Hey Glenn, Ready to Chat?
- Kristy Abd-El-Malak
- Nov 5, 2017
- 8 min read
*Names have been withheld.
The past week has contained the forming of a firestorm ready to blister any injustice in its path.
In just seven days, the College of Charleston minority community has banded together and formed a plan of action to be presented to officials in regards to how we want this campus to move forward racially, socially, and financially.
President Glenn McConnell, if you come across this, we hope you listen intently, focus on collaboration, and work with us to bring this campus back into a positive spotlight that your administration has dimmed.
On October 27th, racist Halloween photos were posted to Snapchat containing disgusting verbiage and the heinously insensitive use of Freddie Gray’s name on prisoner jumpsuits. If you are not familiar with the story, please read our Open Letter to Mr. McConnell from earlier in the week.
Two days later, a Black Excellence Committee was elected and formed by almost the entire Black Cofc community. This committee consists of 14 executives with background in almost every campus organization, including Black Student Union, Luminescent, CollegiateCurls, Student Government, NPHC, Student Ambassadors, Cistern Yard and numerous more. Since then, we have been working relentlessly meeting with officials, communicating with the press, initiating safe-space meetings with students, researching our Code of Conduct as well as other implemented programs at other schools, and figuring out a way to mass mobilize our student body—as well as the community—to help fight with us against racism on our campus and an administration that is complacent with such.
On Tuesday, the 31st, a students-only Preliminary Action Meeting took place at an off-campus location to discuss how students felt about the incident, and what they would like to see change on our campus for the future. We understood we could not attempt to approach administration based off feelings alone, so the purpose of this event was to formalize a solid plan of action.
With ideas offered by concerned minority students, on Thursday, November 2nd, we voiced these concerns to supporting faculty and staff members who were invited to help take part in the discussion on how we can implement our demands as well as take advice on how to approach a closed-minded administration. The room was overflowing with students and teachers of all colors, races, backgrounds, and identities. For the first time in my four years here at the College, a 100-chair room was too small.
Here is a breakdown of what the meeting consisted of.
We were instructed to create a List of Demands, with the first three being our top priority, to send to administration (I would like to note that administration requested a List of Demands from the Black Student Union almost a year and a half ago…none were met). The three we discussed were:
An amendment to the Honor Code that includes specific and immediate repercussions for acts of bullying that include derogatory racist name calling, as well as any derogatory term towards any minority groups.
After looking through the 147-page Student code of conduct, the language surrounding bullying and consequences is not inclusive and not direct so as to not be misinterpreted.
On page 56, this is what it says: “If the bullying of students is based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, race, color, religion, national origin, veterans’ status, genetic information, or disability, or other legally- protected classifications it can also be reported to the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs at 843.953- 5758.”
Where is the immediate response of expulsion or suspension that is mentioned when bullying is first introduced in the handbook?
Bullying is prohibited under the Code of Conduct and as such can be grounds for disciplinary action, up to and including suspension or expulsion. As defined in the Code, bullying is repeated and/or severe aggressive behavior likely to intimidate or intentionally hurt or diminish another person physically or mentally (that is not speech or conduct otherwise protected by the First Amendment). Bullying involves unwanted behavior among persons and can be interwoven with a real or perceived power imbalance. Bullying fosters or instigates an adverse and counterproductive environment, so as to interfere with or undermine learning, instruction, living environment, participation in a College-sponsored activity, and/or College operations.
Biased Incident Response Team
This team would be a culmination of diverse undergraduate students, faculty, and community members that assess incidents that fall outside of the realm of the Code of Conduct.
Whatever is agreed upon then becomes written in the code of conduct for future references.
This is implemented at Duke University and has been shown to work on a larger campus scale, so why not bring that here?
I would like to note that this is not the same as the Honor Board we have here at the College. They are a group of students that listen to hearings based off the Code of Conduct.
We want the BIRt because it would apply to situations like this where the Code of Conduct language is not explicit.
A Mandated Diversity module
This module would be similar to how all college Freshmen must take AlcoholEdu their first year.
Essentially, the module would have diversity training featuring CofC students telling their experiences with racism/sexism/homophobia etc and how to effectively handle oppressive incidents that arise as well as what to, and not to do, what is, and is not oppressive.
The purpose of this is two-fold:
We want diversity training for students who genuinely may be ignorant to how their actions and words might affect someone.
To have clear repercussions after the module and not being able to use “ignorance” as an excuse.
