The CUNY board of trustees will be voting on possible tuition hikes today, and students are planning a big action in protest this afternoon. In response, CUNY is planning something of a pre-emptive strike to prevent the kind of disorder that happened last time; the school has already set up barricades and has cancelled all classes after 3 p.m. to reduce the number of students on campus. 
Yesterday, UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi attended a press conference to discuss the pepper spraying of a group of passive students. After a long delay, Katehi eventually left the building where the press conference was being held and was confronted by an unknown number of silent students sitting cross-legged--just like their peers who were pepper sprayed the day before. Watch the eerie protest above.
Columbia's marching band was banned (and subsequently un-banned) from performing at Saturday's football game against Brown for pointing out the simple fact that Columbia hasn't won a game all season. After every game, the band plays the school fight song "Roar, Lions, Roar." But after the team gave up 62 points to Cornell last Saturday, the band altered the lyrics, according to Bwog: 
Have you been following the saga of Patrick Witt, the most perfect college student in the United States? Witt, class of '12, is a gentleman athlete and scholar who has been faced with a difficult situation: do a Rhodes Scholarship or play quarterback in the annual Harvard-Yale game? 
Yale University
It's been a torturous period but the decision is made: Witt has decided in favor of the football game.
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In last week's cover story on student debt at NYU, we noted that part of the issue is that New York City is just a very expensive place to live.
wikipedia The room and board is too damn high -- especially at The New School.
Illustrating that point, a list released today of the most expensive college dorms for the 2011-2012 school year. Surprise! New York schools dominate the list, which tabulates the average cost of a two-room double with meal plan.
NYU actually comes in second on the list (up from 14th place last year), with an average cost of $15,181. Returning this year in the top slot is the New School, at $18,080.
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In the wake of the news that their free university might begin charging tuition, more than 100 Cooper Union students left class this afternoon and took up residence in the middle of Cooper Square. The event, which organizers are hesitant to call a "walkout," currently consists of students and professors "occupying" Cooper Square in front of the Foundation Building; it will continue until 6. 
Rebecca Nathanson
The scene reflected Cooper's diverse student population, which many students believe is itself a result of the lack of tuition: Students solved economics problems on a chalk board, sat cross-legged on the ground with sketchpads on their laps, and lounged on a bright red couch with their homework.
Cooper Union, traditionally free, is considering charging tuition in order to manage an increasingly strained financial situation. As we reported yesterday, students aren't pleased about the proposal. Today, they're staging a "Walk-Work-Act-Out" outside the Foundation Building in the middle of Cooper Square from 2 to 6 p.m. 
Since 1902, Cooper Union has been free. Students don't pay tuition. The "free as air and water" ethos has been integral to the school's culture, but it could be changing. Faced with mounting debt, the school is considering a shift from free to...being like every other university in the country and charging kids to go there. 
A new Gallup poll shows a majority of Americans want to get rid of the Electoral College. 62 percent of respondents say they would support a Constitutional amendment that would replace the president-making Rube Goldberg machine with a popular vote. For the first time since George W. Bush won the 2000 election because elderly people in Florida thought they were redeeming coupons for cantaloupe instead of voting, a majority of Republicans are in favor of scrapping the Electoral College as well. Full disclosure: This poll was conducted based on individuals' direct responses, not on a series of delegates elected to respond based on an agreement made at a convention held months prior.
Inspired by Occupy Wall Street, students from around New York will walk out of their classes and march down to City Hall this afternoon. Once at City Hall, the students will join the larger Community/Labor March to Wall Street, which already has almost 3,000 people attending on Facebook.
A few months ago, New York Students Rising, a "statewide network of students and campus-organizations dedicated to defending public higher education and empowering students in New York State," according to its website, started organizing around budget cuts in the CUNY and SUNY systems and began to plan for a fall protest. Now, thanks to a chance scheduling overlap with Occupy Wall Street, it has morphed into a solidarity march, and other universities are joining in as well.
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