Photo Credit: Shay Horse

On Sunday, October 20, at around 11:00 a.m., NYPD officers and CUNY security marched unannounced into the North Academic Center at CUNY City College and shut down the Morales-Shakur Community Center, a popular student-run study center and local cultural hub. Files, documents, and personal property inside the building were also seized. The surprise action by the administration sparked an outcry from students, who gathered outside the building after police officers forced them. One student, US Army Veteran David Suker, was arrested.

The administration had given no prior warning for the abrupt shutdown. Earlier that day, the CCNY Library Staff emailed all students stating that the Academic Center, which houses a study center, a library, and computer labs in addition to the Morales-Shakur Center, would be open 24 hours day because of midterms week. Four hours later, police officers would be forcibly removing students without warning or explanation.

Signs and posted materials for the Center were taken down and replaced with a sign reading “Careers and Professional Development Institute”. The entrance which once featured the striking image of a fist holding a pencil was also painted over with a drab white.

This was not the first time that the MSCC has been attacked by CCNY administrators — in 2006, officials ordered that the center’s name be stripped, former Chancellor Matthew Goldstein deemed the namesake space ”unauthorized and inappropriate” because of the association with members of the Black Liberation Army and Puerto Rican independence group known as the F.A.L.N., both who are currently living in exile in Cuba.

“They went in and cleared everything out. They said that they’re going to ‘examine’ everything then put it in storage,” said Alyssia Osorio, Director of the Morales-Shakur Center. “Twenty years’ worth of documents pertaining to student and community resistance.”

Osorio is not the only CUNY student organizer who believes that the CCNY administration’s reasoning for closing the MSCC is “deceptive and dishonest”. Even student government leaders — who have been notably critical of more radical student organizing — have come out in support of Morales-Shakur Center and what it stands for as a vital part of CUNY’s history of student activism.

Although the students were aware that the Professional Development Institute was undergoing talks to expand to a new location, even members of student government who were participating in the discussions about possible spaces were surprised. “It was shocking, because we were on a committee TO decide on this issue,” said Mel Niere, President of the City College Student Government. “When we last met in Spring 2013, there was never any indication from City College or administration that the Professional Development Institute was going to displace the Shakur Center.”

The Morales-Shakur Community Center is a popular student and local hub that hosts community events and student group meetings as well as study hours. Named after activists Guillermo Morales and Assata Shakur, who were City College alumni active in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1970s, the space has maintained autonomous student control since 1989, when it was won over by students after massive protests that started at City College reverberated throughout the CUNY in response to tuition hikes, resulting in student occupations at 13 of the 20 colleges in the university system.

Carolina Martinez, a junior studying Political Science and International Studies, said, “as a member of student government, I can tell you we did everything in our power to maintain constant communication with administration on what the plan was for the Career and Professional Development Center, however the Morales-Shakur Center was never mentioned at any point in time. It was a shock to us that this was their plan.”

The CUNY City College Facebook Page published a note stating: “The City College Careers and Professional Development Institute has been expanded to provide additional services to students seeking assistance in transitioning from college to the workplace”, but made no reference to the displacement of the existing community center. Students posted several outraged comments to City College’s Facebook page:

It has been over twenty years since the last massive student strike at the largest university system in the United States, and City University of New York students have been criticized by the media as being docile and unwilling to fight to resist budget cuts and tuition hikes. But in the past few years, the CUNY student movement has been building a base and augmenting its strength and militancy, from heated confrontations at the Board of Trustees meetings in 2011, to students “bird-dogging” General David Petreaus outside of his class at CUNY’s Macaulay Honors College throughout this semester.

Student activists and groups from around the city were quick to respond, expressing their outrage and solidarity with students at City College. A call to rally the day after the closing drew a huge crowd of students from all across the CUNY system. Students for Educational Rights issued a press release calling on to allies to “hold CUNY accountable for its stifling of student voices and disempowerment of community organizing.” Statements of solidarity also came pouring in from the seven different CUNY student government bodies: City College Undergraduate Student Government, Graduate Student Council, Brooklyn College, Baruch College, City Tech, and  Manhattan Community College.

While it remains unclear the exact reasoning of yesterday’s removal of the center from the hands of students and community, CCNY’s social team has been presistently pushing the byline of their planned changes for the student space.

CUNY Chancellor William Kelly and City College President Lisa S. Coico have yet to release statements explaining their position on the removal of students from the MSCC. As of Monday evening, they could not be reached at their offices.

Students plan to continue fighting to keep the center open and thriving as it always was, calling on sister campuses across CUNY for support and solidarity to unite in a common fight for all students. “If student space can be taken away from us at City College, then that can happen at other campuses. We see that as a threat to student space throughout the CUNY. It’s not a just a local issue, it’s a CUNY-wide issue”. said Mel Niere, president of City College’s Student Government.

Osorio, director of the embattled Morales-Shakur Center, was resolute in her outlook of the immediate future: “We’re not going to stop fighting. We’re going to get our center back. No ‘if’s, ‘and’s or ‘but’s.”

Follow Shawn (@ShawnCarrie) and Isabelle (@IzzyNastasia) on Twitter.