February 9, 2007
Fugitives' Sign Resurrected on Campus Center
It's a new semester at City College and it'll be a new round of fighting over a campus center's "Guillermo Morales/Assata Shakur" sign. The Daily News reports that City Councilman Charles Barron re-placed the controversial sign for the City College NY community center and vows to re-place it if it's taken down again:
"We are here to say to the City University that we have a right to self-determination, that we have a right to free speech, that we have a right to freedom of expression," Barron said. "We are saying that you can't determine who our heroines and heroes are going to be."Morales and Shakur, both CCNY
City College had agreed to open the student center in 1990, but when CCNY student Sergey Kadinsky sent a letter to the Daily News this past December asking why the sign was up, a tempest was born. City College at first said they were keeping the sign.... then explained a few days later - after much outrage from victims' families and others - that the sign would be coming down. Why? Because the school never officially approved the sign back in 1990! Clearly, the other unspoken reason is that it's hard to justify state funds for a community center named after fugitives.
City College students and alumni have sued the school for violating First Amendment rights by taking down the sign.
Update: City College PR director Ellis Simon comments:
The sign erected by Mr. Barron at City College was removed last night (February 7). This is in keeping with long-standing policy that naming of any facility at the College requires the authorization of the administration and University (CUNY). This clearly was not the case in this instance.So, does this mean Barron is headed back there? And do students have an unlimited supply of signs?Neither Ms. Shakur nor Mr. Morales are alumni of City College. Ms. Shakur attended CCNY for two years but did not graduate. We have not been able to locate records indicating that Mr. Morales ever attended CCNY.
Photograph of the Morales/Shakur Center from Sergey Kadinsky
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I'm confused, whose first amendment rights are being violated? Isn't it the school's sign to take down? A preference isn't a form of speech.
so this brouhaha has been going on for 17 years?
and what nation was Morales trying to liberate by killing people in a bar/restaurant?
Also, when I was in the fifth grade, we were doing a group project and the other kids in my group decided we should call ourselves "The Jeffrey Dahmer Society." I got out-voted, and that's what our group went to the teacher with. Fortunately she turned it down and made us come up with a new name... for some crazy reason she didn't think it was a good idea to idolize murderers.
I wonder if Charles Barron would be just as supportive of the First Admendment Rights of a bunch of Neo-Nazis "honoring" Adolf Hilter.
"I wonder if Charles Barron would be just as supportive of the First Admendment Rights of a bunch of Neo-Nazis "honoring" Adolf Hilter."
...
That's a good point. Councilman Charles Barron seems to think Mr. Morales and Ms. Shakur are Heroes, despite the outright terrorist activities of Mr. Morales...
I swear, common sense has become the most uncommon thing.
The usual gothamist regulars have their panties in a bunch.
Why don't you guys have a meet up and take the sign down?
Because ten bucks says that the civil, peaceful, warriors of truth blah blah blah who want the sign kept up would use violence in a nano second against anyone who dared to remove it. These people worship cop killers and bomb makers!
"Why don't you guys have a meet up and take the sign down?"
Because the school is the one with the right to take the sign down, not that the students respect that right (or the rights of others to, you know, live).
"Why don't you guys have a meet up and take the sign down?"
Because the school is the one with the right to take the sign down, not that the students respect that right (or the rights of others to, you know, live).
The sign erected by Mr. Barron at City College was removed last night (February 7). This is in keeping with long-standing policy that naming of any facility at the College requires the authorization of the administration and University (CUNY). This clearly was not the case in this instance.
Neither Ms. Shakur nor Mr. Morales are alumni of City College. Ms. Shakur attended CCNY for two years but did not graduate. We have not been able to locate records indicating that Mr. Morales ever attended CCNY.
Ellis Simon
Director of Public Relations
The City College of New York
What do you call a City College student with a triple-digit IQ score?
Einstein.
Seriously, is there another college or university in America whose academic standing has fallen as far as City College's? Two generations ago it was the academic equivalent of the Ivies.
I'd like to open a community center in my name at Medgar Evers College. I'd also like to fund a memorial scholarship in my name for "Segregation and Peace Studies" at that same, fine institution.
So who's with me? Barron? You know you 'n me are more alike than you think.
"Photograph of the Morales/Shakur Center from Sergey Kadinsky"
This brings up several questions"
Who's bff is Sergey Kandinsky, why did he/she feel the need to manufacture this story by complaining in the first place, what field is he/she in and how does he/she plan to exploit this for his/her own gain, why is journalism as we know it the most bogus shit ever? Such crap I want to pay someone to kill me.
"most bogus shit ever?"
Um, Maybe what you typed...
Come on City College...
W...T...F...
The radical left has become so fascist that the irony of it isn't even ironic anymore. If not for blind hatred, they'd have no hatred at all.
The sign hangs over the doors of a student club Students For Educational Rights. If it's a club, shouldn't SER be allowed to call their room whatever they want? Afterall, it's student fees that are funding club, not city or state funds.