|
 Peaceful marches or walkouts have been held, or are planned, at
Yale University, Ithaca College and Smith College, though none has
yet reached the intensity of demonstrations at Missouri, where
hundreds of students and teachers protested what they saw as soft
handling of reports of racial abuse on campus.
Soon after Tim Wolfe, president of the university, announced he
would step down on Monday, a crowd of more than 1,000 gathered
peacefully at the Afro-American Cultural Center at Yale University
in New Haven, Connecticut, for a "March of Resilience," in
solidarity with Missouri.
The crowd sang and chanted for an end to racism on campus. The issue
has been in focus at Yale after a fraternity turned away black
guests at a Halloween party, saying, according to reports at the
time, that only white women would be admitted.
A walkout is also planned at Ithaca College, a private school in
upstate New York.
 A student group called People of Color at Ithaca College announced
on its Facebook page it was planning an on-campus 'Solidarity Walk
Out' at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday "for all the injustices students of
color face on this campus and other colleges nationally."
Ithaca president Tom Rochon, like Missouri's Wolfe, has been under
fire for his perceived soft handling of racially sensitive incidents
on campus.
"With the University of Missouri's president stepping down, we
demand Rochon do the same," the group said on Facebook.
Students at Smith College, a women's private school in
Massachusetts, plan a similar walkout for midday on Wednesday.
A group of University of Missouri professors walked out of classes
on Tuesday even after the resignation of Wolfe.
[to top of second column] |
"I support the students who are still camping out and fighting for
racial justice on campus," Elisa Glick, an associate professor of
English and Women's and Gender Studies, told Reuters in an email.
She did not say how many teachers joined the walkout.
The University of Missouri has stepped up security on its campus
following the protests and campus police said threats had been made
over social media, including one directed at the Gaines/Oldham Black
Culture Center.
"Unfortunately we are dealing with them," university police
spokesman Major Brian Weimer said of the threats, adding that campus
operations were otherwise normal.
Some schools are taking preventive steps to address racial equality.
Mark Schlissel, president of the University of Michigan, scheduled a
school-wide session on Tuesday to discuss diversity on campus, he
said in a Twitter message.
(Reporting by Melissa Fares and Angela Moon; Additional reporting by
Ben Klayman and Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Bill Rigby and
Clarence Fernandez)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
