24 Comments
It’s 40 degrees outside and raining, so the strikers have abandoned their swamp and set up shop in Butler (hopefully avoiding a repeat of last night’s e-mail, timestamped 3:10 AM, “wondering if any folks are awake to bring us blankets and lamps”). After being in negotiations with top adminstrative brass Friday afternoon and gearing up for a march and rally today, at least Butler’s fetid air is less energy-sapping.
Meanwhile, the whole affair has shown up in a smattering of blogs and local publications to date. The Times and Bloomberg has the straight story, the Huffington Post cheerleads, while Columbia fave Michelle Malkin thinks they’re a bunch of moonbats. Gothamist aggregates, Ivygate makes dumb jokes, NYU briefs.
And if anyone’s counting, the strikers’ petition has 549 signatures, from anyone in the world who feels like filling out a form.
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24 Comments
@:) :) the sleeping bag looks more like a pipe to me
@respect i went and talked to brian mercer who is striking, and he’s a thoughtful guy. i disagree with their proposals, but thinks these reforms are crucial, so he’s acting on it; i respect that.
@what is more petty? fasting in 35 degree South Lawn in tents or spending 8 seconds wasting brain cells on an anonymous comment from your dorm, butler, or whatever other crack in the wall you inhabit.
@Uh. … so, someone else is paying $40K. The difference doesn’t really matter, the expectations of “go to class” are the same.
@When oh when will someone drop dead already? Watching attention whores commit suicide is almost as satisfying as killing hookers.
@i bet you 5 or 6 kluge scholarships got wasted here that could have gone to disadvantaged kids who actually wanted to be productive
@Not so much burrito But a giant sex-toy for men. They call them “fleshlights.” I bet you the male hunger strikers don’t even have energy for this kind of thing.
@Yeah but In this case, unless someone died last time, I think we’d have to amend it to “first as farce, then as…super-farce”?
@Hmmmmm.... Is it just me or does that bedroll look like a giant savory, mouth-watering burrito?
@oh please come ON people. Please do us all a favor and go back to class. Your parents aren’t shelling out $40K a year for you to sleep in Butler
@umm for one thing, not everyone here is shelling out 40k a year. some people are on financial aid. i admit, bwog commenters typically display a certain kind of unthinking arrogance that seems associated with the children of wealth, so it’s easy to forget. but you shouldn’t.
@anonymous If you’re on financial aid, you really should shut the fuck up about changing the core curriculum of an institution with the grace to allow you to attend…
@hah 549 signers… that’s actually less than the College Republicans membership. Hahaha.
@Huh... There was a hunger-strike back in ’96?
@The Times does NOT have the straight story. They article makes the strikers out to be martyrs for a worthy cause, by focusing almost entirely on the (somewhat reasonable) Ethnic Studies demand. The reason much of campus doesn’t like the hunger strike is because the Manhattanville/Core demands are polarizing and not as clear-cut. I hate to say it, but I wonder whether the Times is guilty of some occasionally blatant liberal bias.
@1996! Either you or bwog is off by about eleven years. Check the publication date. The Times article is from the 1996 Ethnic Studies-specific hunger strike.
@wirc Yep. You fail at Google. The HuffPo blog and Malkin, of course have absolutely no critical thinking in them.
@Staff By golly, you’re right. We plead bleary-eyed blogging.
@Old Adage “Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it.”
In this case, I would say, even more appropriate.
@wow I read the article without noticing the date, only that the students’ names seemed unfamiliar.
Fantastic. I second the platitude about history repeating itself! And add one more: “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.”
@I think I woke up one of the strikers in the library. hopefully she was a striker. on further consideration, she did look famished.
ALSO akhil batheja turn your fucking television down.
@hahaha Does the no food rule extend to outside drinks? No gatorade for you, strikers!
@steal this tent they can’t handle the cold? this has become beyond pathetic. isn’t there a rule against taking up university housing in butler? it’s a 24-hour study space. not a dorm. and i sincerely hope that my tuition wasn’t going toward the electricy they needed for fucking christmas lights. that said, by morning, hopefully someone else will have taken over their little spot on the lawn. this is my school too.
at least there’s no (outside) food allowed in butler.
@Joe exactly, it’s your school too but for some reason you dont have the courage to go sleep outside or challenge the strikers in person.