That does make sense, but tough to do at a school with only 1,300 students.
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Interesting comparison. At Oberlin the admin got into trouble by endorsing a downtown demonstration; at Haverford, it got into trouble by trying to discourage students from going “downtown”.
Not exactly. At Oberlin, students shoplifted, then accused the store of racism for having called the police. The college supported demonstrations and a boycott of the store for having dared to call the police on students of color who had engaged in criminal activity. And the college eventually lost a huge civil judgement.
At Haverford, during a pandemic, the school urged students to not violate the isolation rules by leaving campus to attend demonstrations in Philly. Students were incensed. How dare the administration expect them to abide by the school’s public health isolation measures, when they felt it was more important for them to be at a demonstration? The students called racism, mounted a strike, pressured those students who continued to try to attend classes, and eventually had many of their demands met. The school may pay a price, in that paying students and their families will choose to spend their tuition dollars elsewhere, and in that alumni may close their wallets.
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That is interesting. 
But wasn’t the Oberlin demonstration pre-covid? Or was there a more recent one? I believe Haverford’s request to keep it away from downtown was due to covid concerns. I wonder if they would have acted differently without that consideration? Perhaps they’d make the same decision to avoid the lawsuits Oberlin experienced. Just musing…
I think all of that is interesting. And, yes I think @parentologist is referring to the same Oberlin demonstrations that took place in 2016 and formed the basis of a lawsuit between the proprietors of a local store and against the college for libel. Would the Haverford demonstrators have received the same traction had the administration just quarantined them? That occurs to me. But, as they say, hindsight is 20/20.
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That’d an interesting point. Setting aside the fact that the Haverford strike leaders had been raising issues with the administration since the summer, was there something wrong with the president’s email? It isn’t so easy to find the email, but here are excerpts, as reported by NPR: “Sparking outrage on the Haverford campus was an emailed letter to students after Wallace’s death, in which Haverford president Wendy Raymond and interim dean Joyce Bylander wrote, “Now is not the time to go to Philadelphia. Our fear is that for every righteous protester in the street, there are other actors afoot.” Joining a protest off campus “not only would not bring Walter Wallace back,” they wrote, “it could play into the hands of those who might seek to sow division and conflict especially in vulnerable communities.” Instead, the letter urged students to vote as an alternative to protesting: “Don’t put yourselves in harm’s way this weekend … Let’s fight for democracy at the ballot box and then let’s hold elected officials accountable for putting in the programs, resources, and reforms that make tragedies like this a real thing of the past.”
This is an excerpt of what the students said in response, from their website:
“We, the students of color at Haverford, are responding to the egregious email you sent to the student body Wednesday afternoon. Your email is a continuation of a long tradition of anti-Blackness and the erasure of marginalized voices that have come to characterize the experiences of students of color at Haverford. We are also deeply disappointed and angry that the administration has learned nothing from the protests that ensued after the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and so many more at the hands of police – a time in which President Raymond reassured Haverford’s commitment to anti-racism as the national conversation turned to abolition. It is through an abolitionist framework that we choose to operate out of and implore you to begin doing so as well.
In your first correspondence addressing Walter Wallace Jr.’s death, you begin your email by rightfully noting the grief and exhaustion of Black students on this campus. Yet immediately you undermine our rightful anger, minimizing the importance of protest while placing boundaries on how students can engage with their communities in Philadelphia. Although you claimed your email was to protect us, who are you trying to protect? The image of the college? You have proven to us, yet again, that your gestures are nothing more than a performative attempt to placate the anger of Black and Brown students at Haverford.
The statements, “protesting will not bring Walter Wallace back” and “now is not the time” are unsympathetic, counterproductive, and insensitive. For someone who claims to be “dedicated to anti-racism and social justice,” these unexamined assertions actively harm the Black community, not just on Haverford’s campus, but in all of our communities. In choosing to not actively support (e.g. increasing COVID-19 testing, offering transportation, providing guidelines on how to protest safely, etc.) students who want to protest for Walter Wallace Jr., Breonna Taylor, and all of the Black lives taken by police officers, you are not only silencing our voices and preventing us from protesting the violence enacted on Black people, but actively stopping us from reinforcing the dignity and humanity of Black lives by showing up for community members down the street. By doing so, you are actively trying to suppress our anger. Furthermore, in your email, you offered us a vigil and community worship space as an alternative to protesting. When we only participate in the recognition of Black lives after death, we end up perpetuating the death of Blackness itself. Instead, we should be celebrating, upholding, protecting, and defending Black lives during life too. So, now, we ask you, if now is not the time, when will be the time for Black lives to matter?”
