Chatham Student Activism Blog

Submitted to the faculty committee along with other materials on December 4, 2007:

We, student activists, not only feel personally disrespected but also find it problematic that our administration responds with such contempt to student activism. To sum up an entire semester of activist work with “yada yada yada” is unacceptable. The way that we are continually belittled makes it clear that our work is seen as a nuisance and that administration would rather we remained silent about racism and other social problems in our community. We resorted to holding an emergency forum after weeks of communication with the administration about our concerns and months of anti-racist organizing. We worked all semester to educate the campus community about the unhealthy campus and national climate regarding race relations.

Racism and discrimination are woven into the fabric of the Chatham community. Prior to this semester, we saw Admissions remove diversity from our college publications and maintain a 100% white staff (it has been nearly one year since this criticism and nothing has changed in terms of staff demographics). We heard students complain about the lack of diversity in the faculty, wondering if the university believes we have nothing to learn from queers or scholars of color. We’ve watched students of color and queer students fight for their identities and concerns to be recognized and tolerated by our community. As second class community members and allies, we are forced to take up activism as a means of bringing about social and institutional change at Chatham.

If Chatham is truly committed to anti-racism, Chatham needs to acknowledge that racism is not only perpetuated by student individuals, but is also perpetuated by institutional policies. Some of these policies may include the way that job positions are advertised and the use of primarily white social networks to find people to fill positions. Admissions still remains a problematic aspect of Chatham. Homophobic members of our community are are so confidant in administrative homophobia that they have the audacity to condemn sexuality-related diversity initiatives. We heard from attendees of administrative diversity trainings that views expressed by their colleagues are disheartening. In the shift to University, a time when many new positions were developed and filled, Chatham opted out of creating a position to focus exclusively on diversity initiatives. Other schools our size have offices or directors multicultural affairs. Carlow has an incredible Director of Diversity Initiatives, Barbara Johnson. Smith College features their Office of Multicultural Affairs on their website and writes, “We want you to know that Smith College, a recognized leader in liberal arts education for women, has done more than ‘talk’ about multiculturalism. Smith has made a strong commitment to cultural diversity within its community.” We want Chatham to be able to say something like that. As it stands, we are not proud of Chatham’s place within U.S. higher education. At this time, the entire institution needs to be reevaluated. Chatham’s commitment to anti-racism should include a self study led by a qualified, elected committee (where students are involved in the selection process) to address institutional racism. An institution that condemns activism has no hope of achieving anti-racism or educating a student body who will stand up to injustice.

Student activism is in line with Chatham’s mission of preparing students to be active citizens in their community. Our mission statement says, “Chatham University prepares its students… to excel in their professions and to be engaged, environmentally responsible, globally conscious, life-long learners, and citizen leaders for democracy.” Student activists are not docile subjects, but rather “World Ready Women” leading our communities to challenge injustice. Student’s calls for increased skill-building opportunities in the classroom and through extracurricular learning opportunities help the university achieve its mission. The presence of student activism is evidence that Chatham does its job well insofar as it shows that women are taught to be leaders and change makers instead of followers.

The symbiotic relationship between the academy and activism cannot be overlooked. Many activists frame their cause and chose tactics based on knowledge and analysis of the issue produced in the academy. We believe that the classroom should be a place to learn about how institutions and social structures shape our lives. Scholarship of activism ought to be a part of our curriculum as it empowers students as vehicles for social change. In addition, faculty, staff and administration can be role models for student activists. For instance, student activists are proud to say that our president spoke on a panel about racial justice at the 2007 Summit Against Racism in Pittsburgh. Without tenure, however, our professors surely fear the consequences of being active political role models and incorporating activism into their curriculum. Lack of tenure also results in diminished agency for Chatham faculty, compromising free speech and political critique, which are hallmarks of academic inquiry. The administration’s current response to activism prevents the majority of our students from accessing an education that includes praxis, leaving the student body disempowered and unequipped for making change.

In the other direction, the academy is profoundly influenced by activist work. In a wide range of fields, scholars correspond with, interview, and travel to activists around the world. This could happen in environmental science, where scholars might get in touch with local activist organizations in order to get information about the effects of an environmental disaster on a population. Political scientists and other scholars read activists publications, listen to speeches and watch activist led political events in order to bring the activist’s political knowledge into the academy for analysis. Academics rely on organized activists to determine what is accountable knowledge production, as the knowledge produced in the academy ought to be useful in our communities. Activists take a much larger part in shaping the academy when new fields of study emerge out of social movements. We know that African American Studies, Women’s Studies and Queer Studies entered the academy through activism, namely by students and scholar activists.

There is a long history of student activists playing critical roles in social movements in the United States. One example of the power of student activism is the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), an anti-racist organization that emerged during the civil rights movement. SNCC utilized a diversity of tactics to achieve social change. One such tactic was Freedom Rides, where students took buses to the segregated South to participate in sit-ins in spaces designated for whites only. SNCC also helped to organize Freedom Summers where black students and white allies registered and mobilized black voters. SNCC later went on to become involved in the black power movement and protesting the Vietnam war. Another organization that played a pivotal role in protesting the Vietnam war was Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). SDS also employed a variety of tactics on college campuses including rallies, sit-ins, a student strike that shut down the University of Wisconsin for days, raids of draft offices and police confrontations. In 1969, radical students at Harvard took over an administrative building on campus, ejected the administration and camped out until they were forcibly removed by police the next day. There is a long history of students exercising power influentially and effectively in social movements.

In conclusion, Chatham should go further than issuing a statement that our community will not tolerate racism, because the past few months have shown that it tolerates racism very well though its silence and inaction. A commitment to anti-racism will involve institutional changes and recognition of the importance of activism. Chatham’s student leaders are participating in a large and powerful anti-racist movement that will transform social structures. If activists continue to be suppressed and reprimanded for organizing in response to injustice, Chatham will fail at its mission of preparing citizen leaders.

Signed,

The Coalition