What happened last semester and why? What’s Transformative Justice? Who resigned and what does that mean? What work do we have to do now?
Come to O4S’s first teach-in to find out and hear about how you can get involved in building our movement this semester.
Organizing for Survivors invites you to a community gathering tomorrow, Sunday, 8 PM in the IC courtyard in response to the Kavanaugh hearings and the multitude of injustices we are witnessing.
We know this week has been painful and exhausting for many members of our community and we want to create room for collectively expressing and processing these feelings. If you would benefit from being around others feeling the same way, we would like to invite you to a communal space to share and process with others who care deeply about the issues at hand.
The injustices we are witnessing as a nation make the clarity and gravity of our goals — those of transformative justice, collective healing, and a world without sexual violence — feel more salient and more urgent. We also know that while it has been and will be community power that pushes those goals forward, doing that work can feel more draining than ever in times like this. We hope that, for those who feel drawn to this vigil, it will be an opportunity to find solace and support in each other.
At 8:00 we will hold a vigil in the IC courtyard. The space will be open for anyone to share responses to what has been happening and offering support to others. We will explicitly set this space to be welcoming to any emotions (including anger, frustration) and to intentionally uplift the voices of people who have experienced sexual harm and their allies.
At 9:00 we will be making a banner for an action on Monday (more info TBA). You are invited to stay after the vigil to paint it with us and be in a shared space.
8:00: Vigil begins, IC Courtyard
9:00: Community banner making (details to come)
Tomorrow, we will gather in Kohlberg Courtyard for a Banner Drop and Moment of Silence. We will bear witness to the connections between what’s happening nationally and locally, and affirm the dignity of all survivors of sexual violence. We will also call Swarthmore College into greater responsibility, as an institution of power and prestige, to refuse complicity in a culture wherein survivors of sexual violence are disbelieved while those who cause harm evade accountability for their behavior.
We will affirm loudly and clearly: We believe Dr. Anita Hill. We believe Dr. Blasey Ford. We believe all survivors, at Swarthmore, after Swarthmore, and beyond Swarthmore. We call on Swarthmore College to commit to Transformative Justice practices and values and to end its perpetuation of these cycles of harm and injustice.
Come join us at 12:25 if you feel comfortable and able.
Yesterday, O4S held a moment of silence in Kohlberg courtyard to honor Dr. Blasey Ford’s testimony and to call Swarthmore into greater responsibility for the multitude of injustices we are witnessing right now. We hung up a banner that said “No More Kavanaughs, Tranformative Justice Must Start Here” and led a crowd of students, faculty, and staff in a moment of silence and a song.
We stood to acknowledge our history, to thank Dr. Anita Hill, to affirm the dignity of all survivors of sexual violence, who paved the way for this moment of reckoning.
Swarthmore, as an elite institution, graduates classes of students on paths to privilege and prestige. Swarthmore frequently touts its status as an institution creating political and social change — getting its alumni into these positions of great social, economic, and political power. Yet, right now, by failing to effectively intervene when students perpetrate sexual violence, Swarthmore communicates that this behavior is acceptable. Right now through its current policies, our college continues to contribute to a culture where survivors of sexual violence are disbelieved. Right now, our college remains complicit in the systems that are allowing this disaster to unfold in the vicious way we are witnessing.
Swarthmore College must commit to Transformative Justice, in policy, values, and practices, and to end its perpetuation of these cycles of harm: we have an urgent responsibility to the world around us to do better.
****Join us at our first open meeting of the year, tomorrow tomorrow, Wednesday, at 8 PM in Trotter 303. We will be reflecting on this recent action, discussing potential priorities for the semester, and creating our guiding principles. Come get more involved and help shape this semester’s important work. ****
You are invited to our first open meeting of the year, tonight at 8PM, in Trotter 303.
We will be discussing our most recent action and diving into questions to shape this very important semester ahead:
What should be our priorities right now? What do we as a community need, urgently? How can we build an inclusive, principled, and effective movement that centers marginalized experiences and uplifts all people who have experienced sexual harm? What direct actions are we excited about?
Come out to meet other O4s folks, get more involved, and have your voice heard.
O4S encourages you to attend SISA’s Indigenous Peoples Day today at 12:30 in Parrish Parlors, and wear black in solidarity, As SISA says in their letter of solidarity from last Spring:
“Native American women in this country experience violence at some of the highest rates. Over 4 in 5 Native women will experience violence in their lifetime. Over half of Native women will experience sexual violence in their lifetime. Indigenous women in the US are significantly more likely to experience violence by an interracial perpetrator than any other group, and significantly less likely to experience violence by an intraracial perpetrator. These numbers do not escape Swarthmore.”
