Campactivism Hunger Strike, Day 2: In Which We Are Promised More New New Leftist Hungry Hippos By “Early Next Week”
It may seem like the Columbia Hunger Strikers could achieve just as much by challenging the administration to a Hungry Hungry Hippos tournament, but don't be fooled: The message is spreading. Four students plan to join the protest "early next week," and are currently weaning themselves off of heavy foods. At this rate, by Sunday as many as twelve students could be eating slightly less to get ready for Wednesday.
What's more, all this is happening even though the Strikers tragically lack a boombox. Fortunately, like political prisoners at Guantanamo, they've asked for one through their blog (though the prisoners at Guantanamo, for the record, don't actually have MacBooks and wireless). Unlike Cuba's tropical paradise, the day here began with a cold November rain, but the two Strikers I spoke with (nice people, actually) seemed to be in good spirits, possibly because they were headed indoors. The meeting with
administrators started at 12:30, but the administration can't just make this go away by recruiting Native American studies professors. The Strikers are clear: We may not ignore their four demand categories and attendant subsets of zillions of sub-demands! Also, someone apparently put up Christmas lights around what history will undoubtedly remember as the Hunger Strike Lawn.
After the jump: some juicy snippets from the Hunger Strike blog.
Who are we?
We're not a campus group. We identify with the past four, twelve, twenty and forty years of student struggle. We know these issues are not new, but we know these issues well. We experience these issues in our daily lives on campus. We're here for the future generations on this campus - students of color, queer students, allies. We are the students who searched for safe spaces after the visit of Ahmadinejad, the harassment of an Asian-American student by the NYPD, the scrawling of graffiti in SIPA, the hanging of a noose on a Teacher's College professor's door, the spray-painting of a swastikas and anti-Semitic caricatures. We're students who've heard too often the anti-democratic platitudes of the administration. We stand in solidarity with each other, and we stand in solidarity with other students who identify with these issues."
And people here feel psychically hurt by Columbia's indifference to our heartache, to our struggle, to our rumbling need for a better university. With luck, Columbia will see the starvation of our bodies as a bellwether of our growing desperation on this campus. It's a shame that Columbia was not more alarmed when we said our minds, hearts, and spirits were starving, too."
But they like Barnard!
Furthermore, we would like to point out that many Barnard students have similar concerns about the 9 Ways of Knowing and have been involved in changing the curriculum both at Columbia and Barnard. However, we are cautiously optimistic about the initiative shown by Barnard's faculty and administration to address our concerns. We hope that Columbia faculty and administration can look to and communicate with Barnard to think about the ways to best be accountable to student needs, as we all belong to a larger community."
"9 Ways of Knowing." Interesting.
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November 9th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
What a pile of crap. Can’t they make their mind up about what they want to protest about instead of protesting the general state of the world?
November 9th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
If there’s one thing we don’t take kindly to, it is the idea of being schooled by Barnard.
November 9th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Columbia on the whole is so morbid.
November 9th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
Actually I really can’t argue with that sentiment. We must be the only Ivy League in which students get into a school half the population of America (or more) would die to get the chance to go to, and then decide that they actually want to starve themselves to death because they hate their school (or maybe themselves) so much.
November 9th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
The whole point of college is using bursar to feed yourself, not starving yourself.
November 9th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
let’s take up a collection to fly them to burma. i’ve always wanted to know how the junta feels about the core curriculum.
November 10th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
@ Columbian:
I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic with the whole “half the population would die to get the chance to go to” comment.
True, many people would like that chance. But I doubt even half of America (or even half of America’s high school seniors) have even heard of Columbia.
(And I can say that with full knowledge that the same applies for University of Pennsylvania)
I think we ivy-leaguers would do well to remember that we
might be getting a kick-ass education but aren’t exactly the envy of all. Some, but not all. The rest of America has no idea where you are or that your University is better than Podunk Community College.
Maybe that would explain the inflated egos and superiority complexes that these places produce.
November 10th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
@ Columbian:
I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic with the whole “half the population would die to get the chance to go to” comment.
True, many people would like that chance. But I doubt even half of America (or even half of America’s high school seniors) have even heard of Columbia.
(And I can say that with full knowledge that the same applies for University of Pennsylvania)
I think we ivy-leaguers would do well to remember that we
might be getting a kick-ass education but aren’t exactly the envy of all. Some, but not all. The rest of America has no idea where you are or that your University is better than Podunk Community College.
Maybe that would explain the inflated egos and superiority complexes that these places produce.
November 11th, 2007 at 1:50 am
Yep. People only know of Harvard. Perhaps Yale. Princeton, definitely much less. People associate the Ivy League much more with HYP than the rest.
November 12th, 2007 at 7:32 am
What’s the joke – there are 4 schools that make the Ivy famous (H,Y,P, Your Alma Mater), and 4 that are famous for being in the Ivy League (the other 4)
November 12th, 2007 at 10:03 am
Hi all, thought this may be a discussion of interest. Shanta Devarajan, Chief Economist of the World Bank South Asia Region, comments on his blog (http://endpovertyinsouthasia.worldbank.org/) regarding an upcoming discussion session with students on the topic of poverty. Shanta encourages your comments and questions to be posted here:
http://endpovertyinsouthasia.worldbank.org/call-young-people-lets-end-poverty-south-asia-now
November 12th, 2007 at 10:03 am
Hi all, thought this may be a discussion of interest. Shanta Devarajan, Chief Economist of the World Bank South Asia Region, comments on his blog (http://endpovertyinsouthasia.worldbank.org/) regarding an upcoming discussion session with students on the topic of poverty. Shanta encourages your comments and questions to be posted here:
http://endpovertyinsouthasia.worldbank.org/call-young-people-lets-end-poverty-south-asia-now
November 12th, 2007 at 10:05 am
Hi all, thought this may be a discussion of interest. Shanta Devarajan, Chief Economist of the World Bank South Asia Region, comments on his blog (http://endpovertyinsouthasia.worldbank.org/) regarding an upcoming discussion session with students on the topic of poverty. Shanta encourages your comments and questions to be posted here:
http://endpovertyinsouthasia.worldbank.org/call-young-people-lets-end-poverty-south-asia-now