Occupy CUNY

Item set

Title

Occupy CUNY

Description

The "Occupy CUNY" collection chronicles a major period of organizing and mobilizing by CUNY Graduate Center (GC) students during and after Occupy Wall Street (OWS). The collection includes primary materials such as flyers, posters, curriculum, video and websites. In collaboration with undergraduates, tenured and adjunct faculty, staff, and community organizations, GC students boomeranged the call to occupy back into the university to both reclaim and transform it.

Students, faculty and staff confronted rising tuition costs, education debt, campus surveillance, and police violence, as they related to a larger movement against social inequalities that swept New York City, the United States, and much of the world. In the process, they created guerrilla arts, graphic design, protest preparedness checklists, street journalism, and “pop-up” educational events and theater performances.

Several students from the Graduate Center and other CUNY colleges helped develop OWS infrastructure over the summer before the occupation of Zuccotti Park on September 17, 2011. Soon after, they circulated public writings based on past struggles on how to fortify the occupation’s grounds and bridge anti-capitalist critiques with demands for gender, race, and sexual liberation. Throughout fall 2011, because GC students teach at many CUNY colleges, they were strategically positioned to organize weekly “General Assemblies” (GAs), and then to fan out across the CUNY system to share plans, perspectives, and resources in their classrooms and departments, as well as around the city in neighborhood assemblies and organizations.

Curated by Conor Tomás Reed, items in the “Occupy CUNY” collection document pivotal OWS-inspired events that occurred on and off CUNY campuses. An info-graphic and curriculum was designed and circulated for the October 15, 2011, “Occupy CUNY Teach-In” at Washington Square Park. In the wake of the NYPD eviction of protesters in Zuccotti Park, CUNY students and faculty mobilized for the November 2011 Week of Action, including the November 17 city-wide Student Strike. Collection items also cover the November 21, 2011, CUNY Board of Trustees public hearing at Baruch College when CUNY security and NYPD attacked a crowd that was peacefully trying to enter to testify against a 5-year annual tuition increase. Occupy CUNY News was launched to document the aftermath of this two-pronged attack by NYC and CUNY elites upon the Zuccotti Park occupation and campus dissent for educational access.

In Spring 2012, after the CUNY administration hired the “risk solutions” firm Kroll, Inc. to write a report on the November 2011 Baruch incident, GC students launched a campaign to discredit the biased report and expose the new collusion between CUNY and private security. Collection items display Fake OKCupid (online dating) pages that were produced to mock CUNY Chancellor Goldstein and a Kroll monster with wedding invitations, and even a wedding ceremony on May 1, 2012. The Kroll report’s legitimacy was threatened well before it appeared in January 2013. May 1 was also the inaugural date for the Free University of New York City, a free radical outdoor educational event that featured over forty workshops and two thousand participants, and which has since created over two-dozen similar events around the city.

Graduate Center and CUNY organizing has flowed into many tributaries of struggle since then both on and off campuses: Black Lives Matter and police/prison abolition, women’s and LGBTQ liberation campaigns, natural disaster recovery and environmental justice, opposing the militarization of CUNY, expanding ethnic studies and radical pedagogies, demanding full free tuition, adjunct teachers’ pay equity, and beyond. This flashpoint of the CUNY movement deserves to be studied, remixed, and enacted anew. Learn more at this supplementary website, which has further materials about the collection and period.

