Making Green River A Hate-Free Zone

The result of the 2016 election has created turmoil on the usually peaceful Green River (GR) campus. In order to restore some peace and hope, interim President, Scott Morgan, sent out an email on November 18. The email promised that the college will always “stand by its core values and principles” and think for the betterment of the students.

Within very short notice, the college staff, faculty, and students conducted an event on November 22 for the people of the GR community to come together and voice their concerns. The event was held in three different parts.

From 10 a.m. to 11:50 a.m. group discussions were held in the Pin, Noble and Emerald City rooms in the SU building. People were put into small groups and held informal discussions where students and faculty alike expressed their various concerns, problems, and possible solutions. The discussion groups provided a safe space for people to talk about their feelings and fears.

At 12 pm, a panel discussion took place in the SU Gator Hall. The discussion was hosted by Itai Jefferies, a sociology professor. The panelists included: Liz Becker, Humanities Chair person, President Scott Morgan, Marisela Fleites-Lear, Spanish Faculty, Marwa Almusawi, Diversity and Equity Division Head, Kinzah Mohammed, Student, Victoria Pacho, ODEI Commissioner and Armando Valenzuela, ODEI Peer Navigator.

During the discussion, Fleites-Lear voiced her concerns over the possible elimination of the DACA program (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and the Muslim registry under Donald Trump’s campaign. She further spoke about a petition drafter by her and reviewed by other staff members.

“I’m hoping for this petition to be signed by a lot of students, faculty, staff, and a lot of my community members; a petition to declare our college a sanctuary college,” said Fleites-Lear.

The petition is addressed to the Board of Trustees, the President and Vice Presidents of GRC. It requests the administration to guard the privacy of the students and staff by refusing to release sensitive information to the border patrol and the police. The administration is requested not to force undocumented students to pay international tuition.

The hope is to make the campus a safe space for peaceful gathering. The petition also requires that the staff and faculty be given nondiscrimination training to identify and respond appropriately harassment and hate crimes. All students, staff and faculty are urged to sign this petition and support the motion to make Green River a sanctuary college. The petition is being circulated across the college by email. It can also be found here: https://goo.gl/forms/flOpcK99LUI9SVdl2

“Ideally, the campus should be a safe place,” said Becker, “… all of you are here equally, you’re paying tuition, you deserve to be able to go wherever, whenever and feel safe.”

When the panel was asked how the college officials would respond to an incident of harassment, Morgan explained that all cases would be treated differently and their consequences would be different.

Morgan was further asked to elaborate on the process that students would have to go through if they witness such an incident by Pacho. Things started to escalate between the Morgan and Pacho, but Vice President Deborah Casey diffused the heat by providing a detailed response to Pacho’s question.

Casey elaborately described the process that the student and the violator would have to go through depending on who the violator is. The officials would investigate the case from both perspectives. After an investigation, and if the violator is found guilty in terms of code of conduct, the victim will be asked what they want to see happen to the violator.

“There confidentiality that comes with that [the result] though, so sometimes we can’t tell you the outcome of every situation that’s investigated,” said Casey.

The panel discussion was followed by another informal discussion which took place in the Emerald City room. Becker, Fleites-Lear, Pacho, and Almusawi were available during that time to answer further questions. The discussion allowed the students to freely interact with the panelists. The final discussion ended at 1:50 p.m.