The CUNY Crisis and the New World Order

Sponsored by City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Students Against the War, this flyer announced a symposium on “The CUNY Crisis and New World Order.” Well before the CUNY strikes of 1991, Graduate Center student organizations were already involved in discussions linking the threat of austerity measures against CUNY and the rise of neoliberalism. Speakers included Stanley Aronowitz, Camille Rodriguez, Bob Fitch, Paul Bartlet, Kate McCaffery, and Mark Torres.

The 1991 CUNY strikes were part of the larger story of austerity measures imposed on New York City and the community efforts to resist those measures. On April 16th, students mainly from the Graduate Center Anthropology PhD program occupied the Graduate Center in solidarity with a broader undergraduate mobilization across CUNY against the threat of steep tuition hikes, massive budget cuts, and faculty layoffs. What began as a one-day strike turned into a ten-day take-over in which students and faculty practiced forms of participatory democracy, discussed the root causes of the austerity problems being faced, and debated actions for change. Students often drew on CUNY’s history as the premier urban, public institution of higher education in the United States to argue that education was a right and that the proposed measures threatened working-class New Yorkers' ability to receive an education.

McCaffrey, Katherine

Graduate Students Against the War

March 26, 1991

English

CUNY Graduate Students Against the War

Copyrighted

McCaffrey, Katherine

Poster / Flier / Leaflet