Arrests Made, No Demands Met

By Cody Brown
Published: February 20, 2009

The third floor of Kimmel has been cleared and no arrests made. None of the 13 demands of TBNYU! have been met and there were never any extensive meetings with the administration about meeting them. . . .

Only Student Arrested Speaks Out

By Surekha Ratnatunga
Published: Feb 24, 2009

Alexander Deschamps, Steinhardt ‘09, was the only NYU student arrested during the occupation of Kimmel last week. He was charged with unlawful assembly, inciting a riot, resisting arrest and obstruction of governmental administration after climbing a ‘No Parking’ sign outside of Kimmel late night Thursday, according to NY Daily News. . . .

Protesters to Lose Housing

By Jessica Roy
Published: February 20, 2009

After emerging breathlessly from her 3rd day spent holed up in Kimmel, TBNYU!’s Farah Khimji had much to say concerning her epic ordeal. Alongside New York City Councilman Barron, Khimji made claims of security guard brutality, including “3-4 big men throwing [her] to the ground.” She explained that all TBNYU students that remained until Friday (an estimated 10 students) were to be suspended and kicked out of NYU housing.

According to both Khimji and James Devitt of the NYU Public Affairs Office, the protesters will be escorted by security to collect their belongings, but they are not allowed back into any NYU buildings, including their dorms. The administration will be offering those without a place to go “alternative housing” for a period of time, but Devitt would not go into specifics with me. Some students accepted this proposal, while others declined. However, all students involved who were suspended have lost their housing. . . .

OPINION: The 7 Errors Take Back NYU Made in Their Occupation

One thing the French are very proud of is their universities. Not only are standards high, apart from yearly fees of about $300, higher education is free. It's also independent of commercial interests. Big business doesn't have any control over the curriculum like it has in many countries now through financing job training for business and commerce, and university research to suit itself and its goals: profits from new product development. In France you don't go to school to get a job. You get an education first.

The contrast couldn't be more extreme between the high costs other students pay or can't pay and so don't go, and the ready access to education in France. As fundamental, is the decline in education that France has largely avoided, with students more literate before they go to university, and more mature on the need to work once they get in. Anything threatening a solid French education is taken seriously. The new threat is government reform.

Universities are slipping everywhere with huge classes and an assembly line approach. Worse is the trend in many American and European institutions of transforming themselves into extremely expensive glorified Community Colleges, with Arts and Humanities especially relegated to the dustbin of we can't afford this and who needs this anyway. The proposed reforms aren't tackling these problems. French reform is about efficiency, accountability of lecturers-researchers and the value of their research or lack of it. It's also about giving universities more autonomy, a new direction toward a corporate merger with industry and commerce: a new source of financing. It's the current game plan in American Universities for better or worse. The reaction in France from academics and students has been an overwhelming no way!

General mobilizations of profs and students since February 5th against the new proposed law reforming universities, the LRU, have broken out from university campuses into the streets, paralyzing French higher education. From a public Princesse de Clèves read-in in Paris to make a point on the importance of a liberal education, to mass demonstrations against the LRU's barrage of reforms. President Sarkozy and Co are under attack. Some protesters have even accused the President not only of being out of touch with the French esprit but of using poor French to knock the University Establishment, so what does he know about education?

So little it seems that he's alienated 70-odd universities against his reforms, not just students but the lecturers-researchers who started the massive strikes throughout France since his colloquial jab in January at the cushy non-competitive university life enjoyed by unproductive profs and researchers who publish 30% to 50% less (in some disciplines) say than their British counterparts.

In the name of greater university autonomy and efficiency Sarkozy wants to give university presidents, presidential powers over academic staff and researchers and research itself. Staff performance will be reviewed every four years. Researchers who don't publish enough could be punished by having to teach more. Universities will be encouraged to find private financing for research and programs, pitting them against each other. Some 900 jobs cut. Already in place, one in two vacant positions due to retirement, not filled as the Sarkozy policy goes in the Civil Service.

Sarkozy's January get with it speech from the Elysée, in defense of the LRU reforms made public last October by his minister for higher education Valérie Pécresse, has sparked a May '68 reaction that has shutdown nearly all universities in France. Though many lecturers-researchers supporting the strikes are still drawing salaries while they strike, an element of farce not ignored by their non-striking colleagues, still most strikers claim they are trying to save the semester by carrying on with classes where they can, even in cafés. The strikes and marches go on in spite of French government backpedaling on the LRU. Entirely peaceful, good-humored protests that have simply closed down the universities without any use of force.

