(THE COLLEGE FIX) – It turns out black student activists at Pitzer College are just as bold as its faculty, who tried to axe its study-abroad program with Israel in the name of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
The Black Student Union published an "address" Monday that it framed as "a coherent list of ways" the Claremont Consortium member can help black students succeed. While it claims "this is not a list of demands," the address insists on "immediate change."
The most sweeping request may be imposing race quotas in admissions starting with next year's cycle: "In order for Black students to feel more at home at Pitzer, we are calling for aggressive recruitment of Black students to be initiated immediately at Pitzer College. There should be proportional representation of minority students for the 2021-22 academic year and every year following. These classes should include a proportional number of Black students, Latinx students, Asian students, and other minority group members."
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Without calling for an explicit quota, the BSU called on Pitzer to hire "at least one Black faculty member" by next fall – specifically an unnamed person they already have in mind who is "certified to teach in Sociology, Political Science, and History." The college should undertake a comprehensive review of faculty hiring to ensure that "field groups" (analogous to departments) "are both gender-inclusive and racially diverse."
