This has been my D’s #1 choice as well and I don’t think she felt the excitement because the student ambassadors were not there to share the way normally done on college tours. It just feels different when you have an administrator giving you a tour of the school as opposed to a student being there and energetically greeting you. My D cried as we drove away. It’s pretty heartbreaking. I don’t think she was in the group of overnights that heard the students tell them not to attend. But she did have a couple of luke warm girls come in and talk-maybe she downplayed it to me. It’s really infuriating that some of our D’s had to experience this. I’m guessing these same students did not have to listen to such negativity when they were attending admitted students events. These kids have worked so hard to get to this point that they should be able to go in and attend this sort of event with excitement. I completely understand the current sense of loss and mourning but taking it out in any way on prospective students is not okay. All that said, I am still positive on what Scripps has to offer because let’s be honest, the majority of schools have a group of unhappy students and there is a tragic event involved here compounding the situation. It will pass. I hope our D’s can reach out to each other on FB and build some positive energy.
Accepted students visits are different from regular overnights. My DD loved Harvey Mudd College during her visit junior year and felt very different as an accepted student. You can find negativity on every campus and normally there’s an underlying reason for this negativity so you have to figure out how important this reason is for you as a student. Caltech CS students told DD not to come there for CS and after thinking about it she decided to take this advice. Sometimes upsetting comments can be due to a timing of events for the person giving advice: personal dissatisfaction, tiredness, etc. Your DD needs to investigate more before she makes a decision.
@pearl2017 - is there much discussion of all this in the admitted students’ FB group? My D has not wanted to join any social media groups for any of the school she’s gotten into, so I have no visibility. She did an overnight last week and also encountered a little of the same negativity, but it seems to have ramped up since then with the announcement of the RA strike and etc. Scripps is still her leading option at this point, and I agree that this entering class is going to need to build some positive energy of their own. I’m sorry that your D and @neva24 's had such a discouraging campus visit.
@aquapt I actually don’t know what the talk is on FB. My D has not joined yet either because she doesn’t want to join until she is committed. I suspect the energy will be different next year. Hopefully positive concessions are made between the parties and with the combination of one class entering, one class leaving and good portion of another going on global studies programs they will be given a break and the energy will improve. And, again, I do completely understand what these students are going through and the emotional impact it must have on them. My heart goes out to them.
I too am so sorry to hear of the discouraging visits. Our DD visited earlier this week and spent time with several Scripps students, mostly women on an athletic team, and observed two classes. She had strong positive impressions of Scripps. She ate lunch with a large group of mostly Scripps students and the RA strike and related issues were not mentioned until the very end when they asked if she was taking a tour, then warned her that it would probably be cancelled. I spent lots of time on my own on campus and saw nothing worrisome, though I do not doubt there are upset students. The only distressed people I encountered were in the admissions office, but I think that is understandable because they were probably scrambling to figure out what to do about admitted students day. Our DD is excited to be going to Scripps in the fall. She in enjoying the admitted students FB page and group chat and says there are respectful, constructive conversations with current RA’s and student ambassadors in the group.
My D is a first year at Scripps. She has talked of what is going on but I don’t think it has affected her negatively. I am sorry your daughter experienced this. If you would like my D to talk to her I’m sure she can alleviate some of these concerns. She is very happy at Scripps. Please send me a PM if you would like to connect them.
Things must be pretty bad if the Alumnae are calling for the ouster of the Dean of Students.
Alumnae of Scripps College are circulating a petition demanding that the college submit to the demands of resident advisors on campus, who announced a strike last week to force the firing of the current Dean of Students and radical changes to campus policies with respect to financial aid, mental health, and residential life.
“We, on behalf of graduates/alumnae(i) of Scripps College, are shocked and outraged at recent events that have unfolded at Scripps,” the petition begins. “We firmly stand in solidarity with the current Scripps RAs’ strike in response to the administration’s lack of response to these events as well as to several of Scripps’ chronic and long-standing policies and practices.”
