Some coalition groups say occupation was too radical

While Take Back NYU members were occupying the third floor of the Kimmel Center, Stern senior Alexander Hu was in his apartment doing homework.

The problem?

Hu is the president of Amnesty International, one of the largest of the TBNYU coalition's 20 member clubs. And he didn't know the occupation was happening.

'I was left out of the loop entirely, and I know a lot of other coalition groups on campus experienced similar things,' he said.

The Kimmel occupation has left some leaders of progressive groups on campus with mixed feelings. They agree with the protest's goals and believe it improved awareness of the issues. But it lacked focus, they said, and some worry the protesters' methods may have backfired by hurting the images of those issues.

One group, the Asian Cultural Union, left the coalition Saturday night, according to a TBNYU spokeswoman. And member group Students for Education and Animal Liberation will likely consider severing its ties with the coalition at its next meeting, co-president Ashleigh Lewis said.

'They started alienating people a while ago,' the CAS sophomore said. 'They were being too radical, I think, for a lot of people's tastes. What you need to be successful is public support, and I think they lost that.'

Even prior to last week's protest, TBNYU's strategy has been controversial.

'They've always been about budget disclosure, and that's something we support,' said CAS junior Madeline Kane, co-president of NYU's chapter of Oxfam America. 'But the divisive issue has been the tactics they use.'

Despite being approached a number of times by TBNYU, Oxfam's members ultimately decided against joining the coalition.

Amnesty's Hu believes there should have been a broader discussion involving all TBNYU's coalition members before the occupation took place. He believes the solution to the coalition's problems may be the very thing the group says it stands for: more democracy.

'I think there needs to be more democracy within TBNYU,' Hu said. 'There needs to be more of a coalition rather than some group of people saying, 'Hey, that sounds cool. Let's do it.' '

The occupiers' broad list of demands 'mdash; including annual scholarships for Palestinian students and public access to Bobst Library 'mdash; was indicative of such a lack of consultation, group leaders said.

'I don't really know why they put the Bobst thing in there,' said sophomore Joe Weston, Oxfam's publicity chair. 'That was probably the stupidest thing they could have done.'

He added: 'I support TBNYU and I support what they did, but they did not go about it in the right way.'

Kane, who noted that many Oxfam members are TBNYU supporters, believes there is more to be gained from dialogue with the university administration. She points to her group's success in bringing fair trade coffee to campus.

Even with his criticism, Weston thinks the occupation will aid TBNYU causes like budget disclosure.

'In a weird way, it has helped because more people are talking about it,' he said.

CAS junior Julie Kilger, president of NYU's chapter of the National Organization for Women and one of the students who left Kimmel before Friday's 1 a.m. deadline, echoed Weston's view.

'Sure, none of the demands were met, but this is a process,' she said. 'It's kept the dialogue going, kept people talking about it, and ultimately, it will serve to better the university system.'

But Lewis believes TBNYU squandered an opportunity to get out its message by taking on issues that do not interest most of the NYU community.

'I feel like all they actually accomplished was getting themselves suspended,' said Lewis, who knows at least one of the 18 suspended students.

She added: 'I am concerned that any protest Oxfam would take on in the future would be written off as some hippie nonsense the same way the TBNYU occupation was.'

But Hu believes the occupation forced the administration to finally take TBNYU seriously.

'The letters TBNYU has sent, the attempts at communication at John Sexton's town hall meetings 'mdash; those were ineffective at getting the administration to think about what's going on,' he said. 'In terms of getting NYU to react and try to establish a line of communication, this was the most successful action by far.'

Joe Yerardi is a member of the investigative team. E-mail him at jyerardi@nyunews.com.