Here is a transcript of the student member of the board of trustees rant at the meeting on March 7, 2014. Enjoy: We found out through the roughest of ways that we do not have a cyber-bullying policy, and we do not have a way to address the way students are treated here, are harassed, and this, this has caused a lot of harm, because people hide behind the freedom of speech to attack and harass people, and I’m gonna give you this. When Mom and Dad are going through a divorce, you leave the children out. And it was fine, because when I came here in 2010, I understood that there was conflict between administration and between faculty. I just never expected that faculty members began to attack students, either through cyber-bullying or through other methods, or showing up to SGA meetings and causing conflict within, you know, SGA, and let me remind you, student government association is an opportunity for students to develop and become efficient contributors to society, by learning, not by conflicting with faculty and getting involved in a drag-down, beat-down fight, because many students that I have talked to have asked, you know, what is going on? And I said, I don’t know, but I know that we’re not protected, and so, I was the one that asked and pushed and charged this administration and told them cyber-bullying, bullying in any form has an outcome, it’s been associated with suicide and I will not be here and wait until somebody or something happens that could have been preventable, Now, I put myself out there and I was ready to just resign this position because as somebody who was a candidate for medical school and has just pushed every day to come here, working nine part-time jobs in my graduate studies, and receiving high academics, above a 3.8, every day has been challenging. The other challenge is I’m a first generation Mexicano, Latino, proud, right? And an African American community, a predominantly black-serving institution, and I have been attacked. But not just I, other students, other students that are misaligned with the efforts of a group of faculty members her who don’t know when to stop because they don’t know that they just can’t win because they are not on the side of right. They are attacking the students. And I had asked many faculty because my responsibilities as a trustee is not just to engage the student population but I care about this campus and I care about my school and I’ve asked them, and I’ve asked them ‘do you agree with their tactics when they are attacking women?’ and students? And, you know, doing all sorts of negative work, right? To tear down the efforts of first generations people, that this is our last chance to do it? And they said no, but I know that they’re being bullied too. And I’ll tell you something, at a young age, I had a severe brain trauma injury, at seven years old, I was confined to a wheelchair in Logan Square area and it took me two years to recover from this accident. And I had been harassed, bullied, hit physically, on the, growing up on the crossboards between two different gangs, I survived it. I buried my friends, I started at seven years old and I know what the detrimental effects of any type of harassment, any type of bullying, and people just walking around not doing anything. It’s just waiting its turn to come to you and we must stop it. So what did we do? I came to the president, I came to the Board of Trustees meeting and I said, “you must do something, you must do something now, we have no protection. You know, it’s not OK. When did we lose the disconnect from that it’s not OK, to treat people this way? I am a student and I do not belong on a faculty blog. I do not need to be ridiculed, I do not have to be a piece of misinformation, I do not have to be approached by Phillip Beverly in a hallway and be told, do you want to increase your street cred? Well ask me this question so I can embarrass the president.” Let me tell you about street cred. Street cred was gettin’ off the street. Street cred was surviving. Street cred is not here, I didn’t come her for street cred. I came here for educational credibility. Which is what I’m getting. Many of you are my friends or have been my friends. And then you turned on me because I didn’t do what you wanted me to do, ‘cause it is not on the side of right. We are on the side of right. So I stand here before you as an advocate for the students, as a representative for those students that told me ‘Iz, say it, say it, and I’m gonna say it, but I’m also gonna give you this opportunity. I’m a Christian, sometimes I’m not a great Christian, God knows that. But I would like to forgive you. And then for all of those of you that suffer, I would like to offer you an apology. One that I never got. I’m sorry for everything you’ve ever been through that has made you change your focus from being students-focused, students first, and I would like to extend you an apology to say I’m sorry for everything you’ve ever felt, I’m sorry for the disparities that you have gone through that have made you cause to feel retaliation, to feel fear, to feel not welcomed, to feel like you’re in the minority, to feel like you’re fighting for survival and tell you, you are not alone. If you do not accept that, that’s OK. That’s alright. But I will tell you the other part of that story. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Students will not tolerate the demeaning attitudes, the arrogance that people show in the classrooms towards us, because you are provided with an opportunity to make us great and you sure do, you sure do. Some of you, some of you go well beyond the call of duty and God bless you. So that’s what it is.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 15:31:36 +0000
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