Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) prides itself on being the leading research university in Northeast Ohio. Imagine my surprise, then, when I learned that not only would CWRU be housing approximately 1,700 riot police in student dormitories during the Republican National Convention, that not only would those police be permitted to store their weapons in student dormitories, and that not only would widespread student opposition to this decision be placated with two milquetoast Q&A sessions – “opportunities to learn,” President Barbara Snyder called them – but that my colleagues and I, with only one week’s notice, would be expected to cancel a week of summer classes in order to accommodate the quartering of the paramilitary force descending on Cleveland to police the city during the convention.
To be precise, the classes aren’t officially cancelled. A follow up notice from the university explains: “The only change to the existing practice is that these classes do not take place on our campus during those days.” Furthermore, the notice continues, “the educational experience may take place at a different time, place or manner, but the learning will still take place.” This attempt to dodge the accusation I am making—that CWRU is cancelling classes—is perfunctory at best. While my colleagues are brilliant, innovative, and committed teachers, I don’t think anyone who understands the energy and preparation that goes into teaching a college course would realistically imagine that “the learning will still take place” in anything resembling the manner we envisioned when we designed our courses. Can we actually presume that asking faculty to reboot one eighth of their entire class, during week seven of an eight week term and with less than one week of notice, will lead to a positive learning experience for our students? Unlikely. Instead of disputing semantics, I will continue to call this decision what it is: CWRU is effectively cancelling its classes in order to host 1,700 riot police for the RNC. I fail to see the wisdom in rebranding our mistakes in order to imply otherwise.
[blocktext align=”right”]Thank you for your burdensome tuition bill, my students have been told. Now get off our lawn while more important people come to town.[/blocktext]A week of cancelled classes may not sound too bad, but consider that the summer sessions last only eight weeks. President Snyder’s decision thus equates to cancelling two weeks of class during the fall or spring semester. For one class, that’s 10 hours of class meetings out of 80 total hours. These “reduced instructional operations,” to use the Orwellian language being deployed by university officials, place on faculty and students the entire burden of cleaning up the mess the administration has handed them. We are expected to continue our classes in some alternative fashion, redesigning our curriculum to fit an online platform or uprooting our students to meet at a public location far from campus. Meanwhile, students are being urged to “consider staying off campus during the week,” which is tantamount to saying they are foolish if they don’t uproot themselves for a week and accept alternative housing being offered on another side of campus. “I feel like I’m being forced out of the dorm that I paid for,” one student complained. Another student observed: “I’ve been given 24 hours to decide where I am going to live next week. How am I supposed to focus on my classes?”
Admittedly, students aren’t being forced out of their dorms. They have the option to stay. Just like classes aren’t being cancelled. They’re just being completely overhauled and compromised. Not only does uprooting classes and students disrupt next week’s “educational experience;” it also distracts students from their studies this week, and it damages their faith in the university’s educational mission. Thank you for your burdensome tuition bill, my students have been told. Now get off our lawn while more important people come to town.
According to President Snyder and the official news release, the campus closure (“changes to campus operations” they call it) stems from a deep and abiding concern for student safety. In an email sent to the entire CWRU community, Snyder explains: “The deadly shootings last week in Louisiana, Minnesota and Texas have dramatically intensified our national conversation involving race, law enforcement and the best paths to justice, fairness and safety for all.” This is a savvy rhetorical move. It establishes Snyder’s ethos as a good liberal, concerned not only with student safety but with the deeper aims of social justice. But while I am loathe to question the President’s motivations, I can certainly attest to the slipperiness of her words. Although the announcement claims to be a last minute decision on behalf of student safety, it distracts from the reason why safety concerns are so dire. The official announcement in The Daily buries its single mention of the 1,700 peace officers (riot police) who will be sleeping in campus dorms, referring nonchalantly to “police officers and other guests” but failing to acknowledge the sheer scale of the group being brought to campus. To put this into perspective, CWRU enrolled a total of 4,996 full time undergraduate students during the 2015-16 academic year. The size of the police force being quartered on campus is larger than one third of the entire undergraduate student body.
To make matters even more troubling, President Snyder’s email apologizes for “a lack of communication” even as it exaggerates the amount of communication her administration provided. “While we spoke widely about the decision” to bring these officers to campus, she notes, including “spring meetings at each School, at Faculty Senate…we did not communicate directly with students.” Fair enough. But when I spoke with a colleague who sat on the Faculty Senate last year, this colleague informed me—after reviewing every agenda and all of the meeting minutes from last year’s Faculty Senate assemblies—that there is no record of the subject ever coming up. I will leave it to the reader to wonder what it means when President Snyder claims that the faculty were fully informed, a claim that is demonstrably untrue, even as she apologizes for poor communication. Shared governance, I fear, is passé when the university can capitalize on a political convention by executive decree.
To be clear, I do not mean to imply that the university stands to profit off this arrangement. The financial details are shrouded in mystery, and what little information I could find suggests that the university donated the housing when the city came calling. I’ve also heard that the city intends to reimburse the university for costs it will incur this week, but that the odds of turning a profit are very slim. This is nothing more than rumor, however, and I only include it to clarify that I am not accusing the CWRU administration of any financial malfeasance. I am only accusing them of their decision to press “pause” on all of our core values.
[blocktext align=”left”]What does it symbolize when a university library closes while security forces store firearms and pepper spray in dorms, weapons that will likely be used against next week’s demonstrators—some of whom, I fear, might be my students?[/blocktext]I could complain, on behalf of my students, that this surprise closure is costing each of them $345 in wasted tuition money, per class. Instead, I want to use this occasion to ask a more basic question. What are universities for? What is a university expected to contribute to the city and the region to which it belongs? What example should a university set for the world outside its walls? What is a university’s obligation to teaching and to research, to the cultivation of critical inquiry and to the perpetuation of knowledge, wherever such knowledge may lead? Moreover, what are we teaching our students when we displace them from their dorms? When we claim to fear for their safety even though we ourselves have created the conditions causing us to fear for their safety? What does it symbolize when a university library closes while security forces store firearms and pepper spray in dorms, weapons that will likely be used against next week’s demonstrators—some of whom, I fear, might be my students?
