Power and Privilege, Whitman College’s annual symposium confronting issues of structural oppression, was held on Feb. 20 with over 868 students, faculty and staff in attendance. The day of Power and Privilege began with a keynote speech by Dr. Terrell Strayhorn in the morning, followed by 12 student-led presentations that were broken up into “blocks” throughout the day. 

When Executive Director of Power and Privilege Angela Eliacy was asked what she found most challenging in the planning process for this year’s symposium, she explained it was the theme: “Reclaiming Hope: Resilience and Resistance in Action.”

“I think the theme this year was a little difficult to come up with because of the diversity of opinion on campus and what people wanted to represent this year,” Eliacy said. “The three words ‘hope,’ ‘resilience’ and ‘resistance’ stuck out to us and we were like, ‘How do we make this work?’”

The 2025 symposium comes at a time when domestic and international politics may feel especially bleak. From mass federal layoffs to a tenuous ceasefire in Gaza, many students found the theme particularly relevant for the current moment.

“I love this theme this year. It’s empowering and it’s positive without erasing the truth in all of this,” said first-year Cordelia Seiver.

“In these trying times, we need to talk more about hope,” said senior Parsa Keshavarz Alamdari.

However, not everyone resonated with the need to reclaim hope. Junior Mason Hardbarger explained in an email to The Wire that they had applied to lead a session tentatively titled “Reclaiming Hopelessness,” but had their presentation rejected.

“The idea was to challenge the notion of ‘hope’ as it ultimately aims for change that is accepted by many of the systems the symposium hopes to interrogate,” Hardbarger said. “I rather would’ve hoped to begin the conversation around other avenues that would motivate Whitman students to get involved in place of Hope such as certain forms of anger, ethical responsibility or otherwise.”

Senior Reagan Bain also explained her mixed feelings on the theme.

“Resistance and resilience and action really struck me as something that I’d be interested to hear about,” said senior Reagan Bain. “[However,] Whitman is a predominantly white institution that also caters to a very specific niche in our society today, and I don’t think this is a group that, in general, needs to reclaim hope. I think this is a group that needs to mobilize.”

The role of Power and Privilege on a predominantly white campus has been a subject of debate since the symposium’s inception. What began as a student-organized teach-in in response to a blackface incident at a Whitman fraternity party became the Symposium on Race Relations and Community. In 2009, the single-day symposium was adjusted to be a dispersed lecture series in response to student concerns that the symposium packed too much into one day. In 2013, it was brought back to a symposium format called Power and Privilege.

According to The Pioneer’s reporting from 2006, many students at the time did not understand why the blackface incident caused so much backlash. The teach-in stemmed from the need to educate white students on the history of blackface, as well as to open up bigger conversations about race relations at Whitman. 

Today, Power and Privilege addresses a breadth of issues both domestic and international. This year’s symposium featured presentations on topics ranging from immigrant rights to inequity in rock climbing. This variety brings diversity in perspective, but it may also obscure the symposium’s roots in anti-Blackness.

“It’s good that the school is acknowledging what happened and actually doing something about it. Right now I do think it’s losing urgency. It’s interesting to see how Power and Privilege started and how… now I think it’s getting to that point where it doesn’t really directly attack anti-Blackness on this campus,” said Mahdee Kirkpatrick, president of Whitman’s Black Student Union (BSU).

Kirkpatrick said he would like to have students in BSU lead a session next year.

“It’s very important that the Black students be there to participate and share what they experience,” Kirkpatrick said.

Over the years, the student-led nature of Power and Privilege has led to concerns that students of marginalized identities are put in the position of feeling obligated to educate their peers.

Senior Kate Moe, who has presented at several past symposiums, reflected on her experience.

“Power and Privilege can be very impactful, but the people who are oppressed are often pressured into these situations in the first place,” Moe said.

Eliacy explained that she wants Power and Privilege to be about sharing stories and opening conversations, rather than educating students about topics they could seek out independently. 

