
This past Wednesday, students of color at Wesleyan released a list of demands to President Roth to address the University’s failure in combating racism and inequity on campus. The demands can be found on IsThisWhy.com here.
Just now, Roth sent an all-campus email about meeting the demands. His email can be found after the jump (note: It’s very long).
Update (11/21/2015, 3:24pm): The students of color who organized the Is This Why movement released a statement responding to Roth’s email on their website. It reads:
The #IsThisWhy movement demanded written statements from the President of Wesleyan University, Michael Roth, and Vice President for Equity and Inclusion/Title IX Officer, Antonio Farias within 48 hours. Michael Roth has responded within our timeline, but Antonio Farias has failed to do so. President Roth’s response proved him incapable of addressing exactly how the university has neglected each marginalized community on campus both in the past and in the present, and in doing so, he failed to produce a detailed action plan committing to the demands set forth by the #IsThisWhy organizers.
This campus cannot function without the intellectual and emotional labor of Students of Color. As promised, we will be taking further action. We will be demanding more.
We know our power.