Anger misdirected,
misused
By Arijit Sen
I think it’s important to protest. I think it’s important to get upset if you’ve
been wronged. I think it’s important that Wesleyan students show the passion
they showed this week. I agree that there are issues to be dealt with. I agree
that the way gender-neutral housing was handled was reprehensible. I agree that
we should not have to feel unsafe on campus. I agree that we should not have to
face racial prejudice. I agreed that we needed to go to Pres. Bennet’s office
hours and let him know how we felt. I agreed with the symbolic protest of the
duct tape. Till then I agreed with everything the student body had done.
But I didn’t agree with hooting at an elderly man when there’s a hundred of us
and one of him. I didn’t agree with asking questions and snatching away
microphones when the answers weren’t the ones we were looking for. I didn’t
agree with getting in Dean Patton’s face and screaming at him on Tuesday. I
didn’t agree with the complete lack of respect that was shown to President
Bennet.
How can you expect to be respected when you show no respect yourself? How can
you expect that someone will not get angry when you are physically threatening
towards them? How can you ask questions, refuse to hear answers and get angry
about that? How can you present a list of demands without doing the slightest
bit of research about them?
I got an email today, signed by ‘Students for WESU.’ Where were the Students for
WESU when WESU was sending out email after email asking for support, when the
Argus published articles telling you their plight? Why this sudden love for WESU,
and this sudden hatred for President Bennet after a deal was brokered? Why this
sudden love for ABM workers the day their demands were met? Where were you when
30 USLAC members were fighting this?
Students feel they have no voice on campus. Students feel they get no
information. It’s all there. You have to go get it. You won’t talk but you’ll
complain that you get silenced. You won’t open emails which tell you what’s
happening. You won’t read the Argus reports that tell you when Bennet and Patton
will be at WSA and will answer your questions. Sure, they might not share your
views, but there is a difference, and I seem to be the only one at Wes who
understands this, there is a difference between HAVING YOUR VOICE HEARD and
GETTING YOUR WAY. You are not being silenced. You are silencing yourself.
You complain about financial aid. $100 million has been raised for student aid
in the last 6 years. It’s 40% of the campaign. This information is on the
website. Yield rates for students on aid and those not on aid are the same.
You complain not enough is being done to attract students and faculty of color.
That’s a slap in the face of everyone in Admissions and on SOC-prefrosh weekend
committees who spend hours trying to get students of color to come to Wesleyan.
You complain about lack of student voice? Well, why weren’t there 1000 of you at
the Safety, SOC or Queer forums that were organized to listen to you?
You complain about not integrating Wesleyan with the Middletown community but
you cast aside attempts at integrating Wesleyan students with Wesleyan students
as an attack on Safe Spaces.
What happened this week is not about President Bennet’s policies. This isn’t
about “our’’ school. It’s not about “unilateral policies’’ or “information
cover-ups.’’ This week was about kids who felt that they were not getting their
way. This week was about you, yeah, you in the blue back there, feeling like
your financial aid package wasn’t enough. This was about you, on the right,
feeling like you didn’t get all 4 classes you wanted. This was about you, on the
left, feeling like a professor disrespected you. This was about you, yes all of
you standing in the front, who didn’t have a class when the protest was
happening and joined because you have nothing else to be angry about.
My issue is not that you got angry. It’s that anger was misused, anger was
misdirected and anger turned to farce. And when I feel like my anger will be
utilized well, I will go out there and fight with you. Till then, regretfully, I
must disagree with you, both the methods you’re using and why you’re doing it.
Sen is a member of the Class of 2007.
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