Racism And Higher Education Part 2 (fwd)

[SHAWGI TELL <v600a8e6@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

FYI.


Shawgi Tell
University at Buffalo
Graduate School of Education
V600A8E6@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 1996 10:35:48 -0500
From: Emiliano Zapata <zapata@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Multiple recipients of list MULT-CUL <MULT-CUL@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Racism And Higher Education Part 2

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 1996 04:40:02 -0800
From: Marpessa Kupendua <nattyreb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: uvmtoday@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Support Committee Response to Salmon Letter 2/2

AUTHORS: ALANA STUDENT STRIKE SUPPORT
COMMITTEE
******************************************************
This text concludes the analysis of President Salmon's recent
memorandum regarding Maneshkona's hunger strike to the Board
of Trustees  of the University of Vermont.
******************************************************

SALMON:
"While Ms. Praileau has every right to engage in an act of
conscience, I remain genuinely concerned about her well-being and
hope that she will choose to rethink her current course of action.
Should Ms. Praileau's fast remain in effect when she returns to
campus, we will continue to make all appropriate services
available and keep lines of communication open."

SSC:
President Salmon asserts his white privilege here to impose his
own perception of Maneshkona's actions and commitment even
though he has not to this date had a single conversation or direct
communication with her on this matter.  As one alumni said after
reading the official correspondence: "Why does he believe he is in
a position to assign meaning to the hunger strike? This is not an
act of conscience, like recycling a Snapple bottle; this is an
outright act of resistance to a racist university. One normally does
not risk one's life in an act of conscience."

The President's saying that he is "genuinely concerned" is
insincere in light of his failure to act effectively in this crisis.
Maneshkona lives on the UVM campus and operates according to
a set schedule of classes which any person on the campus could
inquire about if there intent was to speak with her. The President
lives less than one half mile from where Maneshkona resides.
Maneshkona was in the President's wing of the administration
building the day the hunger strike started and held polite
conversations with two of his aides.  The lapse in President
Salmon's attentiveness to the welfare of one of *his* students is
unconscionable, his handling of the personal communication with
Maneshkona  "disastrous".

For the President to express "hope that she will choose to rethink
her current course of action" is to insist that Maneshkona choose
to accept her marginalization and the destruction of her community
as it was until June 16, 1996.  The President's staff has executed
its duties, as these relate to multicultural development and issues
of racial justice on campus, according to his expressed wishes.

The impact of these executive actions as carried out under the
President's auspices have disenfranchised the committed and
accountable ALANA student leadership which was four years in
the making.  Student leadership development was part of their
"UVM experience".

Salmon's exercise of unlimited power over students of color is the
focus of Maneshkona's "course of action", yet his communication
insinuates that it is an errant one. A leading ALANA organization
in higher education, the National Council of Black Studies, has
decided to censure the University of Vermont as being
"extraordinarily hostile to the full development of ALANA
students and faculty" given the state of affairs surrounding the
hunger strike. What is the President's course of action
now ?

President Salmon's pledge to continue making services available
and keeping lines of communication open are empty statements.
All services are normally available to any tuition paying student.
This pledge does not commit the President to any good faith
disposition for resolving this crisis.

It is worthy to note however that Maneshkona took it upon herself
to visit the Burlington Community Health Center after her patient
confidentiality privileges at the Student Health Center were
violated.  At the BCHC, Maneshkona was given extensive
attention to her physical condition and received an in depth
assessment of her overall health after having been on the hunger
strike for more than 25 days.  The Student Health Center did
nothing more than cursory checks and issue vitamins. There was
even a markedly different attitude between the accomodating
staff at BCHC and the Student Health Center staff.

The effectiveness of communication lines is in question.  The Vice
President for Student Affairs Dean Batt is the chief executive of
the university division assigned to deal with the student life affairs
on the campus.  To give the public some idea of the severe manner
in which this officer of the university has compromised his
integrity, it should be known that less than one month before the
hunger strike began Vice President Batt was seeking judicial
sanctions to be brought against Maneshkona and other ALANA
student leaders after they exposed a lie that he told to visiting
ALANA students to gloss over their concerns about racial climate
issues on the UVM campus.

The tension in this vital communication channel was never
resolved. It peaked when Vice President Batt accused Office of
Multicultural Affairs staff member Lufuno Tshikororo of "putting
the students up to it".  Tshikororo is the only surviving staff
member following the Board of Trustees purge of the OMA
leadership in June of 1995. This is just a small part of the
antagonistic dynamic which Vice President Batt has fostered
directly by his actions toward the ALANA student community.

Vice President Batt sits on the Provost Council, the top executive
circle of the institution. Batt closely supervises the Interim
Director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, Douglas Samuels,
and has participated with Samuels in the systematic discrediting of
Tshikororo and Maneshkona on campus, calling them to members
of the professional staff and to the faculty as being members of a
"cult", saying that they have been "brainwashed".  These two men
comprise the "open" communication channels which Salmon lauds
in his communication to the Board of Trustees.

