shithole

The intentionality of this statement is not a direct response to any one Western Washington University entity, but to gain a more systematic understanding of the series of events that have taken place up until now, in contrast to the official statements made by Western Washington University Leadership, and to address a campus climate that has allowed for acts of violence.

"The intentionality of this statement is not a direct response to any one Western Washington University entity [...] "

" " [The intentionality of this statement is...] to gain a more systematic understanding of the series of events that have taken place up until now, in contrast to the official statements made by Western Washington University Leadership [...] "

to gain a more systematic understanding of the series of events that have taken place up until now, in contrast to the official statements made by Western Washington University Leadership " "[The intentionality of this statement is...] to address a campus climate that has allowed for acts of violence."

In the middle of July 2015 a professor sent correspondence to WWU student government members Belina Seare (student body president) and Abby Ramos (VP for diversity) about the mascot and how it doesn't represent all students. On October 2015 Abby replied to confirm the need/desire for a general discussion about the mascot among all students.

On November 19 The Western Front, reported on an effort led by a professor to survey students about the school mascot.

One of Karlberg’s students, Zach Welsh, started looking into the mascot issue and created a survey to gauge student reaction and opinion about the current mascot.

About three weeks ago she met with a student who was doing a project for a class. The professor was looking at changing the mascot and they talked about the mascot. That student sent a letter to Bruce Shepard to ask about the mascot but never got a reply. They are creating a survey that will be sent out to all students so they can respond to it.

On November 20 - KIRO 7 in Seattle picked up the story, and published news about the survey that misrepresented the origins and nature of the mascot discussion.

Initiated by a letter from "a professor" in the middle of July 2015;

Sustained by Abby Ramos in October 2015;

Reported by the Western Front (whose accuracy the open letter does not dispute) as "an effort led by a professor to survey students," on 19 November 2015.

There's talk about changing the Western Washington University Viking mascot to something less "hyper violent." >> [link]



Do you think: [low-effort trollbait poll]



[break]

Report: Western Washington University considering mascot change

Some students and a professor at Western Washington University are discussing changing the school's Viking mascot because some see it as too aggressive.





“I think this mascot also reflects a sort of hyper masculine, hyper violent sort of image which is doubly problematic,” communications studies professor Michael Karlberg told The Western Front, the university’s main student newspaper. “I think we really ought to reconsider.”



The Front reports the Associated Students Vice President for Diversity brought up the mascot change at AS Board meeting earlier this month in part because the Viking mascot doesn’t portray students of color



Karlberg told the Front all racialized mascots are problematic, regardless of the race.



A survey about keeping the Viking mascot, one that was selected from student-suggested names in the 1920s, is expected to eventually go to students.



Read additional Some students and a professor at Western Washington University are discussing changing the school’s Viking mascot because some see it as too aggressive, according to a report.“I think this mascot also reflects a sort of hyper masculine, hyper violent sort of image which is doubly problematic,” communications studies professor Michael Karlberg told The Western Front, the university’s main student newspaper. “I think we really ought to reconsider.”The Front reports the Associated Students Vice President for Diversity brought up the mascot change at AS Board meeting earlier this month in part because the Viking mascot doesn’t portray students of colorKarlberg told the Front all racialized mascots are problematic, regardless of the race.A survey about keeping the Viking mascot, one that was selected from student-suggested names in the 1920s, is expected to eventually go to students.Read additional details about the Western Washington University mascot here from Front reporter Stephanie Cheng

[Abby] spoke with someone about the mascot. They are having a forum to discuss it, to see what they want to see as the Viking mascot. She will be working with [VP for Activities, Israel] Ríos to see what they can do about the mascot.

WWU's administration took no measure to correct the claims reported by KIRO 7. On November 22 - Unheard by the journalists who published misrepresentations, Ramos calls on other leaders of the Associated Students to help clarify that no decisions have been made about the mascot. AS President Belina Seare asks how she can help. She posted on Twitter to clear up the misinformation reported by KIRO 7.

WWU Students Open Letter

Around midnight, Belina was made aware of comments on YikYak. Eric Alexander, Sierra and Hannah Brock knew about the posts at least two hours before Belina was notified by Abby at 2pm.

Abby notifies Belina about a lynching post around 2 p.m. WWU officials including [Dean of Student Engagement] Eric Alexander, [AS Communications Coordinator] Sierra [Tryon], and [AS VP for Business & Operations] Hannah Brock know about the lynching post at least two hours before Belina is notified.

12:00am -- Belina Seare is notified about comments on Yik Yak.

12:00pm -- (approximately) the WWU staff know about the "Lynch her" post.

02:00pm -- Abby Ramos tells Belina about the lynching post.

