Students at California’s elite and private Pomona College now have a safe space from White males — and it’s protected by an electronic security system approved by the administration in November.
The Southern California institution is home to the Students of Color Alliance (SOCA), and they have a lounge where they can congregate and relax. Without White males.
Students of color allowed ‘safe space’ without white males at Pomona College https://t.co/SGHHtWHGTQ via @collegefix
— The College Fix (@CollegeFix) December 9, 2022
Administrators granted limited access to the lounge, as reported by The Student Life, after years of restrictions due to COVID-19.
In order to access this college lounge, students must produce an electronic ID. To get this identification, a form must be completed to confirm the person’s “identity group.”
Despite this clear rejection of inclusiveness and equity, Pomona’s senior director of communications, Patricia Vest, told The College Fix that its policy is for campus “spaces” to be “open to all students.”
In an Instagram posting last month, SOCA announced “there will be a Google form that students of color can fill out to request swipe access to the space.” The list of groups included in the alliance was long and varied and included the Latinx Alliance and the African Student Association.
Also welcomed were members of the Asian American Resource Center, Eritrean and Ethiopian Student Association, and Women of Pre-Health.
Even this campus utopia is not without turmoil, however, after Pomona’s Black Student Union temporarily lost its space due to construction. The enlightened administration decided to place a wall in the SOCA Lounge that would create a space for the BSU.
In November, however, a “Stop the Wall” protest was organized with students of color demanding an “exclusive safe space.”
The leaders of tomorrow argued that their present shared space would be “minimized” and thus they would be left unable to enjoy the full capacity of the safe space.
The facility was originally opened in 2017 to be a “shared space” for international students before transforming into a safe space for SOCA members.
In their press release, the group claimed that multiple safe spaces are necessary “to make it through the antiBlack White capitalist institution, Pomona College.” Is it any wonder that older generations fear for the future of the nation?
