Coalition Demands Changes In Response to Hate Crimes
By Laura Schreiber
PUBLISHED OCTOBER 31, 2007
Web Content
By Laura Schreiber
PUBLISHED OCTOBER 31, 2007
Web Content
The Coalition's list of demands is available here.
A newly formed ad hoc coalition of students released a list of demands of the administration at a teach-in in Hamilton Hall Tuesday night.
The demands focus on four areas in which students involved in the group have previously expressed concern, including administrative support for diversity issues, ethnic studies, the Core Curriculum, and Columbia’s proposed Manhattanville expansion.
“The administration has yet to fulfill its avowed goals of making the long-term, institutional changes necessary in stemming the rising tide of hate incidents aimed at students of color, students of faith, LGBTQ students, and other oppressed groups,” the as-yet unnamed coalition said in its statement.
The demands include the expansion of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, the appointment of a Vice Provost for Multicultural Affairs, the announcement of future hate crimes by Columbia Public Safety, and mandatory anti-oppression training for all incoming faculty and public safety.
“The OMA is grossly understaffed and housed in a space that is simply inadequate considering the scope of its responsibilities,” the statement read.
Several of the demands mirrored recommendations made in the ethnic studies report released last spring by students in the field. The group demanded that Columbia give hiring power to the Center for the Study for Ethnicity and Race and up the number of CSER faculty members.
“This program has been denied the crucial resources that it needs to sustain itself,” the statement read. “The risk of even further decline will become an even bigger threat unless the power to hire faculty and offer a full curriculum in the University is granted to the Center.”
“At all these town halls, [called in light of the recent bias incidents] people vented their frustrations and said they wanted to do something,” Christien Tompkins, CC ’08 and co-chair of the United Students of Color Council, said. “This platform is articulating in a framework that is an entry point for people to imagine a Columbia that deals with marginalization.”
The coalition also demanded that Columbia withdraw its 197-c proposal to rezone Manhattanville and submit its proposal for revision by Community Board 9. “The most basic problem with Columbia’s [expansion] plan ... is its wanton disregard for the basic principle of local democracy, something that the University’s humanistic ideals should hold as sacrosanct,” the statement read.
The group also made demands regarding the revision of the Core Curriculum, which the statement criticized as Eurocentric and a “marginalization of nonwhite peoples within the West.”
The coalition demanded the inclusion of a seminar dealing with issues of racialization and colonialism and more student voices and seats in the Committee on the Core. Students emphasized that while many of the demands were similar to those made by ad hoc coalitions Columbia Concerned Students of Color in 2004 and Stop Hate on Columbia Campus in 2006, they remain relevant since only small steps have been made in addressing them.
Bryan Mercer, CC ’07 and a member of the Student Coalition on Expansion and Gentrification, said that the coalition would focus its energies on educating the general student body about their concerns. “These demands come out of students putting their ear to the student community,” he said. “We’d like them to start a discussion with students who identify with them.”
Laura Schreiber can be reached at laura.schreiber@columbiaspectator.com.
TAGS: Hate Crime
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View Comments ( 10)Post a Comment
Obviously, the author of this comment sees his ememies under every bed. All who see anything wrong with his values (white is right, yo!) he claims to be anti-american or communist.
So, let me get this right. If you are not white, and you have problems with white supremacism and speak up about it, you are not an american!
I hope the author keeps in touch after he goes to Iraq! I mean, is he simply going to run his mouth or is he actually going to do something about all those anti-americans?
My guess is no.
Posted by: anonymous (not verified) October 31st, 2007 @ 9:58am
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White supremacy doesnt exist, which is why this list of demands is hysterical. Even if it did, the response would hardly be a groundswell of "black supremacism" which is what this list perports.
Additionally, regarding my anti-American comment, the list states the following:
"1. The reformation of the Major Cultures requirement to contain a course in a seminar format which challenges students to think critically about the issues of racialization and colonialism, global phenomena which also are at the Core of the "western" experience."
Read between the lines. America bashing at it's liberal finest.
Finally, in regards to your Iraq comment, I did serve in 1993 under your hero Bill Clinton. Not that I'm clear on why one would have to serve in Iraq in order to have an opinion on something.
I guess this means all you worthless Columbia students need to move to Cuba and enjoy communism in order to fully understand it. Hmmm I actually do like that idea..
Posted by: anonymous (not verified) October 31st, 2007 @ 10:04am
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Dude, if you are dumb enough to join the Army, that explains your general personality.
I am a true patriot - I refused to go to Vietnam!
Unfortunately, there is no place left for you to go (Cuba ain't so bad for me). South Africa is now run by black people!
Posted by: anonymous (not verified) October 31st, 2007 @ 10:04am
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Dude, if you are dumb enough to join the Army, that explains your general personality.
I am a true patriot - I refused to go to Vietnam!
Unfortunately, there is no place left for you to go (Cuba ain't so bad for me). South Africa is now run by black people!
You will have to reach beyond the solar system to find a society that embraces your values.
Posted by: anonymous (not verified) October 31st, 2007 @ 10:11am
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"It isn't that Liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so much that isn't so."
Posted by: Reagan October 31st, 2007 @ 10:35am
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Can you name the 2-3 things that neocons know?
I just never had time to jot them down.
Posted by: anonymous (not verified) October 31st, 2007 @ 10:45am
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I would name them for you but your response would be:
1.) that's racist2.) that's not fair3.) that's racist4.) that's greedy5.) that's racist
Posted by: Reagan October 31st, 2007 @ 10:51am
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Yo, that's 5 things. Wonderful progress over 250 years!
Admit it. You went to college, didn't you. It shows!
Posted by: anonymous (not verified) October 31st, 2007 @ 11:00am
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But see...that's the difference. Liberals define "progress" by how much Government does for them. Conservatives define "progress" by how much people do for themselves. The former are incapable of managing their lives and need caretakers...the latter are self sufficient and desire less outside intervention.
Doesn't journalistic orthodoxy still require the word "ALLEGED" in front of criminal allegations? Has a perp been identified? No?
Then why does CS's journalistic jurisprudence accept an "ad hoc" lynch mob skipping any investigation, indictment or trial and applying their street verdict? Is the institution guilty (prima facae) without trial? Since when are the demands of ad hoc vigilantees reported as news?
The truth is that this case has all the classic modus operandi of a hate hoax. Faked hate crimes are now becoming routine in the years since the Tawana Brawley hoax. The lesson-- already forgotten from the Duke lacrosse case-- is that minorities are perfectly willing and capable of stringing up nooses, too.
Is anyone else tired of this racial extortion racket?
Posted by: anonymous (not verified) October 31st, 2007 @ 9:08am
This is absolutely hysterical. "A list of demands". How about you guys let the school administration do the job they were hired, and qualified, to do; and you guys hit the books and get 8 hours of sleep every night.
Also, aside from the usual laundry list of anti-white studies, one of the demands was this:
"1. The reformation of the Major Cultures requirement to contain a course in a seminar format which challenges students to think critically about the issues of racialization and colonialism, global phenomena which also are at the Core of the "western" experience."
In other words they want to promote anti-Americanism, and probably promote communism as a "core" curriculum.
Posted by: anonymous (not verified) October 31st, 2007 @ 7:26am
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