The world found out at 7a.m. Eastern time on March 27 that the Wellesley College Administration was slashing the credits of classes taught by striking faculty from 1 to 0.5 and pressuring tenured faculty into opening a half-credit version of their classes to affected students.
I, however, knew the night before the first email dropped that this attack on students might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Quartney Quile, the provost of the college, had texted me the plan at 11:44 p.m. the night before. The plan included precise information about email phrasing, affected classes, and Jaula Pohnson’s skincare routine.
This is going to require some explaining.
In a group chat on Sidechat, an anonymous social media app for college students and their meddling administrators who like to be spies, a user, presumably Quile, sent a message that read “I don’t know WTH we are going to do. I didn’t think they’d actually strike. -QQ.” Based on other sign-offs used, I determined the other members of the chat to be individuals on the board of trustees, President Johnson& Johnson, and Registrar(i) sed Registrare. And of course, myself, an esteemed journalist at the college with lots of credibility.
The messages continued coming in flurries throughout the night, ranging from discussion of the Wellesley Organized Academic Workers (WOAW) strike to the Chicken à la King that the Registrar made for dinner that night. It was clear that these administrators were scrambling and just trying to intimidate students and guilt professors. Most of the text messages were sent with the wrong iteration of there/ their/ they’re. I was cautious about accepting the truth of these initial texts, but I knew if we received an email soon detailing a reduction of course credits for classes with striking professors, I’d know that what I was reading was real.
Sure enough, the legitimacy of these top-secret messages was confirmed the next morning. While the exact details of their plans cannot be disclosed for privacy reasons, messaging resumed in the chat after the email was sent to students. One read, “Good job Quartney and your team!! -JP.”
No word on if these administrators were aware of my presence or if they’ve heard of a similar blunder made by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on the platform Signal.
