Reminder: Stand Up For Your Rights

The time for action is now. Show up in Usdan today at noon to protest the Administration’s new overreaching and insulting Residency Policy. Before you arrive, here’s what you should know:

1: This is not about Beta. While this policy was implemented mainly to impact Beta, the Administration knows it gives them free reign to walk all over students.  This protests is about personal rights. We are not university property.

2: The new policy is vague, allowing the Administration to crack down on almost anything. It prohibits visiting “private societies”, but it does not state what a “private society” is, conveniently allowing the Administration to decide for themselves.

3: This affects everyone on campus. By limiting freedom of association, it curtails the rights of all students and changes the relationship of students to the administration. Instead of being roughly equal, this places the administration in a paternalistic position over us, telling us what we can and cannot do. The administration has been trying to change the character of the school for years, and if we don’t take a stand now, it will send a message to the administration that they can do whatever they want without recourse. We must stand up now and tell them that we will not let them tell us how to live our lives.

4: Please bring signs to show your support. We’re keeping this civil and acting like adults, so no personal attacks or inappropriate language.

5: There will a petition for you to sign calling on the Administration to repeal the policy.

  • http://www.wesleying.org Zach

    Please email any photo or video of the protest to staff(at)wesleying(dot)org.

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  • 999999

    Can someone post photos of the protest to Wesleying for those who are studying abroad?

  • Anon

    Hmm. I don’t see anybody addressing the issues that led to the Administration’s response. Let’s all tiptoe around the big bomb that nobody wants to mention: off-campus sexual assaults of students.

    • private society

      The protest is not supporting the right to sexually assault students. It is opposing the university’s outrageous decision that, as Wesleyan students, we are not allowed to associate in any way on property owned by private societies not affiliated with the university. I, for example, won’t be able to attend any freemason meetings next year without getting suspended. :(

      • Guest

        Good — I’m glad that we addressed this. But as the student body unites over a messed up administration, why not also take some time to look at the ultimate reason why the university is making such a big deal over Beta? (the private society that broke the camel’s back…) The university is making these big statements so that when someone else gets sexually assaulted on this campus, the university can legally deny responsibility.

        I’m not saying that we shouldn’t also protest the university, but let’s just be mindful of the larger picture.

        Let’s not forget: Sexual assault at Wes is a real possibility, and will definitely happen again if we don’t address this problem.

        • Survivor

          Sexual assault at Wes isn’t a possibility. It’s a reality. It happens ALL the time, and usually goes unreported for many different reasons. The University is exploiting this one particular case of sexual assault (which is totally fucking ridiculous, because in doing so, they are also exploiting the girl who was raped and likely making this whole circumstance 10x worse for her) to get back at a “private society” which was already on their shit list. By framing this whole Beta-admin battle as one about sexual assault, the University is getting out of accusations from last semester so they seem to be tough on assualt and so that they can turn the student body against Beta at the same time. If you want to frame the argument about sexual assault, let’s talk about how slimey it is that the University is using an isolated case of rape at Beta (which was likley handled better by the MPD than it would have been by PSafe anyway) to propel their whole campaign against the frat.

          Long story short, Sexual assault happens in more dorm rooms than frat houses. Should the university also ban us from socializing in their dorm rooms?

          • Anon

            So what do you think the university or student body should do to stop sexual assault?

      • Tsk tsk

        The protest isn’t supporting the right to sexually assault students but it is protesting behind another cause associated with this issue that is not as important as the sexual violence one. The university should not have used such broad language, but if you’re able to interpret the context of it, and if you are familiar with things around here, you would know it targets Beta, and that’s fine given the history of sexual violence there. It’s regretful that students have taken this incident to rally (or maybe not rally as the reports seem to indicate, but at least focus on) around a policy that may have been misworded rather than the underlying issues.

  • Email

    The Bill of Rights only protects people’s rights vis-à-vis state interference. There is no freedom of association at a private institution.

    • anon

      no one is claiming the policy is unconstitutional. freedom of association is still worth defending even when it isn’t the law.

    • anon

      no one is claiming the policy is unconstitutional. freedom of association is still worth defending even when it isn’t the law.

    • Adam

      Wesleyan promises freedom of association and has a moral and contractual obligation to uphold its promises.

  • Anon

    REPEAL AND REPLACE!

    …Whoops, wrong illegal infringement on peoples’ rights…

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  • Anonymous

    Where’s the FB group?

    • lesanjuan
      • Dude

        man 2 people, good turnout you guys got there!

        • anonymous

          50 now…

          • concerned citizen

            cute protest. everything sure is different now

          • Anon

            Congrats on being a dickhead!

      • wessss

        Some FIRE people are coming!