Students Disrupt CUNY Board of Trustees Meeting

The CUNY Board of Trustees held a public meeting at Baruch College on 24th Street to vote on certain items such as raising Tuition. What began as a modest protest of twenty five people in front of the campus, escalated into a disruption of the meeting, police force to remove the students, and a rally of up to fifty people in the lobby, held back by police, but witnessed by many curious students.

Unlike a similar protest at a previous public hearing with the Board of Trustees, this protest caught the attention of students that were unaware that tuition was on the verge of going up 5 to 7%. Of course these increments often don't seem like much to the average student, but to others they are yet another addition to their own stuggle, and the protesters made it very clear that tuition has already gone up 44% since 2003.

Adjunct professors and professors fought as well. With the movement came Hunter, Lehman, La Guardia, and other schools. Alumni attended as well.

Raucous at CUNY Budget Hearing

Students brought noise to a public hearing with the board of trustees of CUNY on CUNY's budget and tuition today. Many of the testifiers were faculty, many of who supported the proposed 5% tuition hike for the sake of the quality of the education. Testifiers could hardly take this stance without much vocal opposition, such as chanting during the hearing in the filled room of some seventy people.

Patrick Krug, chairperson of NYPIRG and student at BC, won over the support of the vocal crowd by opposing the tuition hike, but also fought to keep TAP and PELL (financial aid) as well, which he said are unlikely to remain secure.

A representative of the Internationalist Club went further to demand no tuition at all and an abolition of the Board of Trustees.

Chancellor Goldstein, who has been a very controversial figure amongst student activists in the Education Movement, left the hearing before all the students could be allowed in, which was towards the end of the hearing. The students pointed this out to the board as the meeting ended in a vocal attack from students at the board, which generally left without comment.