As a part of a slew of requests and demands in response to the outcome of last week’s presidential election, students and faculty at Bucknell University are demanding the administrators allocate money to provide undocumented students with equal access to financial aid.
In response to Donald Trump’s victory in last week’s presidential election, a progressive campus coalition drafted a letter to university administrators with a list of demands they believe, if met, will help fight off the “wave of hatred, racism, Islamophobia, homophobia, and marginalization carried out by his campaign.”
The letter, which has been co-signed by over a 160 students and faculty members, claims that students will continue to engage “daily acts of nonviolent, spontaneous disruption if no response is received by Tuesday the 29th.”
Amongst other demands, the Bucknell student progressive coalition demanded that university funds be allocated so that undocumented students have equal access to financial aid.
The letter curiously demands that the university become a “sanctuary for open dialogue of political discussion and practice regardless of ideology.” However, the letter’s authors clarify this demand by claiming that “hate-speech, personal attack[s], and/or threat[s] to the safety of individuals and groups” should not be permitted. As a result, many mainstream conservative and libertarian viewpoints will continue to be considered off-limits based on the subjective determination by pearl-clutching social justice warriors that it is hate speech to contradict them.
The letter, provided to Breitbart Tech, can be read in full below:
Dear President Bravman and Provost Altmann,
On Wednesday, the Bucknell community awoke to Donald Trump as our President-Elect. The reality of this decision requires acknowledgement and decisive action against the wave of hatred, racism, Islamophobia, homophobia, and marginalization carried out by his campaign. The ideologies validated by this election and Trump’s campaign make members of our community feel unsafe both on and off campus. While your email encouraged us to reinforce the mission statement of the university with unity and solidarity, your absence at the solidarity events, organized by both students and faculty members, has been duly noted.
As our community continues to grieve and seek action, we demand you take a stance against racism, misogyny, homophobia, and the mistreatment of minority groups and the environment, and we demand that you publicly state that the university will not tolerate the hate elicited and legitimized by the recent election cycle.
We the undersigned, demand the following:1) We demand that Bucknell become a sanctuary for all marginalized community members who have chosen to pursue their education here:
– Recognize that sexual assault is rampant on our campus, provide real support for victims of sexual assault, and ensure a follow-through in the prosecution and disciplining process of the offenders.
– Provide funding for the Intercultural Equity and Advocacy (IEA) offices with regards to staff and resources.
– We recognize the blatant absence of a Women’s Resource Center Director for over a semester. This is unacceptable. We must have a written commitment to hire a Women’s Resource Center Director by the beginning of Spring 2017.
– There has been an 188.5% increase in the international student population from 2007-2016; however, there has been no corresponding increase in staff or attention to funding. A similar increase in the number of multicultural students has been noted. (Data forthcoming)
– Reinstate and formalize university support for undocumented students by providing them with equal access to financial aid without allowing their lack of Pell grant and other federal funding sources to be a hindrance to their acceptance. The university supports international students, therefore it should be able to support undocumented students as well.
– Treat all campus religions equal; in doing so, a facility of equal size as the Jewish and Catholic houses, along with equal numbers of staff members, must be provided for Muslim Students.
– Require mandatory, non-optional, education and training for public safety, faculty, and administrators against bias, both implicit and explicit, regulated by an external organization geared towards eliminating bias in institutions. This step must include student and faculty input to ensure effectiveness.
– The Office of Institutional Research and Planning should be tasked with quantifying the prevalence of bias (including race, gender, sexual orientation, social class etc.), including when, where, and how incidents happen.
– We demand the creation of spaces equal to fraternity houses in all regards. This type of space, as with Greek houses, necessitates a lack of administrative members (like RAs) and an allowance of alcoholic beverages unregulated except for social events. We demand the right to live, party, and mingle in a space distinct from university housing restrictions and limits of conduct (for minority groups, women, people of color, LGBTQ, cis, and Bucknell community members as a whole). Only through the construction of these environments will we be able to interact on an intellectual, social, and emotional level.
2) We demand the university become a sanctuary for open dialogue of political discussion and practice regardless of ideology, barring hate-speech, personal attack, and/or threat to the safety of individuals and groups. Faculty should be able to verbalize opinion or discontent in regards to social justice, and there must be a university wide announcement to this effect.
3) We demand that the University also becomes a sanctuary for environmental progressivism:
Publicly reaffirm the University’s commitment to the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), which pledges the University to achieve climate neutrality by 2030.
We also demand that Bucknell:– Adopt a University Sustainable Building Policy, as multiple peer institutions have done.
– Create an administrative position focused solely on achieving sustainability across all aspects of the University.
– Divest from fossil fuel related assets within two years and re-invest in renewable energy resources.
– Include environmental costs in University budgeting, such as the renewable energy credits that are currently part of our Climate Action Plan.
We, the undersigned, commit to engaging in daily acts of nonviolent, spontaneous disruption if no response is received by Tuesday the 29th.
Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about Free Speech and Intellectual Diversity for Breitbart. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart.com
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