Because I am a white she-devil and whore of babylon ....
I'll admit that while a part of me is glad that the spirit of protest is not dead on our college campuses, I enjoy reading the various Demand lists of various student groups.
The latest is from Bellvue College Students United. Bellvue College is a State Community College in a suburb of Seattle. It's less than a mile from my cousin's house.
Bellevue College Students United has issued a list of demands in response to 5 instances of racist and anti LGBTQ graffiti on campus since January. All of these demands have a due date less than 5 months away.
Working in academia as I do, yes, there ARE needs for reform and there are many instances where the needs of POC and LGBTQ students/faculty/staff are not met, papered-over, and just repeatedly short-shrifted in a thousand different ways, and that's just plain shitty, and people are right to be angry about it. I'm glad to see people exercise their constitutional right to protest.
But these demand documents are always, always entertaining to me because they’re just so full of what color is the sky in your world?
On top of the usual, "Nope that's just not gonna fly, because it's not legal and/or flat out UNCONSTITUTIONAL for a state institution to do these things" list of demands which deny people the use of their conscience and the right to dissent this document has some real unique bits to it, which I will dissect here.
Restructuring of responsibilities, authority and policies of food services, campus space, finance and other operations involving Student Program operations, activities and events. These groups shall not be charged for rooms to host events, including cultural events.
The food service policy is part of a contract negotiated with Sysco, the campus provider, who will sue the everlovin’ fuck out of Bellvue College for breach of contract if these terms are put into effect without their express written agreement.
Yes, Bellvue College (BC) can ask if Sysco is open to contract renegotiation, but they could say no, or refuse the proposed amendments, or even if they say yes, it could take several months of lawyers hashing out the terms.
Or, BC can wait until Sysco’s current contract is up and offer a new one that allows for outside food at certain kinds of events, and see if Sysco will take it. But that’s also going to take time.
And if Sysco refuses the new contract, well, then bid goes out for another Campus Service Provider and that also takes time and money.
Or BC can establish its own food service department and hire sufficient staff to run it. But, the cost of food will go up, not down, when this is done. (Even if it is run not-for-profit.) The reason that so many colleges got rid of their food service staff during the 1980s and 1990s is because of their immense volume, Aramark & Sysco can do it cheaper than the campus, every time, which is why campuses went to them. Personally, this is the solution I would like to see -- a campus run food service department -- with primarily hourly employees covered by BC’s employee bylaws because it means that a lot of people would get BC’s employee benefits package & retirement plan ... which is why it would be much more expensive than Sysco. It will also be up against the budgetary axe every time money is tight.
Also, part of the charge for the rooms? Well, not only does it help pay for the liability insurance and the cost of cleaning the rooms after people are done with them, it pays for any incidental damage done during the event (accidents happen), and finally it helps insure that no pack of jackass fratboys (yes, they’re student groups, too, doncha know) is going to throw a major-rager and TRASH the facilities. (People tend to respect what they've paid for more.)
Dedicated room and large room reservation priority for prayer and reflection.
a. Allow Muslim students access to a specific room(s) for daily and Friday prayers. Muslim students shall be provided and allowed to have items relating to prayers.
BC can’t have a policy allowing for only the Muslim students to reserve space for prayer and meditation. If you want to have spaces for prayer and mediation on campus, they have to be open to ALL religions. Why?
Hopefully you’ve seen what happens when bible-belt states do things like put up a ten commandments on the capital grounds, and then the Satanists and the Hindus sue to get statues of Baphomet and Ganesha put up on the same grounds? They ALWAYS win as soon as the case hits the Federal level. That’s because putting up one faith’s statue and not the others, constitutes an establishment of religion, which is forbidden by the First Amendment.
The same principle applies here.
The official prayer/meditation rooms will have to be made available for the use of ALL faiths who ask. The Jews, the Hindus,the Sikhs, the Buddhists, the Catholics, the Satanists, the Southern Baptists, the Pagans, and even members of The Church of Jesus Christ -- Christian if any of their members happen to be students and want to use it.
a. Cease charging for utensils.
b. Provide affordable pricing on all food offerings on campus.
c. Eliminate profit margin on all foods provided by the cafeteria.