Only at the Sorbonne in Paris have tensions skyrocketed. The anti-reform movement took the offensive, finally clashing with the forces of order. Here's the direct link, if your reader doesn't support the window below, to a dramatic student video on the Sorbonne occupation from the Sorbonne's student newsmagazine, Contrepoint.

Blocage de la sorbonne 4 mars 2009
by contrepoint

Up until March 4th, the Sorbonne, France's oldest and largest university, managed to remain open until students and profs tried to occupy it twice. The next day they voted for a total strike and now the Sorbonne is under siege by security forces to keep militants out, hundreds of police and private security guards called in by the university administration. With classes disrupted anyway by anti-reform students and profs sneaking in, the lecture halls were finally locked.


Tensions throughout France were high the next day March 5th with planned demonstrations in many cities against La LRU - "mon cul!" and the Loi Pécresse - "mes fesses!" 24,000 to 43,000 marched in Paris countered by 9,000 police, and this just before Pécresse was to announce further concessions the next day.

Over three sessions of negotiations with 4 unions representing many of the 57,000 or so lecturers-researchers, Pécresse modified the LRU, meeting some objections, returning to the status quo on others, but hanging on to one important change:

a peer review of performance every 4 years.
Forcing researchers to teach more if their research performance wasn't good enough, was dropped. And evaluations would not come from the office of a university president as before, but from the CNU, the national university council.

Not good enough for the largest of the unions, Snesup-FSU, which hadn't even participated in the discussions with the government. Le Monde quoted a union representative as "noting" the new "inflections" but they were "far from being sufficient".
If the modified LRU goes ahead now this September it means no jobs cut through 2011.

The main bone of contention, performance evaluation goes ahead without any teeth, amounting to another academic exercise, embarrassing, time-consuming, stressful and perhaps unfair. How do you evaluate research and teaching and then measure it? And couldn't such a process become political?

Though some academics in France and Britain think a movement to accountability on

performance is a good idea. After all it's a well known fact that some researchers don't like teaching and some lecturers aren't good at teaching either. In the end it's the students who pay for these university indulgences. Though how do you fix abuses and poor performance without some penalties attached? How do you avoid alienating the majority of lecturers-researchers who do their best anyway, when you start poking into their careers, or fishing for personal problems they might have that affect their performance?


What it comes down to is an attack on university tenure. It's the same sort of protection awarded to judges in the courts of Europe. Once appointed they aren't accountable for their performance. It makes perfect sense to leave them to do their work, instead of having to defend it. The screening process should be enough to select the best people, and the laws of the land to keep them honest. The judges of the U.S. Supreme Court also have tenure and by and large tenure for university academics is longstanding practice and fundamental to academic freedom most everywhere.


It also means politics can't sink into university life, that profs aren't afraid of being fired for expressing opinions or being critical of anything in society. It's an essential right which shouldn't be compromised by governments and university administrations, even if there are some faults and abuses Sarkozy wants to fix.

In any case tenure is under attack in other ways since the 1960's when many profs supported the students over university policies and government failures. This is a hot issue which only simmers in the university community. If you haven't got tenure, complaining could get you fired.


Tenure used to be automatic after a number of years for an assistant professor. Now it's being withheld at some universities indefinitely on no other grounds except the additional costs of tenure, added salary and benefits and no other way of cutting staff during a downturn. This puts a considerable strain on the younger and financially strapped assistant profs still paying off enormous student loans who perhaps might feel obliged to earn their tenure in other ways, if they can't get it through their academic brilliance. It creates a corporate atmosphere of having to climb the ladder of success, where money, power and position become the objects of university life and politics the means.

The struggle between the French government and the universities goes on. There's no end in sight. A dozen academic and student unions and associations voted March 6th to continue the strikes.

When a million French took to the streets in January to voice their discontent with business and commerce and government inaction on the economic crisis, what could Sarkozy expect when he wanted to fix something French that wasn't broken? --NewsHammer 3/09/2009

French Sources:

Le Monde 7/03/2009, Compromis entre Valérie Pécresse et quatre syndicats sur le statut des enseignants-chercheurs

AFP 5/03/2009, Universités: des milliers de manifestants à Paris et en province

Contrepoint, coverage by students of the Sorbonne

Portail de veille sur le mouvement de l'Université, a message board on the LRU Protest

UniversitésEnLutte, a major association concerned with university issues and the LRU

Sauvonsl'Université, a major association concerned with university issues and the LRU

Elysée 01/22/2009, President Nicolas Sarkozy's speech on LRU reforms, video and transcript


English Sources: UniversityWorldNews

France: Academics strike over job status, 2/01/2009

France: Lecturers strike despite increased funding, 2/08/2009

France: Strikes spread despite mediator, 2/15/2009

France: End to academic strikes?, 3/01/2009

France: Lecturers vote to continue strike, 3/08/2009

Engineers caught by Police, five students arrested at Ironworkers Memorial Bridge

By Samantha Jung
Published: February 2nd, 2009

February 2, 2009—9:12pm: Five UBC Civil Engineering students were arrested early Monday morning when their faculty’s annual prank failed.

