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.