A small minority of disruptors are ruining NYU campus life for the vast majority of students. At the protests our student body has come to expect around midterms and finals, we see sometimes a dozen or two students and professors milling about the first-floor atrium of Bobst Library or pacing outside on the sidewalk with loudspeakers and cardboard signs. At peak commotion, it is impossible to block the noise out without retreating from the library.
To keep in mind the insignificance of the number of protestors, NYU, at last count, had over 60,000 students. Yet this tiny portion of the student body triggered heightened and inconvenient security measures and turned what should be a vibrant campus into a tense, overpoliced environment — with absolutely nothing to show for it. After a year and a half of protests, the administration still hasn’t made any significant public strides in student demands, leaving the rest of us with stricter rules and under far more scrutiny for no real gain.
We’ve seen visitor access revoked from Bobst Library in the past couple of years — forget about studying with your friend who’s visiting for the weekend or giving your cousin a personal college tour. We’ve seen barricades go up in front of Gould Plaza, had to wait in a line to get our IDs checked to go to class and had to fumble through our bags for our keychains to be allowed to enter Schwartz Plaza. In 2024, Strawberry Festival, billed as NYU’s biggest celebration, was abruptly canceled. Because of the actions of few, the entire student body faced consequences.
Let me take the liberty of stating the obvious reason for the NYU administration’s attempt to crack down on disruptive and bothersome protests. The vast majority of the student body are young adults who are paying roughly $100,000 a year for the privilege of an NYU education and all the perks that come with it: a dorm in the city, access to over a dozen study abroad sites, an excellent international alumni network to help kickstart their career, bountiful grant funds and entrepreneurial accelerator programs. If I were an NYU administrator, I, too, would want to protect the university’s reputation from both donor outrage and media scrutiny.
As a result, with the trickle-down effect of an opaque bureaucracy, does the average student really know who any of these administrators are? These new rules have been foisted upon us, and I — the typical student who keeps their head down, does their work and wants to get a job to become a productive member of society — now suffer from the consequences of protestors. The administration has decided that if a few can’t behave responsibly, the rest of us will have to pay the price.
Students, of course, have the right to protest. But they are also granted the privilege of studying in a world-class institution, and they are refusing to take any advantage of the opportunities that come with attending NYU. The 110,000 students rejected from NYU last year would be crushed to know their spot went to someone who uses their privilege to disrupt others rather than advance themselves. If a student really feels an irresistible urge to stir up chaos, Washington Square Park is right next to campus: It’s a public park, has a rich history of protest to boot and is less disruptive to the inner-workings of on-campus buildings.
In the meantime, I suggest that these protestors go with their friends to the movies. Go on a date, maybe. Whatever they choose to do, they must quit protesting in Bobst Library, or outside of Gould Plaza or otherwise disrupt day-to-day campus productivity. If they’re intent on attempting to complete the Sisyphean task of trying to make NYU’s administration yield to their latest demand, they can do it somewhere off campus. I myself will be going to class.
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