The Williams Record (https://williamsrecord.com/category/opinions/)
Recent campus events and activism have highlighted a history of fraught relations between Campus Safety and Security (CSS) and minoritized students, particularly Black and Brown students, at the College. Students have recounted experiences of bias and racism with CSS officers, while CSS officers report an erosion of trust with students.
Dear Williams Students:
I see you, I hear you, I have helped many of you and I have been here for you. Therefore, I feel the need to share how disheartened I am about the recent article in the Record and the negative perception about Campus Safety and Security.
“Pack cheeseat Cricket Farm!”- CALEIGH FORBES-COCKELL ’19
“I want to finally see thecows on Stone Hill.”- COLY ELHAI ’19
“To convince as manyunderclassmen as I can totake math.”- GRACE MABIE ’19
“’62 Center Roof.”- BEN GIPS ’19
To the editor:
In recent campus discourse, both in and out of the Record, there have been many allusions made to Students for Israeli-Palestinian Dialogue (SIPD). In the wake of College Council’s (CC’s) rejection of the Williams Initiative for Israel (WIFI), some have pointed to SIPD as an already existing pro-Israel group on campus. I write as a founding member of the SIPD board in the hopes of clarifying the mission of the organization.
SIPD is neither pro-Israel nor pro-Palestine.
In 2015, students in the Little Rock School District in Arkansas suddenly didn’t know if their schools would remain open when the state moved in to fix schools nobody knew were broken.
And in reality, most weren’t. Only six of the 48 schools in the Little Rock School District had been graded as failing by the state.
To the editor:
My prayer this year was for the perspective and wisdom to know beauty and love. I have asked for the ability to see community grow like healing plants in a new garden.
Last Tuesday, College Council (CC) denied Williams Initiative for Israel’s (WIFI) request to become a registered student organization. CC members voted anonymously, and only three council members participated in the contentious debate, with none stating the reason for their decision.
On April 23, 2019, College Council (CC) rejected Williams Initiative For Israel’s (WIFI) application to become a Registered Student Organization (RSO), by a vote of 13–8. Though WIFI complied with all CC bylaws and regulations for student organizations, the club was still denied RSO status.
We care.
We care about our students, including the brainiacs, artists, fierce advocates for equity and dignity, who care for (disenfranchised) communities and the environment— often while being denied reciprocal care.
Passionate about justice — social and restorative — we note that repressive rhetoric leverages predation. Prizing intelligence in varied forms — especially emotional intelligence — we are not always happy to but will publicly clash with willful ignorance and mendaciousness displaying brain rot and ethical decay.
Grateful that we have been spared from attending funerals for friends who worship in mosques, synagogues and black churches, we understand that some of our students are stressed because they or kin seek solace and spirituality under threats by white supremacists, misogynists, trans/queer/ biphobes and their enablers.
