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Take Back NYU, Bring a Receipt

By J. Peter Freire on 2.19.09 @ 5:45PM

Best liveblog line of the day:

"12:45 - Straight up ridick. There is a girl topless outside standing by the barricade. Lots of people. No press conference yet."

That comes directly from the astute, funny, and journalistically intrepid Charlie Eisenhood. He's been embedded with the social activists at NYU who barricaded themselves in an NYU cafeteria with a list of demands and a mean calisthenics regimen. (Part one here, part two here.) There's even a link with topless coeds baring it all for the cause, holding signs saying "Exposure Til Disclosure." Dedication, I tell you.

Colin Moynihan has also been blogging the experience, for the slightly more starched shirt New York Times.

The extent to which those present are concerned with food makes me think this is the Scooby Doo of all campus protests. The concerns the students bring up are classic -- tuition is too high, they want vegan food, Palestinians are being repressed in Gaza -- but I'm most interested in their demand for more transparency in NYU administration. Frankly, I don't care what your political view -- I support the protest on the basis of having the school be more accountable to the people who give it money.

Besides. It's NYU. How likely is it that the school would directly support to the Islamic University in Gaza, as per student demands?

UPDATE: A comprehensive look of the list of demands offered by level-headed class of '08 bloggers here. This sort of reminds me of the People's Front of Judea skit in The Life of Brian.