Earlier today, posters appeared in Fisk calling out various facets of the Wesleyan administration, ostensibly in reaction to the recent revelations about the perpetrator status of Scott Backer. The posters call out University Relations, Michael Roth, and Antonio Farias.
Here are photos of the posters:
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Collude with the State? What??
Whether legitimate or not (and it’s not my call), it’s self-defeating to either use vague and conspiracist phrases like “colluding with the state” or attempt to emphasize the link between the Backer situation and race. The Trustees are not going to fire someone unless they think the school is in a crisis, and seemingly off-track (for many people) things like this are more like to create confused questions from people like the poster above than get results. What do you all think is more likely to generate negative publicity in the campus mainstream: a “Wesleyan hired a sexual predator to administer sexual violence hearings” narrative or confusingly making this about race?
The truth is one thing, but if you want results and real change, this approach won’t work.
Let us have a look at the administration’s legacy the past few years:
Marginalizing and ignoring sexual assault survivors ~ Enforcing
archaic drug policies ~ Decimating African-American Studies ~ Removing
need-blind admissions ~ Suing their own students ~ Month-long waiting lists for
CAPS appointments ~ Refusing to provide access to abortion ~ Ignoring the
accessibility needs of the disabled ~ Marginalizing the trans* community ~ “Mopping
up” evidence of sexual harassment ~ Heavily investing in fossil fuels ~ Stranding
first generation students ~ Hiring a sexual predator to preside over sexual assault hearings ~ Firing beloved employees (i.e. librarians) ~ “If we don’t close the houses with hopes of acquiring them, then we shouldn’t go down this route at all” ~ Sipping cocoa at home during blizzards while low-wage employees sleep on the Usdan floor ~ Plummeting down academic rankings not named Forbes: Unranked in recent Houston Chronicle “Small College” rankings ~ Cancelling Senior Cocktails to save face in the media after dinosaur museum snafu ~ And perhaps most importantly, silencing those who have the courage to speak up.
Please feel free to add.
Interesting point you made about rankings. Let’s be honest, you’re only talking about USNEWS, which is closely tied to endowment, spending per student, etc. The HOuston Chronicle only covers Texas colleges.
Wes falls in this because its endowment is low compared to comparable colleges (Vassar, Williams, Middlebury, Bowdoin, anyone). This is because Wes gives good financial aid. Wes is incredibly administratively efficient compared to other LACs. It spends 40% less on administration than Vassar while being 20% larger.
When the administration talks about how an new program will have to come out of financial aid, they’re not lying. Wes is broke. Wes has less money per kid than Colgate, Colby, Oberlin, Scripps, Holyoke, Macalester, Grinell, Reed, Denison, Lafayette, and the University of Richmond, all colleges which cannot compete with Wes academically (except maybe Reed). Be honest. The administration is walking on a tightrope and not falling off. Give them some credit.
-A Wes student
*a
*Houston
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