Well well well.....
This is a little rant that may have been blown out of proportion, but I feel it is VERY NECESSARY rant to have. Here at my school, High Point University, we just recently have gotten the Women Gender Studies Minor and I am part of the department. Well this month, since it was Herstory month, a few professors, students and myself decided to have different student activities throughout the month. We took time out of our own schedules and busy lives to make this work, and we had 100% backing from the school. The school agreed to provide us with huge advertisements for our male volunteers to pose next to - to bring awareness to the ridiculousness of female advertisements. The school agreed to provide large poster boards for us to have topic boards where students could write their own feelings on certain matters, and then that would be followed up by a movie at the end of the week with a discussion. Also, the school agreed that we could have sort of an outdoors event one day involving throwing balls, defining colors, and watching conversation habits. BUT... the school backed out at the last second, leaving all of our work to mean absolutely nothing. We don't have the financial capability to do any of our events now, and plus they all worked within one another - without one, there would be no need for the other. I am and was highly pissed about the matter, and I wrote the higher-ups, ONLY to be offered a chat over coffee. Here I am expressing my deepest disappointment about an issue, and I get offered to talk over coffee. I don't want coffee, I want to do the events that we planned with the resources you PROMISED.
I am figuring most of you reading this don't know about High Point University. But just to sum it up: the university cares about its BRAND, its NAME, its REPUTATION, GREEK life, CHARITY ORGANIZATIONS, and that is just about it. If you cannot contribute to one of those, you are not important. I really felt that this month was going to be great because of the information and the value that the students would get from the activities, but I guess this school just couldn't afford $165. The resources is what the institution said is why they could not keep there promise and I am calling bullshit on that one. Don't tell me an institution that has a $40,000 tuition and gets alumni to donate huge, meaningless statues, could not afford to print off some posters for $165. That is horse shit and I know it, everyone does. Either way, yet again women are being silenced. I can almost guarantee people on this campus doesn't even know it is Women's Herstory Month, and the students who volunteered to help me and myself will NOT be able to inform either. I always thought in college is when students and young people got their voice, but here we are only silenced. There is no outlet on this campus, unless it is approved and what you say is structured to how the higher ups want it to be. I am tired of censoring myself and trying to maintain this perceived harmony on this campus. I will not be quiet any longer, and I will let people know the injustice and the oppression this campus is placing on its students. I know some of you may feel I am over reacting, but I think I just haven't been reacting these past four years. I am tired of not being able to stand outside on the promenade and not tell people I am pissed about the abortion legislation; I am tired of not being able to hang a poster unless it is in an approved frame with masking tape; I am tired of not being able to speak bad about HPU without some backlash. So, to some this may be over reacting, but for me it has been a long time coming.
This is a little rant that may have been blown out of proportion, but I feel it is VERY NECESSARY rant to have. Here at my school, High Point University, we just recently have gotten the Women Gender Studies Minor and I am part of the department. Well this month, since it was Herstory month, a few professors, students and myself decided to have different student activities throughout the month. We took time out of our own schedules and busy lives to make this work, and we had 100% backing from the school. The school agreed to provide us with huge advertisements for our male volunteers to pose next to - to bring awareness to the ridiculousness of female advertisements. The school agreed to provide large poster boards for us to have topic boards where students could write their own feelings on certain matters, and then that would be followed up by a movie at the end of the week with a discussion. Also, the school agreed that we could have sort of an outdoors event one day involving throwing balls, defining colors, and watching conversation habits. BUT... the school backed out at the last second, leaving all of our work to mean absolutely nothing. We don't have the financial capability to do any of our events now, and plus they all worked within one another - without one, there would be no need for the other. I am and was highly pissed about the matter, and I wrote the higher-ups, ONLY to be offered a chat over coffee. Here I am expressing my deepest disappointment about an issue, and I get offered to talk over coffee. I don't want coffee, I want to do the events that we planned with the resources you PROMISED.
I am figuring most of you reading this don't know about High Point University. But just to sum it up: the university cares about its BRAND, its NAME, its REPUTATION, GREEK life, CHARITY ORGANIZATIONS, and that is just about it. If you cannot contribute to one of those, you are not important. I really felt that this month was going to be great because of the information and the value that the students would get from the activities, but I guess this school just couldn't afford $165. The resources is what the institution said is why they could not keep there promise and I am calling bullshit on that one. Don't tell me an institution that has a $40,000 tuition and gets alumni to donate huge, meaningless statues, could not afford to print off some posters for $165. That is horse shit and I know it, everyone does. Either way, yet again women are being silenced. I can almost guarantee people on this campus doesn't even know it is Women's Herstory Month, and the students who volunteered to help me and myself will NOT be able to inform either. I always thought in college is when students and young people got their voice, but here we are only silenced. There is no outlet on this campus, unless it is approved and what you say is structured to how the higher ups want it to be. I am tired of censoring myself and trying to maintain this perceived harmony on this campus. I will not be quiet any longer, and I will let people know the injustice and the oppression this campus is placing on its students. I know some of you may feel I am over reacting, but I think I just haven't been reacting these past four years. I am tired of not being able to stand outside on the promenade and not tell people I am pissed about the abortion legislation; I am tired of not being able to hang a poster unless it is in an approved frame with masking tape; I am tired of not being able to speak bad about HPU without some backlash. So, to some this may be over reacting, but for me it has been a long time coming.
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