Dear Dickinson, it’s not your fault.
On Sept. 10, I had a Zoom call in the evening with a co-worker of mine at a Human Rights Organization. I’m helping her plan some student engagement and activism resources for Sudanese humanitarian response. She also regularly works with students on their own advocacy initiatives. Just a couple hours before, I got the email from two of our Deans about the updates to the Student Handbook around demonstrations and encampments.
I joined the call, and immediately asked what this meant. My colleague said, to put it simply, this means our school can be recorded as one of many around the country being censored and having their freedoms of speech and expression limited by a higher institution. Field researchers have gotten our name down, and this will contribute to the Protect the Protest Campaign launched by Amnesty International, detailing the corruption in legislative pressures for silencing social movements, and highlighting where and when countries and states diverge from International Human Rights Law (as determined by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights).
I don’t blame the select higher Dickinson administration for doing what they did. Despite its corrupt and silencing nature, I understand it comes from the corrupt and silencing nature of those they nod to: the State and U.S. government and jurisdictional pressures of other degrees, whether in our interest or not. Also, our school’s need to mute any controversial issue for the sake of enrollment numbers. We live in a profit-centered world, so they too are trying to make their dollar each day. Don’t want to scare off the freshman! Although, the freshmen I’d like to see on campus are those interested in and energized by students’ social awareness. I’d prefer my own dollars, which my family works hard to maintain and support me with, to go into my actual education – an education free of biased rules and favored ends.
The UN Human Rights Committee has already called on states to affirm their protection of peaceful demonstrations wherever they take place: outdoors, indoors or online; in public and private spaces; or a combination of such. But as many of my peers are realizing each day, considering the human rights concerns of the globe, the United Nations is an “on paper” body, which is finding it harder every day to set the record of governance and societal safety straight.
For my student job this year, I had to write about what DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) means to me. I wrote more about what I wish it didn’t mean. I wish it didn’t translate to “D,” “E” and “I.” An empty acronym institutions and entities use on branded letterhead or a website home page. An acronym which is granted a building office and student work, but whose limits are defined by what is practical and what is visible by permission. Each center of the DEI department, each racial and ethnic group, faith, gender, sex or political party of each student on campus, will not be able to go to lengths which reach the “social awareness” schools like ours superficially emphasize. The emphasis ends where discomfort begins. When public sentiment looks unprofessional, it’s more of a bother than necessary work for equitable conditions in our communities. I love being unprofessional. My peers are some of the most unprofessional people I’ve met. If unprofessional means ‘willing to defend movements towards collective freedoms,’ then the word professional means nothing to me anymore. I am so okay with that.
The language used in the Handbook edits at our school, especially concerning the prohibiting of face masks (yes, they omitted this detail in the email sendout) is the same language used in the media to describe the fears of domestic terrorists. We’re talking Trump-era rhetoric linking the work students did in the spring around the country, with ‘dog-whistle’ stories like those linked to Black Lives Matter protests in the past several years. This contributed to the demonization of activist communities. This vague yet directional language falters in legitimacy. Women wear the niqab, people wear sunglasses, many types of ski masks and bandanas are stereotypically associated with different racial groups as well, especially in urban areas. These cover one’s identity, but when it is in the context of civil disobedience, there is an expectation of an inferred difference, a version to be feared, a version which signifies aggression versus protection of one’s person.
A commitment to open expression and critical thought has been lost, and yet emphasized, in the same message. Demonstrations, when non-violent and concerning broader social contexts and the support of oppressed communities, are committed to advancing the interest of community members. The right to peacefully assemble involves civic engagement and social awareness, where disagreement and debate are natural. Social awareness now has a line drawn down the middle of its definition.
As a student involved in public activism for the past six years, I participated in offering resources for students last Spring duringthe encampment on Britton. “Last Spring” was directly mentioned in this email about the new restrictions. Following this, the immediate publication by The Dickinsonian of this college-wide update focused on the protest group for Palestinian rights, almost completely, as its context. I would just like to emphasize that this “new rule” is not about the people from last Spring. At all. This has implications for everyone’s ability to defend and to express their values and moral commitments. From the Republican and Democratic student clubs, to the Workers Party, to affinity-groups and diasporic clubs if they wish to highlight issues related to identity or global issues. Even the religious groups, the environmental groups — the sports teams too. If a budget gets cut and people get angry, you can only get visibly angry between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. now, sorry guys!
