Student Town Hall Notes

Student Town Hall
Nov 1, 2020, 1pm EST
FAQs Doc
Luigie: Welcomes everyone, reiterates listening in pods to avoid the maxed out zoom call. Going
over guidelines of the meeting. Guidelines coming from the chat.
Introduction; why we’re here today.-- 1:34
Eyasu: you’ve read demands and updates; started with BSRFI and work they did with open
letter; those things didn’t get addressed at all, just co-opted it all; questions about roles, people
seem to have reservations and we wanna make sure people know why we’re here, why it’s
important to stay committed; updates with dining center-- go to the dining center please don’t
skip meals or shame people for going to the dc;
Mayra goes over updates: doc with strike updates via screen share (document)
Going Over questions from the form: -Hasibe: Turning in the assignments you are allowing the institution to continue business as usual.
Erica: As individuals we can do things for self care; in terms of any hobbies, teams, or groups
affiliated with Haverford, that’s a no. That’s encouraging business as usual for the college.
Please take care of yourselves. Use that time that you would’ve been doing to xyz to encourage
faculty to support the strike, read Black feminist theory.
Wahab: Encourage faculty to support; write letters of support. That labor should not just fall on
BIPOC students.
Gum ⅔ i think: What do we do about pre-registration?
Rasaaq: We’re still at the FAQ portion of the town hall… we will get to Q and A soon
Eyasu: On the question of how to communicate with faculty not in support of the strike, be
proactive in communicating with professors and pointing out the issues with their reluctance to
support striking students. Additionally, feel free to reach out to HC-Strike organizers for more
support.
Wahab: Get out there and communicate with your parents why this is happening. The way that
this is a long time coming.

Lourdes: There’s also been a lot of questions of how and when the strike is going to end. We
want to disrupt business as usual; until W and DB agree to … accept all the demands we don’t
intend on stopping the strike until then. [...] If they decide we want to share with you guys how
we [have already prepared] how to meet the demands.
Zakiyyah : We’re not administration, we can’t make decisions regarding p/f; travel home.
Luigie: I just want to reiterate things in the past, organizing with fellow classmates, organizing
shouldn’t just fall on bipoc students, that’s something that everyone needs to be worried,
concerned about and organizing around. Especially white students and students who don’t
usually take on the additional labor that fgli students do.
Mayra: as for questions with DC. We were originally concerned that DC workers would get
overwhelmed which is why we told students to rely on other food sources. Completely makes
sense why the DC is going to continue to be sued, we don’t want to use the institution or benefit
the institution, we want to be cut off. That’s what a strike means. Do not skip meals, use other
food networks that are available.
Eyasu: so another frequently asked question is from BMC students. At the moment this is not a
bico strike, started by BIPOC students at HC; however, we do need bico involvement. Reaching
out to BMC faculty is really important. Just communicating information as you find it to
organizers at HC is super helpful. Important to talk to bmc folks and faculty about supporting hc
students.
Hasibe: “academic strike is self-destructive in nature, is this the only choice?” (the Q) Answer:
we’re at haverford, an academic institution at which demands have historically been ignored. Idk
if all of y'all were there for the MAAG event that talked about what happened in1972. These
demands have been made by BIPOC students for years at Haverford, since the beginning. These
demands need to be met because admin haven’t done it yet after all this time. The way you
pressure an academic institution is with education, its purpose, and cutting off anything they can
promote. Pressure in a way where they feel like they have no other choice. There is no notsacrificing in a strike. Change requires sacrifice, so yes we are asking for this for genuine
institutional change. So yes. It’s the only way.
Zakiyyah: With that there’s also questions about bullying and peoples actions when trying to get
them to commit to the strike, that isn’t bullying they're just trying to make you feel [...] in
striking. yes you have to hold people accountable [...] saying the academic strike doesn’t apply to
them isn’t acceptable.