Colonization is inextricable from rampant sexual violence on this land— we understand Indigenous rights and liberation as foundational and necessary movements to reimagining a better world, free from violence of any kind. We stand in struggle, solidarity, and love with Indigenous survivors and victims of sexual violence and all Indigenous peoples, on campus and beyond. Come out today to show your support.
We are releasing a statement tomorrow (11/4) explaining our priorities; come to this community meeting to help strategize around them and plan our action next week!
Join us for a group discussion on the criminalization of survivors of sexual violence, hosted by Students for Transformative Justice, Abolition, and Reform (STAR) and the Women’s Resource Center.
Dinner from Olive Garden will be provided.
Why hasn’t admin taken action on PubSafe, administrative accountability, fraternity harm, or a behavioral change requirement?
Come to Sproul tomorrow to discuss and plan next steps.
O4S stands in solidarity with SJP in urging Swarthmore to divest from Israeli apartheid. Keep an eye out for our statement in Voices soon!
Hi folks!
O4S will be holding a demonstration inside Parrish 1st on Friday, December 7.
Especially as Betsy DeVos begins to threaten much of our rights in Title IX, we need you all to help us show President Smith that students deserve transparent, explicit, institutionalized support from Swarthmore’s administration.
This looks like implementing the demands that O4S laid out last spring.
Stop by at some point between 10 AM and 1 PM and engage with the demonstration as you would like! There will be a big banner drop at 11:15 and also be a poster to sign to stand with us against the administration’s inaction.
Come through and bring friends to stand in solidarity with O4S!
Join us in standing with SJP tomorrow at 1:15 PM, in Parrish Parlors! Check out our statement of solidarity, explaining how survivor justice here and everywhere is inextricably tied to justice in Palestine.
Finding Common Ground
December 10, 2018
Dear Students, Staff, and Faculty Members,
Diversity of viewpoints and the free and open exchange of ideas are hallmarks of our community and central to the academic enterprise. Frequently, so too are difficult conversations.
In recent weeks, student organizations have expressed a variety of viewpoints and concerns about important and complex issues in the Middle East. These debates are taking place against the backdrop of — and are thus intensified by — pervasive reports of anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, racist, and xenophobic acts of violence across the country and around the world.
Too often in public discourse, conversations concerning such topics devolve into ad hominem attacks and produce an atmosphere of unease and distrust. At Swarthmore, we hold ourselves to a higher standard.
Rarely will all members of our community share a common viewpoint. But we do owe it to each other — as members of this community — to trust each other’s good intentions. If we can begin there, we will be able to find common ground even amidst serious disagreement.
Recently, a number of students have approached my office to ask how the College would respond if rhetoric or behavior were to become threatening or damaging. A number of alumni and others have called on the College to withdraw its support for some student organizations based on their stated positions.
To clarify, we do not attempt to limit the exchange of ideas. As an expression of our values as a liberal arts institution, we support nuanced, critical analysis and discourse based on integrity and respect. But such discourse must not impinge on the rights of other members of the community and must be consistent with our norms and expectations as described in the Student and Employee Handbooks.
Our Non-Discrimination and Equal Opportunity policy explicitly prohibits any form of harassment or discrimination on the basis of religion, gender identity, sexuality, and race, among other classifications. Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, as with all forms of discrimination, strike at the heart of our values and are in violation of our religious protections. If you experience or witness behavior that may violate our principles and policies, please report your concerns online or in person to any member of the Dean’s Division. We remain committed to providing a safe community and will investigate every concern raised.
In the weeks and months ahead, members of the Deans Division will continue to facilitate and offer opportunities for constructive and respectful dialogue. Students will also have opportunities in classes and with invited speakers to explore these topics.
As I wrote in a message to the community early this semester, “We can best achieve productive change when our difficult conversations are informed by the ideals of mutual respect, active listening, and empathy. We must recognize when our convictions silence voices and viewpoints that are pertinent, even when we disagree with them. This work is hard and needs to be built upon a secure foundation of mutual understanding.”
The strength of our values and community depends upon our ability to share our divergent views. I hope all of us will work to ensure that conversations in and out of the classroom remain civil and productive.
Sincerely,
Valerie Smith
President