While the offending email may have been in part about Covid, it went beyond pandemic safety. The student response was focused on the parts beyond pandemic safety.
I brought up Oberlin not because I thought it had a similar origin story, but because they both share a context of highly politicized and publicized actions by administrations. There are more and more examples out there of schools contending with gnarly issues in various ways, with varying notoriety. I don’t think we know how the responses will be judged for years. admissions and alumni fundraising will probably be the measure of success.
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Well, if there’ one thing we can predict from the past half-century of POCs and non-POCs occupying the same elite college campuses, it is that nothing an administration does during a time of anguish is ever going to satisfy everyone. A college - any college - is only as good as its human resources. This is why some can suffer breaches in civility and collegiality and recover slowly while others continue on a downward spiral. IMO, it is impossible to overestimate how much COVID fatigue may have factored into events on the Main Line. I predict Haverford will regain its footing once the pandemic restrictions are lifted and people are able to find each other more easily outside their pods.
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Thanks for the thoughtful response, Cate.
I was glad to see the quote about re-centering the discussion away from what is most important. That happens more often than not in these conversations and I am thankful to be reminded to recenter.
It seems we’re moving further and further from the main issue. Maybe I’ve contributed to that unfortunate lapse in focus. IMO, the most important issue in all this remains the same. Achieving equity at HC (and all colleges.) Everything else is secondary, third-ary, fourteenth-ary. Some may not agree that equity should be a goal of a university, and this will be the point at which we fundamentally disagree. Everything else seems like quibbling over what side dishes to serve at the wedding reception.
Losing a couple of weeks of classes in the goal to achieve equity doesn’t seem like too much to ask. Now that classes have resumed, it almost seems like a red herring to even include that as a material part of the current discussion.
As sensitive as I am to the feelings of students who feel hurt by the strike, nothing I’ve heard so far (in or outside of this thread) even comes close to a reason why the goal and struggle for equity should be abandoned. To continue to focus on that instead of equity is to lose focus. We should not ignore those incidents, but to re-center the discussion from equity to a couple of unfortunate tangential acts, would be shortsighted and wrong.
To debate negotiation tactics instead of focusing on what we can all do to achieve the ultimate goal of equity is to get mired in the muck. This progress toward equity doesn’t deserve to be consciously or unconsciously mired and delayed. Just as we don’t suggest a student who flunked one exam quit college, we should not suggest that a couple of lapses in judgement by supporters of equity is reason enough to re-center the discussion away from equity.
If the goal is equity, and if HC has agreed to dedicate its resources (financial and otherwise) toward that goal, I struggle to understand why anyone would want to raise such smaller topics above the goal of equity.
The strike is over. It doesn’t seem likely another strike will happen. For anyone to suggest HC is currently more likely to be the scene of yearly strikes seems unrealistic. I would worry more about campuses that haven’t addressed the topic and colleges that haven’t backed equity as much as HC has now agreed to. Those other colleges are places where it may be necessary to strike to achieve equity. That is no longer necessary at HC.
So, now that HC has made its commitment, now that the strike is over, now that a few broken eggs have been cleaned up, and campus is on the way to reopening fully (after the strike and after C19 is under control in USA) - what should we discuss? What is the most efficient and meaningful use of our dialogue here to forward the ultimate goal of equity?
I think it would be much more helpful to hear opinions on whether or not equity is a worthy goal, and why or why not.
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I would be worried about the presence of students on HC campus who believe bullying is an appropriate method of behavior. See, list of demands, cited above, FAQ for parents, question 5: to paraphrase- “why are students
Being mean and bullying my child?” Answer “social pressure is necessary”.
You may be comfortable with those who justify their bullying. I am not, nor do I want my child to be.
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Ok. I think we need a new thread, though.
Starter questions: what is the difference between equity and equality? How should equity be defined? Is it person by person, group by group? If it is by group, what groups? How is equity measured? What does it look like on a college campus? Is it different or the same on all college campuses? What kind of time frame is realistic? Who decides when equity has been reached?
Equity isn’t going to be defined and agreed upon by everyone. Someone will find inequity somewhere (other than in Karl Marx’s imagined utopia). We should certainly strive for equity, but we’ll never reach it.
Right, new thread, off-topic to OP
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This is an interesting turn… the root cause of the bullying is now too complex to resolve in the same discussion.
I wonder why people at Haverford can’t resolve this problem?
A complete discussion of this topic would include the admissions process, and the schools responsibility to society and to those admitted (appreciating there is a 40% yield on offers, so even balancing an incoming class is impossible). Where in the process do you determine “equal”, how often to do measure equity within the school (using what metrics), and how do you afford those principals?
