1996

Hierarchies of power, ethnic studies, Manhattanville, Core reform—the demands of the hunger strikers read as a political manifesto. One could spend pages rebutting each incongruent, pigheaded and impractical demand, but there is a larger, more pressing issue at hand—it is a question of tactics.

Student strikers sleeping in tents outside Butler. Rallies at the Sundial. Demands debated in articles and conversations. Conservatives joking about pizza and barbecues. In short, it’s 1996 all over again. Except that it isn’t.