Activists Begin Hunger Strike

Five students have set up tents on South Lawn, where they say they will remain, subsisting only on water, Gatorade, and tea, until Columbia responds to several demands.

Bryan Mercer, CC ’07, Emilie Rosenblatt, CC ’08, Aretha Choi, BC ’10, Victoria Ruiz, CC ’09, and Sam Barron, BC ’10, are members of a newly formed ad hoc coalition that released the demands last week. Among the litany are issues including alterations in the proposed Manhattanville expansion plan, more support for the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, and stronger administrative response to bias incidents. Over 70 students came together for a candlelight vigil last night on South Lawn held in support of the strikers.

“This was my meal, seeing people out tonight,” Choi said. “Day one is bearable. We’ll see what day two is like, but I’m here for the long haul, as long as I need to be.”

The coalition plans to begin circulating a petition in support of the demands and the strikers today.

Vice President for Arts and Sciences Nicholas Dirks, who met with student supporters of ethnic studies this morning, said that the University is already in the process of meeting several of the academic demands. As evidence, he pointed to the cluster hire of three senior faculty members within CSER—announced Tuesday in a move which he said was unrelated to the hunger strike—the recruiting of Native American studies professors, and the review of the Core by the Task Force on Undergraduate Education. “I think the actions we are taking in terms of ethnic studies are consistent with the spirit of the demands,” he said.

Dirks added that some of the demands’ stipulations, such as autonomous hiring power for CSER and an academic review of CSER over the summer, are not currently feasible. “We have a standard form of academic review which we’re going to have to follow. ... It wouldn’t be good for center if we gerry-rigged the review procedure.”

Students in the coalition claimed that news of the hunger strike prompted a speedier commitment to the hires which Dirks announced. “It’s a strange coincidence that leads me to believe that it was not a coincidence,” Desiree Carver-Thomas, CC ’09, said.

“Through our academic and student advisory systems, we are working on some of the issues in which these students have expressed concern, and we will continue to do so,” Columbia spokeswoman La-Verna Fountain wrote in a statement Wednesday. “We have also held numerous meetings with these student activists, as well as other students representing diverse views.”

“While hunger strikes have a long and important history as a form of political action, they are not without their dangers and may not always be a necessary strategy in a particular situation,” Barnard President Judith Shapiro stated in an e-mail sent out to students regarding diversity at the college and Columbia.

Student response to the strike has been divided, with some expressing solidarity with the strikers while others say that the protest is silly or that the protest will be ineffective.

Mark Lenger, SEAS ’09, called the strike “an asinine spectacle.” Unconvinced by the strikers’ assertions of a relationship between recent bias incidents and Columbia’s curriculum, Lenger called for the protesters to back up their claims with evidence.

“It’s too cold for a hunger strike,” Lenger added. “When Gandhi was doing hunger strikes, he was doing it in a balmy, sub-tropical area. ... Unless we can see your ribs sticking out, then it’s, really, in a PR perspective, sub-optimum.”

“It’s really amazing that the strikers ... are putting themselves on the line for the cause they believe in and I believe in,” Gabe Schubiner, CC ’10, said at the vigil. “I don’t think the hunger strike is too drastic. It’s a good way to show the University that students care about this.”

Samy Harmoush, CC ’10, said that while he believed the strikers’ concerns merited attention, he disagreed with their tactics. “Protests only unify the people who are protesting around the issue. The chances of a large population participation in this, over these issues, doesn’t seem realistic to me,” he said.

“I have every hope that they [the administration] will respond reasonably to reasonable demands,” said Gary Okirio, international and public affairs professor and founding director of CSER, at the vigil.

The Coalition for Future of Manhattanville, a group of business owners in West Harlem which support the University’s proposed expansion, released a statement criticizing the strike yesterday.

“The students’ call for the University to entirely drop its expansion plan is both unreasonable and out of step with the debate ... over Manhattanville’s future,” the statement said.

Laura Schreiber can be reached at laura.schreiber@columbiaspectator.com.