Items

• "Birth of a Movement"

  This Village Voice article covers the coalition effort that pulled off four simultaneous civil disobedience actions on April 25, 1995, stopping traffic at major bridges and tunnels to fight city budget cuts. Puerto Rican, black and Asian groups against police brutality; AIDS activists; CUNY students; and homeless people demanding housing united to build this historic protest.
• "Acorralados, La Policia Responde Con Violencia a Manifestacion Estudiantil"

  March 24, 1995 front page coverage in NYC Spanish daily newspaper of the CUNY Coalition protest at City Hall.
• Coalition Press, c. 1995

  A student activist newspaper produced by CUNY Coalition Against the Cuts - an organization that consisted of concerned students and faculty. The demands included no tuition hikes, no budget cuts and a restoration of funding for remedial programs such as SEEK. Much of the newspaper content was written by Rob Hollander, and most of the photos were taken by Ersellia Ferron.
• "Correcting Papers: The CUNY Protest You Didn't Hear About"

  Esther Kaplan and Alisa Solomon of The Village Voice critique other newspapers' reports of the March 23, 1995 CUNY Coalition protest: "A tale of 'angry and violent' students? Village Voice reporters witnessed a different story: police so out of control that even a captain tackled and choked a reporter."
• Ann Reynolds #1 Enemy of CUNY

  This black and white flier has a picture of Wynetka "Ann" Reynolds, chancellor of CUNY. Activists chose the chancellor as a target to draw attention to their struggle for access to CUNY and quality public education.
• Student Power Movement, No Cops

  This flier produced by the Student Power Movement urges students to resist the increased police presence in schools, on CUNY campuses, and in NYC communities.
• Spheric: "Birth of an Internation," Vol. X: #1, 1995

  This issue of Spheric, a Hunter College newspaper produced by activists from the CUNY Coalition, covers the massive March 23, 1995 protest at City Hall that led to the reduction of Governor Pataki's budget cuts and tuition hike that year. Includes stunning original photos, analysis by participants with opposing viewpoints, and popular education to encourage students to explore issues of racial and gender injustice.
• Shut The City Down flier

  Original flier used to publicize and invite CUNY and high school students to the March 23, 1995 rally at City Hall and the unpermitted march on Wall Street planned for after the rally. Included here is a separate document that was distributed among some activists: a photocopied map of the financial district that names the offices of banks, stock exchanges and other global financial centers.
• Pataki: Anti-Budget Cuts Sticker

  A two-color sticker with an image of Pataki with "devil" horns. The sticker explains that the estimated projected tax savings for a family earning $50,000/year would be $20, while programs for students, the elderly and the poor would be cut. Activists put this sticker on subway cars and public surfaces all over the city to build on the popular outrage against the budget cuts, which went beyond the cuts to CUNY and allowed for broad coalition work between many constituencies.
• "Students Leave Classes to Rally Against Budget"

  This front-page, above-the-fold New York Times coverage of the CUNY Coalition's March 23, 1995 protest reports that thousands of students walked out of class to protest the proposed state and city budget cuts to CUNY. The article relies mainly on perspectives from police leadership, Mayor Giuliani, and Governor Pataki on the protest, which leaves the reader with a sense that unruly and ungrateful students took the streets to wreak havoc for very little reason.
• "Time to Rethink the Tax Cuts"

  Spring 1995 New York Times editorial sympathetic to student protests against budget cuts and tuition hikes: "The current wave of protests represents the rebellion of reasonable minds. The reductions in health care, social services and education have hit the outer limits of conscience..."
• Newsday: "Enemies List?"

  In this pair of articles from the Long Island, NY based Newsday, writer Graham Rayman details the efforts of CUNY officials to track and document the activities of student activists during the budget protests of 1995. Rayman's first article considers both how CUNY compiled the information on their students and what they attempted to do with it. His second story focuses on the experiences of one CCNY student whose name appeared on one of CUNY’s “enemies lists,” as they were referred to by the university’s critics.
• Love and Rage: Special Anti-Cop Issue

  This special issue of Love and Rage, written and published by anarchist CUNY students active in the CUNY Coalition Against the Cuts, covers police repression of student activism at CUNY and police brutality in New York City neighborhoods. One article focuses on an incident at York College on Nov. 6, 1995, in which riot police were called in to stop a Black Solidarity Day event. The back page calls for a campaign against police repression at CUNY and details how to start a Copwatch program.
• "New York Budget Cuts Spark Militant Mass Movement"

  This May 1995 article in Love and Rage newspaper written by Christopher Day (Gunderson), a leader in the CUNY Coalition Against the Cuts, emphasizes the confrontational protest tactics that emerged from "rank-and-file" students, giving student activist leaders the choice of moving with this militancy or trying to subdue it.
• "Building a Movement"

  This is a photocopied Village Voice article that was used to promote a citywide demonstration on April 25, 1995 that united groups fighting for education, jobs, housing, health care and AIDS care. They also called for an end to police brutality and racial and homophobic violence, and timed it to coincide with the city's budget debates during a time of deep cuts. The article begins with a description of a scene from a CUNY Coalition protest at CCNY.
• Tips for Giving Class Presentations

  This flier was used by activists to prepare for giving short presentations—"class raps"—in classrooms to promote the March 23, 1995 demonstration at City Hall. It includes details about the planned tuition hike and cuts to financial aid, and the expected impact of the budget cuts on campuses.
• CUNY Coalition Against The Cuts - Statement of Purpose

  This statement of purpose was collectively written in an open meeting by participants in the CUNY Coalition Against the Cuts. It reflects the radical vision and tactics of the coalition.
• The Banner, March 30, 1995

  Student newspaper from College of Staten Island, with coverage of March 23, 1995 CUNY Coalition protest at City Hall.
• "Student Protest Turns Violent"

  This Daily News article covers the March 23, 1995 protest, focusing on the views of Mayor Giuliani and Governor Pataki, who blamed CUNY faculty and administration for the large turnout of students to the protest.
• The Campus, May 1, 1995

  Selections from the CCNY Campus newspaper, covering the student hunger strike against the budget cuts and tuition hike in April, 1995. CCNY President Yolanda Moses brought in the NYPD to arrest 47 students. Includes an interview with President Moses and student viewpoints.