Consider President Snyder’s excuse for why we are opening our doors and our dorms to 1,700 riot police. “Case Western Reserve—along with other area colleges and universities—agreed to house the officers at the city’s request. We are a part of this community, and felt a civic obligation to respond when asked.” Apparently “civic obligation” means catering to the interests of the powerful at the expense of the exploited. It means disrupting the education of bright, energetic young minds in order to offer our supply of housing to help meet the city’s demand for a convenient base of operations. A business might behave this way, but a university?
If my students learn nothing else from this failure of university leadership, I hope it will be this: that they will understand how their education exceeds the artificial boundaries of brick and mortar buildings, of tuition payments, of majors, minors, and gen ed requirements, and of their own abstracted desire to capitalize on their investment in the form of a lucrative career. I hope that they will see that Case Western Reserve University, international research powerhouse and nexus of global capitalism that it may be, remains part of the city of Cleveland and the surrounding region. To use President Snyder’s words, I hope that they will rediscover what it means to be “part of this community.” Most of all, I hope that the example of CWRU’s failure will offer my students as much of an education as the one I’m trying to give them in the classroom we’ve been barred from using.
Case Western Reserve University, which “improves and enriches people’s lives through research…and education,” will be ground zero for the storm troopers you will watch on national news next week. When the university realized that this might not be the wisest thing for an institution of higher learning to do, they opted for the solution I’m sure any of us would choose. They decided to take a break, for one week only, from being an institution of higher learning. If this disturbs you, you should write to President Barbara Snyder and Provost Bud Baeslack with the following question: “What is a university for?”
When you are done, you should traipse down to the university bookstore where Ann Coulter will gladly sign your favorite copy of her forthcoming masterpiece, In Trump We Trust.
Unless you’re a student, of course. You aren’t supposed to be here.
The contributor, who wishes to remain anonymous, teaches at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
With all due respect, your anger is misdirected. Using CWRU dorms to house outside law enforcement coming to Cleveland to help protect us and all visitors during the RNC was decided months ago. The City and/or the Feds likely gave CWRU little choice over opening their dorms for this purpose, and I’m sure others were put in the same position. This is called being an active civic leader during one of the most important elements of the USA’s democratic process. If students and faculty are too ignorant (or selfish) to understand these points, then they should not be students or faculty members at CWRU.
Despite that most of the attendees of the RNC do not realize that more than two exist, the 3rd Amendment protects CWRU from being forced to quarter the police. Furthermore, weapons of any kind are prohibited in campus buildings (Every dorm has this notice banning all weapons), a policy which has apparently been lifted. It is interesting that the administration has decided to keep the campus community safe by bringing thousands of guns onto campus.
i appreciate the ingenuity here, but the 3rd amendment is about the military, not the police, who are civilians, and the distinction is absolutely clear in and vital to US constitutional law.
It’d still be a violation of the fourth and/or fifth amendment as a taking or seizure without due process.
There is no “taking” or “seizure”… your claim would be laughed right out of court.
They’re also housing National Guard troops. Tenants are included in this per Engblom v. Carey.
Both Military and Police operated under a militia system at the time the Bill of Rights were written; the Third Amendment can reasonably be applied to housing police.
Note: Mitchell v Anderson addresses this, I disagree with the ruling.
If you don’t like it, call Black Lives Matter for a new roommate or for protection on one of the most crime-ridden campuses in the US!
they are housing 200 national guardsman so thy are actually housing members of the US armed forces not just domestic police.
As a former National Guardsman, I can attest your are not part of the US Armed Forces until specifically activated by the President. Until that time, ARNG units and personnel fall under the command of each state’s government. (You don’t have to enlist to learn this, but helping your community and country in times of crises is very rewarding should you choose to do).
CWRU likely was not forced to quarter the police, they were likely offered a financial sum in return. To your other point, the notices don’t ban all weapons; they ban the unauthorized carrying of weapons, which obviously has no effect on police. I’d imagine the period during which CWRU is housing police with weapons would represent the safest the campus could possibly be with the RNC going on.
Unless you’re black.
Statistics show blacks are 44% more likely to be killed by black criminals than by police of any color, for any reason. AlumnusWithStraightFacts’ point stands.
My bad… 44 *times* more likely. (4400%)
That’s ridiculous. If students paid for housing over the summer why should they have to vacate? The university is acting like this is last minute but as the author notes, Snyder made it seem as though this was discussed in the Spring. Since there’s no doubt that students weren’t informed at that time, why were they not made aware (or offered accommodations by the university) when they signed up for housing over the summer? If you paid for hotel spaces during the RNC to visit Cleveland, would you be upset when showed up and your hotel room was given away to support staff? Of course you would – you’d expect accommodations and/or a refund. Why is it anathema to sympathize with students who paid for summer classes and housing and are losing out in 12.5% of what they paid for? It’s embarrassing.
I also refuse to believe the university had no choice in the matter – of course they did. What, the RNC was going to claim eminent domain and take the housing by force? What nonsense.
No student is being expelled. The author updated this piece to clarify those misconceptions. Check it out.
Have you ever been given one week’s notice to leave the apartment you already paid for? Your suburban yawn reveals your distance from the problem.
No one is being expelled from their dorms. If you choose to room elsewhere during the RNC, CWRU has made alternative places available for you. The author of this piece has made corrections to clarify this.
With respect to this:”If students and faculty are too ignorant (or selfish) to understand these points, then they should not be students or faculty members at CWRU.”
This rhetoric is giving off the same stale stench as many xenophobic and backward comments do: “If you don’t like it here (i.e. America), then go home!”
In this case and the example your put forth, both as an alien and a professional student at CWRU, I would like to respectfully respond with: “No! Absolutely not!”
We (students) are PART of a community and as such have a right to make our discontent heard and elaborate on the reasons of our disagreement. Last time I checked, this was a democratic cornerstone and as such often praised to be quintessentially “American”. Yes?
Or, to stress your words: “This is being called active civic participation during one of the most important elements of the USA’s democratic process”…and a result of direct democratic participation.
Respectfully, a concerned student and caller of bullshit.
