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.

Why we're here? Comprehensive Statement

We are in the middle of a movement for structural change

Why are we here? How did this happen?

The Earlham College (EC) Students Against Racism is a movement that sprung from the gathering between a few students of color in the fall semester of 2015, and more broadly, from the accumulative ripples of frustration and discontent harbored by students of color at the institution. Various grievances experienced by students of color include micro-aggressions with faculty and peers; incidents of blatant racism in numerous spaces on campus; exclusion, isolation and marginalization during off-campus programs, numerous instances of discrimination on campus, and an overall lack of administrational accountability in addressing these disturbing relations. As a community we are understanding these grievances and are compelled as students to organize against their continuation, these few dedicated students reached out to the broader student body to convene, forming the group: Earlham Concerned Students of Color.

Together, a group of 50-60 students met in the Cunningham Cultural Center to state their grievances. Problems emerged extensively within a sobering amount of Earlham departments, calling attention to the true depth of these concerns. From Res Life to Public Safety, Admissions to Student Life and Health Services, it was clear that students of color at Earlham had been collectively, and systematically mistreated. What was even more stark was the administration’s failure to address this maltreatment. After more meetings, including one with white student allies, there began plans for a walkout to show solidarity with students at the University of Missouri (Mizzou) and other students of color nationwide suffering from campus racism. This walkout, which took place in November shortly before Fall break, began with students in all black forming a circle around the heart. With faculty personnel such as Laura Hutchison and Susan Lee present, the student leaders invited their peers to step into the circle and speak their grievances. And with an admirable amount of strength and courage, they did: turn by turn stepping forward to voice the various experiences they had had with racism at Earlham. After the gathering at the heart, the body of students marched throughout campus calling chants such as “No Justice, No Peace!” and “Black Lives Matter!” We marched to different buildings on campus including the President’s Office, Tyler Hall, Student Life, and the Dining Hall (where we formed a circle around the dining hall center and chanted in collection the protest chant by Assata Shakur: “It is our duty to fight for our freedom, it is our duty to win, we must love and support one another, we have nothing to lose but our chains.”) This walkout sparked concern among administration, though little response was publicly aired. After this original event, students began a series of regular meetings with students of color at its core, and white allies being invited to attend at specific intervals.

These meetings evolved into the formation of the EC Students Against Racism, who took up this work last semester and have continued it into the present. As of now, we find ourselves in the midst of a movement for structural change, which charges Earlham with the responsibility of ensuring accountability for its racist practices and our tactics have reflected this.  Our mission statement reads,

“We, the students of color at Earlham College, represent a movement against racial and structural injustices and stand for their immediate dismantlement. Earlham's founding Principles and Practices assert a responsibility to its students and it has not upheld its values to the students of color on campus. We, in solidarity with other organizations on campus, require that representation, communication and accountability be ensured at Earlham”.

The movement is necessary because structural oppression contradicts Earlham's fundamental values and commitments to diversity and inclusion, and respect for all persons. We also charge the institution with the responsibility of dismantling the flawed structures that set the pace for these racist practices, which neglect to hold persons responsible for their woeful perpetuation of white supremacy. We maintain our conviction that our college is an environment where students of color are less valued than their white peers. We strive to co-create better structures that counteract these patterns and make Earlham a place that all students can be proud to call their alma mater.

ECSAR statement to Administration

To Earlham’s Administration,

In our unwielding commitments to the EC Students Against Racism movement, we come to you once again as a concerned student body. In reaffirming the various structural issues at Earlham, disclosed in EC Students Against Racism’s List of Requirements, we have demonstrated our dedication to resolving these injustices, which negatively impact our abilities to thrive as a community. Throughout this semester, the student body has put forth numerous efforts in which to engage with Earlham’s administration and the college in its entirety. We have formed valuable bonds with various Board of Trustee members, prospective students, and alumni, including members of Earlham’s alumni council. Together, we form a collective of alert and attentive members of this institution, who in raised awareness, await the unfolding of Earlham’s progress.

