By Elle Thompson, Isabel Oalican, Jingsia Hathorne, Annarose King, and Julia Bastos
On the night of Friday, November 6, students gathered on Taylor Green for a sit-in hosted by the Bryn Mawr Strike Collective.
“Do you remember what happened in 2018?” began a student at the Friday night sit-in. Followed by applause from a few audience members, the strike collective elaborated on how student protests in 2018 paved the way for the renaming of M. Carey Thomas Library to Old Library. Students had argued that Thomas’ classist, anti-Semitic, and racist beliefs should not be honored on any building on campus. Although the library’s official title has changed, sit-in presenters still spoke under M. Carey Thomas’ name, which remains engraved at the front entrance of Old Library.
Another speaker reflected on their freshman year, when Bryn Mawr elected an all-BIPOC Student Government Association (SGA) for the first time. Attendees began to clap, but for the speaker it was “not something to applaud.” They said that it had taken an unacceptable amount of time for Bryn Mawr to have a student government composed entirely of students of color, especially given that Bryn Mawr’s SGA is the oldest such organization in the United States.
Speakers at the open mic discussed racism they had experienced on campus. Multiple students also shared encounters of seeing white students fetishizing their Black peers.
As helpful as sharing information about the strike on social media can be, speakers reminded the audience to not substitute performative activism for meaningful action.
Efforts for the strike, they said, can be buoyed through strategizing over Zoom calls and sharing online resources. A post created to show off someone’s commitment to social justice only impacts what others think of them, not the movement they claim to support. Special notice was given to how students posted black squares on Instagram over the summer, as part of “Blackout Tuesday” yet refused to take action beyond their newsfeeds. The BMC Strike Collective emphasized the point of protest and action, in contrast to the Haverford administration’s October 28 email: “Of course it’s not going to bring a life back, but that’s not the point. We’ve had too many lives gone.”
The sit-in was full of a rising pressure: that students would not, and will not, wait any longer for Bryn Mawr to change. One strike organizer commented that “Black students go above and beyond to hold up this structure of inclusion. But it is resting on sticks…this is the breaking point.” Students asked why Black people should be admitted as part of “diversity and inclusion” efforts when they feel unsafe on campus, and said that these same administrative resolutions to ensure “diversity and inclusion” at Bryn Mawr did not connect to an understanding of students’ daily lives.
There was a general emphasis on the feeling that the administration has ignored students: “Committee after committee, town hall after town hall, told us what we needed. […] We were ignored. […] We have the power now, and that is what a strike is: to take back that negotiating power.”
Discussion also focused on certain departments’ reaction to strike. A comment from Russian department professor likened students (strike leaders) to the “Bolsheviks” and compared the strike to living under the USSR, because she felt that she was “being told how to think.” Departments such as Creative Writing have explicitly stated solidarity with the strikers. Creative Writing faculty have suspended classes, supported students who set aside work, and held various teach-ins. Some departments, such as Biology and Math, have refused altogether to cancel classes.
This lack of solidarity with Black students prompted strike coordinators to identify negative reactions to the strike as a way for privileged community members to ask, “can you please stop being so loud with your pain?” At the open mic, a student speaker told the crowd: “There’s no caveats to my life, right? There’s no asterisks by the strike. You participate fully or you’re not with us.”
At the Monday meeting, the collective established they were originally meant to have a meeting with President Kimberly Cassidy on Wednesday, November 11, but it was quickly pushed back to two meetings: a one-on-one Thursday, November 12, and a public Zoom meeting on Friday, November 13, from 12–2 p.m.
On Monday, November 9, the strike collective hosted one teach-in on radical accessibility, and another sit-in took place on Taylor Green. The mood at the Monday afternoon sit-in was hopeful; students wrote signs in support of the protest, socialized, played music, and only complained about the lack of sunscreen in the 75-degree weather.
