Students arrested as protest escalates

Students United for a Free CUNY clashed with CUNY's public safety officers inside the Vertical Campus on Monday, Nov. 21, making Baruch the latest college campus to see a protest result in arrests.

The protests coincided with the City University Board of Trustees public hearing to discuss whether to raise tuition fees as much as $300 in each of the next four years.

The protesters' other demands included, but were not limited to, free tuition, adjunct health care, funding for the arts, as well as support of state laws protecting undocumented students.

Russel Weis Ewin, a student at City College, expressed his dissatisfaction with the university's leadership.

"Chancellor Goldstein, the Board of Trustees, Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Cuomo have an agenda for CUNY which is exactly the opposite of what will make it a better school, they want to make it more exclusive by raising SAT scores and tuition as a way to keep others out" said Ewin.

He said he had a personal reason to support the protest.

"After high school I worked for a while and I only got to college last semester but the education I'm receiving is incredible. It makes me more convinced than ever that our society would be a much better place if everyone was able to get a college education."

He said that he would like to see CUNY go back to being a free institution like it was until the 1970s.

According to the press release from Students for a Free CUNY, the protest was initially designed to be a peaceful one however, it escalated into a brawl when the crowd attempted to enter the college. In total, 15 protesters were arrested as tensions boiled over.

The protest organized by members of the Students United for a Free CUNY, initially commencing at 3 p.m. in Madison Square Park, where the group rallied before making their way over to Baruch College.

Students attending classes at the Vertical Campus could hear the chanting from inside their classrooms and immediately filtered outside to see what was going on.

As the rally continued growing in size and magnitude at an alarming rate the crowd made their way over to the 25th street entrance of the Vertical Campus and attempted to enter the school.

This signaled the beginning of what would eventually transpire for the rest of the night.

As the crowd filtered inside, their chanting rose in volume as the boisterous group occupied the front entrance to the multi-purpose room.

In an attempt to stop the protesters from entering the school, the police barricaded the turnstile entrance, lining up side by side with batons in hand.

The crowd wanted to be allowed into the Board of Trustees' public hearing, which was being held on the 14th floor, but they were not allowed in because according to a statement released by President Wallerstein on Tuesday, the hearing was filled to capacity.

Campus officials told the protesters to leave the lobby and go outside or to other rooms, where seats and a live video feed of the hearing had been provided.

Eventually, after listening to the dissenters for about 20 minutes, the police began to take action. They moved forward in droves with batons held at chest height moving in a uniformed and seemingly practiced routined aimed at pushing the students out.

According to a statement made by Chancellor Goldstein, the arrested were brought up on charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct.

Kevin Tighe, the vice president of Bottom Up Baruch, was right in the middle of it all when the protesters and police clashed.

"I know a lot of people got beat up really badly and I think the police handled the situation horribly. When a protester is yelling "this is a peaceful protest" and those batons start flying it is clear who the agitator is," he said.

As the brawls continued, the Vertical Campus was eerily akin to a gladiator-type match with students peering down and eventually throwing papers and other stationary at the police in response to the violence.

After a while the police cleared the area, pushing the rest of the protestors outside.

Denise Romero, a prominent member of Students United for a Free CUNY, expressed concern over the way things progressed.  

"We made our way into the building because we had signed up to speak at the public hearing," she said.

 After initially planning a peaceful protest, Romero lamented the response from the CUNY Police.

"We were immediately denied access and that's when things got violent. Some were injured." Romero denies that the protesters were there to riot.

"This is something we definitely did not plan. We did not come with the intentions of having a violent protest," said Romero.

Unfazed by the police's actions, the protesters ventured over to the side entrance to the multipurpose room where another brief scuffle took place.