American University Rally 2005 by Viktoriya
From MemoryArchive
Who: Viktoriya Kravets What: American University Rally When: September 2005 Where: Washington, D.C.
Gathering together one the patch of grass enclosed in an oval of gray structures made to hold a few hundred people. They, the students who have come here to American University in Washington D.C., capital city of the United States. From which the United States one of the most powerful countries in the world oversees itself. The Students have gathered today to express the current gripes about the president of their university, American University. President Ben Ladner is being accused of mishandling funds (something in which valued in this society is stored and can be exchanged for other goods and services), for his own personal devices. President Ladner is also being accused by the students for being an elitist. The students claim that having luxuries such as: a French chief, nor was throwing his spouse a birthday party is not an appropriate way to use the school’s money, what the students equate as being directly their 40,000 dollars in tuition.
The rally began at 5:00 when the sun was still out in the latter afternoon on an early in autumn day. The rally progressed smoothly and while the students had their own private conversations, they made more noise than the speakers did with microphones. However, very oddly like zombies they knew exactly when to clap and cheer as if there was a sign raised that directed them to do so. They would shout congratulatory remarks, hoots, and then return to their loud and private conversations.
An opposition rally was going on near the one already progressing and for my purposes I will name it the anti-Ladner rally. The pro-Ladner rally was very small only about five people with six or so spectators. This group took on a much more satirical approach to presenting their information. At one point the main pro- Ladner speaker shouted Ben is my friend, he is not a close friend but he is a friend.” Which sent the small crowd into a wave of laughter.
The anti-Ladner rally had ended and the students were directed to march to the other building in which the board of trustees (a group of twenty which essentially decides on how to run the school) were meeting. The students marched cheering, “Hey, hey ho ho Ben Ladner got to go!” They converged in front of this other building to make a scene in front of the board of trustees to show their further outrage. The crowd consisting of the mostly white, middle class early twenty something American had begun to turn the event into a social gathering. The people were bobbing their heads to chant and laughing, shouting jokes. Moving the rally to demonstrating in front of the Bender building made it a lot more high energy. The crowd appeared to be in very good spirits and progressed into the Bender building to the boardroom in which the trustees were meeting. Approximately two hundred students walked six flights of stairs to the boardroom, quite jovially and still chanting.
This appeared to be quite an effective event, to make much noise and rally the support of fellow classmates against their thieving university president. Once the students arrived to the six floor the quieted down to see what would happen next. The student passed down information being received at the front that the trustees were concerned for their safety and that they were welcome to stay for as long as they wished. The students decided to divide into two groups to block the trustees from getting their cars, popular mode of transportation in western countries. From the parking lot, which is an area where cars are stored. The students stood waiting until some situation emerged. Steadily the students began to disperse and the crowd became smaller and more reserved.
A woman, Julie Webber, came out of the boardroom announcing that the trustees had decided to allow twenty students inside the board to represent the students. Quickly a few students were chosen. The students who were so diligently waiting for the decision of the board were very quickly convinced to go to the amphitheatre an area set outside that is in the shaped of a half- circle with a platform and built in stone stairs into the grassy elevated hill. There they sat waiting for the students inside the boardroom to reveal what was said to them. The students now felt complacent they had made much noise and were appeased by the fourteen of the twenty-five trustees who were present that changes would be made. They made promises of more transparency to the students in future affairs and more collaboration with the students to avoid such scandals in the future. The students were appeased, the white lies have been given to them and they ate them up like treats.
Information was given to the remaining sixty students about how the board was willing to make changes. A plan was devised to what would be the next step. The demonstration ended at 7:30 and the campus was quite once again.
The demonstration was not just a demonstration about how the President of American University had embezzled funds. No, the entire event was a microcosm of the United States and the political tradition for which it stands to uphold. The tradition of civic dissent and the ability to criticize administration and work towards improving society.