Once you’re equal, who then gets to make “demands” when the next measurement doesn’t go their way?
Bullying is wrong, and the OP / others on this thread should speak up at Plenary and engage the community in addressing this issue. As noted somewhere above, Haverford is far from perfect, but is a leader in this discussion. If that’s not true, but please identify the schools that have delivered Equity.
This conversation appears to have run its course.
I am a parent of a Haverford first year. My C attended an elite private school ON A FULL NEED BASED SCHOLARSHIP so we are not wealthy. We did not qualify for aid at Haverford because my C’s school told us not to apply as it would hurt C’s chances for getting in, but to apply second year. C’s school is in a big city, 40% POC. C very nervous about going away to school because of Covid and other issues. On campus for a few weeks in a single room, alone. Almost no organized activities on campus. Very isolating. Strike starts. School shuts down. We cannot get any information whatsoever from ANYONE in administration on what’s happening. WE GOOGLE SCHOOL NEWSPAPER TO GET INFORMATION ONLY TO FIND THE STRIKE STARTED WITH THE SEXIST MYSOGINISTIC SONG SMACK THE ■■■■■ BUT THE SCHOOL IGNORES THAT BECAUSE SEXISM IS OK . C has severe anxiety about school work and suddenly cannot get any information from teachers. C becomes extremely worried about losing momentum in already challenging classes. . Still no response from anyone in administration on whether classes will ever resume. Notice from bio department that all teaching of bio will stop to be replaced by required anti-racism classes. C worried about never being able to learn bio properly, needed for advanced classes. Every student in another math class is given 100% on the midterm just for being in a class with strikers. Not my C’s class . Still no word from administration. Widespread bullying and intimidation of students to join the strike or be ostracized. Anyone not joining is vilified. Now C WHO WAS NERVOUS ABOUT COLLEGE TO BEGIN WITH IS NOW WORRIED ABOUT LOSING FRIENDS. Bizarre, threatening communications from campus leaders that " indifference is the opposite of love" so that " silence is violence." So join the strike or you are against it. C just wants to go to class but that’s viewed as racist. It’s racist to want to get the education your parents paid 35 K to receive, money C knows they don’t have and took out loans to pay. It is racist not to take part in a strike that is started by people who think its ok to sing Smack a ■■■■■ without regard to who might be upset to hear such a violent sexist song? WHAT REALLY HAPPENED: The strikers ( probably heavily supported by the backward thinking fellows) took advantage of a cultural moment where the fear of being called a racist made everyone cower and refuse to uphold the most basic responsibility of college leadership—to keep the students safe . Because to take the strikers on and say you can protest but it cannot hurt or intimidate other students would open them up to an accusation that setting any limit on behavior is itself a racist act. They of course miss the point that looking the other way on the behavior of the strikers, providing them with a pass because of their race that would not be provided to other
students, sends the message that those students should somehow be exempt from rules that apply to everyone else. That is not a good message to send and if I was the parent of a striker I would be appalled. every parent I know wants their kids to understand how their actions affect others and never hurt others. ( Haverford seemed like a place that would teach this.) So it is March 1, the date transfer apps are due. So easy for people to say if you don’t like the school just transfer. Working two jobs, limited funds, no financial aid for transfer loss of C’s dream, adjustment to a new school, many, many other pressures, but somehow we got some apps in. Haverford is a school that let us down in the most basic but most profound way. My C is just roadkill. Wendy gets to keep her job and my C loses his dream. She had an ethical obligation to keep every student safe. She failed. She convinced herself that she was serving some greater good but really she was only serving herself.
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I am so sorry you and your child are going through this and sincerely hope the transfer works out.
It seems to me that this is a very popular problem in many universities. And, unfortunately, not today no one is taking any action to solve it.
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I’m so sorry for your child’s experience. I wish them the best in their transfer and the next three years. My child had to transfer from their dream school and after a bit of a rocky start is thriving. It will be okay. What a toxic environment.
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I am so sorry to hear of your C’s experience, I hope the transfer works out. Based on this thread it’s going to be awhile before I recommend Haverford to any of the HS students I counsel.
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There are many schools where one can receive a good education at a decent price and be surrounded by civil people in a pleasant atmosphere. Life is too short to put up with anything less.
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Very sorry to hear this is happening. I am actually incensed reading this. We are also
“Full pay” -or at least are about to be- and I couldn’t imagine my child having to deal with such nonsense when trying to get an education. Good luck to your child.
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