At 5pm, a meeting was called by University officials to discuss the most violent threat that had been made regarding lynching. Belina requested to have students present. This request was denied on the basis of confidentiality. At this meeting, the administration brought a party of eight people and three campus police. Abby and Belina were asked how they were feeling.

Seare is not allowed to bring anyone. The administration tells her they wanted to keep it confidential, but three campus police officers and eight members of the administration are present.



The students were told that the police would not be able to find suspects without a warrant, and couldn't get a warrant with Belina and Abby's statements.

[...]



Again the students meet Campus Police on Monday at 10:30pm to discuss the interview for a statement, which police say they need to get a warrant. The students were asked for their statements, even though the students desired the Campus Police to address their concerns about immediate safety.

At 10:30 p.m., Seare and Ramos meet with Campus Police to discuss the interview for a statement, which police say they need to get a warrant.



Three friends accompany them for support. Seare and Ramos are asked for their statements, but all five students are more concerned with their immediate safety.

Police responded that they could only offer support by having a patrol come by more frequently around their house (which is off-campus), but could offer nothing else-no one could be posted outside the students' residence. Also the police advised them to use the "buddy system" and not walk alone.

The students asked that a WWU Alert be sent out for the safety of all students. They are referred to University Chief of Police Darin Rasmussen, who was unavailable until Tuesday morning. Lack of funding for police is given as an excuse.

Students requested WWU monitor online comments. This request was refused. With their options running out, the students asked if they should call the Bellingham Police Department (BPD). Campus Police told them they cannot expect anything from BPD; that BPD is too busy.

The police denied the students four requests.

Their four requests denied, the students leave around 11:30 p.m. They round up student support to feel safe and fend for themselves, and go home.

A police detail for protection (counter-offer: more frequent drive-by patrols) Sending out a WWU Alert (rejection reason: Campus Police Chief not available... presumably his go-ahead is required) Monitoring of online comments by WWU administrators/police (no reason given) Talk to the BPD

The students rounded up support from other students and friends to feel safe and go home, fending for themselves. They stay up all night monitoring online comments.

On Tuesday, November 24, the students discovered a gun is pictured in a YikYak comment around 2 a.m. The students, themselves, have been monitoring and recording the online comments and posts, since the police and administration has not been doing this.

posts on social media threatened black students and individual women of color who were campus leaders with sexual and gun violence.

The University was informed by FBI counterterrorism officials today (Sunday) that an unknown individual posted an online threat of gun violence against the University of Chicago, specifically mentioning “the campus quad” on Monday morning at 10 a.m. Based on the FBI’s assessment of this threat and recent tragic events at other campuses across the country, we have decided in consultation with federal and local law enforcement officials, to exercise caution by canceling all classes and activities on the Hyde Park campus through midnight on Monday.

A 21-year-old college student has been arrested for threatening to “execute aproximately (sic) 16 white male students and or staff” at the University of Chicago, and then “any number of white policemen,” to avenge the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald, according to a criminal complaint and affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

"This is my only warning. At 10 a.m. on Monday mourning (sic) I am going to the campus quad of the University of Chicago. I will be armed with a M-4 Carbine and 2 Desert Eagles all fully loaded. I will execute aproximately (sic) 16 white male students and or staff, which is the same number of time (sic) Mcdonald (sic) was killed.



"I then will die killing any number of white policemen that I can in the process. This is not a joke. I am to do my part to rid the world of the white devils. I expect you to do the same," the post read.



Concerned, Belina called President Shepard at 2:15 a.m. and emailed him screenshots of the gun. Concerned, Seare calls Shepard at 2:15 a.m., and emails screenshots of the gun picture to him.



He tells her he needs to contact the chief of police. He tells her he needs to contact the chief of police.



He called Seare back five or ten minutes later. Shepard calls Seare back five or ten minutes later.



She reiterated to President Shepard that students are feeling unsafe. She reiterates that students are not feeling safe.



Belina suggested cancelling classes for the concern of all students. She urges Shepard to shut down campus for the concern of all students.



President Shepard responded that he will call her back. He says he will call her back.



Students send Shepard a follow-up text, restating their lack of feeling safe, their concern about the safety of all students, and the need to shut down campus. Students send Shepard a follow-up text, restating their lack of feeling safe, their concern about the safety of all students, and the need to shut down campus.



President Shepard responds that he will get back to them around 6 a.m. before sending out any statement. Shepard responds that he will get back to them around 6 a.m. before sending out any statement.



Belina believed that they made an agreement to draft the statement together. Seare keeps in mind that they made an agreement that they would draft the statement together.

On Tuesday 7 a.m., the students learned that classes are cancelled through a letter that is sent out without their review or input. The letter did not align with many students' views, breaking Shepard's agreement.

The messages on social media were hate speech.

Publishing these messages constitutes a criminal act.

