Princeton Students Hold Sit-In on Racial Injustice
By ALEXANDRA MARKOVICH and EMILY PALMER

PRINCETON, N.J. — Amid racial tension on campuses across the country, Princeton University announced on Wednesday that it would change the title of those who oversee its residential colleges to “head” from “master.”

Despite that long-discussed move, a previously planned protest proceeded, with about 200 students walking out of classes to draw attention to what they saw as racial injustice and university inaction. They conducted a sit-in at the office of the university president, Christopher L. Eisgruber. Late Wednesday night, about 30 students remained in the office as about 150 — some with sleeping bags — stood outside the administration building chanting their support.

The students’ demands include the removal of Woodrow Wilson’s name from anything named after him at the university; cultural competency training for the faculty and the staff; the inclusion in Princeton’s core curriculum requirements of a course on the history of a marginalized people; and the creation of a cultural space on campus dedicated to black students.

During tense discussions between Mr. Eisgruber and more than 100 students spilling out of his office, Mr. Eisgruber refused to sign on to the demands. Though he personally agreed that Woodrow Wilson was a racist, he refused to remove his name. He said that Wilson, a former president of the university, had done some things that were honorable and some that were blameworthy. Mr. Eisgruber also said he would not require competency training for all faculty members, even though he and his cabinet had attended such training.

Speaking of the decision to change the title of those who oversee the residential colleges, Jill Dolan, the dean who supervises the residential college system, said in a statement: “We think that ‘head of the college’ more accurately reflects what their role is and doesn’t resonate with histories that aren’t at all a part of what people do in these jobs.”

“Once women and people of color started to become masters, the language started feeling anachronistic and inappropriate,” Ms. Dolan said. “Master implies a kind of authority or ownership.”

Discrimination on campus was also a topic of the day on the Columbia campus in New York, where a handful of student demonstrators trying to join a fireside chat at the home of Lee C. Bollinger, the university president, were stopped by a campus public safety officer on Wednesday night. “We’re students,” Brandee Blocker, a second-year law student, said. “Why can’t he take time to speak to us? He has this big house and he doesn’t have room to take six more of us?”

The graduate students knocked and yelled for about an hour, asking in vain to be allowed inside to participate in a Q. and A. with Mr. Bollinger.

Earlier on Wednesday, a group of about 20 graduate students gathered in the Columbia Law School lobby for what was called an emergency town hall meeting. The debate centered on a variety of discrimination on campus including gender, race and sexual orientation, and what the group said was the lack of action taken regarding these issues. A separate discussion was also planned for Wednesday night on the administration’s recent revision of the Rules of University Conduct.

The revised rules were announced in October and cover things like how the administration handles hearings for protesters, which under the new rules would be closed. If a student wants a hearing to be open, the decision must be approved by a hearing panel, which can reject the request because of a “deterrent or permissive effect on the campus community.”

Christopher Riano, a lecturer of constitutional law and government at the College of Arts and Sciences and chairman of the committee to revise the rules, said that after a number of town-hall-style meetings, the university had created a set of rules to protect the “rich, rich history of debate and dialogue inside and outside the classroom.”

But student demonstrators on campus said the revised rules had the potential to squelch the rights they are meant to protect.

反種族歧視 普林斯頓學生占校長室

全美校園的種族緊張出現升溫跡象，新澤西州普林斯頓大學的反種族不平等學生十八日在校長辦公室發動靜坐示威，並具體提出改善種族不平等訴求，但校方並未受理；紐約哥倫比亞大學當天也有學生想到校長家進行爐邊談話，但受到阻攔。學生認為校方不夠重視種族歧視問題，要求校方採取更多行動的聲音正逐漸升高。

紐約時報報導，普林斯頓大學十八日宣布，負責監督各個住宿學院（residential colleges，或譯住宿書院）的「院長」職稱，其英文名將從master改為head，因為master含有「權威」和「主人」等意涵，容易讓人聯想到種族問題。

不過，校方這項作為未能阻擋約兩百名學生前往校長伊斯格魯布的辦公室靜坐示威。入夜後，約有卅名學生仍拒絕離去，有的甚至帶著睡袋，另有約一百五十名學生在行政大樓前高呼口號聲援。

學生的訴求包括將美國前總統、普林斯頓前校長威爾遜從校園的所有物件徹底除名。學生認為威爾遜是種族主義者，擔任校長時不歡迎黑人學生，當總統時還在聯邦政府實施種族隔離政策。

另外，學生要求提供教職員文化能力訓練，培養他們處理文化與社經背景差異問題的能力；開設少數族群史且列為核心課程；在校園為黑人學生開闢專屬的文化空間。

校長伊斯格魯布和上百名學生激烈討論後，仍拒絕為學生的要求背書。他雖承認威爾遜是種族主義者，但認為威爾遜對校園仍有建樹，因此拒絕將其除名。伊斯格魯布本人和他的重要幹部都受過文化能力訓練，但他拒絕強制所有教職員接受這項訓練。

在哥倫比亞大學，也有約六位學生示威者十八日試圖加入在校長鮑林格家中進行的爐邊談話，但遭到校園公共安全官員阻攔。學生布洛克說：「我們是學生，為何他不能花點時間和我們談？他有大房子，卻沒法多讓我們六人進去？」

十八日上午，約廿名研究生聚集哥大法學院的大廳，參加所謂的「緊急直接對話」。雙方辯論的焦點集中於校園所有形式的歧視，包括性別、種族、性傾向歧視，學生認為，歧視之所以發生，是因校方對這些問題沒有作為。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/19/nyregion/princeton-students-hold-sit-in-on-racial-injustice.html

2015-11-20．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯王麗娟