BOT meeting continues amidst student protest

On Monday Nov. 21 amidst all of the hoopla surrounding the protests, and consequent arrests inside the Vertical Campus, 14 floors above the CUNY Board of Trustees (BOT) held a public hearing to discuss the proposed tuition hikes, which have angered students throughout CUNY.

The meeting lasted for nearly four hours and 65 out of the 95 people who were signed up to speak showed up.

The BOT consists of 17 members. The governor of New York appoints 10 of the members, five are appointed by the mayor of New York city, in addition there is a faculty representative, Sandi Cooper and a student representative, Kafui Kouakou, a graduate student at Brooklyn College.

The public hearing was held in order for the BOT to hear the many qualms of the public in regards to the rising tuition fees. The proposed "Rational Tuition Plus Plan" would involve an increase of  $300 every semester for the next five semesters.

The meeting room was filled to capacity and people who were turned away were asked to move into other rooms equipped with a live video stream of the hearing. This was the same reason why the protesters in the lobby were turned away.

Fernanda Pardo, a student at John Jay, said she was able to follow the events that were transpiring outside by peeking out of an open window. She said she could hear students chanting "shame, shame" and "the whole world is watching."

With many of the attendees amped up after the protests downstairs, the hearings took a nasty turn.

Several professors and professionals who spoke in favor of the tuition increase were booed and subsequently had curses levied at them from the attending students. This resulted in some members of the crowd being escorted out by security for their transgressions.

Members of the B.O.T. were attacked relentlessly by attending-protestors, who came prepared with speeches that often exceeded the three minutes they had been afforded.

Many speakers were students who argued that a tuition hike would make it impossible for them to attend school.

One student got agitated and yelled: "Students can't afford these tuition hikes. I refuse to be up to my a** in debt.  Students are willing to fight and if you raise tuition you will have a bigger fight on your hands than you can handle."

Adjunct professors also came forward about their personal medical history and the need for health care.

At times, the criticisms of the BOT bordered on contentious topics including race as well as class warfare.

Pardo was one of the members of Students United who shouted at the members of the board: "I basically pointed out that most of the CUNY schools are full of minorities. It's a shame that so many of the Board members were minorities and many of them have probably seen or experienced oppression but they've forgotten their race. I called them race traitors." Pardo also claimed that the proposed tuition plan is a way of gentrifying the public school system in NYC. "A lot of students in CUNY live below the poverty line so if you raise tuition by 300 dollars that's devastating."

The criticisms were as harsh as they were incessant. People who advocated the tuition increase were booed heavily and subjected to insults. The protestors labeled the trustees morally deprived and lamented the hearings as a whole.

One shouted out, "The Structure of this meeting is not democratic, this is not for the trustees, its for the public," to the delight of the attending audience.

The trustees fought back a bit, claiming that most of these grievances where unfounded and made on an unsubstantial basis. The speakers who were in favor of the tuition hikes argued that they were necessary to increase the revenue stream to the university.

Valerie Lancaster Beal, a BOT member, spoke out against the personal attacks aimed at her and her peers on the Board.  "I will no longer sit here and listen to you all attack me, you do not know me."

Dominique Nisperos who works and teaches at Brooklyn College, was one of the last speakers at the hearing: "I did get to say what I wanted to say but I felt like it came so late that it fell on deaf ears."

She was not impressed by how the B.O.T. handled the hearing, "There was the gentleman in the corner who looked so disinterested, I understand he is their lawyer but it seems like they aren't listening. There were many people who spoke but there were so many people who wanted to share their stories but weren't able to because they were stopped by the police."

Nisperos said she was able to attend the meeting because she got in contact with her union president for the Professional Staff Congress. She also said that several of her friends were arrested.