Hundreds of students have been protesting about racial inequality present on campus, and today — known as the National Day of Action — a list of demands written by students of color went live on the website IsThisWhy.com:
Demands
President Michael Roth, past presidents, and the bureaucracy of this institution have actively neglected to address issues that pertain to students of color and empower them with the same level of resources, consideration, and inclusion historically available to white students. Thus, we present the following demands:
WE DEMAND EQUITY & INCLUSION
We, members of the student of color community (SOC), demand to be holistically included as part of Wesleyan University’s student body, to have our demands heard on campus, and to be recognized and respected as individuals, not simply as numbers to fill the institution’s diversity quota.
STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTABILITY
We demand a written statement addressed to the Wesleyan Community, within 48 hours, from the President of Wesleyan University, Michael Roth, and Vice President for Equity and Inclusion/Title IX Officer, Antonio Farias, to commit to these demands by the specified deadlines via an action plan that works towards a more equitable and inclusive campus environment. This statement should highlight the administration’s inaction and lack of dedication to adequately support students of color and acknowledge the ways that the senior administrators have failed the SOC community, including but not limited to:
On Sunday morning, I opened my Instagram to post a photo on my finsta. (It was a photo of my new favorite Kimoji: a candy heart that says “good dick”.) I started scrolling through all my friends’ photos, and I saw quite the gem on my friend Emma Graham ’19‘s finsta: she and two of her friends had held a sacrifice the night before in her Hewitt dorm room.
