Point-by-Point Response to College's Recent News Bulletin

Dear members of the Kenyon community, 

On Thursday, April 29, the College sent a news bulletin regarding K-SWOC’s peaceful demonstration earlier that day. In this email, we hope to address the deliberate misinformation produced by the College by providing a point-by-point response to the serious allegations it includes, as well as the general position that the administration has adopted towards the student workers it employs. Overall, it is critical to note that the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), not the Kenyon College Policy on Protests and Demonstrations, governs any and all student labor activity at Kenyon College, including that of K-SWOC/UE.

The inaccurate narrative that the administration attempted to spread among the Kenyon community through the news bulletin reads: “Yesterday and today, strikers entered college buildings to disrupt official college meetings, damaged campus property, and engaged in behavior toward staff that they considered threatening and intimidating. That behavior is not consistent with our policies or values.” Their claims are misleading on multiple counts, both in fact and in interpretation. For one, as we discuss later in this statement, the serious allegation of property damage, which we deny, has not been substantiated. If this claim was made in error or as an intentional lie, then it would represent a severe breach of the College’s stated values. Additionally, our demonstrations were compliant with federal labor law, and at no point did K-SWOC members threaten harm to any staff member. However, the same could not be said for College staff. When Campus Safety, acting on behalf of the College, threatened to call the police on striking workers exercising their rights, they threatened violence towards Kenyon students. Further, the College claims that students picketing on Thursday “engaged in protests that exceeded the bounds of our peaceful protest policy and violated our core values of mutual respect.” The protest policy does not apply to concerted union activity such as a strike, and extrapolating the policy in the interest of surveilling students and threatening them with police action certainly does not demonstrate any degree of respect towards Kenyon students. Violating the rights of student workers is not consistent with the College’s values.

Likewise, we take issue with the news bulletin’s description of K-SWOC’s “threatening conduct towards Kenyon staff.” K-SWOC members interacted with staff multiple times throughout the day, but we categorically deny threatening staff at any point. Perhaps the reticence of senior staff to interact directly and in good faith with striking students has contributed to a sense that even peaceful confrontations are frightening.

The April 29th news bulletin goes on to allege that Campus Safety had “followed their usual protocol,” and “ensured that the strikers had left the building, and allowed them to continue their protest outside, where strikers have been protesting without interference for several days.” First, this claim is wholeheartedly untrue. No Campus Safety officers entered the basement lobby in which K-SWOC members were legally striking at the location of their employer, and the same members left the building on their own accord. This claim is also incredibly vague. There is no Kenyon-specific “usual protocol” for addressing concerted labor activities on campus; our strike is accountable to the NLRA. While we are grateful for the magnanimity shown by the College when Campus Safety “allowed [us] to continue [our] protest outside” rather than commit yet another Unfair Labor Practice by shutting down our picket altogether, the fact remains that the College is unaware of how to lawfully interact with striking workers.

We had a number of productive conversations with admitted students and prospective parents throughout the days leading up to Thursday’s peaceful picket. Despite the interest that many of these students and their families expressed when speaking to striking student workers to learn about K-SWOC, several admissions officers attempted to prevent striking student tour guides from giving visitors flyers and led the tours away to explain K-SWOC on their own terms, without letting strikers speak about their own experiences. It is clear that the Office of Admissions is attempting to downplay the realities of student employment at Kenyon, as well as the administrative intimidation, harassment, and dismissal that members of K-SWOC have faced. 

We believe prospective students and families deserve to know the truth before they make their decision about Kenyon. While informing potential future members of the Kenyon community about the realities of our lives as students and workers may be frustrating to administrators, we maintain that student employment must be presented honestly and clearly to all visitors. Furthermore, claiming that we “engaged in behavior toward staff that they considered threatening and intimidating” grossly misrepresented our actions. We marched, carried signs, and chanted, all of which are practices protected by U.S. labor law.

Our march began on Ransom Lawn, where we then moved to the lobby of the Community Foundation Theater, where an admissions information session was taking place. In the basement, students chanted and shared personal stories about their experiences as student workers directed at the prospective students and families in the session. The news bulletin has offered a vague and inaccurate account of the K-SWOC activities in Gund Commons. The College claims that, “Because some strikers had taken their strike activities inside a building and into a college meeting, conduct that is not lawful or allowable, and because they appeared to be moving to engage in misconduct at another admissions meeting at the Kenyon Inn, Campus Safety officers followed protocol by documenting the event and asking strikers who had engaged in the misconduct to provide identification.” As a building open to the public, the entry of K-SWOC members into Gund Gallery was indeed lawful, and as we were at no point asked to leave, we did not refuse the direction of Campus Safety or any other staff member while in the Gallery. Furthermore, our strike activities within the Gallery are protected by the NLRA.

After leaving the Community Foundation Theater, a Campus Safety officer approached students on strike on Middle Path near the “Gates of Hell” and stated that they were in violation of campus policy. A student worker responded that our actions were part of an ongoing strike and were therefore protected as concerted labor activity under the National Labor Relations Act. The Campus Safety officer and striking workers parted ways without further incident, though Campus Safety followed the strikers from afar. Then, they marched to the Kenyon Inn to peacefully chant outside another information session. Campus Safety continued to tail the picket, despite its peaceful nature. We are uncertain what “appeared to be moving to engage in misconduct” means, as K-SWOC members were simply standing outside the building and chanting. This wording, like much of the language in the statement, appears deliberately vague and intentionally implies a greater and more immediate threat than what existed in reality. It would be in the community’s interest for the College to define what “misconduct” they believed we were planning to engage in, and point explicitly to the law that they claim student strikers broke at the admitted students meeting.

