Snowflakes in deep depression at Williams College, with multiple emails going out:
#1:
“Good morning,
The Davis Center will be open throughout the day and evening to provide a space and place for reflecting, connecting and caring. Members of the community should feel free to stop by at any time. There will be food available.
Best,
Leticia Smith-Evans Haynes, Ph.D.
Vice President
Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity
Williams College | Williamstown, MA”
#2:
“Dear Students, This election season has been one of the most fraught, divisive, and difficult in history, and has been challenging for all of us. Many students (as well as faculty and staff) are feeling acutely upset, overwhelmed, and frightened this morning. Please take this opportunity to reach out to your classmates, to offer support, to be open to discussion, to be ready to listen, and to remind everyone you see on campus that our community stands ready to support all of us. In times of stress, one of the most helpful things we can do is come together and exchange our ideas, beliefs, fears, and plans for strategic action. Please take the opportunity to do this, both inside and outside of the classroom. Find ways to engage with each other, with faculty and staff, with your families and friends at home. Above all, take good care of yourselves. In addition, there are many additional resources available to you, and I encourage you to use them. Please come see us in the Dean’s Office, in the Davis Center, in the Chaplains Office, and in the Health Center. We are here to talk, to problem solve, and to listen. You don’t need to have a specific question or concern…..just a desire to connect and find support. And if you are aware that a friend or classmate is struggling, please help them find their way to us. All best wishes, Dean Sandstrom”
#3:
“To the Williams Community,
Election night brought to a conclusion the most divisive American presidential campaign in recent memory. Many members of the Williams community, including—but not limited to—women; immigrants, both documented and not; people of color; Muslims, Jews, and other religious minorities; and LGBTQ people have felt directly and deeply the rhetoric of this campaign. The rhetoric was threatening and destructive both to the individuals at whom it was aimed and to our society’s most essential values.
Even before Election Day, there had been a deep worry—which I share—that the vitriol would continue beyond the campaign season. It is essential that we recommit ourselves today, as American society at large and as a Williams family here, to the fundamental respect and care for each other that underlie all healthy communities.
On the national, state, and local levels, this means engaging in politics, each of us working as hard as we can to ensure that the laws, policies, and practices of our government reflect concern for everyone in our world.
Here at Williams, it means renewing our commitment, as we should do every single day, to a fully inclusive, equitable community in which everyone can thrive. It means treating each other with deep respect, as we attend particularly to those who feel most vulnerable in this, or any, moment.
I’m inspired by the ways I see our community already seeking to unite this morning, and I’m reminded once more of the fundamental relevance of a Williams education. Our work—to educate global citizens who are informed and empowered to lead and who feel a responsibility to help create the community we all most fervently desire to live in—today seems more important than ever.
Sincerely,
Adam Falk
President”
France is open for business...feel free to seek your ‘safe space’ there.
Williams College #4:
“Today is a day filled with emotions beyond articulation. For those of us–immigrants, LGBTQQIA/trans*/queer, femme or female-identifying, undocumented, low-income, disabled, people of color–for whom Donald Trump’s victory means violence, means fear, means physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual dislocation: this is for us. For those of us who recognize that proximity is but a matter of perception, that we are not safe, not here in New England, not here in Massachusets, and certainly not here in the Berkshires or Williamstown; for those of us who must grapple with the truth that we have not and will not be safe for a very long time: this is for us.
Join us to talk, to heal, to organize. We will be making posters, hosting an open mic, and demonstrating with our bodies and our minds, claiming the space as a space of love and resistance, for our existance is resistance.”