CCNY Still Having Sign Problems

Last year, there were a series of stories about how a community center room at the flagship campus of the City College of New York was named after two terrorists. I wrote two pieces (here and here) about it.

The sign was taken down after it was pointed out, and the university moved quickly to clarify its policies on naming spaces on its campuses.

Well, it seems that the sign is back. The detestable Rep. Charles Barron is behind the latest sign re-placement. He vows to continue placing the sign with the names of the two convicted terrorists back on the community room. Good luck with that.

City Councilman Charles Barron considers Thomas Jefferson a "slave-owning pedophile."

So perhaps it shouldn't be any surprise that the former Black Panther restored a controversial City College sign honoring two fugitives, most notably Assata Shakur, a fellow Black Panther convicted of killing a cop and making terrorist bombs.

"We are here to say to the City University that we have a right to self-determination, that we have a right to free speech, that we have a right to freedom of expression," Barron said. "We are saying that you can't determine who our heroines and heroes are going to be."

All that does is show that he has no problem with naming university property after terrorists, despite the fact that only the university has the right to name spaces on its campus. Did I mention that Barron is detestable?

Gothamist notes:

Morales and Shakur, both CCNY alums one-time students, are both living abroad after escaping custody/prison and are wanted by the authorities. Morales was a bomb maker (one bomb at the Fraunces Tavern killed four) for the Armed Forces of National Liberation and Shakur was convicted of killing a NJ State trooper in 1973; much has been made about whether Shakur actually fired a gun.

City College had agreed to open the student center in 1990, but when CCNY student Sergey Kadinsky sent a letter to the Daily News this past December asking why the sign was up, a tempest was born. City College at first said they were keeping the sign.... then explained a few days later - after much outrage from victims' families and others - that the sign would be coming down. Why? Because the school never officially approved the sign back in 1990! Clearly, the other unspoken reason is that it's hard to justify state funds for a community center named after fugitives.

City College students and alumni have sued the school for violating First Amendment rights by taking down the sign.

Oh, I can't wait for that suit to wend its way through the system. Imagine the mayhem that a ruling in favor of the students could create.