Two hours later, however, tension between the administration and students intensified in the wake of President Kimberly Cassidy’s email, “Moving Us Beyond this Moment.” As a response to this email and other frustrations, the Bryn Mawr Strike Collective held a sit-in at the front of Goodhart Hall at 9:00 PM to discuss how to proceed with the strike. The collective issued a statement on their Instagram account describing their stance: “As a collective, we would like to dispel any rumor or accusation that claims that we have bullied or actively promoted bullying during the strike. […] If you feel like you have been shamed, harassed, or intimidated by someone for choosing to attend classes, eat in the dining halls, etc., please reach out to us.”
At the sit-in, the tone was more pointed. The first speaker opened with these words, “Black voices need to be centered on campus and KCass’s email is exactly what we are talking about when we say Black voices on this campus are not heard.” Anger and frustration with President Cassidy and the Bryn Mawr administration hung in the air. The second speaker began by reading part of Bryn Mawr College’s mission statement, “Equity and inclusion serve as the engine for excellence and innovation.”
At that moment, two police cars drove by, down the road between Goodhall Hall and Bettwsy-Co-Ed. Despite the presence of the police, the student continued speaking: she finished reading the section of the mission statement, and turned to “a list of some things Bryn Mawr has been doing” recently. This list included not meeting BIPOC students demands in the letter written this summer, a lack of “support for Black students in STEM,” and “not taking seriously” racial discrimination against BIPOC students. The speaker elaborated on this third point with her own knowledge of people who have “been discriminated against, been called racial slurs, [and] had their lives threatened on this campus.”
Student organizers emphasized that the collective “does not condone any type of bullying, harassment, intimidation” in relation to the strike. They denied encouraging or engaging in the “acts of intimidation” that Cassidy referred to. Any student with a habit of harassing other students was told to “cut it out.”
For strike leaders, focusing on the feelings of intimidation, shame, and harassment that non-BIPOC feel during discussions of race signaled the prioritization of White feelings and complete neglect of Black voices. Multiple speakers likened being Black in America to everyday bullying. One organizer, citing “a climate of fear” described in the email, addressed the sit-in on Friday night. “Many of us,” the student said, “came up to the mic and, you know, were vulnerable and told really hurtful stories” about their lives at Bryn Mawr.
“We talk a lot about cancel culture here,” they said. “There’s a fear on the part of marginalized people of even stating what it is that has hurt you,” the student said. “It’s constantly like, was that really a microaggression? Am I buggin’ right now? Am I blowing things out of proportion?”
In her email, Cassidy cited an example of these “acts of intimidation” claiming that students were afraid to eat in the dining halls. A strike collective speaker took a moment from an appraisal of the email to ask sarcastically, “Who is afraid to go to the dining hall?” The crowd laughed. While the strike collective encouraged students to spend less time at the dining hall to reduce pressure on workers, there was no implication that picking up food at the dining halls was breaking the strike.
The strike leaders also responded to concerns from faculty, parents, and students about their continued anonymity. Others stressed the real consequences in hiring, in grad school applications, and on campus of having their names tied to this strike. Rumors have swirled about many students on campus, including the traditions mistresses, receiving angry emails from parents.
President Cassidy’s email also suggested division in the student body, but looking at the gathered crowd, the strike collective questioned this: “Do you see division here?” The crowd of an estimated 150 students gathered in front of Goodhart was a tangible denial of division. At least 175 people were on the Zoom call at its peak, a testament to the influence of the strike beyond the physical space of the sit-in. As one organizer made clear, given that there were 30 Black students living at Bryn Mawr, the strike did not consist of only Black students.
About an hour into the strike, strike leaders noticed Dean of the Undergraduate College Jennifer Walters in the crowd. After several minutes of asking her to come forward, she was handed a mic. First, a student asked why President Cassidy emphasized the importance of education but did not advertise or attend any events in the teach-in schedule. Another student explained, “I’m not seen as whole. I’m not seen as a human being… and you have helped with that.” Dean Walters replied, “I don’t want to be a part of continuing that.” Walters stated the administration had an unpublished letter drafted summarizing their responses to this summer’s open letter, which was delayed because the administration had been “taken aback” by the strike.
