Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Below is a letter sent by the Claremont McKenna College student body in response to
the events of the past week. This viewpoint is that of those who wish to express concern
and criticism of many of the actions that took place. Please share our side of the story.
Thank you very much for your time and support.
Fellow Students, Faculty, Staff, Alumni, and CMC Community,
Undoubtedly, the events of the past week have resulted in much pain, anger, and
sadness. It is now more important than ever for us to remain a community and family.
However, before we begin the reconciliation process, it is our obligation as students, and
citizens of this college, to speak our minds free of any fear of retaliation. With the
utmost amount of respect for the movement, we ask that you hear us out so that we
may begin to resolve the issues that have consumed our campus and the nation.
To preface our opinions we would like to state that discrimination is not an aspect
of society that we will ever endorse. No matter what form of prejudice exists, we
acknowledge that such behavior is harmful to both the victims of it and those around
them. We reiterate that such acts of bias and intolerance will be met with the same
amount of tenacity that compels you to your activism, and we shall channel that
strength to more effective and productive means of resolution. We acknowledge that
marginalization is a problem throughout the entire nation, and regardless of the color of
our skin we promise to continue to change the status quo until people of all
backgrounds and dispositions can live together without any fear of racial intolerance.
That being said, we do not condone many of the actions of the movement this
past week. We have tried our very best to listen, and stand with you. In spite of the
patience we have shown, we can no longer be silent. Members of the CMC community
will always stand by one another, and we have done so, but it is now time to share how
we feel.
Keep in mind that we are not your opposition, we do not fight against what you
are trying to accomplish, nor do we seek to discredit you. Rather, we are another voice,
different as it may be from yours. We cannot be silent any longer for this is now an issue
that has an impact on all of us. It is of utmost importance that we begin to openly share
with each other how we feel so that all voices have the opportunity to be heard.
The following grievances listed are those that the signers of this letter reprimand:
I.
Halloween: While we do not condone the costumes and cultural
insensitivity that the girls in costumes displayed, it is not permissible to publicly
humiliate and essentially cyber bully girls that have repeatedly apologized. We are young
and we make mistakes. Though that does not excuse actions, it warrants forgiveness and
understanding that we learn from our mistakes. This letter serves as a petition and a
request for you to remove your photos of those girls online. They are already in the
news, and were on live television for multiple nights in a row. It is time that you see this
from peer to peer. These girls made mistakes, they do not deserve to publicly shamed
This is not a Presidential debate where an answer is prepared for every possible
question. This was an open forum with the opportunity to have constructive criticisms
and productive discussions, yet it became an open humiliation of the one of the most
important people that will ever be on your side.
V.
Though you have every right to assembly, the message you preached on
Wednesday was tainted by the profanity in both your voices and on your signs. On live
television, 3 students yelled profanities and the crowd cheered them on. On live
television you told the world that we are too immature to handle these issues on our
own. On live television, you compromised your legitimacy as educated students and
protestors, and instead appeared as though you just wanted someone to blame. There
was no room for discussion or debate at your rally, and voices opposed to yours were
silenced. You have the freedom of speech to say what you will, as we do so in this letter,
but you have publicly humiliated CMC and tarnished your legitimacy as student leaders.
VI.
Jeff Huang, you stood idle as Mary Spellman went through all of this. You
were content to sit against the Athenaeum wall while Hiram and Mary took every word
spoken to them. You are a Vice President of CMC, and Mary Spellman was often under
your directive. It is shameful that you are more protective of your position as an
administrator than of your employees, coworkers, and the students of which you are an
administrator for. You have as much to answer for to the students of this college as Dean
Spellman, and we are disappointed in the lack of your response to any of the events
occurring. We have not received a single email or note from you, yet you are supposedly
one of the most powerful voices on campus. You did not even show up to the
Athenaeum discussions on Friday night. Wheres Waldo Jeff Huang?
VII.
Our grievance with ASCMC lies mainly in the lack of representation of your
student population. While we realize that you as individuals have the right to the
freedom of speech and assembly, some of you chose to utilize your positions to push for
this movement, and by doing so marginalized many students who voted for you. In this
sense, we do not feel that we are represented by the Executive Board officers and
request that more thought be given to your actions as members of the student
government, before participating in actions that would cause your constituents to
question whether you truly represent them.
All these acts were not those of integrity, democracy, and educated CMCers.
These actions were the result of emotional and angered students. While your good
intentions of reform and change were present, many of your actions proved to have a
negative impact on the progress that has been made. Nevertheless, we choose to move
on; we have learned from your mistakes and are sure that you will as well.
Claremont McKenna College is a special place. The nation praises us for our tight
knit community, the quality of our education, and the professionalism that students
display as they dip their feet into the real world. Amongst thousands of applicants, you
were chosen because of your merits, to attend a school that many pray to receive a
letter of acceptance from. Before you even arrived here at CMC, the college began its
preparation to welcome you with open arms into its classrooms, dormitories, and dining
halls. CMCs attitude of not having money become an obstacle for your attendance is the
first of many resources that were offered to ensure that you could continue your
education without interruption.
Never have we been more divided as a community. Never have we been more
humiliated on national television with profanities being yelled at the only college
president who will come out and let you berate him for 3 hours. Never did we think we
would regret the day we became Buzzfeed famous. Never did we think the day would
come where we were scared to speak our minds, where fear of our fellow students rage
silenced us.
Numerous resources have been created in response to the needs of the student
body in the past years; the Student Disability Resource Center, the Title IX investigator
that now resides on campus, the partnership between the Claremont Colleges and the
Project Sister Family Services to provide resources for victims of sexual assault, the
Queer Resource Center, and numerous student panels and representative positions.
Those are just a fraction of the resources that Claremont McKenna College offers you,
and none of these programs and centers resulted from the threats of an angry student
movement.
You are our friends, our family, and people that we talk to everyday, but out of
fear for what you might say to us, we held our tongues. But as of this moment, we are
speaking up. It is time for the demonstrations and the hostile rhetoric to stop. Hiram and
the rest of the administration are offering us seats at the table to resolve these issues
together. It would be foolish and immature to reject the opportunity to discuss the
inequality issues on campus.
In fact, as a show of faith, we still promise to help improve the lives of every
person in the CMC Community by working with you to fight discrimination and racial
intolerance. There are student committees we can form, support groups that can start
meeting, and open forums where our voices will be heard. If we can organize such
student organizations as well as you organized your demonstrations, there is nothing
that will stand in our way of reforming Claremont McKenna College. Together, we can
shape the future of CMC, and help change the attitudes of the nation. And we will
achieve this through progress, communication, and collaboration.
We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power
to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some
evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
We are grateful for CMC.
Very Respectfully,
Nathaniel Tsai,
Claremont McKenna College c/o 2017