In conversations with my friends and classmates, even after a grueling day of P-sets and dense readings, the care and compassion that Wellesley students hold for the world around them is starkly evident. In small groups, conversations about current events are full of insightful reflections and confident self-expression. However, at the community level, I don’t see these conversations happening with the same authentic engagement. We have a communication problem. 

Wellesley students have an illustrious tradition of protest. Protest is a form of expression requiring courage of conviction and the ability to organize and mobilize in a manner that prompts, and even necessitates, community dialogue. I believe protest to be a uniquely meaningful form of expression because of the tangible engagement it requires from participants and observers alike. It re-transcribes what can feel like abstracted analysis into an unavoidably palpable reality. This is important because while current events may feel at times to merely be an intellectual exercise, they have a physical reality that those affected don’t get the luxury of ignoring. The abstracted value of these conversations can feel heightened when they are only taking place in online forums, especially anonymous ones such as Sidechat. 

While many community members may recall the anti-apartheid protests at Wellesley in the 90’s, there seems to be institutional amnesia regarding the more recent protests of the 2010’s.These include (but aren’t limited to) a sit-in outside administrative offices in Green Hall organized by the Wellesley Asian Action Movement (WAAM) in 2001 and a decades worth of follow up actions in protest of the systematic marginalization of Asian/Asian-American studies and representation at Wellesley. Many teachers and members of Wellesley Asian Alliance (WAA)  — those who were and continue to be  directly impacted — are keeping these memories alive, but why isn’t the community at large? 

Frankly, I believe that students’ well-founded concern of administrative rebuke due to protest has metastasized to a broader fear of any form of community action and dialogue, even discussion of protest. These past few years, I’ve seen protests, but I have witnessed a notable decline in willingness for open engagement. I don’t want to minimize the very real harms that many community members face including deportation, expulsion and financial ramifications, which can impact their entire lives. These risks are amplified for the most marginalized students, those who often have the most direct stake in these issues facing these harms disproportionately. Students are afraid to protest for good reason. 

I’ve found the lack of unimpeded dialogue around the genocide in Gaza to be the most jarring. Any attempts to initiate  or engage in discussion were promptly shut down by repressive responses both from admin and other students, invoking fear of legal action, academic sanctions or media frenzies. We keep trying. Yet, we keep failing to open these dialogues. The space between total agreement and outright rejection is expansive and underutilized. 

In my own corner of Wellesley, the News, I see potential for the paper to be a medium for bridging the gap between the closed door / private conversations that I witness and the actions that aren’t being taken. I want the paper to be an organization more representative of the Wellesley experience; I want it to be a reflection of what members of the community, especially students, think and care about. I invite you to my space — respond to this article; I know you have thoughts. 

In your own niches of this college, you have the agency to initiate these dialogues. As students, we have the right to take back our ability — from admin and from ourselves — to voice and advocate for what we truly believe in.