lxxxii
2.7.08
published on 01/28/05
Wesleyan University students stage sit-in
On Tuesday, Dec. 7, students at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut barricaded President Doug Bennett in his office as a means of formal protest. The protest lasted for approximately five hours.
Bennett eventually announced that a campus-wide forum would be held the next day. The forum was also broadcast in an on-campus cinema, and over 400 people stood outside the doors of the meeting space.
Students at the forum read President Bennett a letter explaining their reasons for protest and what they expected to come of it.
The letter stated, All we ask now is that you present a proposal that expresses your commitment to making this university the inclusive, socially responsible institution you claim it to be, and that you do so in a time frame that reflects your awareness of the urgency of all of these concerns.
Vassar students expressed support for the efforts made at Wesleyan. I think its wonderful. Voicing public, widespread discontent in active, immediate ways can open doors for change, and from what I know, it seems that the Wesleyan students did so in a responsible, mature, and activemanner," said Vassar Student Activist Union member Max Shmookler '06. "In my opinion, Vassar College could use a bit of similar stirring up...Many elements of daily college life are being privatized...yet where is the expression of discontent?"
A version of the article below was printed in The Wesleyan Argus two days following the protest.
Ariel Schwartz, Assistant News Editor
Katharine Hall 
Executive Editor, The Wesleyan Argus
While President Doug Bennet stayed locked in his South College office, over 250 students gathered outside the building and later blocked the stairwells to protest a long list of issues related to a lack of student voice in recent Administration decisions. Standing for over four hours in the rain, students spoke out on an open mic and tried to bargain with Bennet to address their concerns with the whole community.
Tuesdays protest was sparked by a speak-out on Monday, which was organized to address issues related to students of color on campus.
The students presented a 16-item issue list that included...chalking, gender-neutral housing, hate crimes, ethnic studies, and the WESU/WSHU deal. [WESU are call letters for Wesleyan campus radio. WSHU broadcasts NPR and supervises WESU's use of NPR feeds.] Organizers passed out fliers titled Open Letter to the Wesleyan Community, which explained these concerns.
The letter states that the issues presented below are striking examples of the lack of Administration accountability and the absence of student voice in decision-making processes at Wesleyan.
At that juncture there were so many students in the stairwell we had to lock our door because they were trying to come in here, said Justin Harmon, Director of University Communications. They were stomping their feet very loudly and yelling and creating a disruption that basically went on the rest of the afternoon.
According to Harmon, Bennet was initially reluctant to address the students demands of issuing a statement to the whole campus, announcing a forum, praising the protest as productive and promising substantial results.
The goal [of Tuesday] was to get President Bennet to engage with our dissatisfaction with University policies on our terms, said Matt Montesano 05, who actively participated in the protests. Yeah, it was intimidating, but no one was going to hurt Doug Bennet.
Nell Schaffer 06 said that the issues listed reflect problems that have not been addressed by the Administration for a long time.
Im frustrated with how the Administration is not responding to a number of issues, Schaffer said. The whole point of the school is having it for the students. Its ridiculous that when my sister was here, who graduated in 2000, they were dealing with the same exact issues.
To draw attention to the growing crowd outside South College, some students ran through Fisk and PAC interrupting classes in the process.
I definitely supported what they did, but if theres one thing we should maintain its our relationship with our professors, said Anjali Saxena 06, who was in Professor of Philosophy Joseph Rouses class, which was interrupted.
After the protesters walked in on Rouses class, Saxena said that Rouse told them that they were taking away his voice also.
Students tried to communicate with Bennet in his office to get him to agree to hold a campus meeting on Wednesday and to send an e-mail to the Wesleyan community addressing the issues.
I was really impressed with the unity created by the organizers, Schaffer said. Getting the e-mail written while doing it in a civil manner was really impressive.
Bennet left his office at 5 p.m. after he and students agreed to meet on Wednesday.
The events on Monday and Tuesday were part of a week-long organized protest which included an open community forum on Wednesday afternoon and a talk by Amy Goodman from Democracy Now scheduled for Friday evening.
[The forum concluded with a second forum being scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 25.]
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Alumnae/i posters are strongly encouraged to include their class year with their name. The maximum length for comments is approximately 100 words; longer responses should be submitted as letters to the editor to misc@vassar.edu. More information about our letters policy can be found on our Policies page.