This view was shared by law enforcement, who had been immediately contacted by WWU administrators.

Law enforcement officials also believed, however, that there was no indication that the campus was under threat.

President Shepard, meanwhile, saw the threats as "an attack on all of us".

Exhibit A

"We have welcomed the guidance of our students of color as to how else we might be supportive. We have mobilized to offer support and to provide protection to those specifically targeted by the hate speech." This might be another point of disagreement, if the students thought the offers of support and protection weren't sufficient.

Western suspended classes, but the University itself would remain open and operating for the day.

Shepard cancelled classes but did not shut down campus, so student employees and WWU staff still have to come to campus.

We were approaching the deadline for a decision on cancelling classes and, hence, had no time to put in place any means for adequately addressing those critically important fears. So, I decided to hit the “pause” button; we cancelled classes.

Also on his morning, the Campus Chief Police contacted the students to make a statement and discuss safety. No longer trusting the police, the students decided not to respond. Police then tried to reach them through friends, texting other people. Students desired personal security.



At 6 p.m., students met with community organizers/lawyers. During the meeting, the students received word that Campus Police would provide them with a hotel, but not with personal security. Students felt it was too little, too late.

Specifically, I received a phone call on that private number at 2:14 a.m. from Ms. Belina Seare. [...] I immediately brought a threat assessment team together. By 2:45 a.m., we were assembling in the campus police facilities to reconsider the threat.

There was a report that Belina had requested the same level of protection the police required that I accept[ed] when white supremacists repeatedly threatened my life last year. We all agreed that that level of protection should be provided. This included 24x7 police protection.

We also decided to offer relocation to a local motel for Belina and others who might be sharing a residence with her.

At about 5:30 a.m., I called Belina, reaching her voice mail: I reported we were cancelling classes; thanked her for bringing the matter directly to my attention; and let her know we would like to provide the level of protection she had requested (the same imposed on me), and that our campus safety officers would be in touch to work that out.

Three more efforts were made in the next 12 hours to contact Belina in order to make the security arrangements, leaving voice mail each time. As I write this, we have yet to receive any responses to those messages.



I did hear, second or third hand, that use of campus police was not acceptable to Ms. Seare, that private security needed to be arranged. I do not know if that is true for, again, none of us have heard directly from Belina. “Private security,” to my mind, does not raise particularly attractive images.

On November 25 the students held a press conference off-campus, with community members, to create some sense of security.

Late Sunday night, early Monday morning, I was made aware of malicious comments being made about me on social media. Some of these comments were racially-charged death threats and threats of sexual violence against me.

These attacks have threatened my sense of safety, and I continue to learn of hateful comments being made up until today. As many of you know, this was not an isolated incident [but is] reflective of our campus climate and the continuous violence enacted on black and brown students and communities across the nation and the world.

“This is something really serious,” said Maru Mora Villalpando, of Latino Advocacy. “We really hope that people of color feel safe, and the fact that students who have been here for some years don’t feel safe speaks volumes on the kind of white supremacy we live in here in Bellingham.”



I shared my concern to Western's administration and police regarding my own lack of safety and the general safety of black students and students of color. In the face of ongoing threats, I met with campus police to make an immediate safety plan. I was told there was not much they could do.



Up until this point, I have been refused appropriate security and due to the negligent response of campus police, I know my safety is not a priority.

My growing fear, is that these systemic issues will continue to go unaddressed at the expense of people of color and black people.



This so-called set of isolated incidents are connected to the violence against students at Lewis and Clark, University of Missouri, Princeton, Howard, University of Massachusetts Amherst and the communities of Minneapolis, Chicago and many more.

Mascot: Not as obviously problematic as Princeton or even Amherst

as Princeton or even Amherst Threats: Not as obviously immediate or specific as Howard, or as direct as Amherst of 2014

as Howard, or as direct as Amherst of 2014 Racist comments: On par with Mizzou and Lewis and Clark

with Mizzou and Lewis and Clark Violence: Not as obvious and physical as Minneapolis, Chicago, or Lewis and Clark

Claim: All prime numbers are even. Evidence: The number 2 is prime and even. ("This is why")

Meet Joe. Joe is homeless. Here are some of the hardships he faces every day, and has faced for the past decade. And there are thousands of other people like him in our county. That's why we need better policies to address homelessness.

So, I needed to take a break from writing and regroup, I needed to read the coverage in the media, and I even masochistically subjected myself to reading the reader comments on the article in the Bellingham Herald and on Western’s Facebook Page.



Then, shortly thereafter, I read the news that five Black Lives Matter protesters were shot in Minneapolis.



And what became abundantly clear to me was:



It’s not about the mascot.



It’s about racism.



What kind of country do we live in where this happens?



