You know, there were times at Yale when i felt hijacked. When my freshman year roomate started referring to university employees by racial slurs within hours after imet him, and peed on my floor and on new haven, i felt hijacked. When Yale "lost" the diversity grievance, the 77 undergrad complaints against Levin, and any semblance of commitment to a better New Haven, i felt hijacked. When Yale-backed Rev. K. called up black voters in the hill and told them Dolores Colon and the puerto ricans were trying to take the ward away from them, i felt hijacked. When Alek Felstiner and thomas Frampton were threatened with arrest for leafletting on parents' weekend, i felt hijacked. When John Stepp was fired, and when Brian Tunney came back to the table time and time again with no new proposals, i felt hijacked. When Yale put 10,000 in medical debt and put liens on a thousand houses, i felt hijacked. When they funded the sudanese civil war and privatization schemes in Argentina and Indonesia and colorado and california I felt Hijacked. When Levin told us we weren't representative students and told Thomas he was close minded only months after trying to have him arrested, i felt hijacked. When Dick Brodhead emailed 5500 undergrads to tell us we should feel free to cross picket lines, i felt hijacked. When yale subcontracted the Anylan Center and the art gallery and LC and Swing Space and Sprague Hall (took me forever to remember the name of that building) I felt hijacked. When Yale did nothing after Kat Lo's room was broken into with 2x4s by angry jingoistic fratboys until we stormed woodbridge, and ultimately let off the perpetrators with a slap on the wrist and then tried to suspend Thomas Frampton for no reason, i felt hijacked. When my school paid an anti-union law firm millions and used fear and intimidation tatctics and repression against its own students to deny them a voice in their work, you can fucking bet i feld like i'd been hijacked. When they said they were "better than democracy" i felt hijacked. When they gave Zaccagnino the alumni of the year award two months after the med debts troy broke, i felt hijacked. When mike morand led a picket line of rich people, managers, YCC assholes, Dan Kruger, and subcontracted workers who had no idea where they were going or why against the board of aldermen as they voted to call on Yale to be an equal partner, i felt hijacked. When i watched hospital cops arrest four workers for trying to leaflet about a strike vote to their co-workers, i felt hijacked. And when Wiliam Sledge attacked a student in the YDN for doing his job well and in good faith, i felt hijacked. When rich assholes put up those racist anti-union flyers during the March strike, i would have felt hijacked but i was too busy kicking Yale's ass. All those times we stood outside in the rain or snow while they celebrated themselves inside with llamas (free the fucking llamas!) or Skip Gates, i felt hijacked. When Claudia Merson told me "you're not helping" as i was dragged around by a chain on my neck by a slick-haired, suited, cigar puffing Yale as i wore disheveled clothing and held a big sign that said "New Haven," i felt hijacked. When Rick levin did nothing after 675+ arrests, i felt hijacked. When they locked two hundred people out of the town meeting on grad student unionization, i felt hijacked. When the building manager at 55 whitney tried to arrest us for trying to bring sandwiches and pepsis to hungry retirees, i felt hijacked. When they spent $80,000 to demonize a local preacher and alumnus vying for a seat at the table, i felt hijacked.
But when i was working with the federation? With the UOC? No, I was never hijacked.
I was proud.
And i feel extraordinarily privileged to have been able to participate in that movement.
I was going to conclude this with a simple "go fuck yourself," but the hours that have passed since i first read the herald peice have blunted the ferocity of my rage if not its depth. Nevertheless, i am still incensed by its arrogance and presumptiveness. But if we beat Yale, we can beat the Francis Mentons and Jamie Kirchicks of the world too, so Mountain, get the fuck out of my way.
Rant concluded, for now.
Super Special Contest: Can You Think of Times When Yale Hijacked Your Life? Talk about it in the comments section! Remember to leave your name if you want!
Well I won't top what I think is the most comprehensive list of Yale-related madness I've ever seen. But I'll add a few moments of my own hijacking.
ReplyDeleteI feel hijacked every day I walk into my classroom and in doing so serve as a cog in the destruction of my field and the devastation of my profession. I feel hijacked everytime I hear Tom Conroy say the university doesn't think it's in my best interest to join a union. I felt hijacked just now when Channel 8 has Conroy claiming that "Yale doesn't discriminate against anyone." I feel hijacked whenever I see Susan Hockfield and remember her sneering that everyone should wait until they have tenure to have children like she did. I felt hijacked, and mortified, when Jon Butler told me to go get a wife to support myself. I felt hijacked when Judith Hackman told me to pay less attention to my class instead of trying to get the pay scale fixed. I felt hijacked when Peter Salovey told me the ideal graduate teacher pay system would be to give each student $50,000 up front to invest at the beginning of grad school. I felt hijacked when my own advisor said no one was willing to do the work of "calibrating the different levels of teaching" to come up with a fair pay system. I felt hijacked when President Levin called one of the most storied literature departments in the world "one of Yale's finest boutique departments." And every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I feel hijacked when I earn $2.22 for teaching Intermediate German to 12 students who each pay $38,000 to be there.
-Evan
yay super special contest! in addition to many of the aforementioned instances, i felt hijacked when myra smith told me that improving yale's financial aid policies would amount to creating a "problem of class." and when andy hamilton told me that "yale students don't have a say in who teaches them." and when nina glickson said that she wanted to assure us that yale was doing "everything we can" to hire and retain a diverse faculty. and (slightly literally hijacked) when the building was locked down when we tried to deliver a letter to david swensen. and when my first evening as a frosh involved my master telling my entire frosh class not to get dining hall rebates because we had some kind of "responsibility to one another and the university" that we would otherwise be breaching.
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