As Dean Walters continued, the crowd became increasingly tense. When she began one statement with, “We are a divided campus,” loud boos echoed across the outside of Goodhart. She quickly corrected herself: “Well, what I mean is we haven’t been a community in the way that we say that we are.” A student in the front row asked, “You see all these people. What are you going to do about it?” Little answer was given. Another student asked, “Is it a goal [to end racism on campus]?” to which she replied, “If you talk to some alumni, it is.” At one point, a student even asked: “Are we scaring you?” Her reply was a quick, “No.”
One speaker addressed Dean Walters directly, describing how they had been used by Bryn Mawr for performative diversity: “With KCass’s email, and Dean Walters, with your email,” the student said, “I realized y’all can put me in your brochures. You can put me at the face of your tour guide. […] But y’all don’t give a fuck about me. At all. ‘Cause you can look at me, and you can display that these demands-these demands for my rights-for the rights of the people up here-they’re just too damn hard. They’re just too much fucking work, right?”
When the questions ended, students honed in on some empathic points. One student voiced concerns about the town hall with faculty: “I didn’t like the fact that it was policed. […] I didn’t like the fact that the faculty took up a lot of space. […] There was one point in town hall when someone asked [the moderator] whether or not there were any questions, and she lied about it. […] I think that some of the questions she brought to the table were biased toward students who were not striking.”
One student organizer asked for further transparency from the administration, given that “The example I saw from Haverford, which I really enjoyed, was that student organizers met with admin and it was a public chat. Student organizers controlled everything. We would like to see those next steps on Bryn Mawr’s side.” They ended their statement with another request: “Please tell parents to back off.” The organizer spoke of reactions from faculty, stating, “I don’t like the fact that we have faculty who are belittling students” and “who are being a little bit too aggressive, in my opinion, about their stance against the strike.” A student emphasized the power the strike provides: “An institution is not sustainable without its students… including its BIPOC students.” In reference to a phrase from the email, they emphasized that “the fabric of our community [is] sown together by… racism, microaggressions, unaccountability, inadequate support, [and] all-around mediocrity.” At the words, “your email demonstrates your racist beliefs,” the biggest applause of the night sounded.
Dean Walters left shortly thereafter. Discussion then turned yet again to Black student experiences. An alum spoke of “the microaggressions, the direct racism that I experienced as a Black person in the athletics department.” She stated that the Bryn Mawr soccer coach said he did not see the point in recruiting minority players, because any of them that would be good enough for his team would not be able to afford to come to Bryn Mawr. Another student brought up the soccer team’s support for students involved in hanging a Mason-Dixon line and Confederate flag in Radnor Hall in 2014.
Another student discussed concerns with the Physics department town hall. According to their account, race was not brought in until an hour and a half into the session; when the conversation finally turned to the topic, only two professors of color spoke.
The night focused heavily on the need for active support rather than performativity. “You can be as loud as you want with claps but when it comes to talking about race you are not showing up… You need to translate this clapping to actually talking to people about it,” one student told the crowd.
President Cassidy’s email also led to Strike Collective concern about punishment from the Honor Board for participation in the strike. At the end of the night, a Bryn Mawr Honor Board representative responded, “We want to just affirm that we will fight for students who have things brought against them for things related to the strike. We are on your side through and through.”
As the strike coordinators have chosen to remain anonymous, this article will not refer to the speaker’s names. For more information, including the current teach-ins hosted by the Bryn Mawr Strike Collective, visit @brynmawrstrikecollective on Instagram or visit their linktree here.
3 comments
I have spent considerable time looking through all of the articles posted on the Haverford, Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore demands and strikes, all is intriguing.
As a parent of a prospective student, I am not sure whether all of this paints these schools in good or bad light ? And whether my daughter should be continuing to pursue an education there or not?
Honestly I was very surprised to see all of this news coming from these schools, as I thought they were at the fore front of the “inclusive” spectrum. So are these schools that racist, or are they just that progressive? Is this just an effort to push the colleges very hard for very advanced rights in these areas? This is critical information for me.
My daughter has very high interest in all colleges cited, and though I like progressive work by students, I am not sure we want to pay high tuitions to have periodic strikes occurring, with so much missed education and class time.