I suspect that many who found fault with what [President Shepard] said then are likely the same people angrily criticizing the opposition to the mascot and the decision to cancel classes.



Racists have a glaringly obvious tell: Even hint about taking away a symbol of white power — a maniacal Viking, or, let’s say, the Confederate flag — and they doth protest too much.

Today on Facebook, I saw some people have been jokingly posting with their FB friends about various silly suggestions for possible replacement mascots. That disgusted me too. I don’t think any of it is effng funny…at all. Because all of that joking is distracting from the reality of what has happened. To me, that demonstrates a problem right there.

In the near future, WWU is expected to release a survey to students about the potential changing of our mascot, on the grounds that it is hyper masculine, aggressive, and all around problematic.



The idea is that the Viking as a white, male warrior doesn’t create an accepting atmosphere on campus for those of non-white, non-CIS identifications, and that Western is perhaps a little stuck in the past, being the only public university in the state that does not use an animal to represent its student body.



There is, of course, resistance to this change, especially on social sites like Yik Yak, where posts describe the name change as unnecessary.



But they do it in a way that demonstrates why the change may be so important.

[YikYak screen grab]



Proponents for the change are being labeled “little bitches." What does it say about the point of view that the mascot should remain unchanged if the language that goes along with that argument is a gendered slur? Or when you place 90 percent of the student body on a scale below your "ballsack":



[YikYak screen grab]

And then you commit the logical fallacy of privation to say that because the problem exists more extensively somewhere else, we shouldn’t address it here?



[YikYak screen grab]

I think that tradition plays a large role here in what’s really behind the resistance to potential change, as well as the dominant white culture not wanting to lose ground to the “pussification of America” that they believe the politically correct movement is.

A: We should adopt a new policy Q because the current policy P is evil!

B: I'm not sure that's a good reason to support policy Q specifically.

A: Then you support P? Is that because you support evil?



WWU is in fact predominantly white, but WWU’s president Bruce Shepard doesn’t see this as an acceptable future. Shepard has received flack in the past for saying that,



“If we are as white in 10 years as we are today, Western will have failed as a university.”

Western is concerned with its ability to survive as a school that serves students of varied backgrounds equally.



You are concerned with blocking the voice of the minority, with perpetuating ideas and rhetoric that exclude people of varied cultures, and making a stink about even entertaining the idea of change because of “pussification.”

I have a policy I like, P. For any policy there are weak-man arguments against it. Weak-man arguments justify the necessity of P. ("This is why") Therefore P is necessary.

