Ithaca College students just staged a walk-out

Last week at Ithaca College students stormed the stage while president Tom Rochon was speaking at a forum about racism and cultural bias. But the movement at Ithaca started long before any of this was in the news.

Students packed the Ithaca College quad Wednesday afternoon. They chanted and called for Rochon’s resignation.

People of Color at Ithaca College is a group at Ithaca College that are urging a vote of confidence or no confidence take place by November 30. That because of the color of my skin and my desire to feel welcome and wanted in my community, I would be ostracizing myself from a whole group of people without my knowledge.

We want Tom Rochon to resign or be removed from his position.

Grullon said the protest is a culmination of built-up frustrations. After a flood of complaints, the party was canceled.

Sy, the special events director for the Downtown Ithaca Alliance, said in an interview on Wednesday that she had been uncomfortable because Burch had continued to refer to her as “the savage” even after she reminded him what her name was. “He does make an effort to listen, but the way that he has responded isn’t adequate”, Grullon said. “Many countries in the world have this and we are just amazed that we don’t”. Ithaca College’s student newspaper, The Ithacan, has drawn parallels to the movement on its campus and the University of Missouri movement. They blocked foot traffic as classes changed.

Politics professor Peyi Soyinka-Airewele rubbed her hands against the cold at the edge of the sidewalk. “So thank you for standing in solidarity”, said a member of POC at IC.

The Faculty Council Executive Committee will be handling the voting information and will report the results of the vote to the president of the college, the chairman of the Ithaca College Board of Trustees, Faculty Council and all faculty by December 14.

What are your thoughts on the Ithaca College walkout?

Specifically, the students at Ithaca are protesting three recent incidents. One officer, holding a BB gun, reportedly remarked, “If I saw someone with this I would shoot them”. “The school lacks involvement in ALANA [African, Latino, Asian, Native American] retention”. The word also got out through a few other non-mainstream channels like alternative radio programs, telephone, magazines and pamphlets that were effective, but much slower.

Recckio said Black Lives Matter has provided a lesson to IC students on how to be heard, pointing to the POC at IC Facebook feed as a kind of public square that can be used to follow activities on campus. “I think the two people who resigned are weak, ineffective people”, Trump said on Fox News Thursday morning.

She rattled off challenges she said were experienced by blacks at North Carolina: anonymous threats on social media, a campus built by slaves still littered with a monument to the Confederacy, racist assumptions by faculty and fellow students.

“I do feel the racial tensions in this college”. “It’s a handsome place. I would not have stayed if I did not think there was hope”.

Every institution has room for improvement, and we are thankful that the students are sharing specific and vital issues they would like addressed. Unlike the student body vote of no confidence, the vote will not be broken down to include participants’ school, race and gender.