I’d prefer that CWRU experience minor “inconveniences” so that Cleveland has the necessary human power to protect the City during the RNC.
I work at Key Tower and attended a briefing a month ago during which a high level Fed addressed concerns about safety and security in Cleveland. He relayed this interesting stat… 800 active duty police officers are required to cover the City of Cleveland during normal circumstances. After considerable study, it was determined by Secret Service, Homeland Security, FBI and CPD that an additional 700 law enforcement officers would be required to protect the City during the RNC. Cleveland alone cannot meet that requirement. So where is the City supposed to house those additional 700 officers? In bivouacs set up on Malls A, B, and C, Voinovich Park and the Hall of Fame Plaza? Would that provide better optics?
Please, stop and think outside the confines of the CWRU campus. You’re not the only people being inconvenienced in the City.
Downtown workers are being told to work from home for a week. CWRU students are being told to give up their home for a week.
Not really the same thing.
It IS the same thing.
Just to provide a few examples.
Bank tellers cannot work from home.
Postal service employees cannot work from home
FedEx and UPS truck drivers cannot work from home
Servers and other personnel at local restaurants cannot work from home
Retail cashiers and employees cannot work from home
Cultural venues will be open and staff – employees cannot work from home
Get it?
Next?
Umm… I’m not sure you understand the point you just responded to.
Bank Tellers do not live at the bank.
Postal service do not live at the post office.
FedEx and UPS truck drivers do not live in their trucks.
Servers and other personnel at local restaurants do not live inside of strip malls.
Retail cashiers and employees do not live at Target.
Cultural venue employees do not live at the Botanical Gardens.
Does that help?
To answer your response beginning with “Umm… I’m not sure you understand the point you just responded to….”
Umm, I sure you don’t understand reality. CWRU students are not being forced out of the dorms. They may stay in their dorms or they may opt for the alternate living arrangements being made available by CWRU.
Every person who lives or works or visits Cleveland during the RNC is going to be inconvenienced by it. The RNC is a major part of our political process. Grow up and try to adjust to a few inconveniences for one lousy week.
CWRU Students are not asked to give up their home. The police are being housed in unused dorms. Students are offered alternative housing if they feel uncomfortable living near that many cops
“The City and/or the Feds likely gave CWRU little choice over opening their dorms for this purpose”
WTF? This is a _private_ institution! We should not be obliged to do jack for the local or federal government!
So you funded 100% of your tuition and you didn’t receive any scholarships or financial assistance, because, using your logic, “we should not be obliged to do jack” to assist students seeking higher education?
I’d not worry -it’s assuredly not true that no choice was given. That assertion makes no sense.
This is untrue. CWRU was likely offered an incentive for housing the officers or just flat out agreed
Is anyone paying attention to why the police are being called in? The riot police? Should we talk about how we got to this place and what we need to do about it now.
Thank you, Dankel, for mentioning this. The terms “riot police” and “paramilitary” are grossly inaccurate to the point of being irresponsible.
I guess we all need to revisit the Quartering Act. How is this different?
Police officers are civilians and are not part of the military.
HAHAHA shillls are as funny as they are outrageous. Police to “Protect” campus? From whom? Have we forgotten when police were brought in campus to shoot and kill students? What was kent State? 60’s 70’s and 80’s? WHEN have police protected students and not arrested and murdered them?
This is a police totalitarian state, plain and simple.
To any informed observer this is what dystopia looks like.
I Live in Finland and agree slightly with this comment.
Police are being HOUSED in the CWRU dorms so that they can be deployed throughout the City of Cleveland (not CWRU) during the RNC to protect THE CITY OF CLEVELAND.
I live in the United States, and this is a totally irresponsible comment. You must have very limited travel experience to make such a claim, “plain and simple”. By no means a utopia (borrowing from your simile), the US is not China, nor Russia, nor even Mexico, nor failed states in Africa. In this country, we still have mechanisms to improve upon our challenges, where in other countries this is absolutely not the case, and anyone from one of the very few I mentioned would look at the US and your comment and be incapable of reconciling the two.
As an advisor for a Case sorority, we have known for months that the college was going to use our sorority house to house someone during the convention in our (University owned) house.
As a Cleveland resident I am not happy regarding the need for riot police ( and storm trooper is intended as an inflamitort term) but guess in the long run I am glad they are here. After Dallas, one misguided person can put us all in peril.
As a student or parent paying tuition I am not sure I would be pleased at the change in schedule but I also know that when I was In college my school sent us home for a long (3 week) spring break due to a coal strike. We had to adapt. It was an interesting lesson in flexibility, individual learning and getting out tuitions worth
In a democracy, we often do not agree with things that happen but need to listen. I am watching this week to see what happens and see how we Allow democracy to play out.
I read your post and felt it was written by someone upset about things. We all need to chill and open ourselves to differing opinions. But everyone needs to do that from the top down.
Cleveland and Case will survive this. I hope it opens us all up for discussions and empathy for others.
The blame belongs to would-be rioters.
The police will be there to protect lives and property –
including that of Case Western.
The professor should save his/her indignation for lawbreakers.
Do you not know what the 3rd amendment is???
And no this is not being selfish, this is being forced to do something unexpected with little notice that effects time and money these people have put through to teach and learn.
And not worth it either, since the Republican party is a shitbox right now.
None of the colleges housing security personnel were forced to do so. There may have been pressure from government officials, but revenue generation is the real driver. Colleges and universities are always looking for ways to squeeze a bit of revenue out of their facilities in the summer and the students will pay tuition, whether classes are held or not.
What you are describing as ok is what amounts to Unofficial Martial Lsw being declared.
One of the complaints against King George III by the American colonialists was the forces quartering of British troops. That’s why protection against this was enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. Considering how Republicans are always bringing up the Constitution, I would have thought they would have had this memorized.
After reading all of your comments I can only assume that you are not another inconvenienced Cleveland resident but a PR wonk (and perhaps a Republican as well?). Clearly, you are not someone who has ever taught a class or tried to instill in students the life of the mind and/or authentic civic engagement. Please crawl back under your air-conditioned rock.
You tell em’ appalled. Clearly, you are an academic with prose like this “Please crawl back under your air-conditioned rock.” Beautiful argument right there. What’s next, “I know you are but what I am I?”.
