Hi. I go to Canisius College: a co-educational private Jesuit University located in Buffalo New York.
There are plenty of good things about my school:
In the last 50 years, we've accepted women.
In 2015 we were ranked 37th on the U.S. News and World Report.
This year we are ranked 23rd on the U.S. News and World Report.
This year we were ranked #8 for best value on the U.S. News and World Report.
We have an 11:1 Student to faculty ratio.
98% of undergraduates receive some form of financial aid.
But look at more than just the statistics:
We have clubs to fit a variety of interests, students are free to start clubs of their own.
We are lucky enough to get Metro Passes so we don't have to pay to take public transportation around buffalo
We are in the process of becoming a fair trade certified campus
There are endless opportunities to explore new interests and develop current ones; service trips (domestic and international), retreats, personalized help with seeking internships, on campus jobs, and professional societies to join just to name a few.
All in all it was everything I ever could have asked for in a college.
Then the election happened and everything I though I knew about my college exploded around me.
I live in Frisch Hall; where the baby doll was found hanging from a curtain rod and also in the elevator. That's right, I live in the dorm that USA Today, The Buffalo News, The Inquisitr, WGRZ, WBFO, Medium, and Buzzfeed (just to name a few). We were trending on Facebook with over 10 thousand hits at one point.
Students have come together to say "That's not my Canisius" and held a peaceful protest in the Quad the day after the Election and these incidents. Even my college's president has made statements that a couple bad students do not represent the entire image of Canisius.
And that may not be the Canisius that I know, but it is a part of Canisius that exists and it makes me sick. It makes me so sick that so much hatred could exist on a campus that prides itself on being inclusive. There is no possible way to justify a group of students making anyone (individual, few, large group or whole) feel unsafe in the place that many people have come to call their home (myself included).
While it wasn't a personal attack on me or who I was simply by existing, I know many people who do feel that way about it. They don't think our college's president handled it well. If you asked around campus, many people considered it a hate crime, a personal attack, and most definitely an issue of race and racial inequality on campus. Yet the president's original statement made no acknowledgement of any of that. We had professors holding open discussions in class and even they agreed that we were justified to see it as a hate crime and an issue or racial inequality.
Throughout the four of my classes that had open discussions we came to one conclusion every single time. This cannot be something that just goes away because something more interesting comes up. We need to make and keep this a priority.
I loved my school, but I have never been so ashamed of being a Canisius College Golden Griffin.