When you complete the AlcoholEdu module, there is no excuse for not knowing the standards and you are reprimanded accordingly.
A professor in Architectural Studies here at The College made a comment in regards to bullying saying “When a word is weaponized, then that is a form of bullying” and there should be no question as to whether that should be protected.
These were not the only topics discussed at the meeting. However, they are the top three demands we have of administration.
During the open discussion, we heard students—as well as faculty’s—thoughts on the incident and what they would like to see going forward from The College.
When have you ever seen President McConnell address the student body that was not a part of graduation speech or behind the text of an e-mail? Trick question. The answer is never. We would like to see the President open up some of his precious time to be able to meet with the students he represents. At the University of South Carolina, the president has open office hours where students can discuss concerns via one-on-one time. We are seeking administration to consider applying open office-hours for The College.
Additionally, a suggestion was made for having another Diversity Town Hall. For those of you who may or may not know, The College held a Diversity Town Hall last year. However, President McConnell only spoke to commence the meeting and pre-made questions were asked instead of having an open floor. Administration would not have a town hall meeting if the questions were not already formed. This is a direct limit of our voices and real questions that should have been asked of our administration. This is not the only time the minority voice has been disregarded, though.
An ally at the meeting remarked that McConnell’s e-mails in the face of racially charged events have been less than satisfactory. She exclaims, “When I read his e-mails, I get so angry! We need someone else to write those e-mails who doesn’t condemn racism while simultaneously dressing up as a Confederate”. If an ally of the cause feels this passionately, how are the actual minority students supposed to feel and “agree to disagree” like McConnell suggested in one of his recent unsympathetic e-mails regarding Charlotesville?
Another student responded to her and said “If he is not fit for addressing the minority community of this school, he should not be the one addressing this school period”.
A professor responded and said he wishes that “McConnell would be more preemptive rather than reactive”. When Halloween came around, McConnell should have warned students to stay away from dressing up in certain costumes rather than this incident happening and forcing a response out of him. Here is all he said regarding Halloween prior the incident:
Just like when The College is facing a hurricane, students are flooded with anticipatory warnings, minority students' safety should warrant top-priority concern just as all students’ safety does.
I would like to conclude with this small tidbit. In the meeting, a Professor of History relayed a piece of information not many students know: President McConnell displays a Confederate flag on his desk to which she blatantly remarks, “This shit is not going to stop with that flag on that desk”. She is also the same professor who added that Mr. McConnell was not even elected to become president through the guidelines we have in place – his appointment to Presidency was illegitimate and if protests and adamant student backlash did not stop his appointing then, what makes The College believe it can do something now?
Here is our answer: Hate will not succeed. Yes, the diversity student population of ~20% is small, but we are valuable, we are strong, and we deserve to be here. If we cannot get McConnell himself OUT, then we will invest our own time and energy and capabilities IN to the system until it cracks. We recognize that President McConnell and his administration are a tight knit community that will protect one another—and we are too. For too long, our voices have been silenced. No more will we be complacent with an administration that one teacher remarked “is tolerating such conduct” to decide what happens to our voices, our bodies, and our community.
Our ancestors did not die and suffer for this. Our brothers and sisters did not have their dignity stripped of them in police hands for this. We will not let their efforts go to waste, and if we will do anything, we are going to kick and scream until our lungs give out for our next generation. Help us. The first thing you can do is sign this petition to have the students who carelessly posed for and took these photos to be expelled.
Also, we are starting a social media campaign titled #wakeupGlenn (with two n’s!) where we are asking you all to share your thoughts with or on the president. We ask that you please fact check if you are going to post numerical data or any data that is not opinion. However, if you would just like to express your feelings, by all means, proceed! Here are some quotes said in the meeting:
"He's taking so much from us like our energy, money, and time, but not giving any of that back to us" #wakeupGlenn
"He cannot continue the Confederate cosplay and condemn the acts of racism too" #wakeupGlenn
"I feel negligent as a teacher when I am teaching material that is not reflective of my class demographic" #wakeupGlenn
Additionally, if you have a story of prejudice, an anecdote of a friends’, or just need to speak your peace, please send it to us through this medium:
We want your voice to be heard, so let it resound.
Keep vigilant this week College of Charleston students. This petition, hashtag, and story bulletin are not the only forces of resistance we are implementing. The ball has begun rolling, but we need as much collaborative effort as shown thus far to keep the intensity going.
Thank you if you have made it to the end of this long post. We are striving to keep you as informed as possible.
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