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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]    I think the administration is actually playing it pretty well and it looks like they are getting a good grip on it at  Yale.  They have held a unity march and last night a forum that over 1000 people attended to discuss calmly what the protestors feel is lacking, and the President and Dean met privately with student leaders a few days ago on the same topic.  The administration sent out an email to the entire community emphasizing the need to understand why some students do not feel welcome and what they can do to help, but at the same time emphasizing strongly the bedrock commitment of Yale to free speech and that intimation by protestors (or anyone else) will not be tolerated, and also educating today's students a bit about what the campus went through in the 1960s.  A dialogue is ensuing and many of the white students are extending a hand to listen to protesting students concerns.   From the newspapers, it seems like the situation is less volatile for the moment, as protestors and administrators work the problems, so protestors are not disrupting classes or more speaking events on controversial topics (there was a previously scheduled  debate on affirmative action two nights ago without disruption --some students refused to engage in the debate and used their time to make statements that they believed the event should have been postponed because of the racially charged atmosphere, but it reportedly went off without disruption).   It all could change in a moment, but don't give up on Yalies yet. [/quote]

I am not giving up on Yalies, but find that these protestors have little to say of any merit.  To be spooked by Halloween costumes, my word.  Having a pow-wow with them legitimizes their petty, cooked-up grievances, and is ill-advised in my opinion.  However, one thing that the Yale admin should do is to separate that foul-mouthed girl and the spitters from the university.  Plenty of motivated, deserving students would be happy to take their places as rightful Yalies.  Boola, boola![/quote]

Well, I thought things might quiet down but evidently 200 protestors shouted new demands last night outside of the President's house near midnight. He is being very patient, but at some point soon this will go too far if it doesn't peter out.  We need a statute on campus confirming Yale was built on land stolen from a indigenous peoples -- that's one demand.  Oh yes, dental (for the Yale health plan) is another.   Many people can't get dental from their jobs, but young people today who grow up with fluoride water should be entitled to it?  Hey, I'd like it too, but that hasn't got a damn thing to do with alleged institutional and interpersonal racism.  This group has no sense of priorities, because they are divorcing the problems from evidence and fact.  If we don't agree on a common basis to argue and reason -- instead insisting emotion is just as important or moreso because logic is the language of oppressors -- there is no way to make rationale choices.   More mental health professionals of color -- sure.  Addressing overt racism aggressively wherever found, of course.  But the newest demands cite only a few specifics, the Halloween costume email, the allegation of a fraternity turning away women of color (under investigation, denied by the frat, and very little has been publically offered in terms of witnesses), and one other event I can't recall.  Supposedly, protestors poured out their hearts to the Dean for hours last week about feeling excluded from campus culture.  Where are those stories?  The public largely has viewed the students as spoiled, and rightly so. If conditions are so terrible, explain.  If not, then what is this movement about other than attention and - -frankly, money. [b] They seek $2 million for cultural houses (which only relate to 4 cultural groups on campus) -- why? [/b] Is that more important than dental for all students?  How much will the statue cost -- is that more important?  [/quote]

Isn't part of the solution to all of this more conversation, more engagement, more cultural/experiential mixing?  That's what diversity on campus is supposed to be -- in classes, in the dining halls, in the dorms, on teams and clubs.  The answer can't be to facilitate and worse still, fund even more vehicles for self-segregation, Balkanization and identity group grievance-nursing.[/quote]

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