submitted anonymously
First,
To be accountable to friends and peers we should not use a sudden death for personal gain. I don’t want to use my friend’s death as an opportunity for attention. Or see his death, my grief, as a strategic moment for organizing. I am not saying that their death should not invoke rage. The college, the state, they are responsible. This death is due to systematic negligence.
Responsibility and Accountability,
At their funeral, a war plane shook the chapel. At the PR event, twenty or so officers stood behind us, armed to their teeth—their guns breathing down our necks. A cluster of armored clad attempting to compensate for something. Plenty of money for lethal bells and whistles—yet unable to prevent an easily preventable death. “she was my friend too” you must have forgotten you have a gun. No one on this campus is your friend. You are not a friend on this campus, you’re a constant threat. Extra security cruises across campus in cushy SUVs, leaving tickets and taking up walkways. At an institution where fifty-eight percent of students face housing insecurity, thirty-eight percent of students are below the poverty line, there are better ways to spend money. The police were never meant to prevent such a preventable death. What does more surveillance accomplish when the institution fails to respond to work orders, alarms, or direct pleas for consideration.
Campus conditions have been deteriorating. Across the country campus-housing conditions are deteriorating. The Evergreen State College is nonexceptional—in terms of victims of decades of disinvestment from public education and housing. So no, admin isn’t all to blame, but they have been ignoring consistent student demands. Admins hands certainly weren’t tied. Maybe they were tied up at extravagant galas or parties at the Lord Mansion. Emailing hyperbole claiming to be comprehensive. There’s a cabinet of expiring champagne on campus but no one to properly respond to a carbon monoxide alarm. No safe place to rest or create. But patronizing students has become common practice, a state of dissonance necessary to walk this decrepit campus in ties and shining shoes. Dismissal of student concerns is so common they need a lengthy police investigation to point it out. At an institution of higher learning, we somehow can’t connect the dots. Unluckily for admin, the critical education is working for students.
NO violence is random or unprecedented, and all premature death is an act of violence. This is not just a tragedy, it’s a reflection of policy and administrative practice that is lethally neglectful.
This college and administration are so grossly entrenched in aesthetics they fail to recognize how ironic their outward facing image is. How ridiculous that fuckin PR event was on December 13th. Maybe you didn’t invite the cameras, but you didn’t tell them to leave. Why we hosted an event necessitated by grief outside during December is beyond me—yet it made the event accessible to gaudy news cameras and reporters. Why we weren’t all seated together with warm drinks and food to host an honest conversation between students and administration is beyond me. Yet it made it easier for you to ignore us still—something you have clearly perfected and do not plan to correct. Why we let those cameras, or this administration divide us is something I truly want to remedy.
This administration stuck cameras in our faces and let the media speculate on the validity of our grief. They increased the police presence on campus. They continue to respond with lightning speed to graffiti across sterile concrete walls—
And they let our friend die. This administration is responsible, not students who need to work to eat and sleep. The people who the administration keeps disempowered and poor as to take absurd directives. This administration can’t concoct an apology, but they have no issue blaming student workers or increasing surveillance.
We have to seek justice and can never let this administration forget their shame. We don’t need a costly police investigation to see a clear picture. Six figure salaries and you can’t prevent such a nauseatingly preventable death—so which one of you overpaid fucks in administration is getting fired?
Themes/ subjects to consider:
Hyper surveillance and repression of student voice and imprint.
Neoliberal priorities; focus on aesthetic, surveillance, controlling the image, over decent housing, third spaces, and academics/the arts.
Rising tuition cost, stagnation/decrease of student financial aid and limited facility use.
