By the time these words are published, ten students of color will have been charged with probation, suspension, $300 fines or some combination thereof for protesting convocation over the treatment of their peers, that is other students of color.
I’ve had the pleasure of knowing several of these students. They are leaders in their classrooms and communities –the kind of students any university should be privileged to have.
And their concerns are not unfounded.
Students of color at Marquette have historically and continue to be tokenized, ignored and neglected. Though the Marquette student body is becoming more diverse with each year of enrollment the environment is not becoming any more inclusive. In 2020, the Campus Climate survey indicated that students of color, in fact, feel less comfortable on Marquette’s campus than they did five years ago when the survey was first administered. It’s also worth noting the 2020 survey results reflect data prior to the racial reckoning following the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests.
Making matters worse, over the summer, several faculty members of color working under the Office of Engagement and Inclusion responsible for first generation and multicultural student programing resigned or had their positions eliminated with little clarification from the university beyond attributing the unsettling departure of these individuals to the “Great Resignation.” This explanation came despite no other department facing vacancies to the extent of the OEI.
While there have been remarkable endeavors to improve the experience of students of color at Marquette, most of these developments are the manifestation of student led efforts, notably, the expansion of the Urban Scholars Program, the formation of both a Black Living Learning Community and a Hispanic Living Learning Community, as well as the addition of a Director of Black Student Initiatives –all items championed by a coalition of students of color who organized a sit in at Zilber Hall the summer of 2020.
Among the students now subject to university sanctions, are Bridgeman Flowers and Samari Price, Marquette’s first Black student body president and executive vice president respectively for Marquette University Student Government. Flowers and Price campaigned on improving the experiences of students of color on campus, ultimate winning by a wide margin of 20% during MUSG elections last spring. Now their term ending prematurely without the opportunity to advocate for themselves among their peers via a Student Senate trial as outlined in the MUSG Constitution.
Flowers and Price face removal from office as they are no longer in “good standing” with the university. Marquette’s student conduct code under Item “E. Limitations on Activities” allows, at the university’s discretion, students under disciplinary probation to be barred from serving in leadership roles within student organizations if such action is deemed “in the best interest of the student and/or the university.”
According to Article II of the Marquette Student Conduct Code “the university seeks first and foremost to educate its students and make decisions regarding disciplinary actions from an educative perspective,” which begs the question: what educational significance could punishing students of color over protesting possibly serve?
The answer is unequivocal: none.
The disciplinary sanctions placed on the students responsible for the Aug. 25 protest serve no educational purpose among the participants or the broader Marquette community for they are punitive not productive, they do nothing to advance equity or inclusion, and they certainly do not reflect Jesuit values. The protest is indicative of a population of students who have exhausted all other avenues of communication without meaningful action on behalf of the university. Staying the course was simply no longer an option. Such a demonstration was not unwarranted nor was it unnecessary because it resulted in the rescheduling of a university event. It was, from its worst angle, a justified inconvenience.
In ignoring the clear and demonstrable concerns of students of color while championing diversity, regardless of any individual or collective intention of the Marquette administration, the university has forced these students to voice their concerns through public demonstration. In punishing them for doing so, Marquette University has made clear its allegiance is not to equity and inclusion.
This story was written by Nicole Laudolff, a Marquette student who volunteered to write this letter. She is not a staff member for the Wire. She can be reached at [email protected]
To submit a letter to the editor, email Executive Opinions Editor Grace Cady who can be reached at [email protected] and copy Managing Editor of the Marquette Tribune Megan Woolard and Executive Director Andrew Amouzou on those emails. They can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected].