Anger misdirected, misused

I think it’s important to protest. I think it’s important to get upset if you’ve been wronged. I think it’s important that Wesleyan students show the passion they showed this week. I agree that there are issues to be dealt with. I agree that the way gender-neutral housing was handled was reprehensible. I agree that we should not have to feel unsafe on campus. I agree that we should not have to face racial prejudice. I agreed that we needed to go to Pres. Bennet’s office hours and let him know how we felt. I agreed with the symbolic protest of the duct tape. Till then I agreed with everything the student body had done.

But I didn’t agree with hooting at an elderly man when there’s a hundred of us and one of him. I didn’t agree with asking questions and snatching away microphones when the answers weren’t the ones we were looking for. I didn’t agree with getting in Dean Patton’s face and screaming at him on Tuesday. I didn’t agree with the complete lack of respect that was shown to President Bennet.

How can you expect to be respected when you show no respect yourself? How can you expect that someone will not get angry when you are physically threatening towards them? How can you ask questions, refuse to hear answers and get angry about that? How can you present a list of demands without doing the slightest bit of research about them?

I got an email today, signed by ‘Students for WESU.’ Where were the Students for WESU when WESU was sending out email after email asking for support, when the Argus published articles telling you their plight? Why this sudden love for WESU, and this sudden hatred for President Bennet after a deal was brokered? Why this sudden love for ABM workers the day their demands were met? Where were you when 30 USLAC members were fighting this?

Students feel they have no voice on campus. Students feel they get no information. It’s all there. You have to go get it. You won’t talk but you’ll complain that you get silenced. You won’t open emails which tell you what’s happening. You won’t read the Argus reports that tell you when Bennet and Patton will be at WSA and will answer your questions. Sure, they might not share your views, but there is a difference, and I seem to be the only one at Wes who understands this, there is a difference between HAVING YOUR VOICE HEARD and GETTING YOUR WAY. You are not being silenced. You are silencing yourself.

You complain about financial aid. $100 million has been raised for student aid in the last 6 years. It’s 40% of the campaign. This information is on the website. Yield rates for students on aid and those not on aid are the same.

You complain not enough is being done to attract students and faculty of color. That’s a slap in the face of everyone in Admissions and on SOC-prefrosh weekend committees who spend hours trying to get students of color to come to Wesleyan.

You complain about lack of student voice? Well, why weren’t there 1000 of you at the Safety, SOC or Queer forums that were organized to listen to you?

You complain about not integrating Wesleyan with the Middletown community but you cast aside attempts at integrating Wesleyan students with Wesleyan students as an attack on Safe Spaces.

What happened this week is not about President Bennet’s policies. This isn’t about “our” school. It’s not about ”unilateral policies” or “information cover-ups.” This week was about kids who felt that they were not getting their way. This week was about you, yeah, you in the blue back there, feeling like your financial aid package wasn’t enough. This was about you, on the right, feeling like you didn’t get all 4 classes you wanted. This was about you, on the left, feeling like a professor disrespected you. This was about you, yes all of you standing in the front, who didn’t have a class when the protest was happening and joined because you have nothing else to be angry about.

My issue is not that you got angry. It’s that anger was misused, anger was misdirected and anger turned to farce. And when I feel like my anger will be utilized well, I will go out there and fight with you. Till then, regretfully, I must disagree with you, both the methods you’re using and why you’re doing it.