By Jingsia Hathorne, Staff Editor, and Annarose King, Staff Photographer
On the evening of October 29, students across the Bi-College community went on strike from their classes, jobs, and extracurriculars in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in order to force widespread institutional change within the colleges. Bryn Mawr’s strike initially began in support of the one at Haverford, evolving into a separate “Bryn Mawr Strike Collective” (BMSC) with a list of demands curated specifically for their own institution. The strike lasted three weeks, ending just before Thanksgiving break. As it was nearing its completion, The Bi-College News interviewed two members of the BMSC to gain more insight into the misconceptions arising within the community and sharing their personal experiences as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) students on Bryn Mawr’s campus.
Setbacks
A picturesque view of a small liberal arts college characterizes Bryn Mawr’s website and admissions pamphlets. For many BIPOC students, however, the campus does not feel as welcoming as advertised. Unbeknownst to many such applicants, these pictures omit the uglier side of campus—Bryn Mawr College’s long history of racism and discrimination.
“You see so many people of color on their website,” one organizer interviewed said, “and you’re like, that’s a tiny, tiny part of campus.” They described Bryn Mawr’s performative, lackluster idea of diversity, mimicking the photos of BIPOC on the college’s website: “Look, we have Black people!” They also described the shallow extent of what representation there was, stating that “someone who had, at least in those pictures, longer, loose curls and lighter skin,” reflects what a “poster black Bryn Mawr student” could be.
Organizers stated that prior to the strike, the college had failed to sufficiently address BIPOC and first-generation, low-income students’ financial needs. They pointed to a lack of funding for the Enid Cook ‘31 Center, Bryn Mawr’s Black Cultural Center and student residence (which had previously had a budget at or below $5,000 for the entire academic year), the college requiring scholarship taxes from low-income international students, and the lack of mandatory diversity, equity, and inclusion training for faculty and staff. As a result, much of the student criticism leveled toward the administration during the strike centered around the contrast between the college’s advertisements of diversity and its tangible support of BIPOC students.
Communication Issues
Beyond discussing Bryn Mawr’s performativity, the organizer also reflected on preconceived notions and misunderstandings about the strike itself. There were multiple occasions during which students and administrators failed to communicate adequately, creating a persistent fog of mistrust—such as students’ assumption that the police vehicles present at the November 9 sit-in at Taylor Hall were called in by the college.
The organizer also described how misconceptions about institutional racism led to counterproductive, ad hominem anger towards President Kimberly Cassidy. “We’re talking about the administration and the system of institutional racism as a whole. Her [President Cassidy] being a part of the system” is the problem, the organizer stated. “It’s really not personal like that.”
President Cassidy’s influence over monetary decisions was also limited compared to that of the Board of Trustees. The blame students attributed specifically to Cassidy throughout the strike not only made it more difficult for student organizers to communicate with the administration, but also prevented introspective reflection by students about how anti-Blackness influenced college life.
Strike Misconceptions
Not only was communication with the administration difficult, but the BMSC often struggled with a student body that misinterpreted their goals. During the strike, students outside of the collective expressed their anger and frustration at the administration in ways that did not always align with the BMSC’s views.
One instance the organizer spoke of was the attempted vandalism of President Cassidy’s prop house, her second house used for student gatherings, just minutes away from campus. They stressed that, regardless of justification, destructive action would add to preconceived racial stereotypes and detract from the BMSC’s ultimate purpose: to find a solution with the administration. The organizer said of the attempted vandalism, “That’s not the organizers. We did not do any of that. We did not say to do any of that.”
All events that happened through the work of the BMSC, such as sit-ins, were publicized to students through social media and printed flyers, not done in secret. “It seems like people—especially White people who are doing this—do not understand how it looks for us, and how it’s going to affect us. As if color doesn’t already,” they continued. Bryn Mawr students pressuring their classmates and making personal attacks against the administration undermined the perceived validity of the strike. This ultimately perpetuated the notion that the strike leaders were aggressive or violent, despite their calls for order and open statements against bullying or harassment.
Another false perception adopted by some students was that strike members were refusing to meet with President Cassidy. An email from Cassidy on November 6 sent at 8:20 am included a response to student demands, a timeline, and a request for a Zoom meeting at noon with students, faculty, and staff. However, with only four hours until the Zoom meeting, there was predictably minimal student attendance.
On November 9, Cassidy sent an email filled with concern for students, along with requests for communication, stating that she had “received almost none” on November 6. Students organized a sit-in on Taylor Green the same day. “KCass made it seem like we’re not the ones cooperating with her, so then people are asking for more transparency on our part, because they think we’re hiding something,” the organizer said, frustrated. “The administration is just making it seem like…they’ve communicated with us when really they haven’t.”
Reports of Bullying
Accusations of bullying from students led to outrage from parents and faculty, and painted the BMSC as sympathetic to harassment. “Parents were saying ‘my kid is being bullied for attending classes or getting food from the dining hall’ during the strike,” the organizer said. “The BMSC has never endorsed bullying at any point. If anyone is being bullied, it is not the fault or responsibility of the core strike collective. We don’t have time to monitor people who are striking. That’s not what we’re here to do.”