Something about the quartering of soldiers in homes comes back to me. If these aren’t soldiers and the paid for rooms of the students not homes then I guess I should be at the U for my further education. Woops its realistically closed.
This piece should be in the Chronicle of Higher Ed. Extremely well written and a great response to a vile decision by the administration
Absolutely. Holy epic mic drop, batman.
Yes, but presumably such a publication would, unlike this one, require the author to sign his work. I think this piece raises some interesting issues, but it troubles me that the author is so self-righteous and argumentative, yet is unwilling to risk damage to his own interests.
If you wonder why faculty, staff, or students might prefer anonymity, take a look at how President Snyder and Provost Baeslack handled the former law school dean.
To clarify, when informed that the then-dean was sexually harassing law school faculty, staff, and students, the administration retaliated by firing one of the victims outright, attempting to force another (tenured) victim to resign, and generally doing everything but getting rid of the perpetrator.
>A business might behave this way, but a university?
The University IS a business. Not recognizing that is naive.
True, but – as a place of higher learning, we should be above this.
Actually, a university such as CWRU is unequivocally not a business, which seems to me a fundamental point the author is trying to make.
Unless CWRU changed their status from a private non-profit to a for-profit university (like Trump University), then it is most certainly not a “business.” What would be naive not to recognize is that the executive of the institution chooses to treat it like one while circumventing (or outright ignoring) the university’s supposed principles shared governance.
A university is not a business.
A university is not a business.
A university is not a business.
Actually all universities are businesses.
Universities are however not-for-profit businesses.
That is a reductive logic that would essentially label all institutions which operate using money as “businesses,” i.e., police and fire departments are businesses, churches are businesses, the Boy Scouts are a business, and so on.
Perhaps you should read the definition of business. It’s in a dictionary. And, a University is absolutely a business, to say otherwise is quite naive. You are paying for a service are you not? Or is your college/university not worth paying?
If the University is receiving any form of payment for housing the “peace officers” while still collecting tuition and housing payments from students for that same week, they are double dipping. I would like to know what the laws governing the University are in regards to this.
I don’t know if you realized this, but no student is being FORCED to move anywhere. The option is there for those that wish to take it, but if a student wants to he or she doesn’t have to move at all. The fact that you misrepresent this in your narrative is quite disconcerting and reeks of misdirection.
Thank you for highlighting this. In rereading this essay (written over two drafts in the middle of the night while I lay awake worrying about my students) I realize that I didn’t make the specifics of the housing situation as clear as I should. I am going to write the editors with some corrections to the article in order to account for this.
Here’s the issue. Students “aren’t being forced off campus” in the same way that classes “aren’t being cancelled.” They are just being strongly, firmly advised to take the alternative housing being offered by the university with almost no notice. Meanwhile, all faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates have been warned repeatedly that they should avoid campus during the week unless it is absolutely imperative that they be here. So no, nobody is forcing the paying undergraduate out of their dorms. But as the student I quote in the article says, “I FEEL like I’m being forced out.” And in my estimation, that’s just as serious.
Just a quick note you might also have wanted to point out the 4 week class session being interrupted by losing a 1/4 of its teaching time as well
The changes are now reflected in the third paragraph. Thanks again for your note. Misdirection is the farthest thing from my intention. This is too serious of an issue to me for any murkiness about the facts.
Thanks for the clarifications, which were desperately needed. I understand next week will cause upheavals for all members of the CWRU community, but I think some sacrifices need to be made by all members of this City to do everything possible to make the RNC in Cleveland a success. I work at Key Tower. My morning/afternoon commutes will be severely inconvenienced by road closures. My other workday activities will also be negatively affected. I can handle it for one week. I hope the CWRU will also rise to the occasion.
There is little if any equivalence between a disrupted commute and a serious, week-long disruption to an already short-term course.
Oh please- you were called in to do damage control. Love the little theatre though.
Hopefully, this one-week, minor disruption to life on campus will serve to prepare students for real world experiences. As they say, shit happens, and educated productive people know how to adjust accordingly.
To be fair, Case hosts various groups every summer in the dorms. The decision to host the riot police was made long in advance. At the time of the decision, it didn’t appear to be a big deal. People were not angry at the police. Trump was still a joke. Riot police are brought in for any major event. The only reason it has become a big deal is that it has become increasingly obvious that the convention will be a crazy series of riots. None of this could have been predicted months ago. If Cleveland was hosting the democratic convention instead of the republican one, this would not be news.
I just want to say that I am happy that Case is doing this and I believe this article is making a very big deal out of nothing.
As a recent grad (2015) from Case, I currently live downtown. I honestly couldn’t care less that the RNC is being hosted here and I certainly am disgusted with Trump. I believe and would probably support peaceful protest during this event. However, that being said, there have been numerous threats towards the RNC that they will “riot” not simply just protest. I am nervous that the protesting at this event will spiral out of control and I have concern for my own personal safety as well as other bystanders living here downtown that I believe many people are forgetting about. Knowing that these police will be in attendance helps me feel a little more at ease.
On a lighter note I have heard that Case is making a decent amount coin from this deal and hey if it will keep those donation calls away for a little bit I’m all for it!
At President Snyder’s very lukewarm Q&A session (I attended the first one that happened at noon) she vaguely alluded to the money involved. She said they werent losing money but not profiting greatly. It was her response to a student asking/accusing her of whether or not the university stood to profit from the decision.
As a CWRU Student I would like to comment on my experiences during this period of time.
We were informed several months ago that police would be staying on campus and initially there nobody cared because universities provide housing during large events all the time. In fact the only concern I heard was from a small minority who were worried about increased firearms on campus. The university responded to this saying that police would NOT be able to “stock firearms and pepper-spray” as said above but would remain in possession of their police issued handgun. Fair enough.
As far as research being interrupted, any controversial research was going to be unofficially halted during the RNC before the recent drama arose. The only difference is now it is official and public.
The areas where the school shows poor decision making is in regards to the coursework and housing. They should have realized much earlier that there was a potential for the campus to become under threat during the RNC even without housing officers on campus. The lack of a prior contingency plan for these classes and their current restructuring is simply negligent.