Last week, Lara Tiedens, the president of Scripps College, refused to capitulate to student demands and took immediate action to replace the resident advisors (RAs), who take the lead in ensuring student safety within the residence halls and handling unexpected emergencies, with regular security patrols.
“This afternoon, a group of Resident Advisors (RAs) informed me of their intent to go on strike effective immediately, and to abstain from all duties including crisis and emergency response, residential life programming, and other assigned duties,” Tiedens wrote in an April 14 email to current Scripps students and parents. “[M]aintaining a supportive, safe, and high-quality living and learning environment for all students is our highest priority, and the College’s immediate focus is on ensuring we have appropriate coverage for the residence halls. To that end, the Dean of Students has developed a plan to ensure that RAs’ critical duties related to safety and student welfare are covered for the duration of the strike.”
Tiedens’ refusal to capitulate to the RAs’ demands does not sit well with the authors of the alumnae petition.
“We are deeply concerned about your callous response to the RA strike, which did not address any of the causes of students’ exhaustion and exploitation, but instead defended an administrator who multiple students have testified is abusive and criticized the strike when many other methods of engaging with administration have been tried by students, but did not prove effective,” they write. “This is a prime example of how Scripps appears to not be genuinely listening or acknowledging the community’s serious and deep state of grief.”
The alumnae petition also complains that the college’s decision to hire additional staff to stand in for the striking RAs could evoke fears of “police brutality” among the student body.
“Scripps’ only real action in response to the strike has been to hire an outside security firm to police the campus, which only serves to instill fear in students, especially students of color who have personally been or have witnessed their family and friends of color being targets of police brutality and criminalization,” it explains.
Attached to the alumnae letter is a “timeline” that demonstrates the “long history of student activism on campus.” The listed events include a “United Against Hate protest across the [Claremont] campuses following the election of another fascist white supremacist,” presumably referring to current U.S. president Donald J. Trump, as well as the student-led protests that shut down a scheduled event with Heather Mac Donald, an expert on urban crime and policing, at Claremont McKenna College’s Athenaeum. The timeline helpfully notes that Mac Donald “believes the Black Lives Matter narrative is not only false but dangerous.”
Over 200 alumnae have signed the petition, which closes by admonishing the college once more to capitulate to student demands:
“As past students of Scripps College, we demand that there be systemic change at Scripps, pursuant to the thoughtful, well-articulated demands of the current RAs. We stand in strong support of their cause, and would vehemently urge the Scripps administration to listen carefully to the RAs’ voices, and to make a genuine, concerted, and good faith effort to comply with their demands.”
Agreed it sounds like more support is need for the RAs. How this reads, not sure how representative the petition is of the alumnae population as a whole though.
http://claremontindependent.com/citing-exploitation-scripps-ras-refuse-to-work-issue-demands/
A classist practice?
And some wonder why middle America was upset last November.
Any way you cut it there is something wrong if the RA’s have to resort to a strike to get some light on this.
“the causes of students’ exhaustion and exploitation”
What exactly about the RA duties are they objecting to? Are Scripps’ RAs saddled with more responsibility that the average RA working at other colleges? Most colleges have tons more RA applicants than positions to fill because it’s considered a good gig.
I wouldn’t consider 200 alumnae signatures broad based support.
Next weekend features both Alumni Weekend and the inauguration of President Tiedens. It will be interesting to see how those events unfold. Scripps graduates over 200 students every year, so I wouldn’t say that a petition with 200-ish signatures necessarily signals overwhelming consensus among alumnae. There are some reasonable statements here, yet others seem unreasonable.
If the College were to allow the RAs to step away from their responsibilities without implementing alternative measures to ensure student safety, they would be irresponsible, and liable for any negative consequences that might occur. They are neither trying to force the RAs back to work, nor retaliating against them for the strike. They are, rather, footing the bill for security staff to monitor the living areas while the RAs are not doing so… This seems like a responsible decision to me. Has there been some behavior on the part of the security staff could reasonably evoke fears of “police brutality?” Are students genuinely fearful of the security staff? The presence of such staff on a college campus is hardly unusual or extreme. This seems like inflammatory hyperbole to me. There are problems that need to be addressed, to be sure, but the proliferation of red-herring grievances only obscures the real issues.
