Coverage of CUNY Grad Center General Assembly

Protesters from the City University of New York Graduate Center held a General Assembly meeting Friday evening at their 35th Street campus building, in light of Thursday’s Global Day of Action and the ongoing All-City Student Occupation at the New School’s Student Study Center. At the meeting, CUNY students discussed how to move forward with their own protest and debated their relationship with other city universities, and the New School in particular.

Students announced plans to hold a future GA meeting and teach-in at the occupied New School space, located at 90 Fifth Avenue, which has been occupied since Thursday afternoon with students from CUNY, NYU, the New School, Columbia, and Pratt. In addition, many encouraged students to visit the building, take part in its citywide GA meetings, and engage in discussions with students from other universities.

Still, many emphasized that, as students of the city’s only municipally funded university, they must not wear themselves thin in their efforts toward inter-collegiate networking. In light of recent state cuts to public education, members persuaded each other to remain open to new ideas, but not lose sight of individual fiscal struggles as other students’ stories are shared citywide.

“The New School is still a private university,” one student GA member said. “[CUNY] was made by the government for the city, and it provides a different set of students with different chances for learning.”

In addition, those at the meeting sought to establish an internal subcommittee to deal with press relations. Prior to the occupation at 90 Fifth Avenue, the CUNY GA collaborated with students outside of the organization for publicity.

“We can take control and give life to CUNY and the specific struggles we have,” said another member. “We need to make our own causes known.”