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How come no one else has thought of this? Or, at least, no
one else that I am aware of.
While university administrators around the country are empowering leftist radicals by
taking their puerile antics seriously, an administrator from Ohio State
University knew exactly what to do when a group of student radicals, armed with
a set of non-negotiable demands, occupied the space outside of the president’s
office.
The Daily Caller tells what happened:
Eventually, Ohio State senior vice president for
administration Jay Kasey appeared to inform the radicals that the time
had come to decamp from the taxpayer-funded building.
Protesters
asked what Kasey would happen if they chose to stay.
Our
police officers will physically pick you up and take you to a paddy wagon, and
take you to be arrested,” he explained.
“If you
are here at five o’clock, our current philosophy is we are going to take you
out — escort you out of the building and arrest you. You will be discharged
from school also.”
Kasey
then confirmed to a demonstrator’s query that “discharged” means expelled.
“I want
you to make good decisions. You’re smart kids,” he said.
“We
simply tell you the truth and you live with your actions.”
Arrested and expelled… it got their attention. They disbanded
their protest.
4 comments:
The administrator spent waaaaaay too much time explaining the consequences and fell into their trap of debating them on a few occasions.
The admin should be applauded, but their discomfort with being an adult in authority is clear and disappointing, as well as a demonstration of how that very pattern of dysauthority has led to this point.
This looks to be the protest in question, a rather diverse collection, I imagine it must be hard to agree what they're fighting for to present a united front.
http://thelantern.com/2016/04/student-stage-sit-in-for-university-transparency/
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Student organizations involved in the sit-in included Real Food OSU, United Students Against Sweatshops, Still We Rise, OSU Coalition for Black Lives and the Committee for Justice in Palestine. The organizations rallied behind the hashtag #ReclaimOSU on Twitter.
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Myself I do like authority figures who explain themselves clearly and allow students a chance to back down on their own. It's good to believe students strategically chose to avoid being expelled. But the battle isn't the war of course.
Being expelled from a public university means something different in 2016 (with $35k annual expenses), all on debt, compared to 1970s protestors who might be paying a few hundred dollars per quarter to attend.
http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg03_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=391
I'm not sure about their "non-negotiable demands", but I'd hope that some protestors have read Trump's book "The art of the deal" so they'd start with "non-negotiable demands" like Mexico paying for our wall, while that is more of a stance of bluster than a principle once you get people's attention.
The ideal I think, if you're making demands against someone who can just have you arrested is to make sure you have a core truth that is important enough that you're willing to pay the ultimate price, including arrest and expulsion as necessary, although maybe getting roughed up should also be a part of the humiliation that'll help teach the Cupcake Generation how to toughen up.
I had one friend who protested many times over her life once told me everyone should be arrested at least once in their lives for civil disobedience. I never disagreed with her, but also never followed - I must not be oppressed enough yet. She actually softened up a bit recently as she approaches retirement years, and health problems, and she now thinks her protest crowd was a bit "full of themselves".
Learning how to be critical without projecting malace on the opposition is a hard lesson, and not very emotionally satisfying one to the righteous mind.
Anyway, I'll say it's good college students can learn a few lessons of challenging authority, and consider what's really worth fighting for, and how tactics work or don't work. I can see sometimes an opposition that gives in too easily, doesn't help you learn how much you're willing to pay.
Carry on Cupcake generation!
OH, I found their demands. They're definitely not yet up to Trump standards of the deal, but they're still young. MULIPLE CHOICE TESTS?!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ckxkIJaydvmxhuJ22ZRT2A83_4xEeUawu8ShBsHSrOQ/edit
For too long, students have been silenced by OSU administration. Demands by Real Food OSU to create a just, transparent and democratic food system; demands by United Students Against Sweatshops to halt the Comprehensive Energy Management Plan which would further privatize our university; and demands by Committee for Justice in Palestine’s to divest from companies that are complicit in Israeli apartheid; have all been denied by OSU Administration.
We do not know what companies OSU invests in and we do not know how our tuition money is allocated. Requests to see this information have been denied. How is it that OSU refuses to tell us where our money is going? How are we to know that the companies we invest in aren’t complicit in violence and exploitation of others? Because we are refused access to this information, we are unable to confirm that our investments are ethical and we are unable to confirm that our budget is fairly distributed. Ohio State’s refusal to be completely transparent with our money is testament to their prioritization of profit over people.
We are occupying to show that we will not remain complacent while Ohio State continually represses its students, faculty, staff, and those affected by Ohio State’s investments. We are here because these voices deserve to be heard and these demands deserve to be met. We are here because we are fighting for justice and nothing less.
We will not leave this space until both of the below demands are met.
1.Budget & investments
a. We demand complete, comprehensive and detailed access to the Ohio State budget and investments immediately, as well as personnel to aid students in understanding this information.
b. Updates to investments and/or the budget must be publicly stated, publicly available, and provide qualified personnel to aid in understanding these changes and make the information fully accessible to all students, faculty, and staff.
2. We demand the administration of the Ohio State University be responsive to community calls for justice, transparency and democratic process by meeting at least one of the previously established campaign demands below.
a. OSU Divest: Divest from Caterpillar Inc., Hewlett Packard and G4S due to their involvement in well-documented human rights abuses in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and across the globe.
b. United Students Against Sweatshops: Immediately cease all negotiations of the Comprehensive Energy Management Project. The university must maintain in-house operation of its energy systems, ensure that all workers in the energy systems will continue to work for the university, and ensure student led sustainability measures are implemented.
c. Real Food OSU: Sign the Real Food Campus Commitment. Ensure the administration work with Real Food OSU through the entire implementation of the Real Food Campus Commitment, in place of, or as a means of attaining, the university sustainability goal of increased “production and purchase of locally and sustainably sourced food to 40% by 2025.”
My favorite part of Ohio State's stance: "... you live with your actions."
So refreshing. These snowflakes must've flooded the counseling center afterwards...
No justice, no peace.
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