February 3
Students of Color Continue Occupation
The occupation of Stockbridge Hall by minority students entered its fifth day yesterday. Echoing iconic demonstrations of prior generations such as the Columbia protests of the 1960s, minority students, led by the Afro-American Cultural Center, have occupied Stockbridge Hall since Tuesday. They have vowed to stay until their list of demands is met. The office of Devon’s president, Milton Strauss, was the initial focal point, but as the protest has grown, other offices have been occupied as well, bringing many university services to a halt.
The Cultural Center has cited recent incidents on campus, including a recent party at the Beta Psi fraternity and the alleged racism last semester in the English Department as evidence of a hostile and unsafe atmosphere for minority students. The campus is so on edge that police were called on Thursday to the site of the new residential houses, where a noose was reported hanging from a construction girder. It was later determined that the rope was there to keep electrical wires safely away from construction workers.
There has been increased scrutiny of Devon by the press and on social media, with some questioning Devon’s commitment to social progress. Many believe this to be a seminal test of President Strauss’s tenure.
The Cultural Center posted its list of forty-seven demands online as well as on the door of Stockbridge. Among them, they instruct the university to:
• Ban membership in Beta Psi and other fraternities and convert the houses into living space for all members of the African diaspora
• Eliminate tests and grades in certain non-STEM majors
• Change the names of various buildings and permanently remove plaques honoring Devon’s graduates who died fighting for the Confederacy
• Eliminate cultural appropriation in all forms, including ethnic food nights in the dining halls
• Create a new student-run committee to monitor all forms of oppressive behaviors on campus, including those that are racist, sexist, transphobic, cissexist, misogynist, ableist, homophobic, Islamophobic, and climate denying
Reached by phone from President Strauss’s office, Cultural Center president Jaylen Biggs issued the following statement:
“Our demands are fair and reasonable. It is the university’s responsibility to provide a safe environment for its students and it has failed to do so. We will occupy this office and others until they are met.”
It is reported that President Strauss, in a show of unity with the protesting students, has vowed to stay with them inside his own office until an agreement can be reached. The Daily has also exclusively learned that an emergency session of the Steering Committee of the Board of Governors has been called for tomorrow.
Reading the Daily with growing anger, Red Wheeler took special note of Jaylen’s demands, which now bled into matters of LGBT, feminist, Latino, and Islamic rights. Shit, Jaylen even threw ableist in there. And climate! That fucker. After his big speech about the PSA staying out of race issues, he’d gone and laid claim to every goddamn thing. Ableism, for Christ sake! What the fuck did Jaylen care about ableism? And this, after Red had handed him this whole damn play on a silver platter. The fucking nerve!
Over at the Beta house, Tug Fowler had just finished reading the sports section of the Daily. The Devon hockey team was making quite a run this year. Seven members of the team were in Beta. Having a few more minutes before he had to leave for his next class, he decided to glance at the front page.
“Fuck, have you guys seen this?”