Amherst Uprising's Demands

OHMomof2
Wed, 18 Nov 2015 20:15:45 +0000

Letter from Amherst Uprising to “Alumni, Family and Friends” just posted and marked “please read and circulate widely”:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/er7lkgxxkot8r5f/AlumniFamilyandFriends.pdf?dl=0

Amherst Uprising
Amherst College
Amherst, MA 01002
amherstuprising.com

To Amherst alumni, family, and friends:

At this point in time, given the conclusion of the sitin and the current effort to restructure
the “Amherst Uprising” movement and its leadership, it is necessary and much overdue to
provide some clarifications and updates to supporters and interested parties:

The movement began on Thursday, November 12th, at 1 pm. In light of recent events on
campuses nationwide (e.g. Mizzou and Yale), three women of color organized a “sitin”
in Frost Library that was only supposed to last one hour. However, as students, faculty, staff, and
administrators gathered, it quickly evolved. The sitin developed into a forum in which students
began to share their stories and experiences of racism and marginalization on campus. Students
spoke for hours, as their peers, classmates, friends, professors, deans, librarians, and counselors
listened, and joined with them in tears, laughter, and solemnity at the unpleasant experiences
they have gone through while at Amherst and beyond.

While this forum went on, a group of students decided to make a list of “demands” in
which they enumerated the changes they wanted the administration to make to ensure a more
inclusive environment for minority and marginalized students on campus. A group of at least
fifty student leaders and representatives met together to discuss these demands to present to
President Martin. President Martin could not attend the sitin initially because she was travelling
on business for the College. Upon hearing what was happening, she cancelled her trip, arriving at
campus around 9:30 pm. When she arrived, this group of students presented these demands,
urging her to consider the systemic problems that isolate students of color, as well as other
marginalized groups, and to join us in making changes. At the same time, a group of three
students, unrelated to this leadership group, declared they were going on a hunger strike. They
have since retracted their strike in agreement that it distracted from the larger movement.

The demands included a timeline for President Martin in which students wanted to see
changes initiated. Students decided that until these demands were met or initiated, they would
continue their sitin in Frost. However, these students made the list of demands in haste. The
group responded with urgency and emotion; they also did not intend this list of demands to be
the final list or the end of student efforts to bring about structural and social change on campus.
However, this group presented their demands in Frost in a very public way, which gave the
impression the demands were final and nonnegotiable.

This was not the case.

On Friday, six students met with President Martin. As intended, a conversation began to
address the sentiment of the demands in a more realistic way. After reflecting on the demands,
students realized their goals would be best met by collaboration with administrators, faculty, and
staff over an extended period of time, rather than through immediate action.

On the afternoon of Sunday, November 15, President Martin sent out an email to students,
faculty, staff, and alums. Her email offered clarification and hope. Given this response to some
of the demands, the sitin ended. That same night, students met to figure out how to restructure
the movement in order to create more thoughtful shortterm and longterm goals, and more
clearly, more permanent leadership structures. The students want to keep the spirit of the
demands, but acknowledge the need for revision and thoughtfulness. As an important note, the
movement, both at its inception and now, by no means intends to stifle free speech. Such
allegations are misinformed and misguided.

Going forward, the movement is making necessary changes. Students involved in the sitin
are grateful for the outpouring of support they have received from professors, faculty, staff, and
alums. On campus, the desire for positive change and inclusivity remains. Amherst Uprising
strives to make Amherst a safe and supportive space for students from all backgrounds,
maintaining an academic culture that enables students to think critically, learn from their
mistakes, and further develop as leaders who will proudly represent Amherst well beyond
graduation. Please look forward to more information which will be shared on our Facebook page
“Amherst Uprising,” our website “AmherstUprising.com,” or our Twitter “@UprisingAmherst.”

Please see this timeline http://amherstuprising.com/timeline.html for a more detailed account of
the past week.