Wellesley College and Babson College students marched from their respective campuses on Wednesday afternoon to meet in front of Wellesley Town hall for a peace/solidarity rally, where they chanted slogans such as “No more hate,” “Stand for justice, stand for love” and “This is what democracy looks like.” I estimate there were about 300 people at the rally, mainly coming from Wellesley College (including school president Paula Johnson), but also other assorted Wellesley residents.
We caught some of the action on Facebook Live:
The rally took place in response to last week’s incident in which two Babson students rolled through the Wellesley College campus the day after the election to rub Donald Trump’s victory in students’ faces. This rally wasn’t specifically election-related, though many students across the country have been protesting the election results.
A separate march/rally organized by World of Wellesley and described as family friendly is planned at the Wellesley Recreation Center at 90 Washington St., on Saturday, Nov. 19 at 3pm. The focus will be standing up for diversity and unity.
Natick, which has been investigating threatening letters sent to a resident and that contained racial slurs, is having a peace rally of its own on Wednesday night on its town common.
Email from my daughter : ( A recent Babson Graduate)
I wanted to share this with my family. Two Babson students drove through Wellesley’s campus yesterday waving a Trump flag, shouting, and jeering. At Clinton’s alma mater, on the day after the election. They were jeering outside Harambee House, a dorm and community for students of African descent. They spat at a student who was asking them to leave. I’m embarrassed to be a Babson alum and saddened that these students were accepted into the school, but the thing that gives me hope is that this post has almost 3,000 shares in a matter of hours, and an overwhelming number of friends and former Babson classmates have shared it on their Facebook pages with the tag #thisisNOTmybabson, called and written to the Babson president’s office, and submitted 40+ Bias Incident Reports regarding this situation. A current student shared that the Dean sent an email to students today, which shares that the administration stands with the majority of students who see the act as disrespectful, heinous and totally out of line with Babson’s community standards. It still makes me sad that this one public incident makes me ashamed to be associated with the Babson name, but I have to remember all the discussions about race and diversity in both a casual and classroom setting (Immigrants, Race and the American Promise was one of the best classes I took at Babson), the late-night conversations about American identity with friends, and organized events around how to make Babson a more inclusive environment that is indicative of the real diversity of students, staff, and faculty.
I hope that Babson takes the right action against these students and potential employers are made aware of this incident.