Occupying the Classroom: NYU to Offer Class in Occupy Wall Street

Julia A. Seymour

December 9, 2011 - 4:34pm

While it may sound like a joke, and New York City website Gothamist [1]reported it with plenty of snark, New York University will offer a class next semester on Occupy Wall Street (possibly two). Perhaps it's an attempt to keep their students in class making use of their students loans, rather than camped out in Zuccotti Park [2]and other parks complaining about them.

NBC's "protest of the current era," will now become a for-credit undergraduate course. The College Board lists per credit hour tuition at $1,159 at NYU.

According to the free student newspaper of NYU: Washington Square News [3] (WSN), the university's "Department of Social and Cultural Analysis" will offer a class about the "history and politics of debt and take a deeper look at the economic crisis the movement is protesting." NYU confirmed with the Business & Media Institute that the undergraduate course: "Cultures and Economies: Occupy Wall Street" will be available next semester and taught by Professor Lisa Duggan.

The move is highly ironic given some OWS protesters encouraging walk outs of classes [4], dropping out of college to protest student loans, and refusing to pay their student loans [2]. Some NYU students and professors participated in that walk out day according to Huffington Post. Instead of attacking the banks willing to lend to them, perhaps they should look into institutions with lower tuition. You would need to be in the 1 percent to pay the tuition bill at NYU, which was ranked 2nd on the 2011-2012 list of America's most expensive colleges [5] from CampusGrotto.

NYU's Duggan praised the OWS movement in her interview with WSN saying, "Occupy Wall Street has done us all the service of illuminating [the fact] that the economy operates within the framework of political, social and cultural conflicts, and not outside them."

Duggan's bio lists her areas of research and interest as: "Modern U.S. cultural,social, and political history; history of gender and sexuality; lesbian and gay studies." She also writes for the left-wing publication The Nation (which gets funding from the left's big donor: George Soros).

According to that same WSN story, there will be a graduate-level class also offered on the topic of OWS. NYU was unable to confirm that when BMI contacted them on Dec. 9.

The Wall Street Journal [6] and Associated Press [7] have both briefly reported about the OWS courses at NYU.

Publication: Articles [8]

Division: MRC Business [9]

Category: Business [10], Economy [11], Media [12]

Tags: york [13], wall [14], walk [15], university [16], undergraduate [17], studentloan [18], street [19], social [20], semester [21], reported [22], protest [23], political [24], pay [25], offer [26], OccupyWallStreet [27], nyu [28], NYC [29], movement [30], lists [31], left [32], george [33], cultural [34], Credit [35], College [36], class [37]

Links:
[1] http://gothamist.com/2011/12/08/nyu_offering_course_in_occupy_wall.php
[2] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/21/occupy-student-debt-campaign_n_1106379.html
[3] http://nyunews.com/news/2011/12/08/08ows/
[4] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/17/occupy-wall-street-ows-union-square_n_1100402.html
[5] http://www.nationalreview.com/phi-beta-cons/279830/americas-most-expensive-colleges-nathan-harden
[6] http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2011/12/08/n-y-u-to-offer-classes-on-occupy-wall-street/
[7] http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/new-york-university-to-offer-2-classes-on-occupy-wall-street-movement/2011/12/09/gIQAaGdjhO_story.html
[8] http://archive2.mrc.org/taxonomy/term/10
[9] http://archive2.mrc.org/division/mrc-business
[10] http://archive2.mrc.org/category/business
[11] http://archive2.mrc.org/category/economy
[12] http://archive2.mrc.org/category/media
[13] http://archive2.mrc.org/tags/york
[14] http://archive2.mrc.org/tags/wall
[15] http://archive2.mrc.org/tags/walk
[16] http://archive2.mrc.org/tags/university
[17] http://archive2.mrc.org/taxonomy/term/19226
[18] http://archive2.mrc.org/tags/studentloan
[19] http://archive2.mrc.org/tags/street
[20] http://archive2.mrc.org/tags/social
[21] http://archive2.mrc.org/taxonomy/term/19224
[22] http://archive2.mrc.org/tags/reported
[23] http://archive2.mrc.org/tags/protest
[24] http://archive2.mrc.org/tags/political
[25] http://archive2.mrc.org/tags/pay
[26] http://archive2.mrc.org/taxonomy/term/19225
[27] http://archive2.mrc.org/tags/occupywallstreet
[28] http://archive2.mrc.org/taxonomy/term/19223
[29] http://archive2.mrc.org/taxonomy/term/19227
[30] http://archive2.mrc.org/tags/movement
[31] http://archive2.mrc.org/tags/lists
[32] http://archive2.mrc.org/tags/left
[33] http://archive2.mrc.org/tags/george
[34] http://archive2.mrc.org/tags/cultural
[35] http://archive2.mrc.org/tags/credit
[36] http://archive2.mrc.org/tags/college
[37] http://archive2.mrc.org/tags/class
[38] http://www.tellthetruth2012.org