The housing on the other-hand is a mixed can of worms. Case is NOT forcing students to move from their dorms; Case IS offering alternate housing for students who feel uncomfortable staying on campus during this time. However owing to recent events there is a potential for significant danger to the students being housed near the police officers and I would highly advise any student being housed on campus to consider the university’s offer. I personally am skipping town during the RNC.
Overall this situation was NOT the fault of CWRU administration, however this has been grossly mishandled and shows a serious lack of foresight by the administration.
As much as I understand the frustration with minimizing campus activities during this time, I have to caution against placing blame on those with power, which is often so easy to do. I wonder how much of the – for lack of a better term – security precautions are due to housing policemen per se and how much is due to the RNC itself. With all the recent acts of violence and given the thunderous controversy surrounding Trump which promises riots, the federal government has granted the city of Cleveland $50 million for security purposes, a first for such an action. Nearby hospitals, including the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals, are likewise preparing for the worst, keeping doctors on call and preparing for an extended emergency without access to outside aid and support. Case is in the same area (merely 4 miles from the RNC and neighboring the Clinic and UH), and prudence would dictate for the university to similarly prepare for the worst while hoping for the best. I would not have been surprised, therefore, if the university were to be shut down regardless of whether Barbara Snyder had chosen to host peace officers or not. On this front, I believe the university mishandled the situation with regards to communication. Our leaders should have had the foresight to understand potential dangers of the RNC and warned potential those students staying for the summer.
In my view, it is not the leaders of the university who are at fault, rather the situation as a whole is unfortunate. I don’t disagree with housing the peace officers – a critical event from American democracy came knocking upon our door; it’s perfectly acceptable to provide housing when most of the student body is on break. Nobody foresaw the current political climate of the Republican party at the time of the decision. With the political and national security climate of the past couple weeks, naturally some students are concerned to live so close to peace officers. The university is thus offering students alternative options with full reimbursement. As a student living on campus myself, I did not feel that the university was forcing me out of my dorm with their manner of communication.
What is underlying this article but not explicitly stated, and not represented in the comments, is the utter disregard for students who may not have the resources or means to suddenly, with a week’s notice, experience these changes without serious personal detriment. As for classroom work suggested to move to online spaces, not all students at CWRU have internet access at home, and/or access to personal computers. Additionally, suggesting classes meet off campus is ineffective at best as many students will not have the transportation to accomplish this. Many students rely on the university library, which is now closing, for crucial resources to complete their course work, and are essentially being asked to now complete that work without those resources. Many students rely on university housing over the summer and employment for financial security (the University thankfully has addressed this and is compensating students who will be losing work hours).
As far as being a responsible member of the community, these “reduced operations” come with the closure of the dental clinic and Psychology Clinic, which are critical resources serving underprivileged members of the surrounding community. The author brings up many salient points that explain why members of the university, whether they be students, grad students, faculty and/or staff would be troubled by this and disappointed with the Universities response. In addition to these points, and concerns about safety and access, there is the grave concern that 1) the University did not anticipate the needs of it’s students earlier and that 2) when they did, their responses overlooked the needs of underprivileged students who may not be able to comply.
Please excuse typos, typing from my phone.
Excellent points.
This is ridiculous first of all no one is being forced t leave their dorms they have to option to if they feel uncomfortable which is up to their own discretion. As for canceled classes regardless if case was housing people for the RNC or not they would still most likely be “canceling” clases due to the RNC beING in the city. As for officers being housed in the dorms, so what? Case is not their jurisdiction so they won’t do anything there. Their jobs are revolved around downtown. I don’t understand the big deal there are so many officers who already live around campus and no one made an uproar about that so what makes these officers any different? Case houses people every summer when students go on break and this summer is no exception
The big deal is the surrounding community. The primarily African American population right next to the university in East Cleveland and the African American students at CWRU. That’s why students and faculty are worried. In light of recent events with the Black Lives Matter movement and violence against police, CWRU is effectively housing a bunch of officers who are, justifiably, scared. Fear provokes unjustified action from all parties. I am grateful that my University is helping the police protect the city of Cleveland during this high risk event, but I understand the concern of some students taking into consideration our neighboring communities.
I was at Case from 2005-2009. The administrative decision making was disappointing then. There’s little that the administration does that makes me proud to have a degree from Case. My classmates were amazing. And I still think Case has wonderful students that go on to do tremendous things. But they do so in spite of Case’s administration, not because of the administration.
To the CWRU teacher who wrote this wrote this:
I am a recent CWRU graduate and a soon-to-be grad student. This is the first piece about this situation that I think truly covers what needed to be said and uncovers what hadn’t been, but needed to be said. I just want to say thank you, from the bottom of my heart. It’s faculty like you that make me feel appreciated, respected, valued, and protected as a student.
I just want to extend my deepest gratitude to the author. This past week’s decisions, the truly laughable “communication,” and the burdens placed on everyone involved have been incredibly frustrating. This piece, which so emphatically puts the students and their education first (as it should be!), makes me proud to be a part of the CWRU community.
This author is a real piece of shit. Those “riot police” as he calls them are men and women from Ohio and other parts of the USA serving their country and state. Some are CWRU alumni and smarter then this anonymous professor. I wish he would go teach in Afganistan, Iraq, or any war torn country. See how much he would want the “riot police” around him.
This is a disappointing response. To begin, these are riot police. While I think it is valid to be mad about the author’s use of the obviously inflammatory term “stormtroopers” to describe them, riot police I think is fair. During President Snyder’s Q&A session, she explictly mentioned that these officers’ role is to halt sudden disturbances as a result of the RNC and could be called upon at any time (responding to a question of when we might see them more actively on campus). More explictly, President Snyder stated that their assigned riot gear would be kept in a separate location off-campus. Make no mistake, the 1700 officers and 200 national guardsmen/guardswomen who are on campus are the people who will be specifically responding to quell riots. As a Cleveland native I hope that it will not come to that. Additionally, given Cleveland PD’s standing formal complaints and federal investigations into a history of racial profiling issues there is definitely reasons to be concerned over how these situations will be handled by those officers who are functionally working as deputies of Cleveland PD.
