Washington Square News Opinion: Letters

Thursday, December 09, 2004

At December 12, 2004 at 10:10 PM, Will said...: Haley Plourde-Cole recently wrote in with the following commentary and question concerning my column:

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Two sentences later he contradicts himself by stating that in 2003, "there was a loud, and somewhat obnoxious, call for NYU to disclose all of its investments" by "paranoid activists." How does he justify his apparent disgust for activists while at the same time chastising them for not protesting?

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a) The term "obnoxious" is applicable in this sense because the disclosure activists were, in fact, obnoxious. See their monopolization of time during last year's Town Halls and their rude behavior in general in questioning NYU officials as evidence. There is no disparity between wanting students to question how NYU is spending their tuition while also noting that disclosure activists were often obnoxious.

b) The term "paranoid" referred to the general paranoia of the disclosure activists over what NYU was investing in, especially when it concerned US military operations. Not everything military is evil and worthy of suspicion.

c) I do, in fact, have a healthy skepticism when it comes to NYU activists, but mostly I disagree with their stance on issues and, yes, am disgusted by said stances. NYU's wild spending, though, is an issue many of us could and should get together on and work to improve.