pc – RI Future

February 16, 2016February 17, 2016

PC President Shanley signs list of demands, ending occupation

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A 13 hour occupation of Providence College President Brian Shanley‘s office ended Tuesday evening as Shanley capitulated and signed the student’s list of demands. According to a Facebook post by Marco McWilliams, “Students will now turn their attention to follow through efforts.”

A statement from the students, who identify themselves as the “Board of Directors” arrived at 1am. It reads:

“We would not leave until the document said he would provide a substantive plan in regards to “each” of the Demands for Redress because there is not one single one that we were willing to go unaddressed. Altogether we were in there thirteen hours, eight of which he ignored us and then gradually agreed to negotiate. This came when he realized we really wouldn’t leave his office until we had his signature and that four students were steadfast in their hunger strikes. We are proud of what we accomplished. We will see how honest he is in his commitment in 20 days and whether or not we believe his plans are substantive enough.”

Video below is from @LadiiePhii96 on Twitter.

The photo below was tweeted out by Marco McWilliams.

A copy of the statement Shanley signed has shown up on Twitter courtesy of @motermouth2 and can be seen below.

You can read the press release put out by the students here:

PC students occupy President Shanley’s office to protest campus racism

February 16, 2016February 16, 2016

PC students occupy President Shanley’s office to protest campus racism

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A group of Providence College students has occupied the office of PC President Brian Shanley. The following is from their press release:

Beginning at 8:30 am this morning Providence College students who have been organizing against anti-blackness and racism on their campus began to occupy the Office of the President. Student organizers issued a list of comprehensive Demands for Redress in December 2015, based on evidence-based practices and systemic solutions for an inclusive campus that the President will not agree to. This follows three semesters of unproductive dialogue filled with political rhetoric and complacency from the President and his administration. Additionally, Shanley has not responded to any e-mails requesting to meet one-on-one with student activists.

Three of the students are participating in a hunger strike.

Student protesters say they will occupy the Office of the President and remain there until Shanley signs An Agreement of Commitment to the Demands for Redress.

On-campus protests have led to increasing racial tensions, as can be seen in this video:

The video was filmed on Friday, February 13, 2016 at Providence College. Peaceful protesters demonstrated on the continued complacency of President Shanley and his administration on issues surrounding overt anti-blackness and racism on the college’s campus. During the protest, campus visitors, who were attending Family Weekend, physically and verbally assaulted students.

The first segment shows a man who pushed the student in front of him while simultaneously screaming in his ear “If you don’t like it here, transfer!” The same male also threatened another student, saying that if the group continued to chant he would punch him in the face. The younger male, in the yellow hat is seen mocking student protesters by mimicking dance moves while telling them to “shut the f*** up” and calling their efforts “a joke”. The video also shows a woman in a fur jacket screaming “ALL students matter” in retort to “Black Students Matter” being chanted by students.

To say “all lives matter” is not to say that all human life is equal but is to deny the racial disparity that exists in American society. This is an ideology that permeates much of campus.

This display of aggressive hate and hostility is just an example of what some students of color at Providence endure from their peers and professors both in and out of the classroom. This type of behavior is typically met with silence on the part of the Office of Safety and Security and key decision makers such as the President of the college. For example, during the fall 2015 semester when a group of Providence College students peacefully marched in solidarity with the University of Missouri, a spectating student used Snapchat to post the demonstration with the message “shut up you n******”. Instead of investigating, Safety and Security protected the perpetrators and the College has taken no visible action to address such behaviors.

In addition to overt anti-blackness and racism such behaviors permeate other areas of the college, including the curriculum, both implicitly and explicitly. The February 13, 2016 demonstration is, in part, a response to the silence and the increasing sense of insecurity faced by students of color. Students are committed to engaging in various forms of activism in attempts to break the silence in response to racism and anti-Blackness. They are committed until Father Shanley “stands up or steps out”.

Update: The students were told when they entered the office that President Shanley was not on campus. At 9:30 a.m. the President was seen by a student in the hallway outside his office in Harkins Hall 218 but he refused to make eye contact.

RI Future previously covered racial tensions at Providence College here:

Students, faculty accuse PC of racial profiling and anti-unionism

Update: RI Future has just received video from inside the occupation:

May 4, 2015May 5, 2015

Students, faculty accuse PC of racial profiling and anti-unionism

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The Providence College Coalition Against Racism held a press conference, followed by a march through the Providence College (PC) campus, “to protest the ongoing racial profiling on campus and the failure of the college administration to stop doing business with the Renaissance Hotel.”

Dr. Julia Jordan-Zachary has been a professor at Providence College for seven years and has been stopped by campus security eight times. She is the director of PC’s Black Studies Program and has recently been promoted to full professor. PC has a policy prohibiting racial profiling.

