Case Western Reserve University is providing a “safe space” for students who are upset about this week’s Republican National Convention.
The fancypants private school in Cleveland — where tuition, fees and room and board cost $60,304 per year — is located just over 4 miles from Quicken Loans Arena, where the GOP convention is occurring.
A July 11 statement in The Daily, Case Western’s internal e-newsletter, informs students — and professors, and administrators — that the private school’s Social Justice Institute “will host a ‘safe space'” in the basement of concrete-laden Crawford Hall for the duration of the convention, which runs from July 18 to July 21.
“After extensive consultation among our leadership team and discussions in last week’s open forums, we have decided that the university will reduce its on-campus operations significantly from Monday, July 18, through the close of the convention Thursday, July 21,” the statement explains.
Classes have been either cancelled or moved off campus. Faculty members, students and most staffers are supposed to take virtually the entire week off. “Deans and unit leaders have been asked to work with their teams to determine how to maintain essential services with the fewest number of staff physically on the campus.”
“University Counseling Services will continue to offer walk-in services for students who want to talk with someone about their concerns related to recent events and/or the upcoming convention,” the Case Western statement says.
“Recent events” appears to refer to this summer’s spate of police shootings as well as the murderous ambushes of police officers by black radicals. (RELATED: Black Lives Matter Leader: Dallas Cop Ambush Is A Conspiracy To Make Black Lives Matter LOOK BAD)
“The university’s Employee Assistance Service will have a counselor available on campus during the workday for staff or faculty who wish to talk about their concerns,” the statement continues.
In addition to the Social Justice Institute’s “safe space,” which is co-hosted by Case Western’s LGBT Center, the school’s Interreligious Council “also will house a safe space for those who want to talk or reflect about their concerns.”
As The College Fix notes, one reason that Case Western is almost completely closing down this week is because the fancypants private school is allowing hundreds of extra police officers to live in its dorms for the duration of the Republican National Convention.
On its Facebook page, the Case Western Social Justice Institute posted an angry op-ed by an anonymous Case Western professor who is unhappy about the decision to house cops on campus.
Case Western Reserve “will be ground zero for the storm troopers you will watch on national news next week,” the unidentified professor rants in the July 13 piece in Belt Magazine. “When the university realized that this might not be the wisest thing for an institution of higher learning to do, they opted for the solution I’m sure any of us would choose. They decided to take a break, for one week only, from being an institution of higher learning.”
“The financial details are shrouded in mystery, and what little information I could find suggests that the university donated the housing when the city came calling,” the professor adds. “I’ve also heard that the city intends to reimburse the university for costs it will incur this week, but that the odds of turning a profit are very slim. This is nothing more than rumor, however, and I only include it to clarify that I am not accusing the CWRU administration of any financial malfeasance.”
Follow Eric on Twitter. Like Eric on Facebook. Send education-related story tips to erico@dailycaller.com.