Dear CWRU Alumni Army Soldier,
I’m responding in order to let you know that I’m not in any way anti-police, and that I’m as worried about the safety of law enforcement officers as I am for anyone. The primary issue I’m targeting with this essay is the way the CWRU administration has handled the RNC. By bringing a massive security presence to campus, it’s turning the campus (and, really, the whole University Circle area) into a focal point for whatever chaos could ensue next week. Had they made different decisions (such as genuinely listening to student and faculty concerns), CWRU could have been a place where cooler heads prevailed and where people could perhaps ESCAPE from the chaos of downtown. It is, after all, a solid 20-25 minute drive from the Q. That’s why I gave the essay this title: “What’s a University For?” (The subtitle was an addendum by Belt in order to summarize the content of the essay.) I believe that a university serves a purpose contrary to what CWRU is doing next week, and that our first commitment must be to books, not bullets, even during challenging times.
We need to be reaching out and engaging our community, not bringing in a massive police presence that could very easily escalate tensions on campus and within University Circle and the surrounding area. (To be clear, I’m not saying that the police themselves will necessarily escalate tensions. I’m saying that the sudden influx of a massive police presence for a week radically transforms the climate of the campus.) To put it bluntly, all summer I’ve been terrified that something awful could happen downtown next week. And I now fear that my university campus is at a much greater risk of seeing something awful happen here, as well. Because I am a college teacher, about the only thing I can contribute in response to all this frustration and fear is to do what I know to do, which is write, open a discussion, and hope that people will pause and reflect on just what it is we are doing.
As for the police presence itself, my problem is not with any of the 1,700 out-of-town officers being housed on campus, individually. I have a tremendous respect for law enforcement, for the work they do and the courage they show. They’re a much more valuable part of their communities than I am to mine, that’s for sure. My problem is with the sheer quantity, for starters, and with the way they are being used in the context of a university campus while classes are still in session. So when I say “riot police,” I’m not saying that pejoratively, as though that’s their identity. I’m saying that this is how these officers will be used in the context of the convention. Whenever police officers wear riot gear to deal with massive protests in tense political situations, we generally use the term “riot police.” (But given your potent reaction, and the reaction of a few others — which truly does take me by surprise — I will be more cautious about using this terminology in the future.)
Let me end by providing some context for my concerns. Look at many recent events where there was a high police presence on university campuses during tense political moments — the University of Pittsburgh during the G20, for example, and UC Davis and UC Berkeley during the (peaceful) Occupy protests of 2011. Terrible things happened and a lot of students got needlessly hurt. Those incidents would never have occurred if institutions of higher learning would have simply remained institutions of higher learning, treating its students and its immediate community (i.e. the residents who live in close proximity) as higher priorities than whatever powerful political forces were working behind the scenes. And of course, we in Ohio should never forget what happened at Kent State back in the 1960s. Raising these memories is not in any way contrary to supporting police and other security officers. It’s just a matter of what I consider (and you may disagree) to be good judgment during difficult times.
You’re right about one thing. My students (who will eventually be alumni like you) are far smarter than me. And for all I know, some of them might end up serving in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. They’re wonderful people, and I care about them. I want them to be safe and to receive the education they deserve. That’s why I wrote this essay.
Respectfully,
The Author
There are several points in this comment that I wish you’d made in the original article, but mainly I think venting about the inconvenience to you and the students, rather than about the target CWRU now has on it, diluted the real issue, at least in my opinion.
I do think that the administration simply made a genuine mistake when they agreed to house the police here – the climate was much less incendiary at the time and they did not have the foresight to realize how nasty things could get. I do believe it was a mistake to agree, but I can see why they would have done it, and it doesn’t seem like it would have been possible to back out of the agreement this late, so they’ve done the best they can to protect us. And might I add, by effectively giving all the employees (staff, at least) 4 days paid vacation they’re likely to lose quite a lot of money at this point. Even so, they still decided to reduce operations. I really do believe they’re doing what they can.
“They’re a much more valuable part of their communities than I am to mine, that’s for sure.” Wrote the author. He should have stopped there.
Finally found something sensible in this juvenile article, even though it was an author’s follow-on comment.
Your response is what is scary about this scenario. If you don’t like opinion the person, not his or her point of view, is “a piece of shit.” This is the thinking that got us into the state we are in- when humanity is disregarded and rhetoric, often violent, sways the ignorant. Notice I did not call you a piece of shit though I disagreed with you.
This situation all started with Trump.
With no due respect, this “professor” is just another prime example of a progressive bleeding heart liberal who is indoctrinating the students and our future, no different than Hitler did to the children of Germany and Austria in the ‘30’s and ‘40’s. For one, like your life is so hectic, you teach (indoctrinate) one class a semester (3 days a week) and now your you’re so inconvenienced because one week of your summer class is interrupted. Improvise, adapt, and overcome if you’re intellectually smarter and figure out where to have class for a week for a handful of students.
What should scare everyone about you is your concern about police, the same police that protect your sorry azz about bringing guns in a dorm building, a then calling them paramilitary, really? This just shows your tremendous ignorance. What are you going to do when Ohio passed Campus Carry, go look for your “safe place” and cry in the corner? If you’re so against the paramilitary taken their weapons into a dorm building, how about we pull all law enforce off campus and see what happens to the number of rapes, assaults, and thefts on campus. Maybe all you liberals can hold hands and sing Kumbaya and that will create the utopia you so desire. Our founding fathers were brilliant, they knew our Rights came from the Creator, NOT from man. We have unalienable rights (given to us by the Creator and not be able to taken away from us by man) to defend ourselves from both foreign and domestic emeries. Just for clarification, because you obviously need it, domestic emeries means a tyrannically government, just like the lawless one we have (no charges for Hillary) now. But hey you’re so much more intellectually smarter than the founding fathers and rest of rest, what do we know.
Oh one last thought, you can’t name one single time a gun ever shot someone. Guns are inanimate objects and don’t shoot people, people shoot people. Yes there are evil people out there, always was and always will be. You can’t accept that, because for you to admit there is evil, then there also has to be good, and where does good come from, our Creator, and you can’t admit there is a Creator. Blaming the gun is like blaming the pencil from making an addition mistake.
