Posted on 11/13/2015 10:26:44 AM PST by randita
Protesters want the school president to denounce the actions of students who displayed "All Lives Matter" and "Free Speech" posters.
They also demand he warn the student body that in the future "racially insensitive" speech would merit disciplinary actions.
Students at Amherst College are demanding that the school's president accede to a list of demands that would effectively eliminate free speech on campus.
The demands, which were presented in person Thursday evening to college President Biddy Martin, are outlined in a letter published by Amherst Soul, which also notes that the students expect action to be initiated within "24-48 hours" and completed by Wednesday, November 18 (roughly six days after they were first issued). If those deadlines are not met, they warn, "we will organize and respond in a radical manner, through civil disobedience."
The ultimatum grew out of a sit-in held earlier in the day as part of the "Stand with Mizzou" movement, during which members of a variety of student organizations on campus collaborated to identify the actions they believe must be taken in response to the "legacy of oppression" at Amherst, notably through the creation of "safe spaces" and the criminalization of "offensive" sentiments.
"We have begun this movement, Amherst Uprising, in an effort to change the status quo for a more just and inclusive environment within our campus," the letter states. "We demand that Amherst become a leader in the fight to promote a better social climate towards individuals who have been systematically oppressed."
First, the students demand that both President Martin and Board of Trustees Chairman Cullen Murphy issue statements apologizing to those impacted by "injustices including but not limited to our institutional legacy of white supremacy, colonialism, anti-black racism, anti-Latinx [sic] racism, anti-Native American racism, anti-Native/indigenous racism, anti-Asian racism, anti-Middle Eastern racism, heterosexism, cis-sexism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, ableism, mental health stigma, and classism."
Anticipating a negative reaction to their letter, the students also insist that the campus police department "must issue a statement of protection and defense from any form of violence, threats, or retaliation of any kind resulting from this movement."
More specifically, they want President Martin to denounce the actions of students who displayed "All Lives Matter" and "Free Speech" posters, and to warn the student body that in the future, "racially insensitive" speech would merit disciplinary action.
Not content merely to purge the school of opinions with which they disagree, the students also demand that they be given time off from class and that the school’s mascot be expunged.
"Dean Epstein must ask faculty to excuse all students from all 5 College classes, work shifts, and assignments from November 12th, 2015 to November 13th, 2015 given their organization of and attendance at the Sit-In," reads the eighth item on the list. A few bullet points further down, they add, "Dean Epstein must encourage faculty to provide a space for students to discuss this week's events during class time."
Regarding the school's mascot, the students want Martin to release a statement by Friday at 5:00 p.m. "that condemns the inherently racist nature of the unofficial mascot, the Lord Jeff," and to follow up by encouraging the removal of all related imagery from campus.
Lord Jeff is a reference to Amherst's namesake, British Field Marshal Jeffery Amherst, who some historians believe encouraged the distribution of smallpox-infected blankets to Native Americans with whom the British were fighting during the French and Indian War.
After the list of demands concludes, the students note that they will require further, as-yet unspecified, action from the administration, as well.
"Please acknowledge that all of these statements of apology are not the end all - that they are only a part of short-term healing and by no means achieve all of the goals we will set forth," the letter states. "We are in the process of finalizing long-term goals which we hope to collaborate on regularly with all members of the community."
Campus Reform is currently awaiting comment from Amherst on President Martin's response to the students' demands, and will update this story once the statement has been provided.
Campi are already saddled with no 2nd amendment as “gun-free zones”, now the next to fall is the 1st amendment.
The plan is coming together!
They already have, but nobody is calling them on it.
That’s why it looks like they haven’t yet.
We have to stand up to them.
I appreciate your thoughts. I don’t disagree with your hopes there.
forgive me for preaching to the choir but obozo’s and the MSM’s racial venom is proving to be extremely poisonous and deadly for this nation. Unless the POS is removed and now, it is not difficult to see where this is headed. I’m sure obozo, moochy and the regime are giddy and the MSM folks are wetting themselves.
there id no idiot like a collage idiot.
“Here's your duct tape. keep it on your mouth at all times, except for eating and drinking.
Here is your packet of Rap Cd's. Play it all day long and into the night so that you will not be able to think.”
++++++++++++++
Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.
Thomas Jefferson
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
Edmund Burke
Communism is the death of the soul. It is the organization of total conformity - in short, of tyranny - and it is committed to making tyranny universal.
Adlai E. Stevenson
Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.
C. S. Lewis
“This is the tip of the spear. I think there is some bad stuff coming”
Cloward and Piven at work here.
my computer is a idiot too.
“I smell fundamental transformation in the wind.”
Ya, smells like s#!t.
This is America’s Red Guard spreading its wings. If they keep getting the results that they demand, the madness will spread across the country like the Cultural Revolution in Mao’s China. Schools need to confront and neutralize these agitators or close their doors.
“What do we want?!”
“Thought control!”
“When do we want it?!”
“Whenever our rulers ask for it!”
It is a tyranny by minority. Most students think these moonbats are a joke. The real students know the moonbats don’t have any prospects for decent employment.
The University should issue a brief statement:
We have reviewed your demands and find that we are unable and unwilling to infringe upon the free speech rights of any student at Amherst. Accordingly, your demands are denied and rejected. We expect all students to attend classes as set out in the academic calendar and fulfill their obligations toward pusuing a degree as conditions of their continued attendance at Amherst.
I am 48. Though I was born in the 60’s I am too young to remember them. I can say unequivocably, however, that “racial relations” (whatever that means) are not only the lowest I have seen in my lifetime, but are orders of magnitude beyond my comprehension lower. Not only that, it is 100% unidirectional. Seemingly every day for the last 7 years, the media is screaming racism racism racism!!!! I can’t take it anymore. And these huge uprisings on these colleges...these are 20 something year olds who were raised steeped in tolerance diverisity multiculti. Does anybody believe this generation of white honkies is miltiantly anti black? Ha!!! And with every university in the country bending over backwards not only to admit substandard students but to accomodate them with fake grades from fake classes...yeah I totally believe the universities are overrun with the KKK
At the same time, she is very full of herself, and does not treat well those who criticize her or are otherwise inconvenient, such as coeds who have claimed they reported sexual assaults, but that Biddy brushed them off and ignored their complaints. If true, that would be very undiverse of her, but maybe she despises heterosexual girls.
Anyway, she won't be amused by being asked to apologize for historical wrongs by the very diversniks (TM) whom she has spent years coddling and promoting. This is shaping up to be another case of Leftist revolutionaries eating their own. Or if you prefer, of Bolsheviks killing Mensheviks. Or perhaps, Communists in the Spanish Civil War killing their Anarchist allies to consolidate power. (I sense a pattern. . .)
Cross a Communist, and you have an enemy. Make friends with a Communist, and you still have an enemy.
This is the "something else" they moved on to. None of the people organizing this crap are actually students at these institutions, they are the useful idiot pawns manipulated by the professional Soros-paid agitprop operators.
In response to the student’s demands a University President with BALLS would immediately reply:
“I have read your demands and reject ALL of them.”
Did you see the list of ‘isms? You could not say good morning to anyone without stumbling all over at least two of them.
Yeah, do these kids even know who Jeffery Amherst was? Why aren’t they demanding they change the name of the school?
Laughing at the crippled guy.
“Occupy Wall Street” is now “Occupy the University”.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.