@karenk6 maybe I missed something, but I think you were the first to bring up SES by pointing out that they were given a quarter mil education…
I think it’s disgusting to even insinuate that students can’t protest because they’re on financial aid (ie poor). Essentially telling us to take it and shut up isn’t, thankfully, how this country works.
Expulsion is way out of proportion to the incident. Some sort of punishment? Maybe, but expulsion? Give me a break.
@Karenk6
I find your comments on the U of C protesters and your blatant disregard for the student body president’s status as a first-generation student appalling. It is also evident that you did not understand the article.
Kissinger could face expulsion if Chicago threw the book at him and chose the harshest possible interpretation. More likely, this is similar to letters from lawyers/debt collectors/advertisements declaring hyperbolically that “you may face up to X years in jail,” that “penalties for non-payment may exceed $XXX,” or “15 minutes could save you 15% on insurance” (to take one example). The possibility is there, but it’s not the most likely outcome.
Elected officials, most would agree, should definitely be accessible to the public. Yet there’s a difference between demonstrating on the doorstep of the Capitol and occupying your congressperson’s office. One of those is free speech; the other is preventing your Rep. from doing his/her work. I see this as a similar situation.
I also think the distinction between “asking” and “demands” is significant; I’m more sympathetic to the former than the latter. The Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act resulted from nonviolent protest by MLK and his followers, but King also worked closely with LBJ, and they agreed on a PR strategy well in advance of events like the Selma clashes. King didn’t ask the Attorney General to prop open a back door and then lead a group of followers to occupy the Oval Office.
Expulsion is excessive in this case, but a message needs to be sent that protesters disrupting the work of the university will face consequences.
He, probably, wished to make a career in politics … and he is gonna have it.
I don’t think anyone here is contesting his right to protest. The issue here is whether he is less culpable of breaking & entering because he’s 1st Gen.
You’d think someone from a low SES background would understand the concept of breaking & entering… He premeditatively let in all the protesters, including non-student protesters (i.e. outsiders who have no accountability to the school).
@GMTplus7 , since you “liked” the following post from a person who now claims not to see how SES came into the matter, I guess your POV is well established.
The most charitable spin one could put upon it is that the poster misread the information and thought that the young man was demonstrating for a living wage for himself. Never mind how far fetched it is to think that the student body president of the U of C aspires to work in the cafeteria…
Nice. I won’t even comment on the issues with this statement, except to point out that what he IS undoubtedly familiar with is how difficult it is to live on minimum wage, or anything close to it.
It’s funny, there is a HS principal in my state who let Fetty Wap do a video with drugs and scantily-clothed ladies in the building, and he was suspended.
As for SES - you win if you are rich, you win if you are poor. But many folks are middle class, we never win?
Well, then, rhandco, all you have to do is divest yourself of some of that excess income and you’ll be in clover!
It’s a wonder that more people don’t volunteer to be poor, since it so great!
@Consolation
You’re still only addressing the points of the protest, not the means by which he executed the protest. If he had taken some school administrators hostage, would you still only be addressing the points of the protest?
U Chicago stated quite clearly that its student are welcome to protest.
My mental picture of Kissinger was banal - a faceless grey shape in a dreary building - and thought yeah, kid should have a 6 month delay at least before getting a diploma … until post 17 asserted a race … and then …
Still think he should get a 6 month delay (at least) but probably not expelled. Oddly, it never occurred to me that the kid’s race should be a factor pro or con. Why would anyone even bring that up?
And what’s SES and why on earth would I care? Maybe it’s bad manners at a “prestigious” university, but I still try to say “thank you” rather than “xxx you,” lovely as that would sometimes feel.
No punishment is warranted. It was an hour of sitin. No one hurt and no classes disrupted. If anything, the student displayed the social awareness, passion, concern for community, and willingness to act (if not activisim) that UChicago claims to want in their student body.
Breaking and entering?? I didn’t realize that administration buildings were locked down from students. And I think of all the off-limits places my friends and I explored in our college days: rooftops, steam tunnels, abandoned buildings, Civil Defense shelters. I was caught once – slap on the wrist.
I actually disagree with the demands stated, but a 1 hour sitin in a hallway is pretty harmless and has a long precedent on campuses. “unsafe situation??” Gimme a break!
Just glad they didn’t send out the pepperspray cops.
In my first post I addressed the manner in which the protest was executed, which was harmless.
If they had taken someone hostage, it would be a different kettle of fish. But they didn’t.
Was it true that some of the sitters were neither students nor employees of the university? Because a sit in composed of people associated with the university is one thing. I like post 14:
SES is socio-economic status.
It’s being discussed because a poster up-thread essentially said that poor students don’t have a say because they receive financial aid.
By the way, there is absolutely ZERO evidence that the individual in the OP story was poor and just solely based on statistics (white male going to a prestigious university), he is likely not a full financial aid student. (Though he very well could be!)
Also, @rhandco what exactly do poor people win? I grew up poor and definitely do not feel like I’ve won any sort of prize.
I don’t know who the “outsiders” were, but since some of the issues they addressed had to do with the local residents, it was not perhaps unreasonable to have some of them there.
It any case, my mind boggles at the cries for punishment and–in my view–overblown description of "outside agitators–you mean like Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman?–people being endangered, etc.
Why so authoritarian?
I checked out his FB and several posts implied he is low income and/or first generation. Also he is a Point Foundation scholar, so is likely LGBTQ.
… and why would I care about any of that?
Kissinger let in an outside community action group that the University declined to entertain. I guess you have no issue w your friends letting in people from off the street into your home.
Woo hoo! P-A-R-T-Y at @pickpocket 's house! BYOB!
In post #17 I mistakenly implied that Tyler is black. He isn’t. My apologies.
Nevertheless, the same sentiment applies.
50N, respectfully, who is asking you to care about any of this?
We were responding to a poster’s statement and I’m assuming #35 was a response to my assumption.