Students walked the campus with heavy hearts on Sunday, Mar. 29, 2015, pursuant to the discovery of racist hate speech spray-painted in the first floor bathrooms of the Crozier Williams College Center. The graffiti was quickly removed, but not before several photographs went viral via social media.
The event shocked a campus still reeling from a series of charged events, starting with a controversial Facebook posting by a member of the faculty. The impact of the comment led to President Katherine Bergeron to call an all-campus forum this past Wednesday in order to address the issue. The event was then followed by an open-meeting of the Student Government Association where two resolutions were passed with the intent of legitimizing a condemnation of hate speech by the student body.
At around 4:00 p.m. that Sunday, an impromptu meeting was moderated by Associate Dean of Student Sarah Cardwell and Director of Student Engagement and Leadership Scott McEver, as well as a number of other staff members. The event was well-attended for having received little to no official publicity, but the dissatisfaction with Bergeron’s absence was ubiquitous. “How can we solve anything if the President isn’t actually here?” asked Randsel Brannum ’17.
The students proceeded to leave the College Center, heading directly to the President’s house on Williams Street in order to discuss the issue directly. Quite quickly, Bergeron opened her door to all, hosting upwards of fifty Connecticut College students in her living room. Following a short address expressing her profound disappointment and sympathy, Bergeron discussed with what seemed like a renewed urgency the mounting issues of bigotry, racism and hate speech on campus.
While some students continued to press for her to condemn the initial controversial posting, this meeting was largely a dialogue concerning structural steps for the College to take. Suggestions included an immediate cancellation of classes this Monday (Mar. 30) as well as a dramatic re-envisioning of the College curriculum to more adequately integrate issues of racial and cultural diversity into the College’s ethos.
When students left, Bergeron returned to campus in order to continue the campus conversation with the students that remained at the original forum. There, she spoke with a larger group of students in Cro’s nest in order to more formally address the morning’s occurrences.
Much of the student group then left to engage with an NBC news crew, who arrived on campus around 8:00 p.m. outside of the campus’ Williams Street entrance. Because the campus is technically private property, the students read pre-written statements off-property. SGA president Ethan Underhill ‘15 as well as Deion Jordan ‘17 read statements on local television in front of their many peers who came to show solidarity.
“There is no way we can begin to heal until we confront these issues head on”, said Underhill. His statements were echoed by students Ramzi Kaiss ’17 and Aparna Gopalan ’17, who urged people to continue speaking out. Gopalan also pointed out that “since the instance that catalyzed this was made in a public forum, the administration’s response also needs to be public.”
By 8:45 p.m., students regrouped in the College Center where another discussion was joined by Dean of Student Life Victor Arcelus and a handful of faculty members concerned with campus life. Students vocalized their suggestions for the next day’s event. Both parties worked to plan the logistics around a secondary, mandatory all-campus forum, one designed to have more scope and impact than Wednesday’s forum.
The group closed the open session around 10:30 p.m., breaking into a smaller, more focused group of faculty and students in order to solidify the next day’s plans. The NBC news story broke at 11 p.m. EST. •
This Connecticut College at brouhaha is a depressing. Based on what I read in this school “newspaper” I wouldn’t want my son or daughter attend this school. And they won’t. If the administration at any school feels it is better to silence a world-wide ethnic minority professor ( a Jew, one of 12 million in the world) for stating an opinion offensive to a member of a relatively large ethnic group (Bangladeshi) that falsely claims minority status in the US (156 million Bangladeshis in the world, or 1.6 BILLION Muslims world-wide who are under no obligation to seek to move to the US) , then the patients have taken over the insane asylum and they have nothing worthwile to teach to sane members of humanity. This whole brouhaha about racism in Connecticut College reflects very badlyon the quality of thinking at Connecticut College.