Hypocrisy on Campus
EWU President Mary Cullinan in response to hate speech flyers being found on campus in February of 2018.
Students on campus in November of 2019 chanting "we don't feel safe" after anti-abortion protesters had assaulted a student and harassed many more. Police proceeded to give the protesters a safe space to preach from.
November 7th, 2019
Protests on Campus
"After the protest, I did not feel safe anymore. If people who come on campus to do those things are that bold, then who knows what else they could do."
-EWU Junior
"You don't know if you're doing the right thing even if you know you're doing the right thing."
-EWU Student
who was a part of
the counter-protest
On November 7th, 2019, there was a group of protesters that arrived on campus. These protesters were there to preach their views on anti-abortion, but as we came to find out, those views also allowed harassment of many students to happen and even the assault of one student by a protester. Another protester is a convicted child murderer (link to article that names him on campus here and link to article of his heinous crimes here). Many students gathered to join in to counter protest this type of, well let's name it what it is, hate speech. For students, even students that are apart of this parent project and ones I interviewed for this specific project, to say that they were called whores, sluts, commenting on their apparel, and even comments on white supremacy were made in passing by some of the protesters. Thanks to the "Wildfire - Nearby Alerts" app and student contributors, many students who would have found this situation traumatic were able to possibly avoid this event that seemingly came out of the blue. However, due to the megaphones and loud nature of the protest, it became nearly impossible to not hear them from anywhere on campus.
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Later in the day, the Eastern Washington University President, Mary Cullinan, sent out a campus wide email that called this protest and overall event an "exercise [of] their First Amendment rights." While in a feeble attempt to side-skirt the uproar among justifiably angry students, Mary Cullinan also fired back at the student anger in the message to the students by stating "at Eastern Washington University, we are committed to being diverse and inclusive—and to upholding freedom of expression and First Amendment principles." Condoning assault and hate speech as a First Amendment right while being dismissive of the bigotry that happened towards Eastern's minority populations is not something that should be supported by anyone. One can not be "diverse and inclusive" while supporting views of bigotry; inclusiveness and intolerance are contradictory by definition. To try to tell the public that what happened on campus was just a demonstration of free speech is not only patronizing to those who were directly affected, but to everyone who reserves the right to free speech.
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If Eastern Washington University, as an institution, truly supports diversity and inclusion, and its students it would have had its public leader address that the preaching of intolerance is not supported. Instead, we are left with a message from Mary Cullinan that dismisses the hate, assault, and bigotry that occurred while picking and choosing which laws support an event like this in order to belittle those that were rightfully outraged by what was allowed to happen on campus.
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Read Mary Cullinan's message to the campus community here
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You can find more information about the event here that states one protester was arrested for assaulting a protester and you can find more information on the overall protest here
"It's sad that the school looks to student leaders to fix the environment and to protect students"
-EWU Student
"We should be able to come to Eastern to get the learning that we need and just call it at that, but I'm suppose to be a student, a student leader, go to work, and fix all this on top of it? It's a lot and nobody cuts us slack."
-Multi-racial EWU Junior
In-Depth Writing Outlining the Missteps by the University and
What Laws Were Violated by These Protests
Further Resources for Similar Materials as Presented by Partner Projects in Eastern Revealed
"This site is attempting to play with the nature of the past's influence and resonance within the present: taking protest at EWU, and The Easterner's portrayal of it, as its focus."
"Imagine that you are sitting across the table from Eastern Washington University. One being that has no choice but to hear your voice. What would you say?"
A community based project that lets students voice their honest opinions about Eastern Washington University anonymously
A community based project where students can anonymously submit artwork, statements, or research and have it sent to a local leader (Nadine Woodward, Mary Cullinan, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, etc.)
Also, take a look at what students have submitted.
