All Student forum minutes 2/25/16

Minutes for All Student Forum Feb 25, 2016

• There will be 2 Earlham Alumni who work in the field are running diversity training on March 23rd for senior staff.
• Faculty of color share the same fight as students of color but it is difficult for them to address their grievances.
• Create a safe space for them to voice their grievances as well.
• These are not issues that just came up recently, but this has been happening for years. Faculty felt the same way when they were students. They are tired of having to deal with the same issues continuously.
• There have been similar protests that have been washed away by similar forms of repression. Strong movements have died.
• What is required of the whole student body to help?
• What are our goals with these meetings with Laura and senior staff?
• For them to clarify where they are coming from and what they want to accomplish in the long term
• For us we want to address our requirements and our list of requirements.
• Laura has discussed already that she is looking forward to finding solutions.
• Our concerns and requirements are meant to be built within Earlham’s structure.
• We must hold them accountable.
• Future plans:
• We are branching out to expand the movement.  Form coalition politics.
• We plan to make our language vague so  that way other groups can use our language and create their own movement.  We can feed off of energy.
• Going to reach out to conveners of several different clubs.
• DPC committee to be reinstated for the benefit of bringing more diversity to campus. Actually doing it.
• Want to branch out to other schools to make this go national. It is important to reach out to other groups and address these issues everywhere. If anyone knows of students at other schools running similar movements get us the information so we can collaborate.
• White students coalition: addressing concerns of white supremacy and whiteness. Whites are encouraged to join.
• Purpose for whites to come together and unpack their racism and white supremacy. White people need to check other white people.  It is not separate from this work. White coalition meeting times should be announced soon.
• Daniel Hunter talked about strategic planning of movements and how we can use their movement to make change. Everything they did is now done.
• What we need as a community to move forward is to stay connected.
• We need intersectionality if not that will be the end. This movement won’t survive.  Intersectionality is important.
• Reflect on your stake in this movement. Take direct action. Everyone has a hand in the movement.
• Student forum with senior staff→ goal. Questions cannot be avoided they have to be answered.
• We welcome participation in meetings.  More students to come to POC meetings.
• Keep your eyes and ears open and validate your own experiences.  Don’t let individual experiences get lost
• Expresses your grievances and don’t silence yourselves
• Publish the meetings on social media to keep contact.
• There is a form to submit grievances.
• Combat isolation with connection. Stay connected as much as possible. We will hold more meeting that are open to the public. We want more people to stay connected and engaged.
• Talk to professors and other students. Voice your thoughts and ideas and don’t keep those back.
• Indiana doesn’t have a hate crime law
• In response to this, there’s a bias system response team at Earlham that encompasses minor to large (ie flag burned on campus) bias incidences. Submit those through the school and us. Recording them is very important!
• Build community. You can open up conversations with people that may have a different opinion. Together we can do better.
• Will blog have academic component? A couple of us are in teaching class. If students aren’t good putting on forums but could do research and write scholarly stuff we could do this.
• The Odyssey has an online blogging platform that specifically wants millennials to write articles/essays just about our culture. They’ve contacted us and wants a team of writers from Earlham (12 people with an editor), so there will be a want and need for people to do that soon.
• We had a meeting with Daniel Hunter and he’s branched out to over 500 alumni and they have their own Facebook page and they’re doing their own organization work, so we’re in direct contact with them
• There’s been specific other alumni who’ve contacted us with requests and things to talk about. We’re still in process to develop relationships. There’s definitely been alumni interest
• Can we start another forum directly related to health services?
• Those are definitely important with our meeting with Laura Hutchinson. If you want to come that’d be great, or anyone else can schedule a meeting with her and we can help back you up.
• If anyone else wants to set up a forum we will advocate and provide our support
• Clearly this college is ill-equipt. Speak to someone in human resources office in person. Find out what needs to be done and what you can do and find those people in charge to talk to. Take advantage of small Earlham. You have the power to talk to your teachers. If you never ask a question you’ll always get a no.
• Thinking about a music compilation, with 5-30 second breaks of people talking about their stake and thoughts about the movement

Statement to Faculty Regarding CST

2/3/16
Dear Members of the Faculty,

We recognize that there has been much concern and confusion regarding the incident in CST this past Monday when a faculty member was called out by protesters for displays of racism. We would like to clarify that the version of events that has been circulating does not accurately represent the situation as it occurred and does not embody our movement in its entirety. Furthermore, we would like to call attention to the fact that the incident occurred as a result of Earlham’s failure to provide students with a place to voice their grievances without fear of repercussions. We cannot guarantee that call-outs will not occur so long as the issues of institutional racism at Earlham continue to go unaddressed. The fact that public safety was alerted and false rumors were spread without first consulting the students about the incident exemplifies why it is imperative that we are guaranteed a safe space to report any faculty, staff, or administrators who actively perpetuate racism. We hope that the faculty does not allow this particular incident to distract from the legitimate problems that have led students to this point. We believe that the best way to proceed is by seriously considering the List of Requirements on its own merits.  We all need and deserve structural change, and we ask that the faculty support our vision of a college that is held accountable for meeting the needs of all its community members of color.