Luigie: like Zakiyyah said, if you say this isn’t about you you’re accepting that you’re implicit in
this abuse. You’re saying your opinion or your dream does not respect Black lives. That’s you
outing yourself.
Erica: and yeah before we wrap up the FAQ… we want to bring traction by reaching out to
schools outside of the bico so we can keep bringing attention to HC and their mishandling of
BIPOC concerns. Reach out to orgs and other groups. Before we end the FAQ section we want
to communicate that THE STRIKE IS WORKING. Disrupting is happening, we need to keep
going, requires that all of us be a collective unit going forward. One last thing, passing over to
Hasibe.
Hasibe: RQ, this comes up when people get scared. There is power in collectivity. When we all
stick together, there is no chance they can penalize 1300 students or even 800 students. We get
that “you’re premed and you wanna be a doctor and ME matters” you’re hurting other people
striking and BIPOC striking bc they’re the most vulnerable in these and other situations, so
speaking to white students, pls don’t break strike. Talk to your friends about no breaking strike.
There is power in collectivity. We only have this much power because so many people chose to
disrupt.
Cass: Before we move on I also have one more thing to add. One of the questions that came
through the FAQ is how this is affecting bIPOC students specifically. While not doing work can
be affecting BIPOC students…. Even reading stuff from courses over antiracist work, doing the
work is still perpetuating supporting the system. You can still learn without classes. Talk to your
profs.
Open Q and A:
Rasaaq: the antiracist education you get at Haverford is still within a white harmful framework
and institution. You can learn outside of this framework. Remind yourself of the guidelines
during this time, make sure your questions are not harmful to those who organized this strike.
Gum ⅔ you can ask your question now.
Gum ⅔: Sorry for asking earlier I didn’t realize. We want to know how to go forward with preregistration.
Luigie: Anything that will benefit the corporation, whatever oisl the gears for next semester we
have to stop it. We just can't do it. REgistering for classes shows that you want to educate
yourself next semester. They lost a lot of money, a million, something etc. That’s just rough if
enough students don’t register. They’ll be like “oh we don’t have enough money to pay for next

semester” not registering is a show of force that we’re not going to roll steady and act with
business as usual unless you meet our demands. In short, do not register for classes.
Gum ⅔: have you guys been bargaining with the administration? have there been talks about
meeting demands?
Eyasu: Wendy has reached out on a club by club basis, she said she would have responded next
week. We’re not meeting with her until she responds to the demands. Until she does that she’s
just going to be relying on BIPOC to do the work that admin should've done.
Erica: also in ehr alst email where she laisted the three things in her demands, we have like 15,
so hernot addressing the student body as a collective and giving these little details about how she
can help, these are performative gestures that do not do the institutional change right now. Don’t
read her emails thinking she’s going to do this because she hasn't with BSRFI and we need to
make sure that those commitments she supposedly has that they are on a timeline they have
information, these bullet points are not enough and don’t let her trick you into thinking these are
enough.
Luigie: everything is with BSRFI, everything that this school has HAS a timeline. Once they
offer us a timeline that’s them showing us that they’re committing to doing the work. *Give an
example of the BCC*. Last statement they said they were gonna give us 40k… but BCC is
falling apart. Where is it?
Rasaaq: we can move on to other questions. Is there anything that bmc students can do outside of
reaching out to profs for support.
Eyasu: i think there's a lot of questions about BMC students and involvement and there's a lot on
our end too, about whether students are organizing and how they are already, if you're a bmc
student striking and reaching out to other students you’re doing great, don’t be worried about
anything else really.
Luigie: pls get tested. RE: something in the chat. See CAPS, take care of yourself, please feel
free to continue doing that if you have a set schedule.
Cass: this strike is to bring the institution to a halt, not those in it, you have to take care of
yourself, be conscious that were in a pandemic, it is just common sense to do things that are good
and healthy for you don’t let things fly out the window, things are still necessary to take care of.
Rasaaq: another question? There’s been a lot about reaching out to the media. Organizers can
address this more it’s already been talked about in the chat as well.

Aishah: Basically the organizers are working on increasing reacho massage and connecting to
outside sources, no one who isn't an organizer should be taking this as a chance to speak to
outside sources. But also it would be helpful for you to connect us so we can make connections
with them.
Rasaaq: there's been a lot of Q’s about Swat profs. a lot of swat people don’t know about the
strike, email them. This is mostly Bi-Co, but you can ask swat to put pressure on HC. email them
about the nature of the strike and strike those classes.
Rasaaq: as far as another question received from e haus is there anything community houses can
do apart from providing free meals?
Hasibe: as a community house what can you pressure the administration with? What power
resources do you have as a community house?thank you to community houses who have been
supporting.
Luigie: also just uplifting what Hasibe said about thinking about what you have access to.
Having conversations.
Ian Davis via chat: sending lots of appreciation for the work you all are putting in. i am
wondering if you could reiterate the progress the strike has already achieved with respect to the
strike’s demands and which demands you all are expecting admin to most resist
Rasaaq: shoutout to community houses, STUCO is reimbursing the cost of preparing those
meals. Keep your receipts, we'll wowk with you even if you don't. We want to make sure
supporting BIPOC life isn’t detrimental to BIPOC people. Pls email teh treasurer so we can get
you a check to reimburse you.
^^Another Q: from Ian, can we reiterate the progress the strike has already achieved and which
demands are organizers expecting the most resistance to?
Eyasu: One thing that people should keep in mind is that we’ve missed only 2 days of school.
Things are still at the early stages of things. Admin is still trying to get their bearings on things.
I’m sure they’ve outsourced someone to respond to this. Crazy how BMC already got security
for their own students before HC did. Once they send their response then we can talk. They’re
the ones forcing us to miss out on class and what not. They’re scrambling for responses. Can’t
really say anything. Waiting for them to say something.
Hasibe: i'll add that some of us are communicating with faculty who have been in support from
the jump. Wendy has reached out to faculty to get a group going to talk about demands, they’re

