22 Feb, 2009
Take Back NYU’s occupation of Kimmel: Communities of division
Posted by: Michael In: City| Extracurriculars| General
For those of you that read my blog that don’t go to NYU, this week was crazy. Members of the radical student group Take Back NYU barricaded themselves in the Kimmel student center over three days, while hundreds rallied outside. There were multiple injuries, and 18 students are now facing suspension or expulsion. (shameless plug: see the Washington Square News for more)
Now, I’m not going to rant off any of my opinions about the protesters or their demands. What I will do is say something strange I noticed about NYU as a whole over the past few days:
Given, NYU doesn’t have a strong community - that’s just a result of us being a large school in a large city. In some ways, the large student body separates us more by allowing us to form large rival factions of differing opinions. The Kimmel Occupation has done just that - those that support the protesters and those that think they are whining idiots have been at each others’ throats like never before.
And yet the past few days was the only time all year that I’ve felt a part of a larger NYU community. It’s interesting how something that has divided the student body so much has in turn created this sense of comradery as a result of that very division. True, it’s comradery in one group’s hatred of another, and the resulting community is not one that encompasses the entirety of NYU - but that’s pretty representative of any community that forms. You can’t have a community of thousands and thousands of people without being shallow on some level.
And this is why I’ve always thought that huge colleges with huge communities that are meant to revolve around the University itself are insincere and utterly repulsive. Don’t get me wrong - I’d love for it to be possible to have thousands of people that put others before them, even when those others are virtually polor opposites in terms of beliefs and personalities. But for the moment, that’s not the world we live in. And any attempt to convince us of the contrary is a load of crap.
NYU may not have a University-wide community - but at least it’s honest.
Last month I was walking along Broadway, and came across a section of the sidewalk filled with bootleg DVDs for sale, all spread out on rugs. What striked me as slightly odd was the selection: there were about 20 or so DVDs on one particular rug, all of them pornographic. Oh, and one copy of 