Does this happen often in these schools?
Also, if I understand accurately seems like Bryn Mawr decided to follow Haverford in strike solidarity, then went on strike on their own along the way, but now Haverford is back in class without providing same return of solidarity? Or am I missing something? Swarthmore appears to be pushing to try and get similar changes, while still continuing getting their education?
Sounds like there is some cooperation but also some self serving going on amongst these schools. Bryn Mawr College students clearly missing most class time and education, while others have or are navigating more wisely.
If someone would be kind enough to piece all of this together here I would appreciate, trying to see if daughter should keep these schools on her list or move in another direction.
Any perspective on these few matters would be helpful.
Valid questions. I think the important thing to recognize here is who the audience of the strike is (the colleges themselves, not really external observers), and what the expectations of the strike are (an unconditional commitment to social justice). A criticism of HC/BMC as “a fundamentally racist institution” within the community carries some implicit expectations of what constitutes racism to begin with—and without this context in mind, it’s not constructive to try to compare them to other colleges. To some people in this country, nothing is racist unless it is accompanied by direct verbal attacks or physical violence. Within the Bi-Co that definition would be absurd. There’s a lot of nuance and a lot of sensitivity in the way that students here try to frame their use of language, so “racism” becomes a much more versatile descriptor. Of course not everyone is on the exact same wavelength, but taken as a whole I would have to describe the strike as coming from a place of intense progressivism and directed toward what are, in the grand scheme of things, already pretty progressive institutions. I am certain that many of the broader issues described in the strike—mostly a matter of implicit racial biases manifesting in institutional ways—are equally problematic at any college in this country. Microaggressions worm their way into daily life in every community I’ve seen. That students at HC/BMC are taking active steps to address these issues, I feel, is something to be applauded.
The only major strikes I am personally aware of at Haverford are the 1972 strike and the one this year. I know that some students also went on a hunger strike in 1977, and individual groups will periodically do some form of protest/boycott to uplift their organization, but they don’t typically involve striking from all academics. For example, in 2019, the Student Workers Organizing League (SWOL) at Haverford organized a boycott of the college’s orientation program, Customs, which was at that time unpaid. The subsequent shortage of applications gave the administration a kick in the rear about benefitting from unpaid labor (Customs leaders are now paid). To be completely honest, I think that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated community stress in a way that lends itself substantially to campus-wide movements like this. No doubt many students were comfortable with a break from classes because of the lack of an October break and the overall difficulty of working through the conditions of a pandemic. Coupled with national racial tensions, it does not surprise me that this occurred now and not before. Barring such conditions in the future, I don’t think it would be possible for another strike to occur without a very good reason, at least at Haverford.
Haverford students are back in class now, although some/many are still striking from any classes they’re taking at Bryn Mawr. I’m not sure what the status of Swarthmore’s movement is beyond their open letter. And FYI, I feel that it is misleading to suggest that students altogether stopped learning during the strike, given the faculty “teach-ins” pertaining to social justice in their respective fields that have occurred throughout (such materials really should have been more heavily integrated into the curricula to begin with). e.g. algorithmic bias in computer science. Some classes at Bryn Mawr are adjusting their syllabi to integrate more discussion of racial issues so that they will still have lectures, and many students seem to be fine with attending those. It is definitely a weird situation all-around, but my takeaway has not been negative.
Thank you for the time to provide a thorough and thoughtful response.
Good luck to all through this apparent tough time.
From an outside perspective, reading through all of the articles and information, one gets the sense of strife, strain and division.
Candidly, in addition to great educational reputations, the strong appeal of these schools, from our fairly extensive research, is a very strong sense of unity, harmony and community.
So as one reads through all of the articles and the information on these strikes and sees the use of some very pointed and strong language, its all a bit confusing to an outsider.
Hopefully there is a mechanism to heal and move forward, as it appears that work must also continue, along with the other primary important aims of the movement as well.
We will continue to monitor all of this, and again good luck to all, 2020 has been a trying time indeed.