Photo courtesy of Sophie Mulvihill
As of Tuesday night – the second day of protesting – neither the Board of Trustees nor President Bergeron has responded adequately to student protests; the Fanning occupation continues.
Night of Monday, Feb. 27th: The College shuts down classes for Tuesday due to “inclement weather.” All administrative offices are closed and classes are canceled. Occupiers enjoy hot cocoa and watch a movie together.
Tuesday, Feb. 28th, 2 a.m.: SVE sends an email and mass group texts with a streamlined communication plan and new point people moving forward.
Tues, Feb. 28th, 4 p.m.: To follow up on their earlier message, SVE holds a dialogue and protest poster-making session in Cro’s 1941 room. In this meeting, SVE addresses their new revised communications system, updates students on the occupiers, the status of their discussions with administrators, and what they have learned in the past two days to structure into the coming days.
Students are sharing perspectives on their protesting efforts so far:
Brynn Bernstein (they/them) was quoted on students who have felt inconvenienced by missing courses this week, highlighting that the inaccessibility of campus means that disabled students often have to miss courses:
“We live that. Come live it with us”
Tues, Feb. 28th, 6 p.m.: Faculty members spread the word to students about a faculty solidarity protest at 1:15pm the following day (Wednesday, March 1st).
Tues, Feb. 28th, 7 p.m.: The cast and production crew of Into The Woods, who have declared that they will refuse to perform unless SVE demands are met, meet to discuss their current plan and how to move forward.
Excellent work by the College Voice covering this. Thank you!
Fifty-nine percent of Conn students receive need-based aid. Therefore, if Bergeron had been able to attend the fundraiser, the money collected would have been used to provide financial aid to low and middle class Conn Coll students, thereby increasing economic and racial diversity at the college.
In other words, Bergeron was literally trying to take money from rich people and reuse that money to help low income people and people of color. For that, she is now being called a racist.
But isn’t taking money from historically privileged places and using it to help disadvantaged people actually the opposite of racism? Isn’t that what the modern day anti-racist movement should *actually* be about?
This is cancel culture at it’s worst. The protesters’ hearts are in the right place, but they are misguided. By creating unnecessary obstacles to fundraising, their actions are effectively hurting people of color. If they want to fight for social justice, there are better actions they could be taking.
You don’t seem to understand the culture she has created on campus of fear and bullying. This protest about the Everglades club is the tip of a very large and VERY problematic iceberg. She has been an issue for years. Hence, Dean King’s refusal to work at CC anymore. This is not cancel culture; this is about her persistent lack of support of staff and administration within the DEIA space. I have been intimately involved as an Alumni Board member and I can speak of examples I myself know of first hand.
Reply to ZB ´04
“Pecunia non olet”, the Romans said, “money does not stink”.
Today, we know this is not true. Another saying goes: “It matters, how you earn your money and how you spend your money.”
We know the term “blood money”.
The following example shows what I mean.
We saw, how the name Sackler became notorious, because they made their money with the death and suffering of hundreds of thousands of patients. And we realized, that we don´t want the family Sackler as sponsors for colleges anymore.
People with Blood money like to (literally) whitewash their money by donating to worthy causes, like progressive liberal colleges, to improve their own repution, to cloud the ways in which the money might have been earned.
We have to question the motives, why is someone donating? Are they really interested in the cause? Or are they just trying to make themselves look good?
Where did the money come from and how was it earned?
The origins of money do matter.
Was slavery involved? Was worker exploitation involved? Was colonialism involved? Was fraud or violence or tax evasion or other illegal methods involved?
Not all money is equal.
And then of course, it matters, how the money is spent. And as far as I understood, the resources for minority groups of students at Conn were not only not prioritized, but they wer neglected, understaffed, underfinanced, bullied etc. This is what matters and this has to change,
But as others already pointed out, this dispute is not about the fundraising event alone. It is more about the climate at the college, the unequal financing of different resources and the fact that fear and bullying should never have a place in education!
I am proud of my camel and the other students, staff and faculty, that they stand up for their common values in support for equity!
The sad truth is that Connecticut College needs rich, white money in order to compete against other elite liberal arts colleges. Because of America’s history, the vast majority of money in this country is controlled by rich white people. The less of their money the school gets, the less it will have to give to lower income students. There are not alternative places to get money.
If these protests were mainly about how money is spent rather than where it is collected, I would be more sympathetic to the cause. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the main focus of these protests. The protests are mainly against the idea that we took money from a place that 50 years ago engaged in discrimination. That makes their position unreasonable and untenable. If one goes back 50 years, every dollar in this country can be connected to some form of discrimination. If you go back even further, every dollar can be connected exploitation, slavery, and colonialism. Every. Single. Dollar. Thus, fundraising would be rendered completely impossible if we were to abide by the philosophical underpinnings of the protesters.
I’m open to ideas about how to spend money differently. However, I must also remain open to the idea that campus beautification may be one of the best strategies for attracting the children of wealthy, elitist parents.
Rather than calling people racist , trying to get people fired, and creating obstacles to fundraising, I wish the protestors would consider all the other ways they can push our our nation help people in need. For instance, we could end the War on Drugs, we could build more affordable housing, we could improve public schools, we could offer more vocational training as an alternative to college, we could make it easier for ex-convicts to get jobs, we could teach financial literacy, we could volunteer at local schools. These are things that would actually make a difference in the lives of people who are struggling and suffering. Bergeron getting fired does nothing.
Excellently said, international camel mom! I wish more detailed information was being put out in the media about the ways in which the college has neglected the DIEI staff, students and facilities. My student is giving me this disturbing information, but I feel like it needs to be broadcast in a more specific way.