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OT: Live look-in at campus protesters


DoctorB

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I always thought if you were to protest, you had to off the property? If I was going to protest somebody, I couldn't do it on their front lawn I would have to do it on the street of sidewalk in front of their house. Whether you agree with this protest or not, will this open the doors for other protests to be on campus in central areas?

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There were 13 concessions- some of which were to hire a diversity assistant to the president, to hold a national diversity conference, plus 11 others. This was not mentioned in the letter sent to the parents.

SLU may become more diverse as a result of some of the concessions. Oh the horror!

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I am 100% fine with concessions. It is better than the alternative which we have seen in other places of, "don't change anything, bring in a police presence and pray for an early winter".

SLU earns an absolute A+ for crisis management. I am not sure if this acts as a benefit for SLU but it definitely avoids potential disaster.

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There were 13 concessions- some of which were to hire a diversity assistant to the president, to hold a national diversity conference, plus 11 others. This was not mentioned in the letter sent to the parents.

Then this is not good for SLU. Fail. Oh, we didn't want a scene.

OCCUPY SLU: protest, threaten, occupy, deface, intimidate, and cha-ching you get financial and other concessions. Extortion.

This happens a lot these days. Have you noticed?

Give them something to go away or they will show up in front of your business (whatever) and boycott, protest, threaten.

Even if they are completely wrong and their protests are unfounded, it is best to give them $$$$$ to go away, or they will play "the card" on you.

So far, all we know for sure is a 6'4" 294 man on pot strong arm robbed a store and was stopped walking in the middle of a street and apparently assaulted a cop, then was shot. Let's wait for the Grand Jury and evidence.

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I hope the Sig Ep, SAEs, SigmaChis, KDs, Gamma Phis, etc. are all protesting at the clock tower next week. Maybe they could finally settle that whole problem of certain fraternities getting funding from the school and most not.

SLU gets a C in crisis management from me. The new president has set a bad precedent for groups that are unhappy on campus. Just sit around the clocktower and you'll get what you want!

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SLU handled this very well and thank goodness the "firehouse" crowd didn't win. Fear lost out. A college campus actually seems like a very natural place to have demonstrations and discussions. When I checked on the web cam, I usually saw what appeared to be demonstrators and students having very civil discussions. Talking is good. Sweeping issues under the rug never solves anything. Some of the tough guy talk on here and what I've read elsewhere cracks me up. SLU seemed guided by their Jesuit principles in the way they handled this. Some of the students and alumni who seemed to be calling for a confrontation or a fanning of the flames, forget or don't seem to care about the whole Jesuit thing.

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JMM - I classify the scenario surrounding these protests as 100% unprecedented.

This movement has the attention of the entire nation and holds the potential to affect SLU positively or negatively for decades. Other unhappy groups (like fraternities) do not compel the national media machine like the Ferguson movement does. SLU operated in a completely different manner which was the right move IMO.

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There were 13 concessions- some of which were to hire a diversity assistant to the president, to hold a national diversity conference, plus 11 others. This was not mentioned in the letter sent to the parents.

stlu-blackmail.jpg

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Who said that? I think people are frustrated because OUR University was dragged into this mess when it had nothing to do with it.

There is definitely a tone from some on this thread that SLU has not handled this well or shouldn't have given any concessions.

To me the issue isn't about whether I'm happy that the protesters came to SLU; because I'm not. Pestello definitely didn't ask for this to happen. But once it did happen, he did a pretty good job of handling the situation. In my opinion, his solution was far superior to the solution proposed by some to kick them off immediately, with force if necessary.

So if people want to post about how unfair it is that the protesters came to SLU then so be it. But that's not really debatable. What is debatable is how one should handle the situation and in my book SLU did a very good job of handling it.

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JMM - I classify the scenario surrounding these protests as 100% unprecedented.

This movement has the attention of the entire nation and holds the potential to affect SLU positively or negatively for decades. Other unhappy groups (like fraternities) do not compel the national media machine like the Ferguson movement does. SLU operated in a completely different manner which was the right move IMO.

The movement HAd the attention. They blew it, frankly. Ferguson is out of the news cycle. SLU kicking them off campus might have warranted a 2nd page story in the Post Dispatch (better than the bball team usually gets,) but wouldn't have registered on the national radar whatsoever. A survey of the top news sites right now shows no mention of Ferguson or St Louis on CNN, FoxNews, and NPR. MSNBC and the Huff Post obviously have some things on there. STLToday has a few things, the biggest being the protesters accosting drunk Rams fans after the game while some hillbillies respond with Darren Wilson chants.

I am just not super impressed with the handling like some folks are. I don't think a Biondi handling would have been good either. But to commit to some sort of affirmative action in hiring professors, wasting the presidents time twice a month with meetings and steering committees, and others is not a great outcome. Why should SLU be responsible for K-12 anything in Normandy and Shaw? That is the responsibility of the local government and school district.

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I guess I don't love that SLU seems to be hiding these concessions that they made. No word of anything specific or an already written contract in the email from Pestello. Only reason people know is because the OccupySLU twitter account tweeted that picture and then immediately took it down.

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What concessions did they really make? The agreement was only to advance dialogue and collaboration on those 13 issues. It says nothing about SLU unilaterally funding these items.

Would you rather have had SLU evict the protesters by force or have them still on campus if a no true bill comes from the grand jury in next few days?

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I am 100% fine with concessions. It is better than the alternative which we have seen in other places of, "don't change anything, bring in a police presence and pray for an early winter".

SLU earns an absolute A+ for crisis management. I am not sure if this acts as a benefit for SLU but it definitely avoids potential disaster.

+1 I don't see how anyone can be mad about how the University handled this, they handled it with absolute excellence. Seems like most of the people who are angry with the admin are the same ones who were calling for riot police and fire hoses...

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