I’m sorry for the OP and others that they have had bad overnight visits. Whatever they decide, I hope they let the admissions office know what transpired.
I’m very sorry to hear that any admitted students have had negative experiences visiting campus. My D is a sophomore at Scripps and she really loves it there. I just texted her to ask if she would be willing to talk to any admitted students who would like to connect with her. She said yes, of course, but she has a dance performance tonight and an essay due on Tuesday that she’s already asked for an extension on due to this dance performance, so she can’t take time to talk to anyone till all that is done.
Although she was very upset by the suicide – she didn’t know the student personally but some friends of hers did – and she supports the RA strike, she would never tell a student not to attend Scripps over this. She has had a wonderful two years there. I was just down there myself for the first night of her dance performance, and she was telling me how nice everyone at Scripps is and how supportive of each other they are. In a way, the RA strike proves this – the other students are rallying around the RAs in their grievance.
I know that negative visits can have a very bad effect on students’ impressions of a school, but I hope your daughters won’t let this change their decision. As the UCLA dean of students said when a student protest interrupted the Chancellor’s Welcome at their admitted students day last weekend, “I think it’s great that our students exercise their freedom of speech. That’s what college life is all about.” (My younger D is considering attending UCLA and she liked the fact that there was a protest.)
Thank you. It’s really helpful to hear some positive experiences. After talking with her today (she’s been at work all day) she seems in a much better frame of mind about it all. She absolutely respects and appreciates the students supporting each other and that is very important to her. I will pass these comments on to her. Thank you!
Sorry, but gotta grab a snow shovel after reading this.
https://www.claremont-courier.com/articles/news/t22887-strike
From this article:
"Scripps pays for RAs’ housing, and some students feel trapped in the RA role, as they would not be able to afford to stay on campus otherwise, the demands said.
“This job should not be the only way that students can afford to be at Scripps, and no student should feel obligated to endure the stresses of the job due to financial constraints,” the RAs wrote."
Sounds like a bunch of unappreciative students that want the world handed to them and blame the admin if the temperature is too hot or cold outside. So let’s see, they are paid to do a job by getting free housing but don’t think they should have to deal with “stress” of a job? Oh the injustice of having to earn something. Wow, those are some empowered women. Why don’t they give up being an RA and take on the financial responsibility of their living costs then? Good luck in the workforce gals.
@scotlandcalling I may get some heat for this but the term snowflake comes to mind.
I’ve followed a bit of the Scripps debacle and very sad “suicide” mental health isn’t easy to diagnose, treat, and suicide is not easy to see, track, or stop. The persons friends and family have a better shot at intervening than anyone else in most instances of suicide.
As @scotlandcalling said sounds like a bunch of entitled people who can’t afford the school to me. Leave the RA position I promise many people will jump on it just like RA positions at most schools!!
Entitlement is all I see.
If we could only publically flog them they would fall back in line. =;
I think the letter makes a good point about how if a student has been an RA one year, then their financial aid is reduced for the following year because their need is assessed based on their previous year’s earnings. That sounds to me like a flaw in the system that could easily be remedied.
I think it also sounds like they have legitimate complaints about the dean of student affairs and how she seems like a poor fit for the position. Whether or not the administration should set the precedent of firing (or offering a different position to) an administrator due to a student protest is another issue, but if the students who have interacted with her say she is unresponsive and unsupportive when her position calls for someone who is exactly the opposite, then they have a right to raise that point.
Why is it that when workers protest or go on strike over what they perceive to be injustices, they get called ungrateful and entitled, but when powerful business interests lobby for changes in regulations or oversight to benefit themselves, nobody makes a peep about it? It’s the same thing – people using what leverage they have in order to try to get changes that will benefit them. Yet you all get all morally superior over the impecunious students, when I bet none of you have waxed indignant about the oil industry lobby lately. Is it because the oil industry does its business behind closed doors and buys influence, rather than publicly asking for sympathy and understanding? Because I promise you that the latter course is the one that requires courage and fortitude, not the former.