Student gov 'recommends' college fly BLM flag, endorse movement

Middlebury College’s student government unanimously passed a resolution calling on the administration to fly a Black Lives Matter flag on campus for the remainder of the year and publicly endorse the movement.

A copy of the resolution, which was obtained by Campus Reform, demands that the “primarily white institution” raise a Black Lives Matter flag on campus and fly one of the movement’s banners at the school’s main chapel for the remainder of the year.

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“Middlebury is a primarily white institution and being a Black student in the community can often be exemplified as exhausting in the constant effort to prove one’s self on this campus, and as discomforting and unsafe both socially and academically on this campus,” the resolution contends.

The document, which is co-signed by representatives of the Black Student Union, then goes on to recommend that college president Laurie Patton publish a statement publicly endorsing the movement, suggesting that she meet “with representatives from the [Black Student Union] to discuss an e-mail statement supporting and endorsing Black Lives Matter.”

The resolution also calls on the school to reexamine its recruitment efforts by taking a “careful look at where students are being recruited” and launching an investigation into “why students of color ultimately decided not to attend Middlebury College.”

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“Regardless of the administrative decision, the SGA and the BSU recommend the continued effort of the Middlebury administration to consciously observe the deficit of black representation both within the student body and the faculty makeup, such that [it] prompts an effort to resolve this issue,” it explains.

Finally, the resolution concludes by demanding a full explanation from the administration in the event it decides to reject the resolution, saying the explanation should be sent to “the student body as a whole.”

Campus Reform reached out to Middlebury to inquire about whether or not the administration plans to accept the resolution, but no response was received in time for publication.

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