BY FOREST HUNT & DANIEL VOGEL
More than a hundred people gathered in front of the library on Wednesday, Nov. 7th to protest Evergreen’s intention to hire two new police officers while cutting faculty positions.
The protestors spent forty minutes chanting and waving homemade signs in Red Square while students and faculty gave impassioned speeches. They then took their message directly to college administration, moving the rally into President George Bridges’ office and presenting a list of demands.
The ralliers have two demands. First, “The immediate end to the hiring process for another campus police officer” and, second, “The immediate hiring of two full time [faculty], one in political economy, and one in the art programs.”
Evergreen is currently hiring four half-time faculty for the 2019-2020 school year; in Economics, Writing, Sociology and English Language Learning.
The rally was organized by the The Industrial Workers of the World South Sound General Education Union. It “seek[s] to represent all people [at Evergreen] who are either not in a union, or who want to join us (with the exception of administrators who can hire/fire or expel people, and the campus police)” their “Points of Unity” states.
Evergreen first placed a job posting for campus police candidates in early 2017, with a yearly salary of $57,144 to $76,860. However, web archives show the department has had no change of staff besides the addition of a new communications officer and the departure of its former director, Stacy Brown.
Brown requested the hiring of two new full time police officers at an estimated cost of $292,000 on Aug. 1 2017. President Bridges agreed to seek funding for the hires in a supplemental budget request fifteen days later.
Evergreen’s public relations manager, Allison Anderson, said it was too early for the school to comment on whether it planned to fulfill the union’s demands. “Let it take its course,” said Anderson.
The rally kicked off a few minutes past 1 p.m. when a group marched through Red Square from the bus loop chanting “Profs not cops!”
“There was a lot of energy” said first-year student Julian Dreyer.
A rally organizer with the South Sound General Education Union lead a chant: “This is a college not a war, what do we need rifles for!” The crowd then chanted, “What’s the course that sets us free? Political economy!”
A member of the crowd turned to another and said, smiling, “We’re all here, being supportive.”
Sophomore Rebekah Woelkers spoke of the hope she felt packing up and moving across the country from South Carolina to come to Evergreen, and the disappointment when she was met with news of massive faculty layoffs and program cuts. Evergreen’s job posting for a new police officer “has the school paying out [at least] $57,144 a year,” said Wolker. “To get some perspective, this would pay the yearly wage of a professor with ten years of experience!” This generated loud boos from the audience.
Faculty member Peter Bohmer spoke to the major role students have played in social movements in the U.S. He hoped this rally would see the birth of “such a student movement at Evergreen [along] with faculty and staff.”
“Evergreen is worth saving!” Bohmer said to cheers. “The solution is not to become more mainstream.”
Bohmer said Evergreen is experiencing a crisis, with declining enrollment, faculty and staff layoffs (minus police and high level administrators), and cuts to the Communication Building. He implored the community to organize into a mass movement of students, staff, and faculty. “We can’t do it alone,” said Bohmer.
Bohmer responded to the recently-revealed decision by President Bridges to purchase AR-15 rifles for campus police. “For the first 27 years of Evergreen, the police were not armed. They were security,” he said. “It’s undemocratic the way the decision was made. It’s a waste of resources, it’s not transparent, it doesn’t make anyone feel safer.”
Members of the crowd gave the loudest boo of the day to the mention of police getting AR-15 rifles. One student gyrated festively holding a cardboard sign aloft that read “No Guns, More Fun.”
Sophomore Patrick Hamilton spoke as a member of the International Socialist Organization. He said the administration’s actions have shown their intention to bow to the state legislature and transform Evergreen into “something largely indistinguishable from the other state schools,” which elicited several waves of booing.
Hamilton echoed Bohmer, calling this a “losing strategy.” Presenting an alternative path forward, he called for Evergreen to double down on its commitments to community based learning and fund the theatre, photography, and political economy departments. “Evergreen can continue to be a nationally recognized and respected institution” by offering educational opportunities unavailable at most other colleges, said Hamilton.
“What’s really inspiring about us all coming together today is we’re not just protesting the failed priorities of this administration, not just rejecting the violence of campus police. But we’re beginning to organize a movement to save Evergreen from the administration,” Hamilton said, concluding that “organizing and demonstrating” is the only way to chart an opposing course to the administrations intentions.
First-year student Alice McIntyre also spoke. “The question of police presence on campus is not just a question of budget priorities, it’s a question of power: who runs the school, and for what purpose?” she said. “It’s abundantly clear from the decision made by the administration and board of trustees that the school is not being run in the interest of students and faculty.”
McIntyre also pointed out that “the struggle against the presence of police at Evergreen is closely linked to the defense of immigrant students and students of color,” and that “as long as police remain at Evergreen, its status as a ‘sanctuary campus’ should be viewed with a grain of salt, as should any stated commitments to equality and inclusion.”
After McIntyre spoke, one of the rally organizers ushered the large group into an intimate mass. They informed the crowd that, for all those willing, the rally was going to transport itself to President Bridges office to present an official list of demands.
The ralliers stretched from the lobby of the library all the way to Bridges’ office. As the crowd consolidated, dead silence fell. It “made it almost difficult to breath,” said David Weinman, a current student.
Bridges’ door remained closed. Vice President for Finance and Operations John Carmical, who oversees Police Services, did emerge from his nearby office while people began to pour into the lobby. He stood awkwardly behind a desk and, according to Weinman, looked like a “scarecrow” with a “blank stare” as he faced the crowd.
Carmichael accepted the list of the demands. He expressed support for the presence of police on campus and the recent decision to arm them with AR-15 rifles in a prior interview with the Cooper Point Journal.
As ralliers flowed out of the office, Carmichael suddenly dashed to offer them chocolate from a plastic pumpkin.
Following the rally and delivery of demands, over eighty participants gathered to debrief the event and plan next steps in the sunlight on the grass behind the library. Everyone who spoke expressed a feeling of hope, camaraderie, and an eagerness to keep the energy going.
Daniel, a first-year student, said he felt the protest had been respectful and had a supportive energy. He “hoped that the [administration] realizes their actions have consequences, and that we won’t stand idly by when they make decisions for us that are detrimental to our well being.”
Clayton, a junior, said he did not think that the administration took the rally seriously. “I think we need to take more direct sort of actions in order to make them pay attention,” he said.
