WakeUpWSU takes grievances to President Floyd

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Students rally outside of Todd Hall to raise awareness of racial injustice.

At last night’s WakeUpWSU meeting, leadership expanded the campaign to other underrepresented groups on campus as they drafted a list of grievances to take to President Elson S. Floyd.

In order to keep the issue in the eyes of the administration, a follow-up meeting with the Board of Administration will happen on Thursday of this week.

“Everything has been happening so fast, that we just want to get it out there so it doesn’t get swept under the rug,” said Terez Hubble-Brownfield, senior majoring in digital technology and culture.

The recent upheaval in injustice issues has been the case at the University of Oklahoma, in which a video surfaced of fraternity members chanting racial slurs.

Morgan Brown, a senior majoring in women’s studies made a connection to this case and the case that happened at WSU.

“The only difference between the University of Oklahoma and our university is that their Administration handled it correctly,” Brown said.

In response to Brown’s concern, involving the administration further was suggested.

Brianna Tollackson, president of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA), suggested that they request a formal statement from President Floyd about how the administration plans on responding to the campus climate concerns in light of recent events at WSU and nation-wide.

Along this line, the meeting progressed to generating questions and suggestions that should be brought to President Floyd on the list of grievances. These included injustices against undocumented students, concerns about YikYak, the GSA losing office space, and developing awareness at the freshmen level.

One of the suggestions came from Hanan Diriye, a freshman hoping to study political science, representing the four girls to whom the original racial comments at Phi Delta Theta were addressed.

Diriye suggested sending Floyd a more detailed description of the actual incident at Phi Delta Theta, to give him a complete picture of the severity of the incident.

Another suggestion came from Tollackson, who said as of next year, GSA will no longer have an office, which will make it hard for GSA to be an organized group.

Jared Powell, ASWSU president and senior majoring in political science and philosophy, suggested developing a freshmen UCORE class that covers sexual violence, racism and other issues.

YikYak was addressed by multiple parties for its role in encouraging a callous attitude on campus.

Daisy Alvarado, a junior majoring in human development, said she wants to know how the school administration plans on handling YikYak and how they can block it’s access in our region.

“If the [school doesn’t] think these kinds of words should be taking place, they shouldn’t be promoting it,” Alvarado said, referencing YikYak’s advertisements on campus.

Brown added that she is planning on developing video that depicts how YikYak has been detrimental to the WSU community.

Cristina Medina, a senior in women studies and part of the Alpha Nu Multicultural Sorority spoke for the interests of undocumented students. She said she wants to see administration help them get financial aid and more resources.

“It’s hard for a lot of them to have a voice because they face a lot more repercussions for speaking up,” Medina said.

All these suggestions were compiled into a new list of grievances to take to Floyd and the administration.

“I feel like the meeting was productive,” said Christina Sessoms, president of the Black Student Union and a senior majoring in comparative ethnic studies. “It was refreshing to hear the different grievances of multiple groups on campus.”

The Black Student Union at the University of Washington sent an email of support that stated that although they would not be able to attend the meeting, they stand in support of this campaign.