With hope and light,

EC Students Against Racism

2/8/16
The CST 3's Meeting with Shane

To whom this may concern,

On February 1, 2016 a group of concerned students of color orchestrated a walkout and protest that spanned the entire campus, through which we voiced various grievances with multiple departments, administration and faculty. Nonetheless, the protest in CST was acknowledged as a particular environment in which students voices about their grievances were perceived as misconduct. Specifically, three students have been accused of misconduct through a complaint that was filed on the behalf of the academic dean, Greg Mahler. Although there has been a multitude of complaints and grievances issued by students against certain faculty. Administration has not acknowledged or taken any action regarding students’ complaints. These three students have been charged with providing their version of events in CST on February 1. As students of color, we claim responsibility for the walk out and recognize that this protest was a direct consequence of the fact that students do not have a safe space to voice their grievances. Under no circumstances should the three students be singled out as individual actors in the concerted and impactful escalation of events that happened in CST Feb. 1.

EC Students Against Racism

Incomplete Account of Actions: Spring 2016

Accounts of Actions: Spring 2016

Spring Semester 2016 began with extensive organizing among the Earlham Students of Color Against Racism (later opened up to encompass the entire student body, emblazoning the hashtag #ECStudentsAgainstRacism). Picking up where we left off last semester, we carefully crafted our document, the “list of requirements” which provides a set of strategic implementations necessary for the institution in order to guarantee full membership to all of its students.These requirements reflect our grievances, and the deficits in structural care provided by the institution. They reflect the undeniable needs of students of color, who have put their bodies, voices, and experiences on the line to lay claim to their suffering and call to the administration to act. This 9-point list of requirements provides a framework from which negotiations, numerous discussions, and extensive structural implementations should take shape.

Students met in private and online for months before going public with this list of requirements, which occurred through a second walkout on Monday, February 1st, 2016. The night before, there was an open meeting for all students (including white participants) to convene and go over the document and all of its points for clarity, critique, and foregrounding. At the beginning of the walkout, when students met again in all black, at 10:30 AM on the Heart, physical copies of the List of Requirements (LoR)were distributed. From here, students marched to various campus buildings, handing out copies of the document, and chanting calls such as “Our Voices Matter,” and “Students’ Lives Matter!” During our march to Carpenter Hall, students stood outside President David Dawson’s office chanting “No Justice, No Peace!” Unlike the first walkout, where it was observed from a faculty personnel that Dawson fled his office at the news of students approaching, this time he stepped out of his office and invited some students in to speak. The four appointed student representatives, whose names can be found at the end of the List of Requirements, sat with Dawson in his office with a crowd of other students gathered to witness. The conversation lasted for about 25 minutes. Within this conversation, the student representatives made clear the institutional flaws and issues regarding diversity and inclusion that led them to this action, and to develop the list of requirements. Dawson discussed that the college has an existing committee authorized to address such concerns, the Diversity and Progress Committee. To this, a student who has been a member of the committee for the past year, responded by stating that the committee has been essentially inactive for the past 2 years, with infrequent meetings, inconsistent attendance, and no action being put forth beyond reporting. One concrete thing that came from this discussion with the President, was the option for a small group of student representatives to meet with Dawson once a week, starting that following Wednesday.

After this short meeting, the march continued to various department offices including Human Resources, Residence Life, and Marketing, to call-out these departments for their participation in practices that negatively affect students of color. After more trips around campus, the group walked to the Center for Science and Technology (CST) to continue the protest and address the prominent issues of structural neglect which have produced, and continue to produce numerous grievances for students. During our time in CST a call-out was performed, addressing the administration’s lack of accountability in processing student complaints against professor’s racist practices. Students gathered around the staircase to call numerous empowering chants, and to invite a professor into understanding about their patterns of abuse, which have produced various grievances for their students of color. These harmful behaviors were very influential in the development of our collection of grievances, as well as the point in our list of requirements calling for comprehensive diversity training among faculty. Students called “[professor’s name] we are inviting you to a call-out. Your racist practices have not gone unnoticed.” During this demonstration, as students personally affected by this professor spoke their grievances to the rest of the group, a white male professor stepped into the demonstration to pull one student out and interrogate him about his concerns. He [the professor] demanded to know: “What did she do (the professor at the center of the call-out)?” and “Who are your witnesses?” This interaction continued for a few minutes until a student, part of the demonstration, began to yell “You don’t have to explain yourself. You are valid. Your experiences are valid!” And in concert, the entire group began to shout, “you are valid!” until the antagonizing professor abandoned his attempts. Another professor in the vicinity of the demonstration, who seemed to be confused by the student’s presence, was then acknowledged by a student who spoke to her calmly in attempts to settle her, and invite her to understand why we were there. At this point, Public Safety arrived to approach this student [read: a man of color speaking to a seemingly upset white woman], who was reasoning with the professor. Noting this interaction, leaders of the demonstration decided to move the group forward to the Heart. Two students who had been a part of the demonstration stayed behind to speak with the professors, who had interrupted the demonstration, and public safety officer, in order to answer their questions further.