Somebody somewhere's got to pay for the utensils. (I presume this is plastic utensils, and students are not renting the metal utensils in the main cafeteria) In my experience, charging for utensils is because (a) it’s some sort of “be green” thing or (b) some jackasses will happily empty out all plastic utensil bins. Whether this is because they’re piss poor and have no utensils at home/dorm, they’re cheap and they’re throwing a party this weekend and don’t want to pay for a few bags at the store doesn’t matter; the end result is the same.
But really, even if it's part of a "be green" plan, nickle and dimeing people this way is just fucking petty. Have the cashiers hand out one set of plastic utensils per patron upon payment.
Or, students can learn to bring their own reusable knife/fork/spoons on days when they know they’re going to grab a meal and go.
Define “affordable prices”. The cost paid for food reflects the $9.47-12.00/hr or so those Sysco employees are earning. And knowing Sysco, the Walmart of food service, they’ve got as many part-timers at $9.47 or “X number of hours per semester” employees on staff as they can figure out how to get away with so they don't have to pay them benefits. Food & Beverage service gets even more expensive when you consider how much food they have to throw away by law. Finally, the city, county, and state tax structures of Washington make it a very expensive state to live in, believe me, I know.
Eliminate the profit margin on all foods in the cafeteria.
This was my personal favorite bit in the list of demands and the reason I’m writing this whole thing. You can’t just mandate that Sysco become a non-profit organization. It just doesn’t work that way. The holders of SYY stock aren’t going to let it happen. You want to make Sysco non-profit? Buy the fucking company.
Sysco will not accept a contract that won't net them money. And say they did agree to not profiting on food sales? Somewhere in the middle of the contract would be a "service fee" of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and BC sure as fuck isn't going to pay that one of of the goodness of their hearts. Students will have another fee added on somewhere to cover that cost.
Pay-it forward transactions available for purchase which help fund Bellevue College’s Food Pantry.
I really like the idea of the “pay it forward” option of supporting the campus food pantry. It will take some work and time to bring it together, but it’s a great idea, and it’s legal.
f. Remove first-right of refusal from Food Services Contract. Allow students and faculty to source lower cost and food options that meet their budget and dietary needs.
BC can’t just arbitrarily “remove” anything from a contract as I explained above.
h. Terminate Sysco contract if demands are not met in a timely manner.
The due-date on every demand is less than 6 months out. These poor students so clearly have no fucking idea how long it takes to get contract related shit done in a bureaucracy that it’s almost cute, and that’s even IF Sysco agrees to a re-negotiation. BC can’t just terminate the contract mid-stream without showing a breach by Sysco or unless there’s a declared fiscal emergency and a declared state of financial exigency.
d. Student representation in all administrative policy and decision making that impacts students.
I think this is a good idea because admin will get some useful feedback on various potential “gotchas” that they are not aware of, and it will also give students useful real world exposure to how administration decision making works and how tough some of those decisions are, but I hope these students realize that it’s not like they’re being granted veto power.
Priority hiring of qualified faculty and staff at all levels who represent the diversity of the student population for the purpose of having a balanced and culturally aware administration.
Unless somebody is an “at will” employee, BC cannot let them go without cause. Cause =/= not, you’re straight and white. This would get BC sued for wrongful termination left, right, and sideways.
Yes, BC should absolutely prioritize diversity in hiring practices. Much good comes from it, but they can only fill (legally) vacated positions or newly created ones, and based on my experiences of turnover in academia, it’s going to take at least 5 years. And, if not carefully and thoughtfully done, BC can end up with a still rather white upper crust while all of the non-tenure track teaching positions are filled by “Semester professionals” “Lecturers” and “visiting scholars” who make shit wages and often don’t have benefits.
Also unless BC's bylaws are unlike any I've ever seen, they can't just create positions overnight. They have to demonstrate need. They have to have a budget line, etc.
9. There must be at least one student member on the search committee for all Deans and Directors, Associate Deans and executive positions.
