Silence served as a powerful tool in making a statement at Tuesday’s sit-in that happened on the Plassmann academic building stairs.
Approximately 40 students gathered in front of the building to bring awareness to injustices plaguing the country and to show respect for the victims of injustices.
The secretive demonstration coordinated by the multicultural clubs on campus began at 12:30 p.m. and ended before 1:00 p.m. classes.
Soquania Henry, a sophomore psychology major and president of the Black Student Union, came up with the idea for the event. She says the sit-in acted as a symbol that “we can’t be moved” and sitting in a circle showed the unity among the participants there.
Henry admits the experience of planning the event was hectic, but it proved to be rewarding in the end.
“I had talked to all the participants before as individuals and knew how great each one is individually,” Henry said. “Afterwards, seeing everyone come together for a great cause, bringing the conversation to the campus, made me feel great being a part of those connections.”
During the event, the only form of communication was the flyers being passed out.
At the top of each flyer it read, “Injustice means cries and unheard voices. Injustice means tragedies unresolved.”
The flyer continued on to describe community and urged the members of the Bonaventure community to stand up together against injustices in society.
Martin Luther King Jr, a well-known civil rights activist in history, was quoted on the information flyer as well. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to injustice everywhere.”
Each flyer ended in a different thought-provoking statistic of injustices happening in the world pertaining to each multicultural club involved with the demonstration.
Juliette Bauer, a junior women studies and English major, stressed the importance of events like this in order to make changes in society.
“When people feel uncomfortable talking about issues of injustice nothing can be changed,” said Bauer. “We need open conversations across all cultures in order to spark change.”
Students were not the only ones present for the sit-in. Faculty showed their support by sitting alongside the student body.
“After hearing about the event my initial thoughts were, ‘how can I help out,’” Nichole Gonzalez, director of residence life, said.
Bauer used a term called “compassion fatigue” to describe her awareness of injustices happening in the world but feeling that she can’t do something about it.
Bauer said the event made her feel like she was making a physical difference and enjoyed being around students that felt the same way about injustices as she does.
In the student code of conduct Appendix O, a section of the code addressing maintenance of public order and public demonstrations, impacted the decision to not refer to the demonstration as a protest.
The procedures in order to get the event to be called a protest, would not have fit into the sit-in coordinators planned date for the event.
Amina Golden-Arabaty, a journalism and mass communication major and president of Muslim Students & Allies, said she participated to show solidarity.
“There is nowhere to go but up and we are heading that way,” said Arabaty. “If you manage to reach one person and open their eyes to what is going on in the world, that is better than doing nothing.”
fieldsbj14@bonaventure.edu