For the President to be taken seriously in this matter he should: 1)
make clear that he comprehends the nature, origins, and substance
of the demands Maneshkona has placed on his table;  2)
communicate directly with Maneshkona and the ALANA student
leadership with convincing clarity regarding the demands; 3) hold
a meeting with Batt and Samuels in the presence of the ALANA
student leadership in order to assess for himself the efficacy of his
lieutenants in carrying out the proper courses of action in this
crisis situation.

SALMON:
"I welcome ideas and recommendations from all members of the
University community.  While I deeply respect the right of
individuals to engage in acts of protest, such acts are not necessary
to bring issues to my attention.  Ideas and requests will receive
consideration based entirely on their merits, and decisions will not
be made simply to end protests. Institutional priorities will
continue to follow principles of educational quality, fiscal
responsibility, sound management practices, and fidelity to the
educational mission of The University of Vermont."

SSC:
President Salmon decided unilaterally that there would not occur
any negotiation on the ALANA student leadership demands. This
is the President's pattern of welcoming ideas and recommendations
from *all members* of the University community.

Prior to this "executive decision" the President disbanded, via
Provost Low, the Commission of Racial Justice and Multicultural
Education on which the ALANA student leadership served with
distinction for two years.

Prior to the disbanding of the Commission the President
acquiesced in the Board of Trustees decision to terminate the
employment of former Director of the Office of Multicultural
Affairs Anthony Chavez, "with cause",  by citing false and
misleading information into the public record as to Chavez' alleged
mismanagement of funds.  This was a unilateral decision against
the interest of ALANA students, and was made during the summer
when many of the students were away from the campus.  Chavez
was a radically pro-ALANA student advocate whose ideas were
derived from the ALANA student cultural paradigm on campus.

Prior to the termination of Chavez, President Salmon attempted to
force the Commission on Racial Equality and Multicultural
Education to compromise its anti-racist mission statement and
grassroots representational structure in deference to his needs for
an additional executive staff member for diversity.

Prior to the attempt to co-opt the Commission on Racial Equality
and Multicultural Education, the President subverted the proposal
of a grassroots committee to establish a Commission for Racial
Justice and Equity on the campus.  The subversion undermined the
year long effort of representatives of all key campus constituencies
to devise a body which would coordinate the design and
implementation of multicultural education plans and programs in
support of the respective academic and non-academic agencies on
the campus.

In various meetings with ALANA student leaders, during his
tenure as President and Interim President,  former Governor
Salmon reacted with hostility and visible anger and frustration
toward the ideas and initiatives of ALANA students re the quality
of their educational experience and participation  in campus life at
the University of Vermont.

Following the 1992 testimony given to the US Civil Rights
Commission by ALANA student advocates and ALANA student
leaders, Interim President Salmon instructed the Vice President for
Student Affairs Rosalind Andreas to inform participants in the
proceedings that "they needed to learn how to manage their anger.

The President angrily dismissed, on record, ALANA student
leadership initiatives at a May 1995 Board of trustees meeting as
"nonsensical" wherein it was suggested that the Chief Executive
and his Provost be willing to resign if their Diversity Initiative
were to not meet its short term objectives during the 1995-1996
academic year.

The merits of the President's woeful public posture and record of
executive decisionmaking in matters of ALANA students and racial
justice are questionable at the very least.  It is clear from the
National Council on Black Studies communication of 15 January
1996 that there is an outside academic opinion re the "disastrous"
record of the University in handling this matter of the hunger
strike.  If the rest of the record were to be examined, then would
the President's merit be judged more severely than "questionable"?

It is widely known in the University community that the President
is without educational preparation or expertise in the governance
of the student and academic affairs of the University. When
Salmon assumed the Presidency in 1992, the central concern of the
campus community was cultural diversity following the
administrative debacle during the 1991 Waterman Takeover.
There was concern that Salmon was ill-prepared to handle the
delicate issues and processes involved in rebuilding the
community. Now four years later, Maneshkona has brought to a
peak the multiple failures of Salmon's leadership on issues of
racial justice and ALANA student affairs.

All of the appeals to the virtues of fiscal responsibility and
institutional priorities cannot cover the inconsistent treatment of
whites and non-white populations on the campus under Salmon.

The President of The University of Vermont is using his position
to insinuate that the ALANA student leadership demands are
outside the realm of "sound management practices and fidelity to
the educational mission" of the University.  This is not a good
faith action in a time of crisis in which a student has willingly
challenged the President' s abysmal record of accomplishment in
matters of racial justice.

end part 2
------------



     --- from list marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---

     ------------------