Let's get this out of the way first: of the two "camps," so to speak, of students who disagreed with President Bruce Shepard's decision to suspend classes, the ones who thought classes shouldn't have been suspended have a very weak position. Now, there wasn't a lot of publicity of the various posts made, so I can understand why—at the time—some people might have thought the class cancellation was the wrong call. I hope that since those posts have come to light, those people change their minds.On the other hand, I don't think that a full campus lockdown would have been the better decision. The several law enforcement agencies in contact with Shepard and the WWU admins did not see evidence consistent with a threat to campus. Yet student anxiety over a possible incident was high enough that a slowdown of campus activity would be useful: if something did go down, it would be easier to identify the perpetrator.Then more information came to light about the hours leading up to the class cancellation decision, both from President Shepard and Belina Seare herself, who held a press conference off campus on Monday, 30 November.Some of this information I can describe as nothing short of bizarre.I'll try to keep this post as organized as I can, but things got pretty tangled in the wake of that Tuesday. I hope I can clarify things even slightly. Keep in mind that more information could come out, or new statements could be made, and hopefully that gives a better (less bizarre) picture of things.On Monday, 30 November 2015, an open letter was released. Part of it (the conclusion) was read, by Professor Vernon Johnson of the Political Science Department, at the town hall meeting held at WWU the same day.The open letter is where the strangeness starts. Let's dive in.Word salad alert! First of all, "intentionality" is a $10.00when a $0.05 word—"intent"—would do fine. Better, maybe, if they had said "Our statement is not intended...", because look at the botched parallelism:This may seem like the depths of pedantry and grammatical fascism. I'm no prescriptivist , and surely I'm guilty of errors, but just as surely I'm a. Especially when one has a higher rhetorical purpose in mind.Compare: The document we're reading through is an, addressed to the community, and presumably intended to influence future discourse about student safety on campus, systemic racism, and so on. This, while still public facing, is just me, probably overthinking some stuff, and throwing ideas out there with a bit more of a cavalier attitude since I have very much less at stake.I'll freely concede that Seare and Ramos have the higher purpose. I concede this even as I question their strategy to achieve that purpose.Anyway, enough of that. What about theof this opening statement? It's "not a direct response to any one" part of WWU, although it does seem like a direct response in places, particularly towards President Bruce Shepard and the University Police. But that's two entities, so, not a misrepresentation.The promised "systematic understanding" will be contrasted with the official statements. Good idea; let's do that too!Finally, it will "address a campus climate that has allowed for acts of violence." Hm.a future blog post.First of all, "a professor," not "Dr. Michael Karlberg (communications department chair)" or similar. It's a strange anonymization. Then we read that his "correspondence" is about how the mascot "doesn't represent all students." Not "about the mascot and howit doesn't represent all students." And then there's Abby's confirmation of "the need/desire for a general discussion about the mascot among all students." That's pretty weaselly , I think. Is itneed/desire? Is there a heretofore unacknowledged need/desire? That's certainly a possible interpretation. But I think the more accurate one is that "Abby confirmed that she and certain others (i.e. Belina, Prof. Karlberg) needed to start a discussion about the mascot within the general student population."In one sense, they sure as hell got their wish. However, see also Belina's tweets attempting to correct KIRO's "misrepresentation."Now, the Western Front article names Dr. Karlberg, so why doesn't the open letter? (Moreover, why did Karlberg apparently scrub 99% of the content on his faculty page...? But that's not relevant at the moment.) Note also that this survey effort was "led by a professor." From the Western Front article:Something's missing here. Did the student act at the behest of the professor? Or were they independent actors with similar views on the mascot issue? The former supports the "led by a professor" claim from the open letter, but the Western Front makes it sound like Welsh was working on a project for one of Karlberg's classes. Moreover, in the minutes for the 4 November board meeting of the Associated Students, we have:So I actually don't know how strongly or how weakly one can claim that the effort was "led by a professor." We'll grant it for now, even though it makes what follows seem rather strange.If we take the open letter to be the truth, the mascot discussion wasThe article itself, in its entirety, is:All in all it's really quite low effort, essentially a paraphrase or summary of the Western Front's reporting. You know a news station is being a bit perfunctory when they crib from journalism. That said, there is an irregularity in the article: KIRO's report implies that the Board meeting "earlier this month"—that is, the meeting on 4 November—was thethe mascot change idea was "brought up." That would be a false implication; per the open letter and the ASB Meeting Minutes, there was a brief mention at the 7 October meeting:Amusingly, the "to see what they want to see as the Viking mascot" could be construed as wanting to make it this Viking , but I doubt it.So the misrepresentation is apparently a claim by KIRO that some decision had been made by the Associated Students Board. Except that I think it is simply wrong that KIRO misrepresented anything. Instead, I think they used a common English grammatical/rhetorical device, or at worst stumbled into the ambiguity ofplural versusplural.As an example, look no further than the title of this very document we're reading through:This is an open letter from "WWU students." (The possessive " 's" or preposition "from" is implied; I'm not treading those particular pedantic waters today.) Now is it fromWWU students orWWU students? Clearly; not only were many (proportional ambiguity!) WWU students in disagreement with Belina Seare and Abby Ramos and Prof. Karlberg on the mascot issue, but I don't think (given