Protest Tomorrow at ESU!

There's buzz on Facebook. It's being supported by the school paper. The Pocono Record has talked about it. Students have been discussing it, and there'll be news cameras tomorrow to witness it happen.

I almost though it wasn't possible, but apparently the students at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania care, and are willing to protest to show it.

Recently, an administrator of the school was charged on allegations of "sexual harrassment" towards at least six students, and possibly even more who were afraid to come forward. There's suspicion that the President of ESU might have known some things and never said anything, and it's being called a University-coverup in this scandal.

For once, it looks like University students aren't being lazy and sitting on their butts while all this is going on around them. A Facebook group called "Petition for the Resignation of President *******" was started, and began flying around the school network on Facebook. Then we've got the event "Gather the Masses". The event is for those who are interested in voicing their complaints on the issue in a silent protest on the University Quad. If enough people show up, we'll be moving the protest to outside the President's house.

On top of that, there's a special edition of the Stroud Courier coming out to talk about the issue as well as at least one article in the Pocono Record. And, according to the flyers that just appeared everywhere on campus today, the News will be there to capture the event. We're being instructed to wear our school colors for the silent protest.

This is one thing that actually makes me so proud of my school. The Facebook group has 579 members as of now, and only a few less who have responded "Attending" or "Maybe Attending" in the event. Usually I think of my fellow college students in a less-than-admirable light, because laziness is a common factor here. But seeing the response so far, I can only imagine that getting involved in this protest is a step in the right direction. Students want their voices heard. It's an amazing concept.

I've heard from the older generation (and I think on some blog entries on ProgU) that our generation isn't the same because we don't do things like protests. Well I hope between the hours of 2pm and 4pm on Thursday, February 26th, they'll all be proven wrong.

I'll no doubt be doing an updated post, perhaps a Part Two to this post tomorrow, after the actual protest. I'm gonna try to take some pictures.