First-years walked out of their Encounters classes fifteen minutes early on Sept. 19 to join a rally protesting the lack of socioeconomic and racial diversity at Whitman.

The rally was well-attended, in some part because of the cooperation of professors.  In several Encounters classes preceding the walk-out, students discussed their perspectives on Whitman’s admissions and financial aid policies in lieu of “Genesis,” the assigned reading.

“”We talked about diversity the whole class,”  said first-year Kate Wittingham. “We didn’t talk about Genesis at all.”

First-year Dan Lovato led the rally, giving a short speech in which he rejected the admissions office’s diversity statistics, particularly the assertion that one in four members of the class of 2018 is an ethnic minority or international student.

“How can we value an education,” Lovato asked, “when the information presented to us is untrue?”

Lovato’s Encounters professor, Jeanne Morefield, recommended him to senior organizer Tyler Schuh as a potential protest leader.  While Morefield herself was involved only indirectly in the protest, she supports it wholeheartedly.

“I think that what the students are doing is fantastic, and I’m really proud of how they decided to take this on” Morefield said.  “All the iterations of these protests are making it really clear that they’re mad and they want to be part of the conversation about the financial future of the college, about economic diversity and about things that matter to them.  And they’re willing to actually stick with it and help change the culture, and I think that’s pretty impressive.”

Lovato sees the rally as an act of defiance against the college, and particularly its public relations strategies.

“We wanted to make sure that the administration has as little time to respond [to the rally] as possible, because we don’t want them to spin it, to be like ‘look how active our campus is, they’re protesting,'” Lovato said. “We wanted to make sure that it’s a very clear message to the administration, especially for the first years, like ‘we are the freshman class, we do have power, this is how we’re exercising it.”

The rally dispersed shortly after Lovato’s speech, less than half an hour after it began, but that power is far from spent.  The rally is the second in a series of protests set to occur throughout alumni weekend, outlined in a document circulated via e-mail this week.  No student groups have officially claimed the document, though many of the protests involve heavy leadership from the First Generation/Working Class Club.  Schuh created the first of these protests on Thursday morning: an art installation on the steps of Memorial Hall entitled Crème de la Crème.  It remains in place at the time of writing.

First-year Jamie Willard is hopeful but uncertain of the rally’s efficacy.

“It was nice to have the feeling of solidarity with the class, but I don’t know how effective a simple walk-out is if you don’t follow up,” she said.  She hopes that the rally will lead to “talking the administration and trying to effect change.”

Morefield sees the protests as part of a promising trend at Whitman.

“I haven’t seen this level of activism at Whitman in years,” she said. “Not since I’ve been here.  And I think that’s pretty cool, and says a lot about [current Whitman students].”

Note: This post has been edited for clarification. Senior Tyler Schuh was previously ambiguously referred to as ‘Schuh.’ It has also been updated to include quotes from professor Jeanne Morefield.  

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