Students hold an anti-police protest at @EvergreenStCol hotair.com/archives/2018/…
This happened on November 7th but it wasn’t reported until a week later by the student newspaper. The protest was organized by the Industrial Workers of the World South Sound General Education Union.
They had two related demands, which they tried to personally deliver to Evergreen President George Bridges. The first was that the school refrain from hiring two police officers. The second was that the money instead be used to hire two full-time professors.
The hiring of two additional officers was a priority for former Campus Police Chief Stacy Brown. Brown resigned from her job last August after months of conflict with student protesters.
First-year student Alice McIntyre said: “The question of police presence on campus is not just a question of budget priorities, it’s a question of power: who runs the school, and for what purpose?”
She continued: “It’s abundantly clear from the decision made by the administration and board of trustees that the school is not being run in the interest of students and faculty.”
McIntyre also pointed out that “the struggle against the presence of police at Evergreen is closely linked to the defense of immigrant students and students of color,”
And that “as long as police remain at Evergreen, its status as a ‘sanctuary campus’ should be viewed with a grain of salt, as should any stated commitments to equality and inclusion.”
It’ll be interesting to see if the school, more specifically President George Bridges, caves into these demands the way he did last year. The freshman student quoted above is right about one thing. This isn’t just about how to spend money, it’s about who runs the school.
Are we going to see the same old Evergreen, i.e. eager to capitulate to student demands? Or has the substantial reduction in enrollment this year forced a change of perspective about the wisdom of allowing radical students to run the campus?