Date

2016 (Circa)

Contributor

Reed, Conor Tomas

Language

English

Items

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  • Protest Checklist
    Occupy CUNY created this checklist for an “awesome protest.” Tips included writing the National Lawyer’s Guild number on your arm, twitter update information and advice for affinity groups. Contact information for the Occupy CUNY support team was also provided. An offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement, Occupy CUNY organized around fighting the militarization of CUNY campuses, and the privatization of education. CUNY Students rallied against the Board of Trustees to oppose pay scale increases for top administrators, and tuition hikes. In addition, students collectively organized pop-up universities, direct action teach-ins, hacking spaces and general assemblies at the Graduate Center and in public spaces. Among the other planned actions, students produced political theater exposing Chancellor Goldstein and the security company, Kroll. Occupy CUNY also stood in solidarity with Cooper Union students against the implementation of tuition and Quebec’s student movement.
  • Occupy CUNY Curriculum Session Samples
    Curriculum made for CUNY classrooms in conjunction with the "Occupy the Octopi" poster (made for an October 21, 2011, Occupy CUNY teach-in at Washington Square Park) and a flyer for the November 17, 2011, OWS Student Strike, both created by the Graduate Center General Assembly.
  • "Policing Public Education? Hell No!" Stencil
    Stencil made during November 2011 CUNY struggles against tuition increases and NYPD/CUNY security assaults on campus dissent. CUNY hired Kroll, Inc , a security advising company to conduct a biased investigatory report about a November 21, 2011 incident at Baruch College. On this date, NYPD and CUNY security physically attacked and arrested students, faculty, staff, and community members who were attempting to peacefully enter a Board of Trustees public hearing on a 5-year tuition increase.
  • A Spring Romance Blossoms for CUNY's Chancellor?
    Satirical leaflets made by Occupy CUNY about Chancellor Matthew Goldstein's relationship to Kroll, Inc., a security advising company that CUNY hired to conduct a biased investigatory report about a November 21, 2011 incident at Baruch College. On this date, NYPD and CUNY security physically attacked and arrested students, faculty, staff, and community members who were attempting to peacefully enter a Board of Trustees public hearing on a 5-year tuition increase. On May 8, 2012, after the John Jay College Chairman and head of Kroll, Inc., Jules Kroll, donated $2 million to the college, the "Lynn and Jules Kroll Atrium" was unveiled. On January 4, 2013, Kroll, Inc. released a report absolving CUNY of any wrongdoing in the Baruch College incident. An offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement, Occupy CUNY organized around fighting the militarization of CUNY campuses, and the privatization of education. CUNY students collectively organized pop-up universities, direct action teach-ins, hacking spaces and general assemblies at the Graduate Center and in public spaces. Among the other planned actions, students produced political theater exposing Chancellor Goldstein and the security company, Kroll. Occupy CUNY also stood in solidarity with Cooper Union students against the implementation of tuition and Quebec’s student movement.
  • Student Week of Action in Defense of Education
    Occupy CUNY circulated this informational leaflet for a “Student Week of Actions” (November 14-21, 2011) in defense of education, and in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. The schedule of Graduate Center Events included a student strike, a speak out, and a GC general assembly. Further actions such as a CUNY-wide general assembly and a walk out in protest of tuition hikes were also announced. An offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement, Occupy CUNY organized around fighting the militarization of CUNY campuses, and the privatization of education. CUNY Students rallied against the Board of Trustees to oppose pay scale increases for top administrators, and tuition hikes. In addition, students collectively organized pop-up universities, direct action teach-ins, hacking spaces and general assemblies at the Graduate Center and in public spaces. Among the other planned actions, students produced political theater exposing Chancellor Goldstein and the security company, Kroll. Occupy CUNY also stood in solidarity with Cooper Union students against the implementation of tuition and Quebec’s student movement.
  • Why Occupy Wall Street?/ ¿Por qué debemos ocupar Wall Street?
    Citing Henry Blodget's article in "Business Insider" this bilingual informational leaflet states why one should join the 99% and join the Occupy Wall Street actions. High corporate profits, extreme income disparity and low social mobility are some of the reasons provided.
  • Occupy Every Block: Day of Action
    Organized by Occupy Wall Street this informational leaflet is a call for a Day of Action on November 17, 2011. This decentralized action was held throughout all 5 boroughs of New York City, with gatherings at 16 central subway hubs to listen to stories from the front lines of economic injustice.
