Hey, there! Log in / Register
Does Harvard really need a Checkpoint Charlie?
By adamg on Mon, 11/14/2011 - 7:28am
The Crimson considers the university's decision to turn Harvard Yard into a gated community:
"In the past, Harvard has not acted this way towards much larger security risks ... Last year there was an armed robbery in front of Thayer and the Yard wasn't shut down then," said Taras B. Dreszer '14, who has been active in Occupy Harvard since the tent city was first built last week.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Considering
Considering the fact that most of the trouble surrounding OccupyHarvard has been its own students assaulting the protestors, maybe the checkpoint should be running in reverse.
Consider Harvard Yard is
Consider Harvard Yard is private property, the protestors are lucky they haven't been booted off campus for trespassing, and directed to nearby Cambridge Common.
How can Harvard students
Be trespassing on Harvard land that had no restrictions?
It's private but it's normally open
except on Commencement day, during the Head of the Charles boat race, and (I think) the Harvard-Yale game when it's played at home.
Irritating
The decision to block off Harvard Yard meant I couldn't attend an "open-to-the-public" conference at the school this weekend, including a couple of film screenings. There's at least one other event I was hoping to attend that I can't because of the blockade.
That's really weird.
Yesterday evening, when I approached the Harvard Yard entrance to cut through the Yard to the Square, a female security guard said to me, rather condescendingly "You need an I. D. in order to get in, ma'am." I decided to go around the long way to the square. On the way back from my errand, I saw this one young, somewhat heavy-set guy actually scale the wall surrounding Harvard Yard, after the gates to the Yard were closed, and go down into the Yard! Crazy!
More Security Theater
There are elements in campus security that have wanted to lock everything and everybody down for years and years.
9/11 became a grand excuse to turn the medical area campus into a fortress beyond reason, and most employees felt that the extra "security" was ridiculous and unnecessary. There were even hallways that were locked down and the people who worked on them weren't alerted before it was done and couldn't get any answers to why it was done.
Does it surprise me that "any little reason" for closing Harvard Yard has been used to gin up the overtime and self-importance? no.
BTW, you aren't tresspassing if you live in the dorms there or go to school there ...
What I can't figure out is why they didn't Occupy Harvard Business School - and MIT Sloan School, too.
The plebs
Need to beaten back if they ever rise up. Their ideas are dangerous weapons.
History is littered with examples. Mobs are useful to the political and financial elite, until they're not. At which point people are brought in to bust skulls.
If the students are so upset
If the students are so upset that their scholarships come from 'socially irresponsible' actions of the university, there are really just three options:
-Give the money back and pay for it yourself, so some other family who is struggling or could not afford Harvard nor the high minded principles can benefit
-Withdraw from the school
-Wait until Harvard expells you at winter break
Come on kids, whether Harvard invests the money in WalMart, Whole Foods, or takes it from an Alumni who works for Philip Morris (tobacco bad!) you're supposed to be the future and help make things better, right? If you're poor and smart and going to Harvard, I applaud you - if you're some white girl who thinks they need to make a scene to help secure a job as an acitiist lawyer when you graduate, drop out and go to Suffolk - there's a professor there who'll support you.
Either way, get the hell out of my city.
Or do a very, very American thing:
Organize.
Funny you left that one out.
So, let me get this straight.
So, let me get this straight. Harvard gives you free money, which you accepted, but now have reservations about. So, instead of taking your money elsewhere, or rejecting the scholarship, you want them to continue to give you free money, but only as long as they invest in things that you agree with. This should be their primary concern, instead of making investments that they feel will grow, so that they might continue to give away money in the future.
Also, voting with your wallet will always be more effective than bitching.
Voting with your wallet.
Can you point me to one example where voting with your wallet did anything?
Difficulty: Not 1950's ma & pop store America.
Boycotts are hilarious funny because of how ineffective they ultimately are. It's the stuff of PETA and the real crazies on both sides of the ideological spectrum.
Anyways, you also don't seem to understand how Universities work. Apparently, by your definition, you're only buying a piece of paper. Maybe a boycott would work if that was the case, but as with everything in the world, it's a little more complicated.