New York University plans to build a dorm on an East Village site formerly owned by the Catholic church. And although NYU is allowed to demolish the church itself, the new dorm's residents will still be subject to Catholic "morals."
The Archdiocese of New York placed deed restrictions on the property prohibiting future residents from offering family planning advice or services on the site. Sneaky bastards.
The deed, signed in December 2004 between the Roman Catholic Church of St. Ann and the dorm's developer, Hudson Companies, contains several restrictions on the property's use, including a ban on "performing any abortions or providing any professional counseling or advice advocating abortions or family planning." It also prohibits signs or other advertising relating to abortions or family planning.
Apparently moral deed restrictions are often used by religious groups to prevent churches from being converted into dens of iniquity. But it’s not clear exactly which activities will be barred in the new dorm. Can RA’s hand out condoms? Can they display posters with a "practice safe sex" message? Can student reproductive-rights groups hold meetings at the dorm, or post announcements about those meetings? What about brochures containing information about abortion or emergency contraception?
A spokeswoman for NYU, Lynne Brown, said the university was planning to use the building as a dorm, not a health or medical facility, where family-planning counseling would ordinarily take place. She said the NYU team that negotiated the transaction ... "felt comfortable that the activities that typically occur in a dormitory would not be inconsistent with either the spirit or the language of the covenant."
Yikes. I’m sorry, Lynne, but college students have sex. This dorm will probably see a lot of activities that are inconsistent with the "spirit" of the covenant. And in accepting the restrictions on "signs and advertising related to family planning" in one of its dorms, NYU is doing its students a major disservice.
Thanks to Patrick for the link.
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first off... come on, now, avalon?
anyone who's lived in new york knows that avalon does not measure up to its old denizen (the limelight) in terms of iniquity :)...
as far as the dormitory stuff, well... they probably got a good deal on the place and it doesn't prohibit people who live in it using all sorts of family planning (or fucking in the bathrooms)...
as far as meetings and such, there's plenty of NYU buildings... yeah, it sucks, but it's not that huge, is it?
Agreed that it isn't huge. (Who knows if it will actually be enforced?) But it is noteworthy.
And NYU's "no big deal" attitude rubs me the wrong way.
I went to a Catholic university in the late 70s/early 80s and EVERYBODY knew where Planned Parenthood was ... a few blocks off campus. I wouldn't fret about the facade of Catholic "morals."
Well, the obvious answer (to my admittedly alcohol-fogged brain) is T-shirts. If I lived in such a dorm I would make a few T-shirts with info about family planning, such as Planned Parenthood's address and phone number and web site, or just plain "Planning on fucking? Don't forget your protection & birth control!" or "Don't want a pregnancy? Remember the Pill."
Does this extend to individual students' freedom of expression? For example, the general use bulletin board, or the students' doors?
Here's an ironic thought: if Roe v Wade gets overturned, there might be a few abortions performed in the dorm. If anyone's desperate enough that the law doesn't deter her, she's unlikely to give a flying fuck what the site's previous owners would think. It would serve them right, too, if they pushed for a law that contributed to getting their directive violated. Although it's New York, so that seems a bit unlikely. Thankfully.
brilliant t-shirt idea!
This is a pretty standard deal for the Catholic church, even if it is stupid. There are numerous community facilities operated by non-catholic organizations in former parochial schools- all of whom pay low rent in exchange for agreeing not to do needle exchange or condom programs.
But if someone owned the land, and sold it to whomever or whatever, should they not have the right, if agreed in the contract, to do whatever they want?
nope. if there a deed restriction put there by the previous owner, you can't break it. the church probably took a hit on the value of the land sale in order to slip this in there.