Student Strike at Haverford College Stretches Into a Second Week
“Students of color started a boycott of classes and campus jobs on Oct. 28 to protest the college’s inaction on changes demanded by students”
As we noted last week, this began when the school president asked students not to participate in a protest.
Inside Higher Ed reports:
With Us or Against Us?
Senior administrators at Haverford College put their own jobs on the line in an effort to address concerns of racial inequities at the college and end a strike led by students of color, which has stretched into a second week.
During a tense listening session via Zoom with Black student organizers and an audience of nearly 300 students and faculty members on Nov. 5, one student using a pseudonym asked President Wendy Raymond to resign “if effective change does not occur” to support students of color, who say they have been treated inequitably for decades. Raymond and other college leaders agreed that if adequate progress is not made, it would be appropriate for them to leave.
“I am here for this work,” Raymond said during the meeting. “And if I am an impediment, if I am not the way forward as president and there is a better way forward for Haverford College to do that, absolutely.”
Students of color started a boycott of classes and campus jobs on Oct. 28 to protest the college’s inaction on changes demanded by students, which they outlined in a letter several months ago amid nationwide protests in response to the killing of George Floyd. About 780 students of 1,373 total enrolled have informed organizers they are participating in the strike, according to Aishah Collison-Cofie, a junior and one of the organizers. Other students have openly and anonymously dissented to the strike due to disagreement with the organizers’ tactics and some of the demands.
Students at nearby Bryn Mawr College, a women’s college, are also participating in the strike and issued a similar list of demands to the institution’s administrators. Bryn Mawr and Haverford have a partnership that allows their students to take classes at either of the campuses.
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Comments
Let the “strike” continue across a major exam week. Problem solved.
Exactly. I certainly hope that the professors won’t let the students off scot-free. In general I’d just laugh at the idiots that are flunking themselves out of college but the college has to take this seriously if it’s really 60% of the student population.
How does a 1400 student private college even survive? I wouldn’t think it’d be financially viable given the tiny population.
Well they code-share with another small college nearby, Bryn Mawr. And they were prestigious, and they recruited the children of the wealthy so they could charge $$$.
But one reason they were desirable is that they provided isolation from the racial jungle. They are in Philadelphia’s “Main Line” area of very nice suburbs. If the place becomes truly woke, what are the parents paying for? They could have sent their kids to Temple for much less.
I think the school president should tell the students they are welcome to resign from the school if they are not happy, so they can find another school.
Other than breasts on a bull I can think of nothing more useless than a student strike.
Teats on a bull are actually marginally helpful in their predictive ability for the bull to sire top notch heifers, thereby making them MORE useful than a student strike.