The hunger strike at Columbia has gone on for a week now. For those of you unfamiliar with the story, the jist of it is that five Columbia students decided not to eat until the following demands are met:
• a more systematic response to hate crimes from Public Safety
• a more collaborative expansion effort from the administration
• a revision of the Core that encourages critical engagement with issues of racism and colonialism
• more resources and support for the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race (CSER), the Institute for Research in African-American Studies (IRAAS), and the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA).
Proving once again that they can’t make a point without being assholes, the College Republicans set up a table of donuts across from the strikers. Their president Chris Kulawik does have a point though, when he says, “A hunger strike is not a legitimate form of debate. It shelves debate.”
True, but when you’re trying to get people on your side, a hunger strike is a much more effective tactic than taunting starving college students. And really, when you think about it a hunger strike is a fantastic strategy. These five people have already gotten the University to switch its cultural requirement classes from lectures to seminars at a cost of $50 million.
It’s an example of a few really squeaky wheels getting some of the oil they demanded. Perhaps, instead of seeing who can go the longest only drinking Gatorade, Columbia should have had the students vote on whether or not they should switch.
Judging by the memberships of the facebook groups Support the Hunger Strikers (1426) and We Do NOT Support the Hunger Strikers (666), it looks like the strikers would win. But something tells me that if you were to offer that $50 million on a competing measure to put on a Fall Out Boy / Justin Timberlake level concert at Columbia every year, it might sway some of the independent voters. Perhaps Penn students should start starving themselves until SPEC agrees to quit bringing in musical acts named “Ben.”
Tags: Columbia hunger strike
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