A second organizer who was interviewed, from the Class of ‘22, also commented on how student perception of confrontation could be perceived as bullying. “I don’t want to invalidate people’s experiences and say they have or haven’t been bullied on this campus,” she said. “But…the bullying that people are experiencing within the period of the strike probably isn’t bullying, it’s confrontation. And I feel that’s a bigger issue that’s specific to this campus, where everyone is fearful of confrontation. When they are confronted, they take it personally, when usually the solution is to just take accountability and be responsible, be an adult.”
She also noted how those who were complaining about bullying were not thinking about their “positionality or power relationships” in the situation. “I don’t know if the [students] who are bullying people for not following the strike have equal or the same power as the people they are bullying,” she said. In the eyes of the strike organizers, these students—many of whom were White—had failed to see how they were centering discussions about race on themselves, rather than those students most directly affected by racism.
The BMSC sought to redirect attention towards achieving the strike demands and diffuse counterproductive tensions among students during sit-ins and student town halls. “I’m tired of being called a ‘bully’ and ‘aggressive,’” the organizer said. “I’m fighting for my rights, and I expect people who say ‘Black Lives Matter’ to stand with me. And then when it gets a little too hard, they don’t.”
The organizers also spoke about the difficulties of dismissing accusations of bullying and harassment. The BMSC’s Instagram account received an overwhelming number of daily direct messages from both Bryn Mawr and Haverford students about how the strike was hard for themselves or their friends. Accusations like “You’re not telling us everything!” were often sent in DMs by students. Even some Haverford students shared messages about the bullying they faced during their strike, but BMSC members could only direct their complaints to Haverford’s organizers instead.
Some international students were reluctant to skip classes as doing so could jeopardize their F-1 visas or financial aid packages. In response, the BMSC acknowledged at Bryn Mawr’s November 9 sit-in that such students should not feel obligated to continue striking from classes. This exception to the strike’s picket line served as a useful clarification for students who would otherwise feel pressured by their peers.
Progress
A BMSC member in the Class of ‘22 was the first to speak in front of the crowd of 700-plus students at Haverford’s October 29 sit-in, which had gathered to protest President Raymond’s earlier email about the Walter Wallace protests in Philadelphia. She had heard about the plan for a sit-in earlier that day, in between volleyball practice and the first of Fred Moten’s lectures, sol aire. She was certain she would be there, as she knew several Haverford organizers, “particularly the people who were working with [the Black Students’ League].” The Blue Bus was full, so she walked over to Haverford with “a group of twenty or so other folks.” As she and her Bryn Mawr friends arrived, she felt a change occur on Haverford’s campus. “A lot of collective energy, and a lot of collective power,” she said. “But I also felt so hypervisible.” As she spoke in front of the crowd, she finally felt seen on Haverford’s campus—a position of both power and vulnerability.
Haverford’s Help
Although Bryn Mawr students initially went on strike in solidarity with their Haverford counterparts, the movement at Bryn Mawr stood in its own right. “Bryn Mawr’s strike was not independent from Haverford’s strike,” the organizer said, “although our demands are autonomous, in that they operate and exist to fill the needs that need to be met at Bryn Mawr.”
There was a recognition that students at each college were “frustrated with our individual campuses.” Haverford students believed that President Raymond’s email was a part of the college’s greater unwillingness to confront its own legacy of institutional racism; it served as the spark that lit the fuses of the twin strikes.
The organizer was “grateful for the way the relationship between strike organizers at Haverford, strike organizers at Bryn Mawr, and now organizers at [Swarthmore] have developed.” Bryn Mawr organizers were “ready to support” their fellow organizers at Haverford, who understood that both colleges were “dealing with the same thing.” In return, Haverford students provided important logistics for Bryn Mawr’s strike. “Haverford was really, really crucial in our first few days of figuring out what it is we wanted to do, what it is we wanted to say, and how we wanted things to look,” she said.
Haverford students were “meticulous with how they wanted to organize,” and the “tons of documents” they shared after countless hours of work were “incredibly helpful for us at Bryn Mawr to look at.” The BMSC “didn’t have the capacity or time” to write all of the email templates to send to professors or lists of resources for students. A “mutual relationship” arose from the Bi-Co organizers’ efforts, she said, especially as “we [BMC students] definitely helped them with some writing.”
Still, she stated that “Haverford being the first school to strike officially was beneficial,” noting that Haverford organizers were “phenomenal” with their planning.
