Quite a bit has made news during our short time away from Binghamton University, and it’s time we bring you up to speed. Protests on Wall Street have intensified, BU is planning to bring in a whole batch of new faculty and flood relief has taken some interesting turns. Let’s begin.
WALL STREET OCCUPATION
In last week’s editorial, we spoke favorably of the actions taken by Occupy Wall Street, the movement protesting corporate greed in Downtown Manhattan. We argued that the punishment they received from law enforcement was unjust and unwarranted. The movement has since picked up steam, and look what happened. On Saturday, more than 700 protesters, including BU students, were arrested for marching on the Brooklyn Bridge.
While they did impede traffic, they were causing no harm and showed no displays of violence, yet were corralled en masse as police kettled hordes of protesters in a large net. It is the latest and greatest in a trend of inappropriate police response to nonviolent protest. We still hold firm our support of Occupy Wall Street and condemn law enforcement for their unwarranted response to such a protest.
NEW FACULTY
Locally, the University has officially announced plans to hire 150 new faculty members by the 2015-16 academic year. The move is a refreshing one. You can’t forgive us for being excited that, in a time of economic downturn and cost-cutting, BU can still afford to go out and hire hordes of new faculty, even if the move is correlated with a tuition hike.
What still remains to be seen is what kind of faculty our administration plans to bring in. We hope there’s a fairly even balance in the different demographics of prospective University employees. We all stand to benefit from the new hires, so long as the number of research assistants and classroom lecturers maintains a near even ratio of research versus teaching faculty members. Not all new hires need to be research assistants in the Engineering Building.
FLOOD RELIEF
Expanding to the regional level, flood relief is still going strong. In a new development, BU has conceived of a two-credit program called “Community in Recovery.” The program is a hybrid between class and internship, wherein enrolled students will have the opportunity to assist in flood relief, as well as take a corresponding class.
The initiative is a phenomenal idea. Through the program, BU will tap into the feeling of civic duty that awoke the student body immediately following the flood, and will work to sustain it long after the immediate effects of the flood subside. We hope students respond favorably and take interest in the program.