The Coalition maintains that the PC director of Safety and security, Jack Leyden, is not enforcing this policy.

“Some try to discredit our experiences with claims such as ‘It must be how they are dressed,’” said Jordan-Zachary, “and I always want to say, ‘I survived 18 years as a black female academic. I think I know how to dress.’”

“I do everything conceivably possible not to draw the attention of security guards on this campus,” said Jordan-Zachary, such as “trying to figure out how to walk through buildings so that I am almost invisible,” and selecting classrooms to teach in that are as close as possible to her office to avoid long walks on campus.

Student Bini Tsegaye, a graduating senior, also spoke about the systemic racism and profiling on the PC campus. “For four years straight I’ve been stopped and questioned by security and safety officers, and most of the time they drive around in their van to see if I belonged on campus.”

Tsegaye got a job on campus, thinking that “being a student employee would decrease the constant interrogation and profiling, since security officers would be working with me. But that’s not the reality I saw on my job.”

In addition to calling for an end to racial profiling on campus, Professor Cedric de Leon called upon PC to stop recommending the Providence Renaissance Hotel for college events because of “the owners’ failure to respond in a legal manner to workers’ efforts to organize a union.” The Renaissance and the Providence Hilton, both located downtown, are managed by The Procaccianti Group (TPG).

When PC students and faculty approached the college about boycotting the Renaissance, they were told that there was “no compelling interest for Providence College to advise the families of our students and our alumni to avoid using the hotel.”

Professor de Leon disagrees. Providence College is a Catholic school. “This inaction,” says de Leon, “is a violation of Catholic social thought, and is due to the fact that those whose rights are being violated are by and large people of color and therefore of little social importance either to the PC administration or to TPG.”

“The fact that PC insists on using anti-union hotels, despite the many other hotels in Providence,” said De Leon, “suggests that a strong personal connection between PC and TPG is preventing the administration from doing what is right.”

Two hotel workers, Santa Brito from the Renaissance and Jonah Zinn from the Hilton, spoke about working conditions at the hotels and the impossibility of negotiating with TPG.

Brito, who is currently not working due to health problems she received on the job, recalled being pregnant, and “at the moment I went to give birth [TPG] tried to fire me.”

“We are also fighting against racism in the hotel,” said Brito. “We are living day to day with the racism in this hotel and we need to stop it now.”

“One of my co-workers,” said Zinn, “the hotel tried to fire her two weeks after she gave birth to twins. While she was pregnant the hotel refused to reduce” the number of rooms she needed to clean in a shift.

The Coalition presented four demands.

“That the College fire the Director of Safety and Security due to his failure to enforce PC’s policy against racial profiling.”
“That the College discipline the security officer who profiled the director of the College’s Black Studies Program.”
“That the College begin full enforcement of their policy against racial profiling.”
“That the College refrain from doing business with the Renaissance Hotel until management grants the workers a fair process to decide on unionization.”

After the press conference, de Leon led a march through the campus. After the march students and faculty stepped forward to describe the ways they were made to feel uncomfortable or even endangered on campus by PC security or fellow students. de leon finally led those still in attendance to sing “We Shall Overcome.”

Listening to those speaking out, its clear PC has a lot to overcome before being known as a welcoming, inclusive campus, able to live up to its Catholic ideals.

December 10, 2014December 11, 2014

PC students need a safer Providence

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You will rarely find a Providence College student walking or jogging around streets of Providence alone after dark. It’s simply not safe outside the gates of campus.

Just a few weeks ago, while students awaited a pizza to be delivered at the heart of Providence College’s campus, two young men drove down Huxley Avenue and shot at a pizza delivery driver in his car. Although the individuals were brought into custody and steps are being taken by the College to make the campus safer, the source of the problem remains.

Providence for years has been experiencing the consequences of gang violence and violence remains a major concern for the Providence community. The people of Providence deserve better and have been promised a brighter tomorrow with Mayor-elect Jorge Elorza. A safer Providence means so many things for our future. It ensures a city where people will feel safe investing in local businesses and growing our economy at a time when we desperately need it.

I want to be part of a Providence community that can walk the streets and feel safe at night. A true “One Providence” promised to the voters is reachable only if there is safer Providence at the foundation. This is why the people of Providence have trusted Elorza to lead. They know that making the city safe is one of his top priorities. They are trusting that under his administration the cities crime rate will plummet and the city will bounce back stronger than ever economically. During the campaign Elorza repeatedly spoke about how he plans on bringing Providence back. He made it clear that he understood this can only be done if the cities crime issues are to diminish promptly.