the shitposting on Yik Yak) that Seare and Ramos would themselves agree that the letter represents those students' interests.So why is it a gross misrepresentation when KIRO does it? When KIRO's capsule summaryis careful to note exactly how many and who among WWU's population was talking about a mascot change? And this open letter really doesn't, except indirectly, at the end?"You have to understand the context," they'd probably say. Well, yeah, I wasn't confused about the letter. So why were they confused about the KIRO report?Oh, and why did the open letter make absolutely no mention of the Facebook post made by the Associated Students, and their apparent demanding of KIRO7 that the KIRO post be removed? I've discussed these already , but I find it strange that the open letter doesn't.The letter continues:12am? 2am? Again, clarity is missing. I get the general idea: this happened overnight. But is it too much to ask from an open letter?Scanning the "comprehensive" timeline published on Storify by the Bellingham Racial Justice Coalition, I find something that could help:So the events go like this:Re-reading the timeline, I see that it appears to be closely related to the open letter, except that the open letter is more muddled. Fair enough; it was published a couple days after the open letter.The RJC timeline colors this event a bit more strongly:I'm not sure what the RJC's idea of "confidential" is, but usually it's "no more attendees than necessary." That eight admins showed up is an amusing indication of bureaucratic bloat; I'd imagine that University protocol mandated that they be there. More than one police officer is probably a good idea for accountability reasons.So the students were asked to give official statements to the police. Apparently they didn't?Again the RJC timeline supplies some additional details:It seems that Seare and Ramosgive the police a statement the first time (i.e. the 5:00 meeting), and declined to do so now. But again,; why would they be more concerned for theirsafety? Couldn't they give the statement and end with "... so can we get some police protection or what"?The RJC timeline is a bit clearer:So apparently the four requests were:This last one isn't a request, it's a question: "Should we call the Bellingham Police Department?" The campus police, meanwhile, didn'tthem anything, according to the text: they just said "BPD is busy so don't expect anything from them." That's not saying "don't call them." It's a strange choice to include in the open letter and timeline. Surely three denials is sufficient for critique?I don't know how unreasonable the implied demand (that the police and admin should have been monitoring online chatter for additional hateful comments or threats) is. On the one hand, the office of the AS President doesn't include a Secret Service. On the other hand, "Lynch her" was considered serious enough to investigate, per Bruce Shepard's note on canceling classes: according to him, law enforcement was contacted immediately.The RJC timeline starts a new section, provocatively headlined "." For reference, here's the post:Allegedly this was in reference to the WWU Snapchat stream, where (apparently) there was a lot of T&A, but the poster wanted to talk about concealed carry instead? Regardless of the reasons for its posting, it's weird, shockingly unaware, and unacceptable in context, as I said previously. But this is how the community activists (the RJC?) at Seare's Nov. 30 press conference characterized it:Er... that makes it sound way more specific. Again, that it was even posted justifies calling out the poster for inflaming the situation... but do we need to make it out as more heinous than it was?The RJC timeline juxtaposes this with "At the University of Chicago, the FBI notified the school and students of violent online posts and advised them to close down the school due to the threat" and a link to the following announcement from UChicago admin:So, in particular, a time and place were mentioned. The FBI considered it a threat (contrast with law enforcement, including the FBI,considering WWU's campus under threat in the lead up to canceling class on 24 November) and UChicago was shut down entirely.There's a rather ironic wrinkle , though...CNN gives the full message Well, you can't saywasn't specific. Also, note in the CNN article that the FBI proactively contacted the University, so serious did they consider the threat.As for the events at WWU, Seare and Ramos called President Shepard and this led to a series of decisions that culminated in canceling classes at WWU. The open letter and the RJC timeline aredifferent here, so I've separated each sentence of the open letter out, with the corresponding RJC version highlighted next to it.The important differences are that in the RJC timeline, Seare "urges Shepard to shut down campus" and "keeps in mind that they made an agreementdraft the statement together." These two points intensify the claim that Shepard didn't listen to Seare and Ramos: after all, in this narrative, Seare calls for campus shutdown from the beginning, and the implication of a co-authoring agreement is much clearer.Who knows if it's closer to the truth of what happened, or just better rhetoric.And now we're at Tuesday.For reference, here is Shepard's Tuesday letter . I will attempt to summarize his views:Here Shepard was perhaps echoing the #DiversityIsWWU rally last year , where the WWU community stood in solidarity against white-nationalist and neo-Nazi fuckwits who threatened and slandered Shepard:Notably, though, a vocal minority of students counter-counter-demonstrated , and cited a racist climate at Western itself as reason for their protest.Continuing the summary:This last bit seems to be the primary point of contention for the students:And I think it's a legitimate loggerhead. On the one hand, non-white students are disproportionately coming from low-income backgrounds, and so would be more likely to have jobs on campus (work study or otherwise). Therefore merely canceling classes would not allow them as much of a feeling of safety as one might assume.On the other hand, there might be some really good reasons why Shepardshut down the whole University. For example (and if anyone can corroborate this, please let me know), University policy might not pay employees during a voluntary shutdown, and Shepard wouldn't be able to compel anyone to volunteer their time after electing to close up. Therefore,This seems likely from Shepard's 27 November update , where he gives some reasons why he canceled classes:So there seems