GREENWICH VILLAGE — Students at New York University are circulating a petition demanding representation on the Board of Trustees for each of the school's undergraduate colleges.
The petition effort is being led by two student groups, the NYU Student Labor Action Movement (NYU SLAM) and the Graduate Student Organizing Committee (GSOC).
The students circulating the petition for representation say the school has "refused for decades" to have student trustees, but maintain that their demand is reasonable because more than one in five private universities and three out of four public universities have student members on their boards.
They are arguing that the school's 68-member board "is ill-equipped to represent students' interests" because only one member — Hamilton — has an education background, and the board's Chair William Berkley, has profited off of predatory student loans.
GSOC secured a labor contract for the school's student employees last year, though later said the school wasn't living up to its end of the deal.
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And NYU SLAM previously lobbied the school for a $15 minimum wage, which University President Andrew Hamilton agreed to earlier this year in one of his first moves as the school's new leader.
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Law students affiliated with the group were targeted by a trustee of the law school in a lawsuit two years ago. The trustee was later forced to step down, and the students won a first amendment lawsuit against him.
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Students plan to rally Friday afternoon at 4:15 p.m. at Schwartz Plaza, between the NYU Welcome Center and Bobst Library at 70 Washington Square South, and then enter the library to deliver the petition to Hamilton in his office.
NYU spokesman John Beckman defended the school's decision to not have student representatives by saying the situation is the same at "roughly 80 percent of private universities" and the move is "in line with the best practice recommendations of the Association of Governing Boards."
"Although student input is an important component of university governance and valued by the Board, there are other ways that gets achieved without the appointment of a student to the Board," Beckman said. "For example, the Executive Committee of the Board meets annually with the Student Senators Council. In addition, the Chair of NYU's Board has been reaching out to set up additional informal opportunities for discussion between Trustees and various campus stakeholders, including students."
