Lewis & Clark College Students Protest After Student Assaulted, Make Demands to President

Students at Lewis and Clark College occupied the lobby outside of President Barry Glassner‘s office today after a series of racist threats culminated in a racially-charged attack on a black student last weekend.

Tanguy Muvuna, who moved to Oregon from Rwanda to study at Lewis and Clark, said he was assaulted around midnight on Saturday by three white classmates who shouted racial epithets at him and attempted to force an unknown liquid down his throat. Muvuna said he eventually broke free from his attackers.

The attack came after several students reported a barrage of messages on the social media app Yik Yak calling for a return to slavery and threatening black students on campus. The messages prompted a campus sit-in among 200 black students and allies.

Today, several students staged a separate sit-in to collaborate with President Glassner and urge safety on campus. The occupiers presented a list of demands to the school asking the president to “present a handwritten, formal statement” that includes “a public acknowledgement” of the school’s racial history.

Lewis and Clark students sit in at President’s office. pic.twitter.com/lSLnVHpFrj — Mike Turner (@mturner92) November 24, 2015

Among the items, students ask President Glassner formally recognize that Lewis and Clark “was built upon stolen land through the genocide of Indigenous and Native American peoples,” “honors the lives and deeds of owners of enslaved peoples,” “exploits and appropriates Indigenous and Native American cultural elements” and “replicates the assertion of, and benefits from, the legacy of Anglo-American White Supremacy.” Students also asked for “mandatory dialogues every four years on the significance of Sacagawea and York.”

Some serious demands from Lewis and Clark students currently sitting in the president’s office pic.twitter.com/6UUsstA2Bs — David Freedlander (@freedlander) November 24, 2015

#lewisandclark students want school to offer mandatory dialogues every four years on significance of Sacagawea and York #lc_blm — Casey Parks (@caseyparks) November 24, 2015

Students at Lewis and Clark also engaged in a media lockout, a tactic used on college campuses throughout the country to ensure protestors have a “safe space” that limits press access to protestors.

Things have turned tense at Lewis & Clark. Many media crews showed up, so students now are going on media lockout / ie no interviews — Casey Parks (@caseyparks) November 24, 2015

#LewisandClark students are stressed by the slew of reporters, asking all media to leave the building. — Casey Parks (@caseyparks) November 24, 2015

President Glassner issued a letter today, assuring students that the school is “working actively with legal authorities to bring” Muvuna’s “assailants to justice.”

“Today, across our country, colleges and universities are being challenged—and correctly so—to do more to fight racism and intolerance and prejudice, and to promote diversity and inclusion,” the letter read. “The pain being felt here has existed in this country and world for too long. We, including Lewis & Clark, have much more to do.”

For now, the occupation is still ongoing.

[Image via Wikimedia Commons]

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