I think that this is a good idea because on top of the opportunity for students to build networks, it will give BC students practical working experience with concepts that will serve them well in their careers, like the kind of questions you can legally ask in an interview, “workplace privacy”, “confidentiality”, and “non-disclosure”, as well as seeing what good/bad cover letters and resumes look like. It will also allow the admin to hear questions asked and concerns raised that they never thought of.
Also, the next time a student asks, "Well, why can't they just ...." one of their peers can provide an answer.
Fair wages and equitable treatment of faculty, full-time and adjunct with a focus on retaining faculty that are highly rated by students. Initiate by May 20, 2016 and Complete by September 19, 2016.
These are laudable goals where pay is concerned.
I’m very curious where these students think the money’s going to come from for all these pay hikes on such short notice, given that the budget for 16-17 is probably pretty much finalized at this point and the next legislative session doesn't start until January 2017.
College is not high school and tenure and faculty retention are not student popularity contests.
b. Review of process and procedure for tenure track for subjectivity and groupthink.
Hopefully free of the same kind of subjectivity and groupthink that generated huge swathes of the demands document?
Divest from investments that support and perpetuate known acts of racism, discrimination, oppression and socio-ecological issues. Initiate by May 20, 2016 and Complete by November 8, 2016.
Oh look, the dog whistle for anti-semitism has arrived! (Clauses like these quite often thinly veiled ways of saying "don’t invest in companies from Israel or who have substantial business there because of their zionist ways.")
Good luck with this, because there are NO pure corporations on Earth, and BC will be able to hold NO government issued bonds of any kind. It wouldn't even be able to issue bonds, given it's own imperfections.
b. A strategy and plan of action to divest from those identified to be in conflict.
Example: Direct our state lobbyists to change the laws requiring investment in private prisons before and during the next legislative session (January 2017).
The lack of basic civics knowledge demonstrated here is fucking appalling.
State lobbyists (whatever those are) don’t make laws. State legislatures do, and they don’t take their fucking marching orders from the admin of BC. The admin of BC can ask (lobby) the state legislature to change the law, but there’s no guarantee the bill will hit the floor (death in committee), or that it will pass, or that the governor will sign it into law.
Finally, I couldn't find any law or administrative code that says that BC MUST invest in private prisons, but since the search tools at that page are confusing, I might have sailed right past it.
The latest is from Bellvue College Students United. Bellvue College is a State Community College in a suburb of Seattle. It's less than a mile from my cousin's house.
Bellevue College Students United has issued a list of demands in response to 5 instances of racist and anti LGBTQ graffiti on campus since January. All of these demands have a due date less than 5 months away.
Working in academia as I do, yes, there ARE needs for reform and there are many instances where the needs of POC and LGBTQ students/faculty/staff are not met, papered-over, and just repeatedly short-shrifted in a thousand different ways, and that's just plain shitty, and people are right to be angry about it. I'm glad to see people exercise their constitutional right to protest.
But these demand documents are always, always entertaining to me because they’re just so full of what color is the sky in your world?
On top of the usual, "Nope that's just not gonna fly, because it's not legal and/or flat out UNCONSTITUTIONAL for a state institution to do these things" list of demands which deny people the use of their conscience and the right to dissent this document has some real unique bits to it, which I will dissect here.
Restructuring of responsibilities, authority and policies of food services, campus space, finance and other operations involving Student Program operations, activities and events. These groups shall not be charged for rooms to host events, including cultural events.
The food service policy is part of a contract negotiated with Sysco, the campus provider, who will sue the everlovin’ fuck out of Bellvue College for breach of contract if these terms are put into effect without their express written agreement.
Yes, Bellvue College (BC) can ask if Sysco is open to contract renegotiation, but they could say no, or refuse the proposed amendments, or even if they say yes, it could take several months of lawyers hashing out the terms.
Or, BC can wait until Sysco’s current contract is up and offer a new one that allows for outside food at certain kinds of events, and see if Sysco will take it. But that’s also going to take time.
And if Sysco refuses the new contract, well, then bid goes out for another Campus Service Provider and that also takes time and money.
