Thomas Garvie and Kip DeCastro
tgarvie@uwyo.edu | kdecastr@uwyo.edu
BreakthrUWYO representative Natawsha Mitchell began the groups pre-forum meeting by climbing on top of a table in the plaza of the business building to address the many students, faculty and concerned community members waiting.
“The systems that have worked to set this meeting up have not consulted anybody,” Mitchell said. “At every level students of color have been excluded. We need to be in control of the space where we share our stories and discuss these issues that are really effecting our lives and not their’s.”
Following more discussion, BreakthrUWYO and those assembled entered into the classroom where the forum was to be held.
The forum began with statements from UW President Richard McGinity, ASUW President Brian Schueler and ASUW Vice President Emily Kath.
“[The university] needs to be a place of love and opportunity. I hope that with these conversations moving forward it’s something we can pursue together,” Kath said. “Its something that we can educate one another, myself included.”
Following these statements by administration and ASUW, the moderator moved through the list of RSOs alphabetically. The first RSO to be present was Abilities, an organization that promotes disabilities on campus. Their representative yielded his time for BreakthrUWYO to speak.
The members of the group announced a list of demands and grievances.
The long-term demands included such measures as;
“The hiring of a Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion, a mandatory class that must be passed for freshman and transfer students focused on social justice and cultural relevancy, as well as revision of the student code of conduct to hold students accountable for hate crimes and hate speech, as well as sexual assault.”
In addition the organization also demanded that, “more faculty and staff be hired that either represent marginalized backgrounds themselves or have specific experience working with marginalized communities.”
BreakthrUWYO also presented short-term demands, including individual town hall meetings, an external evaluation of campus climate, as well as the release of policy initiatives to address campus climate concerns.
Additionally, BreakthrUWYO offered critiques of both ASUW and the administration, criticizing the format of the forum and the openness of both organizations. Kath’s statement was specifically responded to.
“I wanna challenge you to educate yourself. It is not the responsibility of students to educate you or President McGinity,” Mitchell said. “There’s books, there’s the internet and that’s where you need to go.”
After the reading of these demands and critiques of the system, the group stood and left the room taking more than 25 RSO representatives, students, faculty and community members with it.
Despite the exodus, the meeting continued with testimonies from both students and faculty.
Marlin Holmes, representing the Black Student Alliance, spoke about instances of racism on campus, and the continued need for accountability. Holmes said black students had been turned away from parking on campus when an individual said the parking spots were only for rich white men.
Additionally, Holmes said the University was under investigation by the Department of Justice for an incident last year during the Black Lives Matter protest where a gun was involved.
“An administration that does nothing and says nothing about it is kind of scary,” Marlin said.
The remainder of Marlin’s speaking time was focused on moving together as a community, and the necessity making a plan to demarginalize minority students at the University.
The prevailing themes for the remainder of the evening were focused around concepts such as communication and the need for dialogue.
Many of the organizations that cited communication and dialogue as necessities for progress also praised the members of the walk-out, which was met with disagreement from some students.
“Every comment that has been offered up is about dialogue, but you literally all walked out the door,” Sid Douglas said. “I can’t appreciate having a community where we want this dialogue but yet we refuse to participate.”
MFA student Jess White raised her hand to speak to Douglas.
“If you want to know why these people are doing this why don’t you go talk to them,” White said.
White’s speech immediately followed Douglas’ and when Douglas tried to leave during her speech, she questioned his decision, leading to a brief argument between the two. During her speech, White said she had been subjected to prejudice at the hand of an educator as a result of her sexual orientation.
In addition to telling her story, she critiqued the meeting itself.
“We can’t do this dialog on a white board,” White said. “Jesus what am I [here] for.”
As the forum progressed, discussion did not center as much around BreakthrUWYO and instead became more focused on individual experiences, as well as President McGinity’s policies and statements.
Speakers included a transgender student who spoke about a lack of organizational and structural support for transgender people, as well as the anonymous reading of a statement from UMC on professional misconduct from an educator on the basis of race.
Representatives of the McNair scholarship foundation shared third party accounts of students they had assisted during the application process.
One such account included a student being forced to the back of the line in a local store in favor of Caucasian students. Director of the McNair Scholars program Zackie Salmon said no matter their students’ background, at some point every one of their students comes into their office overcome by a climate of racism and unacceptance.
“They all cry,” Salmon said.
Austin Morgan, a member of the gender and women’s studies department, brought discussion briefly back to the walk-out.
“These students walked out because it is not appropriate to address all these groups at once,” Morgan said, “sometimes it takes a one-by-one approach.”
Morgan said the university had not considered the pressure and discomfort caused by presenting a personal story to a public forum and then moved on to a more individual critique of President McGinity and his approach to a recent tragedy.
Morgan took issue with the president’s choice of words, “hang in there,” following a student suicide by asphyxiation.
“What a calloused choice of words,” Morgan said.
President McGinity ended the meeting by giving some brief statements on Adam Smith, saying those present should remember his concepts of empathy. Many of the earlier speakers said they feared retaliation for sharing their stories that night and while the President did not directly address any of the criticisms of either the forum or administrative policy, he did address fears of retaliation.
“Why don’t we walk out together?”
