Concerned Students 2015 at Brandeis University Occupy Interim-President Lynch’s Office: Day 3
Contact: Concerned Students 2015
The Concerned Students of 2015
WALTHAM, MA., (November 22, 2015) — At 1:30pm today, over 300 Brandeis University students will have spent 48 hours participating in a sit-in demonstration outside the Interim-President’s office.
Brandeis University is named after Louis Brandeis, the first Jewish Supreme Court Justice and a progressive social justice lawyer who strongly believed that “If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.” Currently, the state of affairs at Brandeis University is not respectable to black students. Black students face a particular set of violences, both inside and outside of the classroom, and it is time that administration is held responsible.
We are #FordHall2015 but we are not the first. In 1969, 75 black students and allies occupied Ford Hall with a list of 10 demands including calling for an African Studies department, more recruitment of black students on campus, and adding black faculty to each department.
Our 13 demands reflect the spirit of #FordHall1969 and their legacy at this institution.
If Brandeis University stands by its mission and prides itself on progressive and socially just education, then we ask for Brandeis University to stand with us.
Interim-President Lisa Lynch, Brandeis Administration, and the Board of Trustees, must adhere to our demands, listen to our stories, and actively make this campus a safer space for all students.
We know Brandeis “Considers social justice central to its mission as a nonsectarian university.” We know that Louis Brandeis believed “Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.” We embody these principles while occupying the Interim-President’s office until our demands are met.
“We are moving our people toward a liberation that has long been denied. This is a liberation that those of all races can understand.”
We are The Concerned Student of 2015 and we will be heard.
#ConcernedStudents2015 #FordHall2015