Or BC can establish its own food service department and hire sufficient staff to run it. But, the cost of food will go up, not down, when this is done. (Even if it is run not-for-profit.) The reason that so many colleges got rid of their food service staff during the 1980s and 1990s is because of their immense volume, Aramark & Sysco can do it cheaper than the campus, every time, which is why campuses went to them. Personally, this is the solution I would like to see -- a campus run food service department -- with primarily hourly employees covered by BC’s employee bylaws because it means that a lot of people would get BC’s employee benefits package & retirement plan ... which is why it would be much more expensive than Sysco. It will also be up against the budgetary axe every time money is tight.
Also, part of the charge for the rooms? Well, not only does it help pay for the liability insurance and the cost of cleaning the rooms after people are done with them, it pays for any incidental damage done during the event (accidents happen), and finally it helps insure that no pack of jackass fratboys (yes, they’re student groups, too, doncha know) is going to throw a major-rager and TRASH the facilities. (People tend to respect what they've paid for more.)
Dedicated room and large room reservation priority for prayer and reflection.
a. Allow Muslim students access to a specific room(s) for daily and Friday prayers. Muslim students shall be provided and allowed to have items relating to prayers.
BC can’t have a policy allowing for only the Muslim students to reserve space for prayer and meditation. If you want to have spaces for prayer and mediation on campus, they have to be open to ALL religions. Why?
Hopefully you’ve seen what happens when bible-belt states do things like put up a ten commandments on the capital grounds, and then the Satanists and the Hindus sue to get statues of Baphomet and Ganesha put up on the same grounds? They ALWAYS win as soon as the case hits the Federal level. That’s because putting up one faith’s statue and not the others, constitutes an establishment of religion, which is forbidden by the First Amendment.
The same principle applies here.
The official prayer/meditation rooms will have to be made available for the use of ALL faiths who ask. The Jews, the Hindus,the Sikhs, the Buddhists, the Catholics, the Satanists, the Southern Baptists, the Pagans, and even members of The Church of Jesus Christ -- Christian if any of their members happen to be students and want to use it.
a. Cease charging for utensils.
b. Provide affordable pricing on all food offerings on campus.
c. Eliminate profit margin on all foods provided by the cafeteria.
Somebody somewhere's got to pay for the utensils. (I presume this is plastic utensils, and students are not renting the metal utensils in the main cafeteria) In my experience, charging for utensils is because (a) it’s some sort of “be green” thing or (b) some jackasses will happily empty out all plastic utensil bins. Whether this is because they’re piss poor and have no utensils at home/dorm, they’re cheap and they’re throwing a party this weekend and don’t want to pay for a few bags at the store doesn’t matter; the end result is the same.
But really, even if it's part of a "be green" plan, nickle and dimeing people this way is just fucking petty. Have the cashiers hand out one set of plastic utensils per patron upon payment.
Or, students can learn to bring their own reusable knife/fork/spoons on days when they know they’re going to grab a meal and go.
Define “affordable prices”. The cost paid for food reflects the $9.47-12.00/hr or so those Sysco employees are earning. And knowing Sysco, the Walmart of food service, they’ve got as many part-timers at $9.47 or “X number of hours per semester” employees on staff as they can figure out how to get away with so they don't have to pay them benefits. Food & Beverage service gets even more expensive when you consider how much food they have to throw away by law. Finally, the city, county, and state tax structures of Washington make it a very expensive state to live in, believe me, I know.
Eliminate the profit margin on all foods in the cafeteria.
This was my personal favorite bit in the list of demands and the reason I’m writing this whole thing. You can’t just mandate that Sysco become a non-profit organization. It just doesn’t work that way. The holders of SYY stock aren’t going to let it happen. You want to make Sysco non-profit? Buy the fucking company.
Sysco will not accept a contract that won't net them money. And say they did agree to not profiting on food sales? Somewhere in the middle of the contract would be a "service fee" of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and BC sure as fuck isn't going to pay that one of of the goodness of their hearts. Students will have another fee added on somewhere to cover that cost.
Pay-it forward transactions available for purchase which help fund Bellevue College’s Food Pantry.
I really like the idea of the “pay it forward” option of supporting the campus food pantry. It will take some work and time to bring it together, but it’s a great idea, and it’s legal.
f. Remove first-right of refusal from Food Services Contract. Allow students and faculty to source lower cost and food options that meet their budget and dietary needs.
