- Hoda Isak talks to fellow protesters outside of Morrill Hall Monday as students and faculty seeking diversity-related changes by the University of Minnesota held their second event in two weeks.
- Photo by Louis Fine of Murphy News Service.
Cover photo by Louis Fine
By Louis Fine/Murphy News Service
A protest Monday at the University of Minnesota’s administration offices — the second in two weeks and this time including more U faculty members — called for the school to drop charges against the 13 WhoseDiversity? members who were arrested during a sit-in at the offices of U President Eric Kaler.
WhoseDiversity? hunkered down Feb. 9 in the presidential offices in Morrill Hall from just before noon until just after 8 p.m. That’s when, after a day of discussions with U officials about a variety of grievances, the 13 remaining people were arrested on misdemeanor charges of trespassing and booked into the Hennepin County Jail for refusing to leave Kaler’s office after closing time.
Among a variety of things, WhoseDiversity? has demanded additional faculty for the U’s Latino-Chicano studies department, a cessation of University of Minnesota Police Department “racialized” crime alerts and more gender-neutral bathrooms.
In a clearly related development Monday, U College of Liberal Arts Dean John Coleman announced just prior to the protest on his blog that a “CLA Cluster Hire Initiative” will include the hiring of “four new tenured and tenure track faculty engaged with the scholarly traditions represented in the RIGS departments.”
RIGS stands for “Racial, Indigeniety, Gender and Sexuality,” and refers to the following departments:
- Gender Women and Sexuality Studies
- African American and African Studies
- American Studies
- Asian American Studies, and
- Chicano and Latino Studies
Coleman’s statement said one of the tenured positions is guaranteed to be in the Chicano and Latino studies department.
The remaining three positions will be tenure-track positions within the RIGS departments and within other departments in CLA.
The details of the initiative announced by Coleman bear a resemblance to one of the demands of a RIGS proposal in December 2014, which asked Kaler and Provost Karen Hanson for:
- a center for the study of race, indigeneity, gender and sexuality
- a faculty of color cluster hire, and
- the increased retention and recruitment for undergraduate and graduate students of color.
Some of the speakers who were RIGS-affiliated faculty at the protests Monday expressed dissatisfaction with Coleman’s announced plans and the steps the administration has taken to address their concerns.
“I’ve been put in a situation where I must think and rethink how this situation came to be, and what my responsibilities are for doing something about it,” said assistant professor Jimmy Patino. He is the only full-time faculty member of the Chicano and Latino studies department. “The administration has given excuses as to how [the diversity issues] occurred, has minimized the absurdity of the situation, and even suggested [the Chicano-Latino studies department] to somehow supposed to have only a few faculty members,” Patino added.
“With all the excuses,” Patino said, “what I hear from the admin is ‘we do not value what you’ve dedicated your life for’, ‘we do not value this field of study in the community that it takes central to its creation of knowledge.'”
The University issued a statement late Monday afternoon that read:
“We are aware of the issues protesters brought forward today, which include some of the same as were raised by students and non-students who protested on Feb. 9, and which include many we have been working to address collectively since summer.
President Kaler and senior leaders are, and have been, working in partnership with collegiate leaders and faculty across campus on many of these issues and we share a deep commitment to increasing faculty, staff and student diversity and to creating a community that welcomes and embraces all experiences and perspectives.
As one example of progress, this morning College of Liberal Arts Dean John Coleman announced that CLA, with support from the Provost’s Office, will make a faculty cluster hire of four new tenured and tenure track positions engaged with scholarly traditions represented in the RIGS (Study of Race, Indigeneity, Gender and Sexuality) Consortium. One of the positions will be a tenured position in the Department of Chicano and Latino Studies. Work to make this cluster
hire proposal a reality began more than a year ago and there has been significant consultation within CLA and with central administration during that time.
President Kaler also provided a formal, written response to the Feb. 9 protesters which addressed or moved forward the dialogue on each of their issues.
These issues are important and addressing them takes partnerships with all parties working together to achieve a common goal. The University has launched a broad Campus Climate initiative that is another way many of these issues are being identified and addressed.
The University remains committed to our goals; to engaging with students, faculty, and staff across campus to pursue them; and to continually reflecting on our successes and our barriers as we work toward creating a community that embraces diversity both in word and in action.”
Reporter Louis Fine is studying journalism at the University of Minnesota.