I am writing as a concerned college student who wants the to see leaders take on issues like these and create concrete change. Mayor-elect Elorza has surrounded himself with bright community leaders who are looking out for him and the best of Providences future. I have no doubt that under this type of leadership Providence will be able to grow into the city I know it can be. The future of our city hangs in the balance in the meantime.

November 25, 2014November 25, 2014

VIDEO: PC students protest Ferguson ruling

After a grand jury acquitted police officer Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown, protests – some violent – broke out in Ferguson, Missouri, where the incident happened in August. Other actions occurred across the country with protests and clashes with the police in New York, Oakland, Seattle and Chicago, among other cities.

In Rhode Island, there was a peaceful protest at Providence College. Video thanks to Rhode Island State House page and PC student/journalist Andres Taborda:

February 13, 2014February 13, 2014

Providence College postpones controversial anti-LGBTQ lecturer

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From an outsider’s perspective, Providence College seems caught between wanting to be two very different things. On the one side, PC wishes to be an academic institution dedicated to free and open inquiry, pursuing the truth where ever the search may lead. On the other hand, it sometimes seems that there are those who wish this Catholic institution of higher learning to be a defender of the Catholic faith, promoting theology as science with an eye towards influencing public policy.

Back in October, PC came under criticism for canceling a talk by Wayne State University philosopher John Corvino because his lecture, in support of marriage equality, would be “in defiance” of PC’s “fundamental moral principles.” I took some hits from the conservative Catholic right for my position, but the controversy was all but settled when Providence College’s Faculty Senate passed a resolution, by an overwhelming majority, taking Provost Hugh Lena to task for canceling Corvino’s talk.

In seems that Providence College, for the most part, is more interested in being a free and open academic institution than in simply being a forum for Catholic apologetics.

That’s not to say that those interested in inserting pseudoscience and poor philosophy into the public debate have gone away:

Dr. Matthew Cuddeback, sponsor of the controversial “Who Am I?” talk by Dr. Michelle Cretella, has announced the postponement of the event due to concern that “Dr. Cretella may be the object of animus were she to present at PC next week.” Dr. Cuddeback alleges inconsistency in campus support for academic freedom.

Cretella has long been an opponent of marriage equality and LGBTQ rights, often injecting her ideas and opinions into our state’s ongoing discussion over these issues. In 2008 she, along with Bishop Thomas Tobin, joined the board of NOM-RI, the group that led the fight against marriage equality in Rhode Island.

Cretella is on the board of the National Association for Research of Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) an organization that claims homosexuality is a mental disorder that can be cured. She is also Vice president of the American College of Pediatrics, “a socially conservative organization that formed in 2002 as part of a protest regarding the American Academy of Pediatrics support of adoption by gay and lesbian couples.”

As Megan Grammatico notes, “Dr. Cretella is… biased. She is the vice president of an organization that was formed originally to oppose adoption by gay and lesbian couples, and relies on bad science to do so. See the heavily criticized research of Mark Regnerus here.” Grammatico’s piece does an excellent job running down why Cretella’s positions and views put her far outside the definition of scientist, and should be read in full.

Apparently a level headed and on point critique of Cretella’s credentials and scientific honesty has caused Matthew Cuddeback to conclude that his invited speaker “may be the object of animus were she to present at PC next week” and so he cancelled the event, but not before playing the victim card:

I am struck that many of the indignant voices raised for academic freedom in the wake of the cancellation of Dr. Corvino’s talk have been absent or ambivalent in the discussion of Dr. Cretella’s talk. Where are those voices now? Some have been silent. Some are harrumphing about NARTH, science, and reparative therapy. Some, who proposed to advocate for a campus-wide discussion that would include all perspectives, are trying to shame faculty who invite a speaker holding one of those perspectives, as irresponsibly insensitive to LGBT students. Do they believe that the freedom to speak belongs only to those who agree with their position?

It is hard to believe that Cuddeback isn’t being knowingly disingenuous here. His line about critics “harrumphing about NARTH, science, and reparative therapy” indicates the value he places on fidelity to good science and honest discussion. John Corvino and Michelle Cretella could not be more different as academic speakers. Whereas Corvino uses peer reviewed research and cogent argument to make his points, Cretella misuses good research and presents discredited studies as fact to spread her theologically biased beliefs. Cretella associates with NOM, an anti-LGBTQ hate group.

In short, Cretella does not deserve academic support because she does not do academic work.

Matthew Cuddeback, who invited Cretella to speak, is no stranger to disingenuous arguments. His testimony at the Rhode Island State Senate marriage equality hearing in 2013 was a pointless, confused and almost incoherent ramble about biological and “psychosexual complimentarianism.” You can watch it here: