Protests spread to Roxbury
Students demand college serve Black community
By Frank
Neisser
Boston
In another in a series of Boston-area campus protests, 100
students and staff of Roxbury Community College rallied at
lunchtime May 10 in front of the school's Administration
Building to protest continued neglect of student needs and
harassment of staff.
According to RCC's own mission statement, "Roxbury
Community College is an urban college, which has both the
expectation and obligation to serve, with excellence,
communities with predominantly minority and recent immigrant
populations."
Concerned Students and Staff of RCC were protesting the
school's failure to serve Roxbury, Boston's largest African
American community.
Students demanded chalk and erasers in classrooms, a
cafeteria, books and a librarian for the library, paint and
repair of facilities, and adequate toilet paper and toilet
cleaning.
They also demanded preference for RCC pre-nursing students
for admission to RCC's own LPN and RN nursing programs, an
end to harassment and witch hunts against the adjunct
teaching staff, responsiveness from the administration,
replacement of Provost Janice Jones, filling of the positions
of teachers who have left but not been replaced, and that
students and staff be treated with dignity and respect.
Over the past several weeks students have met with the
deans to discuss these demands, but have received no
response.
At the rally, some nursing students explained their
problem. After completing the pre-nursing program at RCC,
they found themselves not admitted to RCC's own nursing
programs.
The pre-nursing program is supposed to be designed to
support the students from the Roxbury community, but they
receive no preference for admission to the regular nursing
program.
Robert Traynham, a Boston school bus driver, told the
rally that students in the Boston public schools face some of
the same conditions and issues. He also conveyed solidarity
from students sitting in at the Afro-American Institute at
Northeastern University.
Other speakers linked the struggle at RCC to the
three-week-long sit-in at Harvard University that had just
won some demands in the struggle for a living wage for all
Harvard University workers.
The RCC students also protested arbitrary dismissal and
reassignment of staff. One staff member in the registrar's
office who addressed the crowd was barred from entering the
administration building. The students chanted: "Let him in!
Let him in!"
When RCC President Dr. Grace Brown came to speak to the
students, she told them that their demands were being taken
seriously and would be considered. This vague promise failed
to satisfy the students, who continued to demand an immediate
response.
Several faculty and staff also expressed support for the
student's demands at the rally. Over the past several months,
teachers of color at the college have found that their
personnel files have been arbitrarily reviewed
and they have been found "unqualified" to teach courses they
have taught for years. In many cases these courses
have been assigned to new white staff members.
Among the speakers was Terry Marshall, who as a student at
RCC led a student sit-in in the Administration Building three
years ago, where many of the same demands were raised. As the
rally ended, the students vowed to continue their protests
and actions until all their current demands are met.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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