Clark University students staging tuition strike to disarm campus police
WORCESTER MA Jan 19 2021 – Seeking disarmament of campus police and a steep discount on college costs, Clark University student groups this week announced they were staging a tuition strike.
The Black Student Union and Clark University Student Council are also asking for a student representative on the university’s board of trustees and a public comment apparatus for campus members to speak directly to the board.
To secure those demands, the groups said they will be withholding tuition payments for the upcoming spring semester that were due on Friday.
In his response, Clark President David Fithian made no indication he planned to satisfy the groups’ specific requests but assured the university would be working with students to address their concerns.
“Here at Clark, we are making progress on the issues raised by BSU and the CUSC,” Fithian and Davis Baird, provost and vice President of Academic Affairs, wrote. “And we are as determined as ever to keep at it, with student engagement critical to moving forward.”
In particular they said the new campus police chief, Lauren Misale, has arranged anti-bias training for officers, and that the university has created a new task force that will assess policing practices.
“Any changes at Clark will not include the complete disarmament of our campus police,” however, Fithian and Baird’s message said. “Doing so would render our campus unshielded and unsafe, especially at a time when institutions of government and higher learning may be targeted.”
The administrators also made no mention of reducing tuition by half in 2021-22 as the student groups demanded but said the university has increased its financial aid budget this year by $2 million.
In regards to the students’ request for more say with the board of trustees, Fithian and Baird said the university’s deans will be “working to strengthen lines of communication and collaboration by reaching out and working with key student leaders.”
The Black Student Union and Undergraduate Student Council could not be reached Friday morning for comment about the university’s response to their demands, but in a statement on Thursday said their latest action stems from their frustration over not getting the changes they have sought from Clark.
“All of our past efforts have not been enough,” said Kadijha Kuanda, the Black Student Union’s press secretary, referring to previous vigils and protests students have staged. “Now we’re just tired of waiting and asking for the same thing over and over again.”
“We’ve been met with gaslighting,” Ahiela Watson, the union’s president, said. “What we want them to know is that disarming university police means disarm university police.”
In addition to disarming campus officers, the groups want 18% of the police budget redistributed to towards resources for black students.
On top of halving tuition next year, they also want that reduced cost to remain in place for future years “so long as the global health pandemic persists,” the groups said.
The financial demand is based on many students losing off-campus jobs and internships over the past year, and not qualifying for unemployment, they said.
