We understand Shervin Dhanani's concerns ("SLAM's tactics inappropriate," April 20) over the Student Labor Action Movement (SLAM) action at last Friday's April Open House event. In no way was it our intension to disrespect the work that the student outreach volunteers of the April Open House executive board have done. We know how hard these individuals have worked, and that they have an equally important voice to ours in the future composition and direction of Tufts University.
We take issue with the statement that our behavior at Friday's event was "absolutely inappropriate, illogical and impolite." We entered the auditorium and sat quietly as the introduction video played and the Dean of Admissions Lee Coffin spoke. After he finished, we quietly stood up, removed our over-shirts to display our SLAM tee-shirts, and handed out fliers. We were silent and still throughout Mitch Lunn's speech. He acknowledged SLAM as an example of the passion Tufts students embody
When Mitch finished, 10 of us quickly walked up on stage and Ariana Flores delivered an impassioned speech encouraging Tufts to live up to its ambitious and righteous ideals by treating our own janitors with the respect and honor they deserve. She spoke for less than two minutes. When she finished, the crowd gave her a resounding ovation and we left.
Throughout the day, many prospective students and parents expressed curiosity, respect, and solidarity with our effort. If people didn't agree, they still remarked that we had handled ourselves in a respectful and dignified way. The Dean of Admissions stood up on stage and commended our conduct as respectful and appropriate.
We felt the necessity to speak directly to the future student body and parents of Tufts to shine a spotlight onto the unacceptable treatment of our janitors. As yesterday's two articles and Daily editorial demonstrated, our janitors are treated worse than the janitors of almost every peer institution in Massachusetts, and the difference is enormous. We will not allow Tufts to claim that they are at the forefront of human rights advocacy and active citizenship for social change, while they refuse to pay their own workers a decent, living wage.
