PSC Calls for Investigation of CUNY Response to Non-Violent Student Protest

Printer-friendly version

11/22/2011

Last night, peaceful protesters—CUNY students speaking out against unfair tuition hikes and the privatization of public higher education—were shoved by campus peace officers with batons and reported being hit as the CUNY peace officers forced them out of the lobby of Baruch College’s Vertical Campus. Reports indicate that 15 students were arrested (Daily News, New York Times, YouTube). The baton push began shortly after dozens of students sat down to conduct a “people’s hearing” in the lobby.

All this happened while dozens of CUNY students, faculty and staff testified at a CUNY Board of Trustees hearing taking place on the 14th floor at Baruch. At the hearing, testimony focused on three issues: adjunct health insurance, tuition hikes and revisions of the CUNY Bylaws that would undermine faculty and staff rights. A number of students were also forcibly removed from the hearing after raising their collective voices with several Occupy Wall Street style “mic checks."

Hearing the news of the arrest and rough treatment of CUNY students exercising their First Amendment rights, PSC President Barbara Bowen made the following statement:

“The City University has a proud history of student activism and protest. Some of its most important advances have occurred because of collective action by students, faculty and staff. We have made it clear to the university that violent response to non-violent students protest is not acceptable. Students, faculty and staff must be allowed to exercise their First Amendment rights of free speech and free assembly. We call on the university to conduct a full investigation of the police conduct last night. The results of the investigation should be immediately made public."

------------------------

[Some of the best investigative reporting on the "police action" at Baruch on Monday, 11/21 was done by a student newspaper, Hunter College Envoy. The Envoy published its account on Tuesday, November 22. According to the Envoy, at least a dozen CUNY "Peace officers [from seven colleges] were working under the direction of Gabriel Eszterhas, vice president for administration and finance at Baruch, and John Mckee, director of public safety at City College." The story continues: "At least five NYPD officers were also involved in the confrontation, two of which were ranked sergeant or higher." The Envoy goes on to report that "a statement released by the Chancellor Matthew Goldstein one day later [11/22] admitted that NYPD were outside the Baruch lobby, but contradicted Envoy photographs regarding their use inside the building." Click here for the Envoy article.]