I'm really glad The Post Editorial Board wrote the statement on Dean of the Russ College of Engineering Dennis Irwin's actions of punishing an aviation employee for gathering signatures to change a university policy.
On the surface, the issue seems slightly trivial, but Dean Dennis Irwin's actions have an important class component that is worth addressing. A faculty member would not be relocated because they were engaged in gathering petition signatures concerning a bad university decision. As students, when the student-run Oasis café was closing, students who worked and managed the café led an unsuccessful campaign to save a café that served as center for student social life. No student worker was disciplined for insubordination
and aren't we glad we have Latitude 39 instead, anyways?
My point is this: In America, no one promises us that we are all going to get the same advantages, but they do promise us that we have an equal right to justice, to be treated equally, and to participate in our lives as citizens. Saying that faculty and student employees have a right to petition their public institution but staff do not is like calling someone 3/5 of a human being. It's bigotry directed at an individual in the OU community because of her classification. It's a community issue because it is just as wrong as intimidating someone for being black, being gay, being a woman or an immigrant.
The power of our corporate university system thrives on its ability to divide people, to classify them as different from each other. That's how they keep us from recognizing our collective power. I would like to remind The Trustee Board, the administration and the deans of Ohio University, that at least at this juncture in human history, no one is calling for the end of your age of privilege and plenty. We are simply asking that our university be opened up, to increase the scope of human freedom, creativity and equality.
Will Klatt is a senior studying media studies. 4
Opinion
