The Fora: A Higher Education Community

QuoteThe Council on American-Islamic Relations shared on X a video showing Fisk coming up behind Afaneh, grabbing the phone in her hand from which she was reading the speech, putting her arm around Afaneh's shoulder and saying, "Leave, this is not your house, it is my house." Chemerinksy also says "Please leave our house." Fisk then tries to pull Afaneh's microphone out of her hands. Afaneh says UC is funding weapons manufacturers and Fisk, relinquishing the mic, says "I have nothing to do with what the UC does."

Quote from: Langue_doc on Today at 04:50:19 AM

QuoteMaintenance workers had a firsthand view of how protesters seized the building, and wondered why the university failed to stop it.

Some paragraphs from the article:

QuoteMariano Torres, a maintenance worker at Columbia University, was cleaning on the third floor of Hamilton Hall in his signature Yankees cap one night last week, when he heard a commotion downstairs. He said he figured it had something to do with the pro-Palestinian encampment on the lawn outside and kept working.

He was shocked, he said, when he suddenly saw five or six protesters, their faces covered by scarves or masks, picking up chairs and bringing them into the stairway.

"I'm like, what the hell is going on? Put it back. What are you doing?" he recalled.

He said he tried to block them and they tried to reason with him to get out of the way, telling him "this is bigger than you." One person, he recalled, told him he didn't get paid enough to deal with this. Someone tried to offer him "a fistful of cash."

He said he replied: "I don't want your money, dude. Just get out of the building."

It was the beginning of what would be a frightening time for Mr. Torres, who goes by Mario, and two other maintenance workers in Hamilton Hall, who were inside when pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia took over the building.

Just as upsetting as their encounters with the protesters, the three workers recounted in interviews this week, was their feeling that the university had not done enough to prevent the attack or to help them once the building was under siege.

QuoteThe sole public safety officer in the lobby left when confronted by the occupiers and called for backup, several witness said. The protesters then quickly began barricading the main doors with furniture and chains. The occupiers appear to have timed their break-in with the midnight shift change, and the woman on duty was coming off her shift, the union said.

Mr. Torres, who had worked there for five years, confronted some of the protesters, trying to protect what he saw as "his building."

But as he saw the number of protesters grow to "maybe 15 or 20," he said, he realized he could not fight them. He asked to be let out, but someone said the doors downstairs were already barricaded and that he couldn't leave.

He thought of his two young sons at home. He had no idea if other buildings were being taken over, too. Fear made him "crazy," he said. He grabbed an older protester and ripped off his sweatshirt and mask, demanding to be let out.

The man said he could bring 20 people up to back him. "I was terrified," Mr. Torres said. "I did what I had to do." Mr. Torres then grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher and pulled the pin before someone persuaded him to calm down.

Mr. Wilson, 47, saw Mr. Torres facing off with protesters in the stairwell. He radioed his supervisors for help. Then he made his way down to the main doors. They were fastened shut with zip ties.

"So I begged them," Mr. Wilson said. "I said, I work here, let me out, let me out." Eventually, someone cut the zip ties and pushed him outside, he said, then secured the doors again. He found the public safety officer and told her that his co-workers were stuck inside.

QuoteMaintenance workers had a firsthand view of how protesters seized the building, and wondered why the university failed to stop it.

QuoteMariano Torres, a maintenance worker at Columbia University, was cleaning on the third floor of Hamilton Hall in his signature Yankees cap one night last week, when he heard a commotion downstairs. He said he figured it had something to do with the pro-Palestinian encampment on the lawn outside and kept working.

He was shocked, he said, when he suddenly saw five or six protesters, their faces covered by scarves or masks, picking up chairs and bringing them into the stairway.

"I'm like, what the hell is going on? Put it back. What are you doing?" he recalled.

He said he tried to block them and they tried to reason with him to get out of the way, telling him "this is bigger than you." One person, he recalled, told him he didn't get paid enough to deal with this. Someone tried to offer him "a fistful of cash."

He said he replied: "I don't want your money, dude. Just get out of the building."

It was the beginning of what would be a frightening time for Mr. Torres, who goes by Mario, and two other maintenance workers in Hamilton Hall, who were inside when pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia took over the building.

Just as upsetting as their encounters with the protesters, the three workers recounted in interviews this week, was their feeling that the university had not done enough to prevent the attack or to help them once the building was under siege.

QuoteThe sole public safety officer in the lobby left when confronted by the occupiers and called for backup, several witness said. The protesters then quickly began barricading the main doors with furniture and chains. The occupiers appear to have timed their break-in with the midnight shift change, and the woman on duty was coming off her shift, the union said.

Mr. Torres, who had worked there for five years, confronted some of the protesters, trying to protect what he saw as "his building."

But as he saw the number of protesters grow to "maybe 15 or 20," he said, he realized he could not fight them. He asked to be let out, but someone said the doors downstairs were already barricaded and that he couldn't leave.

He thought of his two young sons at home. He had no idea if other buildings were being taken over, too. Fear made him "crazy," he said. He grabbed an older protester and ripped off his sweatshirt and mask, demanding to be let out.

The man said he could bring 20 people up to back him. "I was terrified," Mr. Torres said. "I did what I had to do." Mr. Torres then grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher and pulled the pin before someone persuaded him to calm down.

Mr. Wilson, 47, saw Mr. Torres facing off with protesters in the stairwell. He radioed his supervisors for help. Then he made his way down to the main doors. They were fastened shut with zip ties.

"So I begged them," Mr. Wilson said. "I said, I work here, let me out, let me out." Eventually, someone cut the zip ties and pushed him outside, he said, then secured the doors again. He found the public safety officer and told her that his co-workers were stuck inside.

Quote from: lightning on May 08, 2024, 08:22:32 PM

Quote from: EdnaMode on May 08, 2024, 04:59:37 PMOne of my friends just sent me this. He's at one of the Commonwealth Campuses and is worried about the future. They have already been told that for teaching faculty, regardless of years of service or rank, their 5 year contracts will be converted to one year. Several of their engineering departments do not have enough faculty to teach the required courses because faculty who have retired or left for other positions have not been replaced. He said his particular campus has not run at a deficit in the several years he's been there, but the administration at University Park is making the majority of the cuts from the Commonwealth Campuses. Not sure where the money is going because their tuition is among the highest in the Big Ten.

Penn State offers Voluntary Separation Incentive Program to eligible Commonwealth Campus employees

https://www.psu.edu/news/administration/story/penn-state-offers-voluntary-separation-incentive-program-eligible-commonwealth/

1 year of salary as buyout? That's it?!? Bollocks. There's a sucker born every minute, I guess.