Vancouver police officers responded to a call at 4:15am from concerned citizens, who spotted the students attempting to hang the shell of a Volkswagon Beetle off the side of the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing. The students were caught red handed and arrested. Later that morning, the cables the engineers were attempting to use snapped, and the shell fell into the Burrard Inlet.

This the first time engineering students have been caught performing their annual prank, says Chris McCann, president of the Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS). Engineering pranks are annual traditions, performed to commemorate Engineering Week, which runs February 1 to 7 this year.

The first prank, or “STUdeNt projecT,” involving a Volkswagen beetle was in 1980, when students placed it on top of the Ladner Clock Tower. Past pranks include the theft of the 9 O’Clock Gun at Stanley Park in 1969 and of the Rose Bowl trophy from the University of Washington in 1992. Previous pranks involving the Volkswagen beetle hung from a bridge include the Lion’s Gate Bridge last year, and more famously, from the Golden Gate Bridge in 2001. --NewsHammer 2/04/2009

Continue reading the Feb 2, 2009 article from the University Of British Columbia's The Ubyssey.

A proposed talk by Colonel Geva Rapp, head of ground operations for the Israeli military in Gaza at the Union of Jewish Student’s London Student Centre yesterday was met by a large protest including student activists from University of London colleges

By Joe Rennison
Published: January 30th, 2009


An e-mail, circulated by the organisers, described Rapp as: “deputy commander of ground forces in Operation Cast Lead in Gaza this month. Geva is the Founder and Director of Panim el Panim - an organisation committed to unity in Israel and the teaching of Jewish values amongst young Israelis in preparation for their army service.”. . .

But a source told London Student: “No, he didn’t speak. As far as I know he wasn’t going to be able to make it from quite early in the evening and that this was not to do with the protests.”. . .

With the number of protesters increasing, police called for the south side of Euston Road to be blocked off. . . .

Jen Jones, Goldsmiths College SU Campaigns and Communications officer, said: “A group of Goldsmiths students tried to get inside the building and when this happened the police began not simply stopping them or standing in their way but attacking the group trying to enter and also the entire crowd behind. The police were incredibly violent, I had my hair pulled, my ribs bruised and another student next to me was kneed in the face.” --NewsHammer 2/02/2009

Continue reading the Jan 30, 2009 article from London University's London Student

More on Gaza from London Student (online edition)


Allegations of anti-semitism at LSE

By Joseph Tandy (Jan 23) The London School of Economics (LSE) campus has been the scene of a number of anti-semitic incidents, students have alleged, as tensions surrounding protests at the conflict in Gaza ran high. Continue reading


King's occupation now in progress

By Kat Lay (Jan 20) King’s students have occupied a lecture theatre in the Strand campus, calling for the university to revoke the honorary doctorate awarded to Shimon Peres last term. Continue reading


Gaza seen through Israel's eyes

By Rebecca Benhamou (Jan 20) In 2006, over a thousand people died in Lebanon - mostly civilians. The Gaza strip being the sixth most densely populated region on the planet, Israel was aware that there were going to be mass casualties if it invaded. Continue reading


More on Gaza from London Student (print edition) Volume 29 Issue 7 Jan 19, 2009


London's students divided over Israel-Palestine conflict

Students around UL demonstrate on both sides of the political divide

By Joe Rennison, News Editor Protests against the ongoing conflict in Gaza have spread throughout University of London colleges over the past few weeks. Continue reading


LSE students occupy Old Theatre

By William Wilkes A group of about forty LSE students are occupying the university's Old Lecture Theatre, demanding action from the school over the conflict in Gaza. Continue reading


Who's at fault in the Gaza conflict?

Israel is acting in self-defence against Hamas

By Aaron Kienwald There is no shadow of doubt that the one thing emerging from the conflict in Gaza is the terrible loss of innocent civilians on both sides. Continue reading


Palestine is the victim in a long series of wrongs

By Hilary Aked Last weekend, hordes of students joined up to 100,000 people marching in London to demand an end to Israel's barbaric onslought in Gaza, the latest in a long line of wrongs inflicted on Palestinians. Continue reading