Student-activists from a taxpayer-funded college in the state of Washington have released a list of extreme demands aimed at combating the school’s “systemic oppression,” including the creation of a new college dedicated to social justice.
“The Student Assembly for Power and Liberation” of Western Washington University strives to create a far-left environment on campus in response to the University’s “history of oppression” and violent acts on students.
“We are dedicated to dismantling violent and oppressive systems on campus to be able to reconstruct and build ones that promote marginalized students to thrive,” the group wrote on their Facebook page.
“This negligence which stems from a structure that has intentionally been built to uphold white supremacy and simultaneously push out historically marginalized identities,” the description continues.
If the new College of Power and Liberation were to go through, the group demands the immediate hire and funding of 10 new professors subject to student approval. To add to their financial requests, the group would require $50,000 to host an opening event for the new school and an additional $45,000 to pay for students workers to do “de-colonial work on campus.”
The student-activists also demand a new Office for Social Transformation dedicated to monitoring “racist, anti-black, transphobic, cissexist, misogynistic, ableist, homophobic, islamophobic, and otherwise oppressive behavior on campus.” This office would give power to students to discipline faculty members who commit offenses and allow them to place professors under investigation if they feel their classroom is not a safe environment.
In addition to administrative changes, the group’s lengthy list of demands also includes the creation of culturally segregated campus living arrangements. They claim residence halls based on cultural identities will allow students to connect, although it seems like these would create racially isolated environments that these self-proclaimed progressives would normally oppose.
The group has also decided to replace the spelling of “history” and “person” with the more politically correct “hxstory” and “persxn” in order to remove gender bias.
The university already appears to have a relatively liberal campus, which has a number of social justice programs and student run groups, such as the Department of Education and Social Justice, a queer resource center and an ethnic student center.
In an attempt to have their ideas heard, the student-activists crashed a February 12 board of trustees meeting, which was filmed and added to their YouTube channel.
At the meeting, they accuse the school administration of “denying our humanity and belittling our pain,” which they deem as an act of violence. They claim that administration’s “denial of basic student needs” and “complacency” are also violent acts.
They extended an invitation to the board to attend an Assembly for Power and Liberation meeting, but the board declined.