Nicholas Schade
Sports Editor
Following the wave of staff layoffs, a group of students gathered to protest outside of President Anne McCall’s house on Thursday, Feb. 5. The protest began at 7 p.m. and disseminated through campus via word of mouth. Despite the quick announcement, many students showed up to support the cause and voice their frustrations with the administration’s lack of transparency regarding the College’s budget in the lead-up to the layoffs.
The protest lasted for around an hour; some students briefly joined the crowd to show their support, while others remained for the duration of the event. At the height of the protest, around 20 students congregated in front of the President’s house, shouting chants and holding signs voicing concerns about the loss of community and jeopardization of the College’s future as a result of staff cuts. Other students wrote messages in the snow calling for McCall to resign and leave campus. Towards the end of the event, the remaining protesters used sidewalk chalk to write additional messages and taped their signs to the President’s house to leave a lasting impression. It is unclear if McCall was inside her house during the protest, and the protestors left the scene without any confrontation with Campus Security or the President.
One student, Lane Dean-Dielman ’28 took their involvement in the protest a step further by creating a petition for McCall to take a salary cut.
“I figured since a lot of other students [were also frustrated], if we got everyone to … put their names together … it shows how much of the student body feels affected by [the layoffs],” said Dean-Dielman. “If [McCall] were to have her salary cut, it [would] affect her comfort and … quality of life.”
Dean-Dielman also expressed hopes to use their petition to get access to Scot Council and the board of trustees to demand accountability from McCall.
