Today marks the 54th anniversary of the Weinstein Hall sit-in. After NYU canceled LGBTQ+ university events until homosexuality was deemed “morally acceptable” by a panel of ministers and psychologists, activists staged the five-day protest that ended with the university calling Tactical Patrol Force officers with helmets and clubs to forcefully remove and arrest students at the scene. NYU’s administration later targeted specific students who organized the sit-in by cross-referencing them with the Student Homophile League’s member list and threatened them with expulsion. The university’s reaction to its LGBTQ+ advocates reflected the worst of the ways our country treated the community in the 1970s.
Over 50 years later and, no doubt a result of the work of countless gay activists, both society and NYU’s attitudes towards its LGBTQ+ students and faculty have certainly changed from the homophobic dogmatism of the past. Rather than hosting conferences for priests and doctors to determine whether homosexuality is a moral evil like the old days, NYU now hosts LGBTQ+ centered spaces on campus, including clubs, events and even its own NYU pride march. The university that had once called the police on its students has now embraced the same values those students had risked their degrees to uphold.
A web page dedicated to key moments in NYU LGBTQ+ history highlights how the university is proud to be associated with the historical period, proud to have been at the center of this crucial turning point. The page chooses these key moments quite selectively, mentioning NYUs role in helping with the AIDS epidemic and the role of the sit-ins — but nothing to acknowledge or reconcile with the aggressive and immoral manner in which NYU arrested and threatened students fighting to be accepted. NYU’s decision to speak about these incidents of activism up in a sanitized fashion makes it seem like the university had always openly embraced its LGBTQ+ community, contrary to the true recollection of events.
It’s only been a few months since the NYU administration called police on protesters during the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, leading to the less-than-gentle arrest of over a hundred people, including students and faculty.
NYU’s administration has done anything but echo students’ passion for activism today, as proven by its forceful response to protests on campus during the past year, not dissimilar to the Weinstein Hall sit-in break up. In combination with the new Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment policy citing “code words, like Zionist” for potentially violating student conduct, this proves that NYU is not concerned with promoting voices calling for radical change, but instead silencing them.
Oftentimes, gaps between progressively-minded students and public relations-minded administrators tend to be pretty apparent, as seen during the civil rights and gay liberation movements. We see such gaps at NYU, a college that despite housing a literal Changemaker Center, has failed to meaningfully come to the table and deal with students who actually want to make change. Many students and faculty are even drawn to the university because of its claims of fostering and encouraging social change and activism, but upon joining, they are met with the reality that this is not always the case.
The university seems to fall into a cycle of denouncing and disparaging student activists, until what once was seen as morally unacceptable or radical can become part of the norm. Perhaps a few decades from now, the university will do the same in regards to protests of the war in Gaza. The only way to break this cycle is for NYU to be truthful and upfront about its past, and be corrective and thoughtful as they deal with future student protests.
Whether it be in the ‘70s or the present, students have overwhelmingly been ahead of the curve with regards to social justice, while universities — try as they might to seem progressive — tend to exist in opposition to any truly radical progression. NYU can’t maintain these types of anti-activist behaviors over half a century, avoid talking about the error of its ways and still try to appeal to social justice-minded students with a straight face.
WSN’s Opinion section strives to publish ideas worth discussing. The views presented in the Opinion section are solely the views of the writer.
Contact Muhammad Siddiqui at [email protected].
