Read about it HERE). CUNY Students have also recently staged protests over what they considered unfair tuition hikes, as well as the university’s hiring of disgraced former General David Petraeus as a visiting professor.

The history behind the City University of New York is important to note. Once known as the “Proletarian Harvard”, CUNY was founded in 1847 as the direct result of disruption and dissent. Several of its colleges have been saved from closing during fiscal crises because of protest and assembly. It is currently one of the largest urban universities in the United States as well as one of the most diverse, and, although still affordable today, used to be tuition free.

Its historic progressive mission was to offer the opportunity for upward mobility to high achieving students who otherwise would not have been able to go to college due to economic constraints or the social constraints of not being well connected or being from a minority ethnic group or having female genitalia. CUNY successfully did just that.

Among its impressive list of alumni who contributed greatly to society is Jonas Salk. Do you like not having Polio? Thank public education. Thank CUNY. Thank dissent.

As institutions devoted not just to the transmission of knowledge but also to the generation of new ideas, universities are inherently places of exploration, debate, dissent and, sometimes, protest. Many CUNY students are from marginalized groups, have cause for protest, and are directly responsible for strides in progressivism. The preventative marginalization of dissent being considered by the university is a threat to all speech and all progress in social and economic justice and needs to be stopped.

If you think universities have a responsibility to uphold the highest standards for freedom of speech and assembly, please share this information widely and encourage the administration of CUNY to do all they can to preserve the vibrant CUNY community.

Julianna Forlano is a political satirist and host of Absurdity Today on FSTV. She is an adjunct professor at The City University of New York at Brooklyn College.
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