Following our activities near the Kenyon Inn, the march proceeded back to Middle Path, passing Campus Safety but never going inside the building or approaching, let alone using, the side door that striking student workers are alleged to have damaged. The march moved down Middle Path to Gund Commons, where a smaller group of students entered the building and chanted in the publicly accessible basement lobby for approximately two minutes before exiting the building and walking around to the front-facing windows of administrative offices. This is where Campus Safety surrounded the demonstrators and told striking students that they were violating the Kenyon College Policy on Protests and Demonstrations. At this point, a member of K-SWOC asserted that these demonstrations were protected activity under the National Labor Relations Act, which supersedes the Kenyon College Policy on Protests and Demonstrations. Campus Safety demanded students produce their K-Cards to be photographed and took photos of students. When students refused, Campus Safety clearly stated their intention to call law enforcement. 

It is unfortunate that the College attempted to avoid taking responsibility for their unlawful actions by using obfuscatory wording in their news bulletin descriptions of what happened on Thursday. As they state, “Claims that Campus Safety officers threatened students with arrest are simply false.” It is indeed accurate that Campus Safety officers themselves did not threaten students with arrest; they do not have the legal capacity to arrest students directly. However, they did threaten to call someone who does have the prerogative to arrest students: the Sheriff, who has previously intimidated, harassed, and threatened the health and safety of students, particularly students of color. Threatening to call the Sheriff to arrest students is functionally the same as threatening to arrest students themselves, and the school must know this. 

This interaction was a clear violation of the labor rights of student workers as enumerated by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which states that employers may not “threaten employees with adverse consequences if they engage in protected, concerted activity.” The careful language in the College’s denial that Campus Safety officers threatened students with arrest has the effect of a lie, crafted to misrepresent the fact that police intervention was used as a threat to disrupt a legally protected labor demonstration and aggressively call into question the trustworthiness of Kenyon student workers. Furthermore, according to the NLRA it is illegal to “photograph or videotape employees engaged in peaceful union or other protected activities” or to “threaten employees with adverse consequences if they engage in protected, concerted activity.” By both photographing demonstrators and threatening to call law enforcement, the College violated the National Labor Relations Act outright.

Towards the end of the College’s April 29th news bulletin, it is alleged that, “Some strikers today also engaged in threatening conduct toward Kenyon staff and damaged an exterior door of the Office of Campus Safety.” We understand this to be a false allegation that may have been made with the intention of disrupting the efforts of student workers exercising their federally-guaranteed right to strike for union recognition. Union policy has been and continues to be to respect College property and, importantly, the workers who maintain College property, including the maintenance workers in UE Local 712. The administration has made a serious accusation over a College-wide communication and on College social media. The damage claimed by the College could result in criminal penalties for students if they perpetrated the damage and certainly result in discipline from within the College. Yet, the College provided no written or video evidence or eyewitness accounts in their communication, instead relying exclusively on a bold and unsubstantiated claim meant to turn the entire campus community against workers exercising their protected labor rights. 

K-SWOC demands a full independent investigation into both the facts of the damage to the Campus Safety building and how this allegation was made and delivered to the campus community. Full accountability, including termination, is the only appropriate consequence for any administrative staff member should they be found to have lied. It is the prerogative of senior staff to investigate this claim and to bear responsibility for alleging false accusations against students. 

In addition, we agree with the College’s statement in the April 29th News Bulletin that “respect and common decency” are core values to our community. However, the administration’s commitment to these values went unfulfilled during Thursday’s Lavender Graduation. At 5:22 PM on April 29, President Sean Decatur emailed a member of K-SWOC to cancel his previously scheduled 6:30 PM meeting with union representatives to discuss the possibility of a community election. This email was sent during Lavender Graduation, a ceremony to honor and recognize the achievements and contributions of LGBTQ+ and allied students. The previous day, when fourteen K-SWOC members spoke with the President directly, he told them that he was looking forward to attending this event, both in his duty to provide presidential remarks and as a member of the Kenyon community. In fact, the 6:30 PM meeting with K-SWOC was scheduled deliberately after Lavender Graduation, indicating that President Decatur intended to stay for the event’s entire duration. Instead, President Decatur departed from the program shortly after his remarks and after the keynote address. This was prior to the recognition of those who received awards and the reading of the names of graduating seniors. By leaving the event early, President Decatur showed that suppressing dialogue with student workers is more important to his administration than celebrating the achievements of graduating LGBTQ+ seniors and LGBTQ+ student and community award winners. His decision disrespected many LGBTQ+ students, faculty, and staff. 

Ultimately, K-SWOC/UE maintains its commitment to the Kenyon community and the protection of the rights of student workers. We will not be dissuaded from our efforts to gain recognition through a democratic community election by intimidation and unsubstantiated allegations. The student workers of Kenyon College deserve fair representation, hiring practices, and compensation, and the opposition that we have received only emphasizes the importance of our organizing. 

If you would like to support our efforts, please sign up to strike (contact union@kswoc.org with the subject line: Strike Authorization), donate to our strike fund so no worker goes without vital pay (Venmo: @KSWOC), and retweet our social media posts on Twitter and Instagram (@KSWOC).

In solidarity,

The Kenyon Student Worker Organizing Committee (K-SWOC/UE)