to be bureaucratic (possibly legal) machinery in place that prevents cancellation of classes at-will. Given how strict the budget rules are, there might even be clauses (union, e.g.)employees from working without pay. All of these are perfectly reasonable rules in 99% of cases, and they can't just be suspended at a whim, no matter how understandable the whim.It's getting weird at this point. I can't help but ask: Howdo the students think the racists are? Why would they know, barring a conspiracy with the police, about a relocation to a hotel? Would they have accepted offers of personal security from the police, even after "no longer trusting" them? Not to mention beingfrom the very start. It seems the lack of trust was there pretty early.Note that the morning of 24 November was at least the second time the students were asked to give statements to the police. The letter implies that they didn't, insisting on guarantees of protection first. I'm confused by this. Unless they believe that the cops are in on it or not interested in protecting them (in which case, why demand protection at all), wouldn't they be safe while giving statements to the police, particularly in person as they were at the 5:00pm meeting on 23 November?Here's where there's probably the most divergence from the open letter and Shepard's 27 November update. Shepard gives the following account of the previous time period:It's not clear whether Seare and Ramos were part of the "we" that met at the campus police station, but it seems unlikely.So apparently Belina requested that protection when she and Ramos met with police at 10:30pm earlier that night, as per the open letterNow: "We all agreed," and "This included 24x7 police protection." I'm not sure what kind of threats Shepard got last year, but I am sure that those white supremacists are definitely unhinged, so I assume they made it a bit more personal than an anonymous post on Yik Yak.That's not to belittle Seare's concern at the "Lynch her" post; rather, I think it demonstrates that, at least in the wee hours of 24 November, the University was taking her safetyseriously indeed.So, interestingly, the campus police went from offering extra drive-by patrols to agreeing that "Bruce Shepard getting death threats from neo-Nazis"-level protection is a good idea, including 24-7 protectionrelocation to a hotel. If Shepard's account is accurate, that implies to me that the police were already on the fence after the "Lynch her" post—as they should have been, given that the local justice system was already treating it as a crime—and it just took the gun photo (perhaps a few more ugly comments) to convince them fully.So, in fact, Shepard did (at least according to him) hold up his (explicit) end of the bargain: he notified Seare by 6:00am that morning about canceling classes. And he sent the letter out at 6:18am, so yes, he "contacted her before sending out any statement," and indeed waited until after 6:00am before doing so. Yet the open letter says that the students only found out about the class cancellation because of the letter, with no mention of contact from Shepard. I'm confused again. Why would the students' letter omit the message, or else, did they simply not receive it?He then goes on to praise the University Police, who have full law enforcement training (specific RCW verbage: "peace officer certification" ) and capabilities: If they arrest you, you're actually arrested. They're only fifteen officers strong, though, so it's a small department. Per the old Viking Village days, at least one Officer Osborne was a certified Cool Dude as well.Anyway. Shepard claims that contact was attempted with Seare three more times over the next twelve hours (so until between 5:30pm and 6:30pm, I assume), with no response, not even as of 8:00pm on Friday, 27 November. That's after the press conference Seare held on that Wednesday: public press conference to create some sense of security? I'm still confused. Also confusing: For some reason the only available transcripts of Belina's statement are screenshots . That makes pulling quotes rather... annoying.Threats of sexual violence? Those haven't been widely reported on. Or reported on at all, that I'm aware of. Also unreported: one of the community activists claimed that threats were made against the students' family members. That implies a lot more directness than Yik Yak, but again, these were not reported on.The Bellingham Herald talked with some of the community activists, some of whom reiterated that point:Does it? As we now know, the perpetrator of the "Lynch her" post, Tysen Campbell, is from Granite Falls. And the conceit of Yik Yak is that everyone who posts on it (e.g., on a campus's Yik Yak stream) is actually present there. In other words, supposedly everyone's a student. How many of those students are Bellingham locals? So what characterizes the "kind of white supremacy" in Bellingham?Moreover, how much do subjective feelings of safety indicate "white supremacy"?Seare continued her statement:Per the open letter, the police offered a lot of things, just not to the extent that the students desired. Certainly one couldn't getof that from the local PD just by asking nicely, so I think it's a bit too much to say that the response was, or to say that her safety is "not a priority." I'm confused about what her idea of prioritized safety looks like, particularly "private security."And comparing to Shepard's post, it seems like there might have been a serious lack of communication.For reference:I... guess? The problem is, WWU's issues seemcompared to these. I know, I know, that sounds like the fallacy of relative privation , but this is more of a rhetorical, rather than logical, critique. If the point is to convince people who aren't already on her side, this seems like a poor move on Seare's part: the cynical audience can't help but compare these events, and WWU will come out on bottom.Now, a sympathetic mind will seek parallels. Certainly there's the overarching concerns of #BlackLivesMatter as an activist movement, though no specific comments or threats referenced BLM. There's the problem of ugly speech or even racial threats on anonymous social media like Yik Yak or 4chan, and how to deal with it effectively. And there's the problem of offline racism against non-white students, even if it's not at the level of physical assault.Butis WWU connected to the cited events? That's yet another blog post.I want to check out a few other responses to the events from local bloggers. They illustrate rather nicely, I think, a quasi-fallacious