My connections above to broader student functions are exactly what made me laugh when reading the initial email. I mean a real chuckle. A cackle, even.
Our school put a curfew on activism. Do they know that this is exactly what activism initiatives don’t follow? A protest is defined by civil disobedience. If you want us to learn about Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X, or W.E.B. DuBois then you must realize they are who they are because they break curfews, they bend the rules, they make you uncomfortable? In our case, Dickinson College would be uncomfortable, so no wonder they don’t care to see the silliness in this change. This is a little spoiler that this is, in fact, the point. Sorry guys!
Oh, and Title VI? Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 provides that “no person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” This then means that, if a student group of color were to protest, in coming years, racial, ethnic or religious discrimination not yet visible at the school, and they do so at night, or for several days of public stay, Dickinson would shut it down. Could it get violent? Could arrests be made with this new restriction? Could students get kicked out? What would this look like to the empty DEI of Dickinson, if students were kicked off the quad for defending their civil rights? According to the message from the Deans, shutting us down is for our civil rights.
According to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), all restrictions imposed upon the right to protest must be provided by a clearly defined law/regulation that allows people to regulate accordingly, and must itself be in compliance with international human rights law and not arbitrarily applied. They must also be sure the restrictions do more good than harm. Lastly, the restrictions can only be imposed in the interests of national security or public safety, public order, for public health or for protection of the rights and freedoms of others.
I don’t think we as students saw thatwhen reading our new rules. And I know, international law is a sign-on-if-desired type of law. The least it does here is paint an embarrassing picture for this country and what it’s made our institutions do.
Title VI prohibits a recipient from intimidating, threatening, coercing or retaliating against any person because they made a complaint. I know a complaint isn’t the same as a demonstration which may “disrupt,” or be an overnight stay, but you have to admit it does not look good if Dickinson is retaliating against the publicly demonstrated concerns of its students. Concerning other legalities, some pretty crazy stuff is happening in our state of Pennsylvania this year, too. The Pennsylvania Senate passed legislation this week that aims to discourage efforts to divest from the State of Israel. Its impacts have rippled across higher education. We’re not the only state with this type of bill, and we’re not the only one which is hurting students because of it. Pennsylvania Senator Steve Santarsiero writes of Senate Bill 1260: “to discourage our institutions of higher learning from boycotting or divesting from Israel, the bill will withhold state funding from any school that takes such dramatic and wholly-unwarranted action.”
Since the Deans said I am “learning how to have nuanced and thoughtful dialogue around contentious issues,” this learning urges me to ask general questions, like “Isn’t the Middle East perceived by Americans as a ‘volatile region’ because of America itself and our destruction in many countries?” I’ll also ask more situationally-applicable questions, like “did our school decide to police us so because of this bill?”
On the same day as an initial bill signing in Harrisburg in June, the majority of UPenn students voted in favor of divesting from Israel at a student referendum. The lifeblood of universities, its students, said no to financial ties to Israel, and that same day, doing so was decidedly going to threaten the existence of the school itself.
What was I saying about trying to make a dollar? I guess making money is legally associated with ignoring your students now.
Students had talked with administration last year, where we were continuously congratulated for keeping an encampment off sidewalks and out of students’ way, and maintaining a space where we invited any and everyone to speak and ask questions and contribute. I witnessed accusatory conflicts, hatred directed at students and faculty by the town and the inability of many in the Middle East Studies department to actually talk about what’s going on in the Middle East. What came after incidents was the steadfast supportive nature of diverse groups of students for those who were stressed, worried and scared. I talked with people who didn’t like my views, we listened and falsehoods were corrected. There was a consistently agreed-upon distinction between the need for human rights protection and political favoritism. I have yet to meet someone whose anger or hate has come from someplace other than fear of the unknown, or life biases. That has shown hope for a more collective understanding, and the more people seeing that meant the more we worked together.
This feels totally contradictory to the statement from this week. In fact, it makes some of the communications we had with the administration last year completely hypocritical and trivial. That’s why I feel more pity for Dickinson College than anything else. If they take DEI resources, mission statements and liberal arts goals off their web page and posters, they’ll fail as a school. But if they uphold the values of exactly these characteristics of the school, they’ll fail as a dependent of the State and Federal government. My hope is that my school won’t have to fail at all. I’ll be here, seeing where this goes, and probably breaking curfew in the meantime.
