As always there are two sides to every story; I too have a student at Amherst and have heard a different side coming from many other students, including students of color. Continue to hope that President Martin will remain steadfast in her usual fair minded approach to problem solving and that Amherst will be a wonderful place for ALL to thrive in.
@AsleepAtTheWheel - I didn’t realize you were part of the Amherst community, you didn’t even know the president is female, which is odd for someone who knows the school at all.
Liberty, Bob Jones, or Hillsdale might be better fits for your kid if this is the sort of thing that gets schools crossed off your list. Because similar protests, sit-ins and discussions have been going on at a wide variety of elite colleges and universities this month.
There is not one uniform view of what’s going on, in fact I’m sure of it from reading Amherst publications and social media - I would expect no less from these kids, based on those I know. What i hope is that they are able to discuss these differences respectfully and come to agreement.
I agree that Pres Martin responded to this very well and echo your sentiments.
Agreed!
Letter from Amherst Uprising to “Alumni, Family and Friends” just posted and marked “please read and circulate widely”:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/er7lkgxxkot8r5f/AlumniFamilyandFriends.pdf?dl=0
Thanks for sharing this OHMomof2. I had not seen this.
I wish there had been some mention of the unfortunate marginalization there had been by more than a few toward those students who did not participate ( the reasons being many) and misguided comments directed at some who were actually present but in the " background"
I am willing to accept that this is part of “mistakes” and that growth in a positive tone will continue moving forward and that hopefully this tone will prevail on social media also .
Perhaps you don’t realize that schools compete to attract elite students, just as much as students compete for admission into elite schools.
No doubt this protest will attract some prospective students, but it will turn off others. Schools will become more polarized, just like the rest of America.
Of course @hebegebe . I’m just saying the list of elite colleges and universities with similar protests happening recently includes Yale, Vanderbilt, Georgetown, Dartmouth, Tufts, Harvard, Princeton president’s office is occupied right now by students with various demands related to race, Stanford’s main quad has been occupied for several days…your list of elite schools will get small very quickly if these types of demonstrations are deal killers for your kid.
In fact, I am not sure there is a top college that isn’t having something like this going on right now, or last week.
Here’s a sort of hourly report on some of them: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2015/nov/18/studentblackout-anti-racism-protests-universities
I am aware of the various protests, but the scale varies dramatically.
Princeton’s President is gutless for letting students take over his office. He might as well resign now, as he has no control of the school. In contrast, Carol Swain at Vanderbilt is taking a firm stand (even though I don’t agree with her message, I believe she has the right to say it).
We still have another year before my first attends college. We will find out in the meantime which colleges have strong leadership and which ones do not.
I think it’s safe to assume that every college or university with a significant African American enrollment will experience a ripple effect of protests and direct actions as each student body attempts to demonstrate their solidarity with other campuses across the country. @hebegebe is correct to the extent that this represents a stress test of sorts for each campus. It is obviously being fueled by social media as well as by pent up frustrations that are possibly unique to each college. I don’t know how anyone could possibly rate each protest according to a “scale”. But I’ll try: Ferocity? Ingenuity? Results? I’m just brainstorming.
It isn’t nearly as bad as it is at other schools. Take Dartmouth for example.
Article in today’s NYT about the Amherst Uprising:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/29/us/with-diversity-comes-intensity-in-amherst-free-speech-debate.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0
“Schools will become more polarized, just like the rest of America.”
“More” is actually a starting place for conversation and examination.
Long article, and Amherst is only mentioned parenthetically, but I thought some might find it a worthwhile read:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/its-all-about-muscle/article/2000074
Or for a useful article FROM Amherst, you could read this: https://www.amherst.edu/aboutamherst/update-on-college-response-to-amherst-uprising
“Or for a useful article FROM Amherst, you could read this: https://www.amherst.edu/aboutamherst/update-on-college-response-to-amherst-uprising”
But that wouldn’t give him the Weekly Standard editorial outrage and ultra-conservative spin that he clearly so enjoys. Where’s the fun in objective information?
The guy who wrote that “article” for the Weekly Standard has written an entire book about the liberals and their dastardly “war on Christmas.”
Well, if this were the place for a discussion, instead of ad hominem attacks on me or the author of the article you might actually address the points that he raises. But for many, diversity means everything but diversity of thought.
Well, what was the point you were making about Amherst in that article, @AsleepAtTheWheel ?
@OHMomof2 – I was trying to be a bit provocative, but in retrospect I was wrong posting the article on an Amherst thread. It really has little to do with Amherst, and my note was more appropriate for one of the many threads on the Parents Forum discussing these issues.
That said, I think that you may have me pegged wrong. I do think that African-American kids at Amherst and similar schools have a much rougher go of it than the other kids, and clearly the resources that are necessary to help them aren’t there. Being a college freshman or sophomore away from home in a stressful environment is difficult emotionally for a lot of kids, but it’s more so for these kids, and I feel for them. I’m not sure that the remedies that they’re proposing are the right ones, and I have difficulty accepting that it’s racist for anyone who is not a POC to weigh in on what the best solutions may be. But I in no way deny the problem, and I would be thrilled if it could be solved to these students’ satisfaction, so they could feel fulfilled academically and personally while they’re at Amherst.
I hear you, @AsleepAtTheWheel .
On the second point, I don’t think that’s the case. The process is open to the entire community as far as I can tell.
As to the first, the goals (yes, the language has changed, as has the actual content of the desired changes) seem reasonable and like they may be helpful: http://amherstuprising.com/goals.html
Maybe unlike what’s been happening at some other schools, Amherst seems to have kept discussion of the issues and potential solutions process moving in a very respectful and cooperative way. There’s a timeline/description of this process at http://amherstuprising.com/index.html