Steven Thrasher

Class at Free University in Madison Sq

Somewhat ironically, it's the Occupy Wall Street May Day event that is the least controversial that is most reminiscent of the best of Zuccotti Park's heyday. The Free University of New York -- largely sponsored by CUNY students and faculty who chose to take their classes into Madison Square Park today, where they were free and open to the public -- recalled Zuccotti's finest hours, when freewheeling political debate and the exchange of ideas dominated a public space unseen in modern New York.

The big question this reporter had before arriving was, if Free University were to really affect the public life of Madison Square, would it be able to draw a bigger crowd than Shake Shack?

It actually did.

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Nick Pinto

CUNY students held a rally outside of Baruch College today as the board of trustees met to vote on proposed tuition hikes. The NYPD set up barricades and the school cancelled afternoon classes in anticipation of the protest, which attracted several hundred people including a large union contingent and a sprinkling of recognizable Occupy Wall Street protesters.

Despite the protesters' efforts, the CUNY board of trustees voted 15 to 1 to raise tuition. The hikes will raise the price of tuition by $300 annually, a 31 percent increase over four years.

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City University of New York students will be protesting tuition hikes this afternoon, and all classes at Baruch's Newman Vertical Campus have been cancelled. It will be déjà vu for Conor Tomás Reed, a CUNY PhD student and a graduate teaching fellow at Baruch College. He was one of five people arrested last Monday, November 21, when a large contingent of CUNY instructors and students were attempting to voice their opposition to planned tuition increases at the CUNY Board's meeting at Baruch. They were not allowed into the meeting, however, and were arrested in the lobby.

We spoke to Tomás Reed over Thanksgiving weekend about the planned tuition increases, CUNY security, being arrested, and the second attempt to protest tonight's board meeting.

Here's an edited transcript of our exchange.

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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.

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