“Something I wanted to emphasize whenever I was talking to the presenters was, ‘Don’t feel the burden on yourself to teach people about race, power and privilege,’” Eliacy said. “We’re doing it because we’re passionate about it; we’re sharing our experience because we’re passionate about it.”

In 2023, the Power and Privilege executive leadership team decided to pay all session leaders a stipend as a way to acknowledge the work that goes into their presentations. This year, Eliacy explained that students presented on a volunteer basis, though there was a preliminary selection process based on preparedness and connection to the theme.

“We wanted to bring it back to its original format of ‘I’m sharing this because it’s my experience and I want to share it with you,’” Eliacy said.

In addition to her role as executive director, Eliacy led a session with Hamida Eliacy and Zahra Amiree about their experiences as Afghan women living through the fall of Kabul and the rise of the Taliban. 

Eliacy explained that she was interested in bringing a global perspective to the symposium.

“I wanted to honor the history of P&P, but at the same time move it beyond the U.S. context a little bit,” she said.

Chris Ngabo, who is from Burundi, shared the desire to see more international issues brought to Power and Privilege. 

“I would love to, for instance, see the Sudanese students and the Congolese students speak. You know, participating, trying to educate people on the conflicts they have in their countries. That’s war-related, but there are other topics that could be incorporated in the symposium from these countries’ experiences,” Ngabo said.

Many students came away from presentations feeling deeply impacted by their peers’ stories and more educated on the given topic. Several students I spoke with brought up first-year Denys Kladko’s session: “Debunking Myths: Understanding Ukraine’s Struggle for Freedom.”

“It was cool to have just a wider perspective. I think that what he was saying was true – if you search Ukraine on Google right now, it’s a lot of pictures of destruction and pictures of everything that’s been very current, but there’s a lot more to Ukraine and I think that sometimes it’s easy to forget that. I thought that hearing his story was really impactful,” said first-year Ashley Hagen.

Other students emphasized the conversations sparked by student presentations.

“I think the Q&A section was probably the most fruitful part of the session [on Ukraine] because people asked questions, but people were also talking about their own experiences. We had a couple international students who were like, … ‘Oh I’ve actually had different experiences,’ so it also sparked debate and conversation,” said first-year Lindsey McConaughy.

Another student felt that the Q&A detracted from the session’s purpose.

“The presenter did a really nice job and I learned a lot of new stuff about Ukraine. I think the only downside of it was, … when we got to the Q&A session, [people] were trying to one-up him and get into a debate with him, which is not the purpose of Power and Privilege,” said senior Ben Kearney.

Kladko responded to these comments in an email to The Wire.

“My responsibility to my people led me to speak about Ukraine at this Power & Privilege Symposium. It provided a platform for meaningful conversation, and I was ready to entertain all of the questions that came from the place of curiosity in the issue. Some attendees seemed to interpret the session as a debate, which was not my intent. I’m open to engaging in such dialogue, but I believe it requires a separate platform and a focus on institutional studies rather than personal anecdotes,” Kladko said.

Though students have different opinions as to what purpose Power and Privilege should serve, nearly everyone I spoke with emphasized the value of hearing from students.

“I had never experienced anything like this during high school. A lot of times any assembly commemorating Black History Month [or] Women’s History Month was led by administrators and a guest speaker maybe, and students didn’t really have any say in the information that was brought up,” said first-year Leslie Resendiz. “I think young people, especially who are more in touch in certain ways with the current state of the world… bring a new perspective to history… I think it’s really important to give them the power to speak in front of so many people.”

When asked how they would like to see Power and Privilege changed, many students said they would like to see the symposium extended beyond a single day, especially since there will inevitably be students who choose to use Power and Privilege as a day off.

“It’s a lot of stuff crammed up in one day,” Kirkpatrick said. “The people that aren’t going to Power and Privilege are probably the people that are ignorant to the fact that things like this [racist incidents] happen.”

Eliacy said she would like to see professors engaging with topics relating to Power and Privilege in their teaching.

“Something that was really important for me was to be able to have P&P not only be something that’s one day, but it’s something that we continuously talk about, whether that’s in our classes or in other sessions that we have,” Eliacy said.