Oh, honey, are you okay?
First, there’s no “bleeding heart” liberalism implied by this essay. Nor is there any indoctrination.
The author does not discuss his/her religious beliefs, yet you personally attack them.
The majority of rapes and other violent crimes against students are committed by other students. The vast majority of robberies are never solved.
I say this as a former big game hunter (for subsistence, not trophy) and a gun-owner who wholeheartedly believes in **RESPONSIBLE** gun ownership.
Are only white, Christian men allowed to open-carry without being shot by police? No one can tell who a “good guy with a gun” is from a “bad guy with a gun.”
As for guns not killing/shooting people, do you think all of those toddlers or children accidentally shooting/killing others were evil and intending to harm others?
I find liberal college professors like the one who wrote this dribble to be elitist blow-hards who are completely out of touch with reality. This cry-baby rant proves it. Not one of her points is completely accurate, and some are completely false. We were given significant notice that our dorms would be used to house the out of town police coming in to help with matters that the convention would disrupt, such as security at the Q and traffic direction. The requirement for additional police was actually mandated by federal agencies such as the Secret Service and DHS. It’s a national convention that will have a US presidential candidate in attendance, do you really think what is happening next week is being controlled by the mayor of Cleveland or the CWRU president? Trust me, they don’t have many choices when the Secret Service gets involved in things.
The school closure is due in response to other liberal cry-babies whining that they won’t feel safe with police on campus. The real reason there is the current state of America from failed leadership empowering criminals while demonizing law-abiding citizens trying to make a living and contribute to society. We have a sitting US president meeting with, and supporting, terrorist groups that ambush and murder police officers, block streets, riot and pillage neighborhoods. We have seen these terrorist organizations emboldened by imbecilic Democrat “leaders” for years. They pretend there is racism where it doesn’t exist, and pretend there is police brutality where it doesn’t exist. Yet, oddly enough, ignore the true cases of both.
Also, the writer deliberately lies to her readers when making the patently false statement that firearms will be stored in the dorms. The directive given the incoming officers was that they are NOT to bring their weapons into the dorms. This directive has been disseminated multiple times. And even if they are permitted to carry inside the dorms, so what? They are sworn peace officers. Aren’t they here for our protection? When someone tries to harm you, who do you call? Right, the police. Not the Ghostbusters. Remember when the Dallas terrorist attack happened, the protesters hid behind police officers. Police officers who then engaged the terrorist to end the threat.
I also notice the writer here is too cowardly to sign this moronic rant. I’m guessing it’s a professor in gender or ethnic studies of some sort. Which would mean the students aren’t missing anything except being programmed with lies. Perhaps this is from a tenure-track professor who thinks that this completely false diatribe attacking the University’s president will hurt her chances of getting tenured. If you have the audacity to write something like this, at least have the stones to put your name on it.
If this were a good instructor, perhaps the point in all this she would send to her students is how they should all take notice in how the American electoral process works. They could discuss how it relates to the coursework, if it does. Even if it doesn’t, they can see what works well, what works poorly, where improvements can be made, what parts are needed and not. But this write is seemingly more concerned with whining because she objects to the presidential nominee coming to town. I wonder if someone in Philadelphia will write a piece of crap like this when the DNC is held for Hillary Clinton. I bet not. But if so, I’m sure the writer will have the decency to sign it.
Small correction – personal firearms are being kept in the rooms, secured and separate from ammunition. They are not allowed to “stockpile” arms in the dorms.
Way to exemplify all the asinine vitriol we look forward to hosting downtown. Who would trust you, let alone read your rant thoughtfully when the childish bias is so overt?
There is a precedent from the early ’60s for housing the National Guard at Case (before CWRU existed). I can’t recall if there were troops sequestered, but there were military jeeps with machine guns parked there. I used to walk past them as a grad student on my way to the White building.
Another irony of this decision to close campus is that it probably increases safety risks for students and personnel whose routines are disrupted. This is a primary argument against other system-wide “minor inconveniences” like Daylight Savings Time observation: they increase more mundane risks like traffic accidents. Since the risks these measures are being taken to reduce (supposedly) are remote in themselves, it’s no clear improvement to anyone’s safety to ask everyone to attend classes elsewhere, let alone to move off-campus.
As for Case’s mission of “Promotion of an inclusive culture of global citizenship,” the commitment to “Nurture a community of exceptional scholars who are cooperative and collegial, functioning in an atmosphere distinguished by support, mentoring and inclusion,” and the core values of “Civility and the free exchange of ideas; Civic and international engagement; Appreciation for the distinct perspectives and talents of each individual,” another disservice is done by this closure, which obviously also violates the values of “Integrity and Transparency”, especially with respect to “Shared governance”. Closing the university sends the wrong message to the community about our commitment to peaceful coexistence with and tolerance of people holding dissenting views or conflicting concerns. Despite popular bipartisan calls for the country to stand together, we seem to be separating everyone. Where is the inclusivity and civic engagement in this move? What credibility do we retain as champions of free and civil idea exchange when we close down a significant forum for the community’s discussion of political issues during the RNC out of fear that even we can’t be civil to our guests? It’s hardly fair nor negligible to squelch the voice of a major university in a fairly liberal city that is nonetheless hosting the RNC in a swing state. As a collective “global citizen”, we are failing to vote, and not for lack of desire, but due to oligarchic disenfranchisement.
Comments throughout indicate the (predictable) divisiveness of this issue. Nonetheless, hopefully readers will recognize the nonpartisan nature of these concerns about safety, community relations, and civic engagement.
As the faculty member notes, how in God’s name is it that instructors have the burden of figuring out – on a week’s notice – how to maintain the continuity if an already condensed weekly schedule immediately before final exams: which at least in STEM subjects are rarely curved, and the grade reflects the student’s mastery of a specific set of information. Put another way, while a class action could address common monetary damages, including the university’s failure to deliver 1/8th of the instruction I and other parents have paid for it can only address those common issues that define the class.
So someone says, “Fine, they can take incompletes and retake the class in the fall.” Great, unless the class is a pre-req for a two-semester sequence required to graduate next spring. How are effected students made whole in that situation?
