By OTE staff
Around 40 students gathered Monday (Dec. 9) with Heather Harbach, Edgewood vice president for student development, and interim college President Sister Mary Ellen Gevelinger. This meeting was “for students only,” according to an email from Harbach.
At the same time, five faculty members called a meeting for both faculty and staff in which some expressed distaste for the actions taken by administration.
On Friday, a handful of faculty wrote and signed a response letter that criticizes the removal of a Planned Parenthood link from the college website in November after pressure from a conservative national student organization, Tradition, Family, Property (TFP) Student Action.
There was no cohesive faculty and staff statement although they have been encouraged to sign the letter if they align with its statements.
Faculty and staff questioned campus governance and the structures in place to balance power at the college. One faculty member said, “…part of the problem is the complete lack of transparency and the fact that we have been divided from our students.”
Students come together with administrators
At the student meeting, Harbach invited students in an email to convene “together as a community to talk and share,” with herself and Gevelinger. This meeting came after Gevelinger did not attend a previously-agreed on meeting with students last Friday.
Gevelinger said the meeting on Friday, Dec. 6, was only for students and administrators. When she discovered faculty, staff, and media were there and that the meeting was going to be livestreamed, she said “that was not what had been agreed upon.” The administration turned away a television camera and reporters even though Gevelinger was not going to attend.
“When you livestream a speaker, you offer them the respect of asking them if that’s possible, and then no one did that, and I was notified at the last minute that that was going to happen,” said Gevelinger.
Students said they were not aware of these parameters.
The meeting opened with an apology from Student Senate Vice President Jordan Smith. She said there was a “discrepancy” on the original letter about Gevelinger’s involvement with the petition from TFP. Gevelinger never signed TFP’s petition. The letter from students given to Gevelinger on Dec. 5 asked her to apologize for signing the petition.
Gevelinger said that in its previous location, the link to Planned Parenthood was “not readily available to students, it was not in a place that was private for students and, as we unfortunately found out, it was available to the public.” Putting the link in a public space is what caused the “trolling” from TFP and The College Fix.
Gevelinger apologized to students. “Well, I will say that I’m sorry that this happened at this time of year, I’m sorry that this hate group got into our Edgewood space.”
Students said that although apologies are welcome, more action is needed to adequately serve the student body. Students brought up the lack of action two years earlier after several acts of racism.
Students also questioned why faculty were not invited to the previous or current meeting. In response, Harbach questioned whether or not a town hall with both students and faculty would be successful.
She said, “… but are we going to be talking about more than this issue? Or are we talking about more things? Like are we talking about hiring, restructuring?”
Harbach said students were invited to talk to her one-on-one if they felt their feelings were not being heard.
Faculty meet separately from students
Faculty discussed how to show their support for students while being asked to not attend meetings. However, in the middle of faculty and staff layoffs, Edgewood employees feel that speaking out could lead to their jobs being terminated.
Most faculty and staff members at this meeting remained anonymous.
Faculty urged more transparency regarding this issue as well as the school restructuring and faculty layoffs.
Shad Wenzlaf, senior lecturer of art history and director for student research, said, “I cannot claim in this moment that I am proud to be an employee of Edgewood College.”
Another area of concern is that the Student Affairs Committee has not been meeting regularly. According to a faculty member, “Heather [Harbach] hasn’t been convening that committee. She just chose not to.”
Another anonymous faculty member said, “The lack of transparency and the bypassing of governance structures that we’ve seen has led to some very bad decisions.”
Faculty and staff were not directly informed that they were not invited to the original meeting on Dec. 9. Another faculty member said students are scared to attend a meeting with the administration without the presence of faculty.
A handful of students and faculty got together after their meetings were finished.
Edgewood student Tommy Ebben said the first thing he did when the student meeting ended was wait for faculty. “I know it was important for them to understand what happened,” he said. “I was comforted by their support and willingness to listen.”
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