On Wednesday, September 26th, Erev Yom Kippur, Yeshiva College senior Steven I. Weiss was accosted at the entrance to the library by a Burns Security guard who proceeded to bar him from entering the building. Weiss was informed that he was forbidden from entering all Yeshiva buildings, though the guard could not provide a reason for this directive.

Weiss immediately headed for Yeshiva's Office of Safety and Security in Belfer Hall. Upon reaching this building, Weiss was again informed by security that he could not enter the premises. At this point, Weiss realized that all Security posts had been provided with pictures of him, and had been instructed to bar him access from Yeshiva property.

"They said I wasn't a student at Yeshiva," recalled Weiss. "When I showed them my validated ID, they took it from me, and returned it without its validation sticker."

Although Weiss concedes that at the time, he was enrolled in Yeshiva, but not registered for courses, he maintains that this status should not have touched off security's response. "I know of at least three other students who have the same status as me, and they have never been stopped," he said."

Weiss' "status," stems from his declaration of financial independence this summer. Because his tax returns still list him as a dependant, he is currently unable to get financial aid. "I wanted to enroll in these classes, but I couldn't work out a way to pay for them," he remarked. Instead, due to his special situation, he worked out a system whereby he could unofficially attend classes and register retroactively for them once he obtained the means for paying tuition.

In Belfer, Weiss continued to demand a meeting with Chief of University Security Don Sommers to clarify his situation, while a Burns Captain repeatedly informed him that he was not allowed into the building and was not a student at Yeshiva. Finally, Security Commander Ernie Mcnamee confronted Weiss. Mcnamee refused to acknowledge Weiss' special status, arguing instead that he was not allowed into any buildings on campus, threatening to have him arrested for trespassing if he did not leave the Belfer lobby at once. "He turned around and yelled down the hall 'Don, I'm having him arrested,' and he didn't specify who 'he' was," recalled Weiss. "It's clear that this whole thing was aimed specifically at me, and wasn't just standard Yeshiva procedure for unregistered students."

Weiss requested to speak with the Office of Student Finances to clarify his situation, and Security acquiesced only if he were to go with an escort. Entering Furst Hall, he encountered Yeshiva College Dean Norman Adler, and Dr. Nada Beth Glick, Director of Academic Advisement, both of whom were acquainted with his academic and financial circumstances. Adler, however, seemed aware of the security measures directed at Weiss, and pointed to a recent "negative interaction," between Weiss and Burns Security as the cause for the trouble.

"I had no clue what he was talking about," said Weiss. I did have an 'incident' last year, when I wrote a newspaper column that Burns viewed as threatening, but I don't know what Dean Adler was referring to, and why Burns had suddenly adopted these measures."

While this discussion was taking place, Yeshiva's Mashgiach Ruchani Rabbi Yosef Blau joined the group, noting that Adler had called him when learning of Weiss' plight.

Weiss requested that Rabbi Blau help him gain security permission to enter the Main Bais Medrash for theYom Kippur services, and Rabbi Blau replied that any visitors were allowed into Yeshiva for Yom Kippur, and that security had no right to stop him.

"Well,"Weiss divulged, "I didn't have any trouble attending Kol Nidrei, but on Yom Kippur day, the guards made me wait for 45 minutes before they got clearance to let me in."

Ultimately, Weiss settled his problem the day following Yom Kippur, when, with the help a few friends, he paid full tuition for one course, and officially reinstated himself as a registered student. Nevertheless, Weiss testifies to having encountered problems entering buildings as late as a month following this incident. "I'm not happy that security wasn't as expeditious at clearing my name as it was in besmirching it," he remarked.

Weiss claims to have little concrete idea why security acted the way it did. "I assume it has something to do with my writing for the Commentator," he surmised, "since Sommers and Adler both emphasized it. I think they have a general disgust for me,"he continued. "When I was handing out [city councilman candidate] Ydanis Rodruigez flyers to Yeshiva employees protesting Yeshiva's lack of worker health insurance, and suggesting that Ydanis could work together with them to better their working conditions, security got angry with me, and repeatedly yelled at me to stop interacting with the protesters. They obviously disliked my student/employee rights activism on campus."

The reasons for security's treatment of Weiss remain unclear, as security officials refused to discuss the matter with interviewers. However, Weiss' attempts to register campus employees and garner their political support first for his own abortive City-Council campaign, and later for Rodruigez's might have conflicted with Yeshiva's unstated institutional support for the election's eventual victor, Miguel Martinez.

One high-ranking security official accidentally divulged that Weiss' treatment was atypical for students merely in financial arrears, noting "if all that happened to your friend, then he must have done a lot worse than just missing a tuition check." Weiss remains mystified however as to what his heinous crime might have been.

He does resent the lingering effect of the unpleasant incident, however. "Many faculty members assumed I committed some crime, and that was why my picture was gracing every guard booth in the school," he bitterly remarked. "Even now, I encounter some confusion regarding my status on campus."

"If security can do that," Weiss concluded, "if they can delegitimize you on a moment's notice, with no real explanation and no one to turn to, since they've barred you from the school buildings, then how can we say there are any student rights at all on this campus?"