It gets worse. Consider the plight of very real summer school students at CWRU, with IDEA accommodations for learning difference, who receive extra time in which to take exams, prepared lecture notes and dispensation from the minimum credit loads for full-time students. These students were taking summer school classes, in part, so they wouldn’t have to carry 14 – 16 units in the fall. Yet now they may face an untenable Hobson’s Choice, either prep without the benefit of lecture notes, etc., and take his final in what will no doubt be an academic maelstrom, or call it a day and prepare for an impossible fall semester. Many of these kids have long-since missed the opportunity to graduate with their classes, but the university’s actions may well put off their commencements once more. How are these kids “to be made whole.” The more I think of it, this is may be the stuff of an IDEA based TRO in U.S. District Court. Of course, if anyone feels that I’m missing the standards for an injunction under controlling Sixth Circuit case-law, I’m all ears/
Oh, goodness. I teach at Case and I could certainly figure out how to conduct class without using a classroom on campus. This is so blown out of proportion it’s sad.
That does not guarantee that your students will have access to your coursework if they have altered accommodations. You cannot possibly encapsulate all contingencies, and it’s hubris to claim as such. Case is dominantly STEM – what about students that need to be in labs? You’re going to figure out how they can finish requisite work without getting on campus. Good luck – you’re clearly teaching on North Side.
PS Unless of course CWRU can somehow pull the rabbit out of the hat and provide the already paid-for instruction. TBD.
College is extremely expensive and the students should be reimbursed for a weeks worth of tuition and room and board. The students still have to live somewhere even if they are not on campus.
Cleveland… what a joke. Bigger joke RNC in the top ten most dangerous cities in the world per capita.
As a staff member at Case Western Reserve University, I am appalled at the lack of common sense and respect this community has shown to the leadership of the school. Both professors and students should be ashamed of themselves for the nasty vitriol they have spewed since the decision was made to soft close the university during the RNC.
Did any of you ever once consider that this was done for your protection? NOT from the police staying on our campus, because, let’s be honest, they are not here to harm you – they are here to protect the protesters at the RNC. And the National Guard are here to protect the police! Just take a moment to re-read that last sentence and think about what it actually says. How ridiculous do you sound, saying you are afraid of them – but you got your name and comment in print. Good for you.
Instead of your entitled complaining, why don’t you think about the reasons behind this decision? Obviously something changed in regards to the RNC and safety, and the university was informed of this. What would you do if protesters followed the police back to where they are staying and began to congregate on campus? HOW would that make you feel?
And if something did happen to someone on campus – a student, staff or faculty member – what would you do then? You’d blame the administration for not doing something, for not being safe. Well they are being safe – the fewer people on campus, the less likely someone can get hurt.
Are they saying this is going to happen? No and they hope nothing does. But it is better for them to keep as many people safe as possible. I’m sure many of you are arguing “well, if the police weren’t on our campus we wouldn’t have this problem.” Are you sure about that? Have you thought of the organizations that target universities during these events for publicity? (think PETA) The police are here, and there is nothing wrong with them staying in EMPTY dorm rooms to help PROTECT our city and citizens. You know there are people coming to Cleveland to misbehave. Do we want it broadcast all over the world that the city of Cleveland was ill prepared to host such an event?
It’s easy to sit in your office or dorm room and second guess and criticize what you know nothing about. So instead of being a bunch of babies (yes I went there) grow up, deal with it and move on. It’s 4 days of your life – get over yourself.
Ah, finally, the Voice of Reason. Pay attention class, an adult has entered the discussion.
I would like all of you to consider the mayhem and murder of just one crazy mad truck driver in Nice yesterday. Just with his truck he killed 84 people and maimed many more and wasn’t stopped until he was shot, by police.
The rest of us adults look at the ‘crazy mad’ that defines BLM, OWS, PETA, Earth First, Animal Rights, etc and we see in each and every one of those very very angry people the kind of people that get behind the wheel of a truck and set out to kill little things like rethuglicans.
That is why additional police and the Ohio National Guard have been summoned to Cleveland and put up in empty dorms at CWRU. Only a profoundly stupid idiot would not understand the need for additional police and only a dickhead would throw himself behind the wheel and ‘protest’ against the 20 and 21st centuries.
If you feel compelled to go downtown and make life unpleasant for everybody I hope that the least you experience causes you great pain and loss. Your stupid and trivial and meaningless causes are not our causes and we’re fed up with you.
For you strike team leaders of the apocalypse who are thinking of blocking I-90 with a human chain, consider the one angry driver who isn’t going to ‘stop’ in time and plow right through you like Mad Max. You should care about that because, to paraphrase the movie, “This IS CLEVELAND!”
If these “police,” “peace officers,” are anything like or of the same who were imported to Pittsburgh for the 2009 G-20…you can expect civil rights violations, illegal arrests, unwarranted detentions…and general jack-bootedness. I saw it first hand. Look at the YouTube videos. These body-armored, face-shielded, overtime-paid “mercenaries” will be champing at the bit to wield a baton and spray their pepper. It was ugly and embarrassing and despicable here, and, you know what?…not a damned thing happened to any of them for violating law and principle. As for CWRU, they should have had the honesty to be honest. But then what institution speaks the truth? We’re hypnotized by lies that pass as honesty…and we continue to take it. If you’ve taught, you know the author is correct. The student are collateral damage…with little to no recourse….but I hope many choose otherwise.
Hey you mad?
Blame Black Lies Matter for this and the zombies that have rioted especially after Dallas.
Ahh so ya feel like your civil rights are invaded?
This child was raised by spoiled liberal kids and a President that only wants revenge for slavery .
Waaaaa your tuition?
Blame the colleges that didn’t have the decency OR the bravery to tell these domesticated Terroist Protest-RIOTERS to cut it out and kick them out!
This is the end result .
You supported it NOW EAT IT!
Stop your whining and be a good teacher!
Thanks for the housing during RNC. The only thing missing was air conditioning in the dorms.
Sounds like someone really needs a vacation…..
If this kind of foolishness had happened during WW2, people would have gotten their @sses beat, told to grow up and deal with it.