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OPINION: In ‘hot-mic’ moment, Pres. Maurie McInnis says she was ‘ambushed’ by ‘one of those students who shows up pissed off’
This past week, the Yale student paper reported some students were upset that President Maurie McInnis, in a “hot-mic” moment, complained she was “ambushed” by “one of those students who shows up pissed off.”
Upset? Really? Because she told the truth?
If the paper wanted to be specific, it would have noted the peeved students were progressive activists, and they have a distinct habit of being “pissed off.”
As reported, McInnis was approached at a Yale 325th anniversary celebration on October 9 by members of the organization Democratize Yale when she made her remark.
The group noted in a press release the student referenced by McInnis was Siena Grouf (pictured), who wanted to ask “why Yale is trying to settle with the Trump administration.”
Grouf claimed there “are no other opportunities” for student activists to speak with McInnis and Yale’s trustees, so they “have to approach her at events.”
McInnis responded that she has “met with ‘many people'” on topics of concern, including those who have “collaborated” with Democratize Yale.
Earlier this year, Grouf co-authored an op-ed which claims anti-ICE activist Renee Good was “murdered” by an official of agency, and complained that McInnis “was silent” about it “as is her practice.”
Representatives from the Endowment Justice Collective also were cheesed at McInnis’ remarks.
The EJC’s John Robert Walker said “I have zero faith in [McInnis’] ability to defend student values, when she refuses to even engage in dialogue with us about the things we value.”
The groups’s Isabel Matos claimed McInnis “has done nothing but host ‘listening sessions’ and scripted ‘Q&As’ to prove it.”
According to their websites, both Democratize Yale and the Endowment Justice Collective — groups which claim as members students in addition to faculty and alumni — list numerous demands.
The former’s include an “alumni petition process for the selection of all future trustees” which is open to “voting [from] all members of the Yale community,” and a free expression policy “presuming noninterference with non-violent direct action, including rallies, sit-ins, teach-ins, protests, and demonstrations.”
The EJC demands disclosure and divestment of “all holdings in extractive and exploitative industries, including fossil fuels, distressed sovereign debt, nuclear weapons and all arms manufacturing and distribution, immigration detention centers, and the prison industrial complex.”
The EJC Instagram account demands of McInnis “TALK TO US.”
So you make demands … and then want the president of the university to talk to you. Now, from where could have McInnis’ frustration about “pissed off” student activists come? 🤔
And perhaps the school’s recent past history has something to do with it. Like two years ago when 250 anti-Israel protesters formed a human chain to block access to the Cross Campus green.
Or when several anti-Israel students threatened to go on a hunger strike if the university did not divest from Israel. Or the disruption of graduation ceremonies via chants of “disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest” and “free, free Palestine.”
Activists even were irked at McInnis’ proposed “institutional neutrality policy” because that would mean no condemnation of “Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza” or “supporting Palestinians.” This, in particular, appears to directly contradict two of Democratize Yale’s four demands.
So, some student activists had their feelings hurt because President McInnis said — correctly based on fairly recent events –“pissed off”? She could have, and should have, said something even more “offensive.”
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