CUNY students vow to push Petraeus off campus

Former CIA director was given a teaching post, to the chagrin of antiwar students who promise ongoing protests

Published September 13, 2013 4:49PM (EDT)

Students have not taken kindly to Gen. David Petraeus taking up an honorary teaching post at the City University of New York. On his first day on campus on Sept. 9, students met the former CIA director with a jeering protest, calling the retired four-star general a "war criminal." But students displeased at CUNY's hire have vowed to continue to make their displeasure known. As Adam Gabbatt of the Guardian reported, angry students have vowed to "make [Petraeus'] time in New York a living hell."

The general who oversaw coalition forces in Iraq is teaching a course titled "Are We on the Threshold of the North American Decade?"

Via the Guardian:

Erick Moreno, a 28-year-old linguistics major at CUNY's Queen's College, said students would protest every one of Petraeus' weekly lectures.

"This will be a recurring thing," Moreno said. "Whatever it will take to push him off our campus we will do. We know he teaches every Monday."

Moreno said the protest against Petraeus was organized by the Ad Hoc Committee Against the Militarization of CUNY, which consists of a number of different organisations, including Students Without Borders and the Revolutionary Student Coordinating Committee, of which he is a member, and was backed by some faculty members.

... Hunter College professor Sandor John, who helped organise the protest, told CNN that "a lot of our students are from countries that have been targeted by the United States." He added: "We don't want someone like him on campus."


By Natasha Lennard

Natasha Lennard is an assistant news editor at Salon, covering non-electoral politics, general news and rabble-rousing. Follow her on Twitter @natashalennard, email nlennard@salon.com.

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