As our time this semester closes, we would like to assure you that our focuses remain intact. That being said, various responses by the administration, namely Senior Staff, have prompted an atmosphere of judicious regard among the student body, alumni, Board of Trustee members, and prospective Earlhamites. In order to assure the entire Earlham community of Senior Staff’s care, regard, and deep commitment to understanding and effectively addressing Earlham’s structural issues, we ask for your mutual engagement. To reconcile this atmosphere of cautious trust, we ask that Senior Staff to take a leap in demonstrating its care and personal investment in the resolution of our community’s issues.

As we are departing for summer, we ask that you, particularly, keep these issues at the forefront of your agendas. Additionally, we firmly believe the summer months that await us should be utilized as a time for deep reflection, self-evaluation, and recommitment to our community values. To maintain transparency, we ask that during the summer, Senior Staff take on the charge of delivering regular updates to the student body, faculty, Board of Trustees, and entire Earlham community about progress being made. In our devotion to structural accountability, and distribution of labor in addressing these issues, we urge that this task not be relegated to the Diversity and Progress Committee, which is already working incredibly hard at tackling these issues.

Furthermore, given that the Board of Trustees’ second meeting of this year takes place in early June, we recognize June as an especially important month that has the potential to yield a significant amount of progress to this work. We ask that during this second board meeting, the highest authorities of this institution produce a comprehensive plan that reflects the dedicated ways in which you will lead the charge in effectively addressing the concerns outlined in the List of Requirements. So far, as demonstrated in the President’s email to the student body, Senior Staff has targeted 4 diversity-related issues to move forward in addressing immediately, only one of these tasks was included in the List of Requirements. Though the others included in that message are important and useful measures, the vast majority of items on the List of Requirements remain insufficiently attended to. We have the utmost confidence in the Diversity and Progress Committee’s abilities, and will to thoroughly care for these issues, especially given the body’s current leadership, however, we implore Senior Staff to demonstrate a greater shared responsibility in effectively addressing our community’s shortcomings. Furthermore, we expect that all minutes, notes, and other information from these meetings be transparently shared with the Earlham community so that we may acknowledge the increased dedication, and literacy in addressing these issues, of Senior Staff.


Best,



EC Students Against Racism

Greeting the Board of Trustees

Good morning friends,

At 7:30am today, over 80 students gathered in preparation for our Friday morning silent action: to greet the Board of Trustees at their breakfast in LBC, present them with our list of requirements and all the statements of support from various clubs/groups on campus.

A special shout out to all those who wrote statements: Black and Lavender, Earlham College Equestrian Co-operative, Black Men United, Black Ladies United at Earlham, Boycott Divestment and Sanctions Movement, The Earthquakers, Bodhi House, Dancy alloy Steering Committee, Cunningham cultural center, Earlham Health Collective, Food Education House, Gurney House, Earlham Historical Journal, Foster House, German House, History Club, Jay House, Interfaith House, International Student Coalition, La Maison Française, French and Francophone studies department theme house, Miller Farm, EC Model United Nations Club, Outdoors Club, Student Athlete Advisory Committee, Women's Rubgy team, SEL (Sociedad de Estudiantes Latin@s), Casa Hispana, Rose City Coffee Co Op, Quaker House, Spectrum, SPJP (Students for Peace and Justice in Palestine), The Women's Center, Politics House, Students for a Free Tibet, Music House, New Measures, Black Student Union, Quaker Fellows, Earlham Student Government. 
We are still up to additional statements of support.

We greatly appreciate your words of support. Thank you. 

From 8-8:30am we stood in LBC to stand in solidarity with one another in the #ECStudentsAgainstRacim movement. We were greeted (and ignored) by various members of the Board.

If you see Board Members on campus, remember to treat them with the utmost respect and engage with them in conversations.

Please contact us if you have any questions or just want to show your support: ecsoc2015@gmail.com.

With hope and light,
EC Students Against Racism Steering Committee