Some of Haverford’s demands were specific to the circumstances on campus at that moment, such as how the strikers would be treated. However, those in the Open Letter to the Bi-College Community written this past summer remained guiding principles for the strike. Several of Bryn Mawr and Haverford’s separate demands had clear similarities, including paying student workers, improved access to accommodations for students with disabilities, and recognizing the work of BIPOC students. The removal of M. Carey Thomas’s marble bust and portrait, and plans to remove or cover up her name over Old Library, was one visible change of the success of the Bryn Mawr strike. A sign containing information of Woodrow Wilson’s time at Bryn Mawr was also taken down, reminiscent of Princeton University’s decision this past June to remove Wilson’s name from one of their residential colleges.
The Bi-Co Effect
The Class of ‘22 organizer expanded upon the strength that Bryn Mawr students acquired and how their strike differed from Haverford’s. “I think it’s so beautiful that Bryn Mawr folks have been able to find their own energy, their own voice, and their own space to respond and to demand what they [need].” Haverford’s campus climate is sometimes taken as a measurement of both colleges, with the unintentional side effect of overshadowing Bryn Mawr. For example, Bryn Mawr students postponed Lantern Night on October 30 in the belief that it would reflect poorly on their solidarity with Haverford’s strike, which had begun the previous evening.
The organizer stated the importance of recognizing that even as Haverford students successfully sought change, “it doesn’t mean the issues at Bryn Mawr are [automatically] fixed.” Bryn Mawr students ended their strike when their own demands were met, not when Haverford’s were. “It’s all too often we think that [social issues] don’t exist in the Bi-Co because they don’t happen at Haverford.”
“In reality, these are two really distinct schools…in the way that they operate,” the organizer said. “I’m really happy that [Bryn Mawr students] are still striking,” she said, and that students would, “continue to strike until our demands are met.” Bryn Mawr students concluded their strike by November 20, ten days after Haverford students achieved a suitable framework for having their demands met.
Student Input in the Demands
The BMSC demands incorporated the voices of “different people who encapsulate a lot of different identities” across Bryn Mawr’s campus. The input of various groups of Bryn Mawr students came about “both organically and inorganically,” the organizer said. The natural development of student involvement consisted of “a lot of people who reached out and were like, ‘Thank you for finally saying something, this has always been a problem for me, like I’ve had this experience, or I felt this way in a classroom. And the strike, or your demand number X, Y and Z, really fit and addressed a problem I’ve had on this campus.’”
Members of affinity groups, especially those in the Alliance of Multicultural Organization (AMO), were among those who “reached out to their peers and got them to help in writing demands.” As student organizers drafted demands, they “wanted to make sure that…the AMOs that existed in the Enid Cook ‘31 Center had the first say as to what the demands would be or wouldn’t be.” First-hand knowledge of what students living in the ECC wanted to change was “primary” in shaping the range of demands. Another important part of the process was contacting “the international student community” as well as “groups like MIJ (Mawrters for Immigrant Justice) and other undocumented folks on campus” for their input. “Specific demands about accessibility” and Access Services were priorities for students with disabilities.
The force for change contained within the strike was “definitely a little more specific to Bryn Mawr, in the sense that it is taking so many marginalized groups [of students] on Bryn Mawr’s campus, and putting them at the forefront of the strike,” the organizer said. Through conscious and “intentional” efforts of “how we go to people who make up these communities and ask them for their words, […] we’ve extended, drastically, what this strike entails, and what we are striking for.”
Students were not the only sources of suggestions, as Bryn Mawr faculty and alumni provided additional recommendations over Zoom. “After every two-hour meeting, we have eight hours worth of content to digest, and eight hours worth of suggestions to unpack,” the organizer said.
The BMSC and Professor Fred Moten met on November 10 to talk “about the strike and everything we’re doing and next steps, and what we want to get out of it,” the organizer said. Professor Moten “made it really clear that he, himself, agreed that [the organizers] should make [the strike] happen on our agenda, and on our time, while also making sure that we’re protecting ourselves and making sure we’re not getting in any trouble.”
The Future
Though the organizers expressed their disappointment in the college’s previous inaction, they felt empowered by the rapid change catalyzed by the strike. Just over the winter break, Bryn Mawr has created a Campus Partnership for Equity and Anti-Racism (CPEAR) in efforts to build a diverse group that will advocate for minority groups. CPEAR is anticipated to be made up of a small selected group of students and faculty members, a small step towards equality for those often shut out.
But this short strike marks only the beginning of continued upheaval across the two campuses. “I want Bryn Mawr to change so bad,” the second organizer said. “I have the strongest dislike for this college…it’s so strong, it’s turning into a bit of, maybe not love, but will for it to change.”
As both the Bryn Mawr and Haverford strikes have shown us, there is much more work to do. A future where BIPOC students, especially Black students, feel safe and welcome at Bryn Mawr is a process that cannot be accomplished through a strike alone. “[I am] really glad that I know that there are people on this campus who do genuinely support BIPOC people and want to see our voices uplifted,” said the second organizer. “We’re just hoping for a win for future generations, or a win for past generations. As this practice of feeling motivated by the people around you, or people who are motivated with you continues, I hope Bryn Mawr gets ready.”
Image credit: Annarose King