talking amongst each other but not to us. Just a reminder that the demands on the statement are
replicating BSRFI. We’re expecting this to repeat again. Cutting relationships with police in
Ardmore is going to be hard because they flat out rejected this last time. They did say in the
letter the demands would escalate and things would escalate. It’s performative if you agreed to
this and don’t wanna follow through. You signed in june and now you have to act.
Rasaaq reading Q: Moving on to the next question. What’s happening with plenary?
Zakiyyah: There’s not gonna be a plenary if the strike is still going on.
Rasaaq: as someone from the students council, plenary will not be happening during the strike.
Lourdes: Additionally to that, structure of plenary is that we get in a room and fight with one
another. Then the admin decides what's worthy of getting passed. In this scenario we’re working
together to get what’s needed...

Rasaaq then Luigie: *Opening more questions in chat or unmuted on zoom*
Eyasu: I feel like get a lot of questions o what can we do as X type of student if we’re already
doing xyz, we also need people to build horizontally if you’re in a club or a community house
organize people in your circles, your advisors, your profs, your friends, so that we can build
toward more commitment in the long term. We've been getting attacked by this parent group so
speak to parents and a lot of BIPOC students are not on this facebook page, white parents are the
ones talking the shit online.
Cass; even though it's kind of scary at this point, especially bc of money, it forces the admin to
do something more quickly so we kind of need it but pls talk to your parents about what's
happening bc its misinformation.
Angelina M.: I was talking to a prof the other day about a strike, ad he was telling me about
something i hadn't thought about, when you’re contacting profs talk to the head of the
department and ask about a united statement of support about cancelling all classes, for interim
faculty and non tenured fac. On visas, if they wanna strike it takes a lot of paperwork and green
card process, but if the whole department makes a statement, the status process is alleviated, it
helps more vulnerable faculty.
Brandon: while we’re on the question for faculty responses; there’s a form for faculty to submit
their response to the strike. That’s just a quick plug please fill that out.

Wahab: it’s not our job to hold your hand. Use your common sense as adults and hit up google,
we can’t hold you through every question. We didn't sign up for that.
Luigie: including what rasaaq said in the chat, the part about reading for yourself and educating
yourself about history, you can read about the 1972 protest, the fallout, etc. take the initiative.
Angelina: in terms of the anthro dpt working with organizers; how would someone go about
asking profs how to do that?
Rasaaq: gather a group of people in related major or dpt preferably not BIPOC students to send
to profs. on your end if your non-bipoc craft a statement and sends it to the department.
Luigie: supporting rasaaq, have non bipoc people write up and support this shit, reach out to us
and ask sometimes tho to make sure we all have a united front. In general, if you don’t wanna
write something, an email etc. direct somebody toward the strike email. We can give examples
and put people in contact with each other.
Eyasu: a lot of people get caught up asking how should i do this w prof for instance would it be
helpful etc etc it’s more helpful to do something first then ask is that useful? take initia rather
than always waiting
Cass: I wanna add that this is a strike led by BIPOC, it’s also important that we have non BIPOC
students doing the work. If you're always reliant on us it’s reinforcing what we’re striking
against. Be aware of how power dynamics work, take the lead sometimes, read up on everything,
be conscious, then ask questions, like Eyasu said.
Ali: this is a response to kim’s question in the chat. If the strike goes on for the rest of the
semester.. Haverford says it can’t give supporters credit… want to reiterate that this strike only
works if it happens collectively. If a lot of students commit to strike, we can’t get penalized.
Aishah: i also want to add that haverford is an academic institution and it reflects wholly on them
if they have a large group of students receiving bad grades or … graduate. I know it's a concern
but professors are [accommodating].
Jackie: one thinking i wanted to push it was in the chat please continue getting tested for covid.
Rasaaq: If anyone does not have any more questions than we can wrap it up there.

Luigie: Just want to reiterate… 2. Do not go on a hunger strike. If you need to go to DC go get
your food. But if you have an apartment, you need to rely on Nest or rely on community houses
who have been relying on free meals. This strike is not an excuse to party.
JLo: $100 per person actually who parties.
Luigie: read. That can be your lil homework. Access the drive, there are FAQ’s, support, etc.