tendency to take single examples as evidence of general assertions. I dub this tendency This-Is-Why. Here's an obvious case of this:Point proven! (Except not.)Of course, human society is much fuzzier than mathematics, so it's far more tempting to make this maneuver. It's also closely related to a perfectly valid rhetorical tactic, the use of specific examples to lendto a statistic.You know, but with more details and flourishes.Now that I've hopefully illustrated the maneuver, let's read an excerpt from the blog Fish and Bicycles, in a post titled "It's not about the mascot":Based on the example of maybe a few dozen assholes and five bigoted upjumped keyboard warriors from 4chan? Mustevent be an avatar ("This is why!") of the bigger problems? By some theories, yes. I'm still trying to decide whether or not it's a good strategy, or something more like sympathetic magic The post continues, after referencing the "diversity = white genocide" kerfluffle from last year (and which I summarized a little ways up the page).Well, the first part certainly seems true. The "decline of Western civilization" types tend to be, ah, obsessive with this sort of thing. One might even say fetishistic. So a Google search for "WWU viking controversy" or some such will probably return at least a few links to places like The Daily Caller American Renaissance , or even The Daily Stormer . Who knows; it's a wild and wonderful world of mouth-breathers out there.In fact, a white-nationalist account called the "NPLCenter" (perhaps NPL = "Northern Poverty Law" because that's what counts for jokes among skinheads) started replying to official WWU accounts on Twitter , babbling the same "diversity = white genocide," "anti-racist is code for anti-white" propaganda that they're perhaps too illiterate to say any other way. They also sent a ranty email (almost certainly copypasta) to the WWU faculty.Suffice to say: it doesn't take much in the way of public statements in favor of "diversity" to get dog-piled by obsessive bigots.The second paragraph, though, demonstrates a sort of rhetorical two-step. The people "protesting too much"be racists. Check the first paragraph again: "many who found fault ... are likely the same people angrily criticizing the opposition to the mascot" not "the same people ... are likely many of those." It reads likewhich is nonsense.criticism is not the same as trying tocriticism. In that sense, if you can't take the heat, don't critique.(NPLCenter and their ilk don't count. They can fuck right off.)Here we have a commenter also using the This-Is-Why maneuver:people were making tasteless jokes about a thing? This Is Why!Meanwhile a student at WWU wrote a post for The Odyssey, a sort of clearinghouse for Millennial bloggers or something, called "Open Letter to Those Resisting Mascot Change." Already criticism is broadly characterized as "resisting," which implies that the change is inevitable.Cue the weak men The fallacy of relative privation (A is not as bad as B, therefore A is acceptable) is a potentially dangerous superweapon if you don't recognize a cutoff for trivial problems. Leftist activists do this already: for example, many feminists don't concern themselves with the problems of "men's rights activists," even if the problems are real and not utter bullshit, because they reason that women's problems are a bigger deal right now. That's not necessarily unfair, on a case by case basis. But it's not the special privilege of leftist activiststo claim such exemptions.For a very extreme example, if a student claimed harassment and discrimination because someone refused to acknowledge that student's identity as a cat-otherkin multiple system, and use the pronouns "cher/cherself/chi," could we just ignore cher? (Note:, so I'm not claiming this scenario isto happen. But we need a "zero case." Also there are real people sort of like this out there; perhaps it's only a matter of time.)I think what's oftentimes lost is the ability for social activists (of any politics) to endorse a conclusion while critiquing bad arguments for that conclusion. Then there's the issue of this little tactic:Failing to reject the null hypothesis is not the same as believing the null hypothesis; failing to find a defendant guilty is not the same as declaring that person innocent. So it is that failing to support anew policy is not the same as endorsing the. Activists seemingly make this mistake all the time.What we saw there is a combination of weak-man argument and this inferred-motivation fallacy:oppose my policy for bad reasons; lots of people oppose my policy; most people must oppose it for those same bad reasons.The pitfalls here are legion. Very bad arguments are also very likely to be the ones shouted loudest and flogged hardest by their proponents. And so they're likely to be the first ones you hear. Now that you've heard such a terrible argument, you've probably already downplayed the moral worth of the attached conclusion. What happens, then, when a better, perhaps quieter argument reaches your eyes or ears? Will you consider it? Will you even hear it?That's not exactly the same as saying that "predominantly white" is an unacceptable future. At least for the foreseeable future, Washington State's demographics are trending towards something like ~65% white, ~35% non-white (mostly non-white Hispanic). And if for some reason Washington State growswhite while WWU stays 65/35,will be an issue as well, if a much more fraught one.Finally we've completed the transmutation, from "who oppose the idea of a new mascot believe the wrong things" to "who oppose the idea of a new mascot believe the wrong things.", person who doesn't agree with me, are only disagreeing because you worry about "pussification."It's just too easy to fake a moral consensus by collecting a few salient weak-man arguments., if only because there are weirdos who like spouting off inflammatory crap even though they only care about the inflammation rather than actual debate.This is a. Load up any policy in the entire concept-space of policies, and suddenly it'sthat we adopt it. That is, it's morally imperative that we adopt all possible policies.Even the mutually contradictory ones.Oops.Finally, the author asks: "Why can’t the mascot stand for something that all cultures can get behind: the pursuit of knowledge?"As I said in the first post in this series, the Viking-head mascot is pretty crappy even on design terms alone. There are lots of directions to go with it. Also, in particular, what better to represent the pursuit of knowledge than the Viking lander? Right