Ohio University students will meet in Baker University Center Theatre on Tuesday evening to continue the conversation started at the occupation of Baker University Center on Nov. 24.
Ohio University students will meet in Baker University Center Theatre on Tuesday evening to continue the conversation started at the occupation of Baker University Center on Nov. 24.
The event, called the “#handsupwalkout Summit,” will start at 7 p.m. and is a follow-up to the “Occupy Baker” protest, which was a reaction to the verdict not to indict police officer Darren Wilson for fatally shooting Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in August.
Caitlyn McDaniel, a senior studying war and peace studies who helped organize the event and the vice president of Student Senate, said several student organizations are involved in the summit, including Student Senate, OU Student Union, OU’s NAACP chapter.
The event is open to all students, she said.
“This is something that can really unite different groups on the board,” McDaniel said. “We don’t want the feelings and the frustration to dissipate without a sense of community.
Ryant Taylor, a senior studying creative writing who also helped organize the summit, said the idea for Tuesday’s event stemmed from discussions students had while occupying Baker.
“A lot of students, mainly minorities, said that while occupying Baker that was the first time that they ever felt comfortable talking about race,” Taylor said. “It’s mainly a way for us to continue that conversation and to finalize and solidify some of the demands that we made.”
Students will discuss solidifying demands to make to the university, Taylor said.
“The overall goals are to really talk about why occupying Baker mattered and how occupying that space shows that students can start to take charge of how diversity is handled here at Ohio University,” he said.
The summit will encourage discussion about the experience of minorities at OU, Taylor said.
“We want active listening to students who are minorities so we can know how we can help each other.” Taylor said. “There are students here that are dealing with being black or a person of color or minority, and if we don’t talk about that then we are just ignoring the larger issues that students will have to deal with here and when they leave Ohio University.”
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