BC can’t just arbitrarily “remove” anything from a contract as I explained above.
h. Terminate Sysco contract if demands are not met in a timely manner.
The due-date on every demand is less than 6 months out. These poor students so clearly have no fucking idea how long it takes to get contract related shit done in a bureaucracy that it’s almost cute, and that’s even IF Sysco agrees to a re-negotiation. BC can’t just terminate the contract mid-stream without showing a breach by Sysco or unless there’s a declared fiscal emergency and a declared state of financial exigency.
d. Student representation in all administrative policy and decision making that impacts students.
I think this is a good idea because admin will get some useful feedback on various potential “gotchas” that they are not aware of, and it will also give students useful real world exposure to how administration decision making works and how tough some of those decisions are, but I hope these students realize that it’s not like they’re being granted veto power.
Priority hiring of qualified faculty and staff at all levels who represent the diversity of the student population for the purpose of having a balanced and culturally aware administration.
Unless somebody is an “at will” employee, BC cannot let them go without cause. Cause =/= not, you’re straight and white. This would get BC sued for wrongful termination left, right, and sideways.
Yes, BC should absolutely prioritize diversity in hiring practices. Much good comes from it, but they can only fill (legally) vacated positions or newly created ones, and based on my experiences of turnover in academia, it’s going to take at least 5 years. And, if not carefully and thoughtfully done, BC can end up with a still rather white upper crust while all of the non-tenure track teaching positions are filled by “Semester professionals” “Lecturers” and “visiting scholars” who make shit wages and often don’t have benefits.
Also unless BC's bylaws are unlike any I've ever seen, they can't just create positions overnight. They have to demonstrate need. They have to have a budget line, etc.
9. There must be at least one student member on the search committee for all Deans and Directors, Associate Deans and executive positions.
I think that this is a good idea because on top of the opportunity for students to build networks, it will give BC students practical working experience with concepts that will serve them well in their careers, like the kind of questions you can legally ask in an interview, “workplace privacy”, “confidentiality”, and “non-disclosure”, as well as seeing what good/bad cover letters and resumes look like. It will also allow the admin to hear questions asked and concerns raised that they never thought of.
Also, the next time a student asks, "Well, why can't they just ...." one of their peers can provide an answer.
Fair wages and equitable treatment of faculty, full-time and adjunct with a focus on retaining faculty that are highly rated by students. Initiate by May 20, 2016 and Complete by September 19, 2016.
These are laudable goals where pay is concerned.
I’m very curious where these students think the money’s going to come from for all these pay hikes on such short notice, given that the budget for 16-17 is probably pretty much finalized at this point and the next legislative session doesn't start until January 2017.
College is not high school and tenure and faculty retention are not student popularity contests.
b. Review of process and procedure for tenure track for subjectivity and groupthink.
Hopefully free of the same kind of subjectivity and groupthink that generated huge swathes of the demands document?
Divest from investments that support and perpetuate known acts of racism, discrimination, oppression and socio-ecological issues. Initiate by May 20, 2016 and Complete by November 8, 2016.
Oh look, the dog whistle for anti-semitism has arrived! (Clauses like these quite often thinly veiled ways of saying "don’t invest in companies from Israel or who have substantial business there because of their zionist ways.")
Good luck with this, because there are NO pure corporations on Earth, and BC will be able to hold NO government issued bonds of any kind. It wouldn't even be able to issue bonds, given it's own imperfections.
b. A strategy and plan of action to divest from those identified to be in conflict.
Example: Direct our state lobbyists to change the laws requiring investment in private prisons before and during the next legislative session (January 2017).
The lack of basic civics knowledge demonstrated here is fucking appalling.
State lobbyists (whatever those are) don’t make laws. State legislatures do, and they don’t take their fucking marching orders from the admin of BC. The admin of BC can ask (lobby) the state legislature to change the law, but there’s no guarantee the bill will hit the floor (death in committee), or that it will pass, or that the governor will sign it into law.
Finally, I couldn't find any law or administrative code that says that BC MUST invest in private prisons, but since the search tools at that page are confusing, I might have sailed right past it.