Another View: Occupying Huddleston Hall Ballroom – nothing accomplished at open forum

Is UNH backing Occupy Wall Street? That seemed to be the message of the event hosted by the UNH Administration in Huddleston Hall last Wednesday. The event began with a largely leftist panel of speakers addressing attendees with bromides glorifying OWS.

Professor Bruce Mallory began the discussion by praising "the movement" as "largely peaceful." Throughout his remarks, he continued to emphasize the fact that OWS is "nonviolent."

This, we thought, was a strange way for a man with a Ph.D. to describe a "movement" which has facilitated acts of rape, murder and theft while costing tax payers millions of dollars in vandalism and obstructing the activity of private businesses that employ countless Americans.

Consider these actions in comparison to those of the Tea Party movement, which always obtained a permit, never required police presence, and never facilitated criminal activity. Given this, it is strange that the university administration never got around to holding a forum gratifying that movement.

After brief remarks by university President Mark Huddleston, who, for his part, remained neutral, UNH student-cum-Peace and Justice League leader Alex Freid took the podium. He began his remarks by noting that, like the national movement, the UNH chapter of Occupy Wall Street has no official spokesman.

This we found fallacious in view of the fact that an "anonymous" student-run twitter account, @OccupyUNH, has been using its large following to direct and organize "the movement" here on campus. He went on to discuss corporate backing of the university, commenting that the university should gladly welcome "the movement" in view of this unscrupulous funding source.

He never quite got around, however, to describing how "the movement" plans to adequately fund the university after they chase our benefactors out of town. He concluded his remarks by praising the university for opening this "dialogue."

Next to speak was Associate Professor Nick Smith, who made a number of outrageous statements. Among them, that "the movement" was "otherwise unaffiliated, politically" (one wonders how he feels about endorsements of the movement by, among others, President Obama, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren).

Furthermore, he went on to discuss the globalization of the  movement by saying that the United States should share a bigger piece of the "American pie" with the less fortunate world (how much does the United States spend in global aid annually, Professor Smith?).

He finished his remarks by thanking Alex Freid for his leadership of the "leaderless" UNH OWS chapter.

Finally, a seemingly uncomfortable Executive Director of Public Safety Paul Dean only commented, respectfully, that Occupy UNH has the right to peacefully assemble, but that the UNH police has guidelines that the group must follow. He ended his statement by opining that he planned to enforce these guidelines.

Following the panel, "the assembly," struggling to stay warm and well hydrated in the Zuccotti Park-like atmosphere that was the Huddleston Hall ballroom, broke into groups to "discuss" predetermined and clearly biased questions. Questions included: "how does the Occupy Movement connect to the interests of students?" "Do universities carry any special responsibilities when a movement such as OWS develops?" And "what are your views about a movement that is ‘leaderless?'"

These groups consisted largely of unhinged and clearly liberal humanities professors, excess administrators attempting to justify their existence, and students who, in all seriousness, would have been better off staying home and curling up with an economics textbook. Seemingly absent from the discussion were WSBE and political science professors who might have provided a refreshing degree of factuality to the discussion.

The assembly ended with these groups sending representatives on stage to read off lists of unrealistic demands fueled by a naïve understanding of basic human nature and based in a fantastic, but sadly nonexistent, reality.

Last week's Occupy UNH reception was truly a night to remember.