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