A photo of the protest taken by Baruch's student newspaper The Ticker (Photo: The Ticker/Facebook)
Reports of police brutality and student arrests are coming from the student protesters at CUNY Baruch Monday night.
A public hearing was scheduled by CUNY trustees at 5 p.m., and a reported 200 protesters marched to the college from Madison Square Park. Campus police had restricted access to the hearing to only those who had registered, but the students pushed through barricades and entered the lobby.
According to the New York Times, when police with batons warned protesters that they would be arrested for trespassing if they did not leave the lobby, they refused and sat down. After this police reportedly began beating and arresting students.
A journalist from a major news organization was allegedly thrown into a revolving door by police after showing her press pass, the Daily Kos reported.
It was also reported that students on upper levels of the building were dropping books on the officers in the lobby below.
The students are protesting a bill approved by the New York state legislature in July that authorized an increase of $300 in tuition every year for the next five years at City University of New York schools. CUNY was originally founded in 1847 to provide accessible higher education to New York residents. It did not charge tuition until 1975.
CUNY students are joined by attendees of Columbia, the New School, New York University, Juilliard and other city school for a week of action that they hope will draw attention to student debt. Other events are scheduled to take place at different schools throughout the week.
Watch video from the CUNY Baruch protests:
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