We want to acknowledge to our community that there’s been a heightened police and security presence on New York University’s campus over the past spring semester and it remains into the summer.  In April, the NYU administration responded to protests by pro-Palestinian members of the NYU community with an unprecedented show of force by members of the New York Police Department (NYPD). While the NYPD’s presence has abated over the last few weeks since classes have ended, NYU Campus Safety has positioned more guards and private security outside of Bobst Library (University administration is within the library building and this is where ZLuC 2024 will be held).  

The ZLuC organizers met with the core volunteer team to discuss this and the group decided that, while we had significant concerns, our community was in support of continuing the event so that we can be together to learn and reflect. We hope that ZLuC will be an opportunity to engage with the meaningful work of building relationships which allow us to more identify and oppose oppressive structures. This work includes thoughtfully bringing zines into libraries as well as the larger task of confronting unjust structures within librarianship and beyond. We want to consider ways we might understand how this is not “business as usual” and what we, as a community, can do to disrupt the mechanisms that allow for genocides to occur and for the ongoing censorship and limits to academic freedom and engagement that have resulted in response to world events. 

We will invite ZLuC participants to engage in discussion during the event to provide space for reflection and developing action plans. There will be a community of care team on site who will be responsible for ensuring that attendees feel safe and supported during the event. They will prioritize de-escalation of any incidents and will do everything possible to avoid involving NYU Campus Safety or NYPD. We welcome any concerns or questions via email to the ZLuC email list:  zluc2024@zinelibraries.info or Lauren Kehoe at lsk221@nyu.edu.