A group of students at Sarah Lawrence College released a set of demands Monday, including free housing and food for students, to amend for alleged “injustices imposed on people of color.”
Members of the “Diaspora Coalition” presented the list of demands to President Cristle Collins Judd during a two-day sit-in at her office and accused the college of being an unsafe place for minority students and failing to properly commit to social justice.
“Sarah Lawrence was not founded on racial or economic equality and has not implemented sufficient strategies to dismantle systematic oppression to be sustainable or safe for marginalized people in an increasingly dangerous political climate,” the Diaspora Coalition asserted in its list of demands.
WATCH:
“AIN’T NO POWER LIKE THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE!” Day 2 of #SLC50SitIn pic.twitter.com/P1bhxk5ZgJ
— The Phoenix (@SLCPhoenix) March 12, 2019
The 9-page list of demands includes the following:
- Free winter housing with a “communal kitchen” containing “dry goods from the food pantry”
- Free laundry detergent and fabric softener for all students
- Special housing for students of color
- Allow students to share meal swipes because “It is unacceptable that there are students with leftover swipes at the end of the semester when other students are going hungry because they run out of meal options.”
- A mandatory first-year orientation session about “intellectual elitism”
- On-campus jobs prioritize the hiring of international students
- Prevent students of color from being educated about history by “racist white professors”
- Reject funding from the Charles Koch Foundation and review the tenure of “racist” professor Sam Abrams
- All students have unlimited access to therapy sessions
- Permanent funding for minority student unions that is not paid for by the student body
The students also demand that they are not punished for sitting-in the president’s office or any other forms of “civil disobedience” they engage in to promote their list. (RELATED: Student Speaks Out After Wyoming College Faces Backlash Over Cowboy Slogan)
President Judd responded to the students’ demands Tuesday, writing in a letter, “[The Diaspora Coalition’s] document brings to the fore many pressing issues that students at Sarah Lawrence face, especially students of color, low-income students, first-generation students, LGBTQ+ students, and others, and I am grateful for the willingness of our students to share their concerns with me and the campus community.”
A letter from the President regarding #SLC50SitIn was sent to the entire student body moments ago. pic.twitter.com/LiE9iIUAYK
— The Phoenix (@SLCPhoenix) March 12, 2019
Judd promised to facilitate round-table discussions in order to “continue conversations” but declined to acquiesce to demands to punish politics professor Sam Abrams.
According to The Phoenix, the Sarah Lawrence College student newspaper, 36 members of the faculty have signed on to the list of demands.
#SLC50SitIn now has 101 alumni signatures of support and 36 faculty signatures.
— The Phoenix (@SLCPhoenix) March 12, 2019
Comparatively, just 27 faculty members signed onto a “defense of academic freedom, free speech, and mutual respect” in December. Judd authored the letter as a response to campus backlash against Abrams, who wrote a New York Times op-ed calling for ideological diversity on campus and criticizing the left-wing bent of campus administrators.
A letter signed by 27 faculty members supporting President Judd’s “defense of academic freedom, free speech, and mutual respect” went out late yesterday. Judd stood by Sam Abrams’ “right to publish his work” after his op-ed got negative attention on campus this October. pic.twitter.com/kv1DplauCQ
— The Phoenix (@SLCPhoenix) December 15, 2018
Abrams’ office was vandalized with “messages of intimidation” after publication of the op-ed and the Diaspora Coalition referred to him as “anti-queer, misogynist, and racist” in its list of demands.