  • Free University Week - 1st Annual May Day Course Descriptions
    This pamphlet features workshops, teach-ins and events planned for the 1st annual Free University of New York City on May 1, 2012, in Madison Square Park, Manhattan, NY. In addition to talks by David Harvey, David Graeber, Francis Fox Piven, Chris Hedges, a wide array of classes ranging from Occupydrama to OccupyAlgebra were offered. Alternative banking, intersectionality of oppressions, and open source hardware and software were some of the diverse themes, explored by participants. In addition to time slots the schedule offers brief descriptions of each class. The Free University of New York City is an experiment in radical education building on the historic tradition of movement freedom schools. The project was born out of the conviction that the current system of higher education is as unequal as it is unsustainable, while vast sources of knowledge across communities are all-too-hidden and undervalued. First conceived as a form of educational strike in the run up to May Day 2012, the Free University has since organized numerous days of free crowd-sourced education in community centers, museums, parks, public spaces, and subway stations in New York City.
  • Free University Week - September 18 Information Packet
    "Free Education is a Right" This workshops pamphlet for "Free University Week," September 18-22, 2012, in Madison Square Park, Manhattan, NY announced a variety of topics ranging from Radical Potentiality: Recreating Academic Practices in the Humanities to a workshop on Yoga. The Free University of New York City is an experiment in radical education building on the historic tradition of movement freedom schools. The project was born out of the conviction that the current system of higher education is as unequal as it is unsustainable, while vast sources of knowledge across communities are all-too-hidden and undervalued. First conceived as a form of educational strike in the run up to May Day 2012, the Free University has since organized numerous days of free crowd-sourced education in community centers, museums, parks, public spaces, and subway stations in New York City.
  • "Subtleties of Resistance" Free University at Kara Walker's A Subtlety or the Marvelous Sugar Baby
    Promotional leaflet for July 5, 2014, Free University-NYC event "Subtleties of Resistance" Free University at Kara Walker's exhibition, A Subtlety or the Marvelous Sugar Baby, at the Domino Sugar Factory, Brooklyn, NY. These site-specific workshops positioned at the intersection of education, art and activism covered diverse themes ranging from gentrification to women of color's participation in social, economic, and cultural life. The Free University of New York City is an experiment in radical education building on the historic tradition of movement freedom schools. The project was born out of the conviction that the current system of higher education is as unequal as it is unsustainable, while vast sources of knowledge across communities are all-too-hidden and undervalued. First conceived as a form of educational strike in the run up to May Day 2012, the Free University has since organized numerous days of free crowd-sourced education in community centers, museums, parks, public spaces, and subway stations in New York City.
  • Free University Presents Remaking Justice beyond Police, Courts, and Prisons
    This workshops pamphlet was created for a May 25, 2014, Free University of New York City event "Remaking Justice beyond Police, Courts, and Prisons" in Battery Park, NY. Workshops were held outdoors at Battery Park and included presentations on organizing legal defense strategies, website support, Copwatch training as well as deconstructing mass incarceration from multiple perspectives. The Free University of New York City is an experiment in radical education building on the historic tradition of movement freedom schools. The project was born out of the conviction that the current system of higher education is as unequal as it is unsustainable, while vast sources of knowledge across communities are all-too-hidden and undervalued. First conceived as a form of educational strike in the run up to May Day 2012, the Free University has since organized numerous days of free crowd-sourced education in community centers, museums, parks, public spaces, and subway stations in New York City.
  • No Cops, No Hikes — CUNY Wide Convergence
    This flier for a May 10, 2012 protest at Hunter College, invited students to participate in a rally against both an increasing police presence on CUNY campuses and increasing tuition costs. In effort to rally supporters, the two groups responsible for organizing the event, New York Students Rising and Students United for a Free CUNY, cite various instances of perceived injustices having taken place at CUNY colleges in the preceding months.
  • CUNY Dollar - Occupy Wall Street
    An anonymous critique of the CUNY Chancellor and Board of Trustees circulated during the Occupy Wall Street movement.
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