Seattle University Students Demand Resignation Of Dean

Seattle University Students Demand Resignation Of Dean

Seattle University students are demanding the resignation of their Dean Jodi Kelly after a black student charged that the dean used the slur “ni**er” many times during a class according to The Stranger reports:

When a black student at Seattle University’s Matteo Ricci College asked Dean Jodi Kelly for a more diversified curriculum, the dean responded by plucking a book from her shelf and suggesting the student read it. The book was Ni**er, published in 1964 by the comedian and activist Dick Gregory.

The student, who asked not to be named, shared her account of the incident on Thursday after university president Stephen Sundborg pleaded with a group of students occupying the college to drop their demand that Kelly resign. The occupation entered its third day on Friday.

Sundborg sat with the group, praised the students for their activism, and said they had helped open his eyes to internalized racism. But he insisted they were taking the wrong approach by asking Kelly to resign.

“I do not believe that demanding the resignation of the dean is a way of attempting to [address racism] together,” Sundborg said. “It sets up an opposition.”

An African-American student at the college spoke in response. She said she met last spring with Kelly to ask for a more diverse, culturally responsive curriculum. In response, Kelly “used the n-word… she said it three or four times. The full word.”

The student claims Dean Kelly said the coed could reclaim the word if she wanted to, citing a black comedian’s comments.

The student said she broke down after her meeting with the dean.

“I did not go to class,” she said to Sundborg and the assembled protesters. “That word still hurts… It is not her place to tell me not to be offended. This woman needs to be removed. I’m worried about the students that come after me.”

“I don’t want this to be the reason she resigns,” the student told me when I approached her after she spoke. “Everyone has stories. But this was just too traumatic.”

Discuss.

ANSEL HERZ