Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | October 12, 2020 | Worcester Business Journal 11 jargon," Watson said, adding the admin- istration has received letters supporting BSU's demands from students, faculty and alumni. As the BSU and its ally organizations, including Clark's student government and other multicultural groups, tussle with the university, the union has taken additional steps to draw attention to its demands, as well as highlight incidents of overt and covert racism on-campus. BSU has launched a #NotYourToken campaign, wherein students of color in- dividually request the univer- sity remove any image of them used in the school's marketing materials, which Watson said has so far been fruitful, as well as supported an Instagram account called @blackatclarku, which documents stories of racism sub- mitted by members of the Clark commu- nity. e anonymous stories featured on the Instagram account run the gamut from white students using the n-word to and comparing Black students to racist tropes like Aunt Jemima, to students of color being asked to translate Ebonics. Elsewhere in Worcester While Clark's battles were more public, other Worcester private colleges had varying responses to Floyd's killing. Holy Cross had its 40-point plan and it – along with Worcester Polytechnic Institute – explicitly endorsed the Black Lives Matter organization. Assumption University, like Clark, did not endorse Black Lives Matter but denounced racism and vowed to fight against it. In a June faculty forum, Assumption Provost and Academic Vice President Greg Weiner said confronting issues in a contemporary, rather than transcendent sense, misconceived the role of educators and undermined the promise of Cath- olic liberal arts education, according to an excerpt of a transcript of the remarks provided by the school. "We are an institution whose explicit and specific purpose is to form students educa- tionally, not to form our society as a whole or respond to events in it," Weiner said. In an interview for this story, Weiner reiterated that stance. When asked wheth- er classroom policies have changed in response to Black Lives Matter and related activism, he said the most important pol- icy in Assumption's classrooms "is open inquiry and a robust exchange of ideas framed by the principles of Catholic liberal education." "at involves welcoming diverse points of view on all kinds of ideas. It requires us to challenge each other, and ourselves." he said. 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Chair, Labor & Employment Practice Group 508.459.8214 Scott E. Regan, Esq. 508.459.8220 D I V E R S I T Y & I N C L U S I O N F O C U S not, to take these courses, or not, on anti-racist training, which defeats the purpose," Watson said. "And that's not even to say that anti-racist training is go- ing to make a racist person anti-racist." Clark's Black Student Union demands A week aer George Floyd's death, on June 4, Clark's BSU, which has been around since 1945, released a list of demands for the uni- versity, outlining grievances it says has gone unaddressed since 1969, when their prede- cessors sent their own list to the school's administration. "Like many Black students who have walked the halls of this campus before us, we are outraged and remain unheard and unseen by Clark University," BSU wrote in its June 4 letter. Among other demands, BSU asked Clark to completely sever ties with the WPD; asked for all campus employees to undergo mandatory semi-annual anti-racism training; to have a Black member of the school's community par- ticipate in the search for a new campus police chief; for all reports of racism to undergo a full investigation; and more Black mental health practitioners be hired to serve students. "Whether Clark realizes this or not, our vision is Black Liberation; our vision is the Black Lives Matter Movement, our vision is Civil Rights," the union wrote in another July 28 open letter. "We will not be convinced that our needs are radical or unattainable by any means." Clark declined to comment on the BSU's list of demands. Although released in the days fol- lowing Floyd's murder, and in the midst of nationwide protests, Watson said conversations between Clark adminis- tration and the BSU have been ongoing for years, morphing as BSU members matriculate and graduate. e most recent round of conversations began last fall, with former university president David Angel, who stepped down at the end of the last academic year and has since been replaced by David Fithian, a former executive vice president at the University of Chicago. Aer those conversations, which emphasized a request for designated multicultural housing options, eventu- ally fizzled out, Watson said, the BSU slightly altered what would become its June 4 list, clarifying requests to cut ties with the WPD, as well as to disarm cam- pus police. e university responded to those demands internally, Watson said, in lengthy emails over the summer and in September. "And nonetheless, it was academic Greg Weiner, Assumption University provost and academic vice president W

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