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The Spectator
Faculty Meeting Serves as Forum for Student Activists
by Daniel Steinman '12News Writer
November 06, 2009
Though it was not listed on the agenda, a student demonstration was the main order of business at this week's scheduled faculty meeting. On Tuesday, Nov. 3 in the Fillius Events Barn, a group of roughly two-dozen students voiced their dissatisfaction with how the College has addressed what they deem to be a series of offensive incidents over the past several years. Many of the students claimed that these episodes show how the campus is an unwelcoming and unsafe environment.
After Chair of the Faculty Gordon Jones announced that there was not enough voting faculty members present to conduct official business, the students began their demonstration. They presented anonymous personal accounts of times that students and alumni felt unsafe or disrespected by their peers. These accounts were solicited and collected through e-mail over the course of the five days before the faculty meeting.
Stories included students at a party calling a peer a "faggot," a professor asking a bilingual student whether English was the student's first language, and male students yelling suggestive remarks at female students.
President Joan Hinde Stewart said, "The incidents they recounted were very disturbing." She stressed that she wants all Hamilton students "to feel safe, protected, and educated."
Amy Tannenbaum '10 took part in organizing the demonstration and spoke at the meeting. She explained her concern that the students who recounted these negative experiences often "feel they have no support" on campus.
Much of the conversation was focused on a recent confrontation between two students in the library, which the demonstrators cited as the latest example of what they view as a pattern of disrespect among peers at Hamilton.
On Wednesday, Oct. 21, Hannah Roth '11 was talking on her cell phone in Burke Library. In response, another student threw his wallet in her direction, which made a loud sound when it hit the wall near her.
Roth believed that the other student intended for the object to hit her. She said that no one asked her to stop talking on the phone before the wallet was thrown towards her.
The student who threw the wallet spoke to The Spectator but asked to remain anonymous.
He said that his action "was only meant to get her attention." He recalls Roth being disruptive to those studying around her and said that several people, including him, asked her to stop talking on the phone before he threw the wallet. The student, who said he apologized after the incident, described his response as an "overreaction," and said, "I was sincere in my apology."
A first-year student who witnessed the event and also wished to remain anonymous described Roth as "talking as if she was in her own living room." The first-year recounted that several people in the vicinity expressed obvious annoyance and that students were making direct eye contact with Roth to indicate their disapproval.
The witness did not recall anyone verbally asking her to stop until after the incident, at which point Roth continued her conversation on the phone. The witness emphasized that the second male student to approach Roth was polite when he asked that she turn off her phone, while Roth's account in her letter to the editor last week said that he was "yelling."
Roth filed a bias incident report in which she indicated that she was targeted because of her gender. Roth said that she did not talk to any authority figure on campus before filing the report on Hamilton's website.
"I was in such shock; I didn't know how to handle the situation," she said. "I just wanted them to know what happened. If I had to pick out of anything, I would say [his action] would be [classified as] aggression towards a woman."
At the faculty meeting, Roth expressed, "I have never felt so unsafe at Hamilton." The College responded to her report that the incident did not qualify as a "bias incident" and offered a mediated conversation between both students involved.
Tannenbaum told those present that, "We are confused about how to classify incidents," and said that the school should be clearer on the procedure for reporting incidents.
She also asked why many of the occurrences students reported over the last several years were not included in the tally of the school's annual crime statistics.
She was referring to a report that Campus Safety released on Sept. 25 to fulfill requirements of the Clery Act, a federal law mandating that all colleges participating in federal financial aid programs must disclose information about crimes committed on or around their campuses.
Dean of Students Nancy Thompson responded, "Things that show up on our crime statistics are things that fit the definitions of crimes."
"I hope we can all agree that throwing a wallet at someone is assault," Tannenbaum said. Director of Campus Safety Francis Manfredo clarified that the action did not fit the legal definition of "assault," and said that it would most likely be classified as "disruptive behavior." Stewart added, "Everything is not acceptable just because it doesn't fit the definition of a crime."
In response to the claim that there are no ways to report incidents other than the bias incident report online, Thompson said, "I am not sure why people would think that. Campus safety, the library staff, RAs and anyone on the Dean of Students staff are all available to receive reports from students."