"After 65 days, nightly light shows, one salon exhibition, a dozen or so guest lectures and a running debate about how to alter history, the occupation of Cooper Union has come to a peaceful and reportedly productive end.
[…]
everyone has now vacated that office in exchange for an invitation to join alumni, administrators, faculty members and trustees in a joint search for a different way out of the school’s financial crisis. In addition, the leadership of the school promised an alternate space in which students could gather and strategize, and it confirmed its intention to welcome a student representative onto the board of trustees. It would not penalize the protesters for their actions, the school said. The students, for their part, agreed to comply with Cooper Union policies in the future.
[…]
As for the occupiers, Mr. Riley said they did not all agree about the proper course of action. Coming and going largely as they pleased, they had turned an elegantly understated administrative office into a hive of creative activity and emerged as an unlikely inspiration to protest movements around the globe. But with their ranks thinned by summer, he said, they decided to move to the next phase of activist engagement. So last Friday evening, the students picked up their belongings and left.
“We washed all the windows, scrubbed all the shelves,” Mr. Riley said. “We rearranged some of the furniture so it was actually a more efficient use of the space.”—
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Protesters Vacate Cooper Union’s Top Office - NYTimes.com
And so, for perhaps the first time in the 25 years I’ve known Cooper Union, someone left the office of the President in better shape than when they got there.
Shame it wasn’t a President that did that, but we take what we can get.