Xiaoye Li GRD '07 said dormitory rules prohibiting individuals
from having overnight guests stay for more than three nights were applied
differently to Chinese and non-Chinese residents. Li said the parents of a
non-Chinese resident in Helen Hadley lived with her for two weeks without
interference from the dormitory manager."Our Chinese students never feel this
type of leniency," Li said.But Reinstein said because dormitory staff leave the
building before 5 p.m., the rules about overnight guests are only enforced when
another student makes a complaint about a violation."It's not an institutional
problem," Reinstein said. "It would seem to be an interpersonal
problem."
What a shamefully lameass excuse for an institution with some of the best scholars of race and racism in the world to make. I mean, we all know that "interpersonal problems" are never infused with and shaped by racial formations or anything like that. God forbid institutional practices should exist in anything other than the vacuum of detatched bureaucratic fiat.
Meanwhile, the GSA pretty much admits it's a useless schill:
Jeffrey McCutcheon GRD '08, the vice-chair of the Graduate
Student Assembly and chair of the GSA's housing and transportation committee,
said complaints about discrimination in dormitories have not been brought to the
attention of the GSA."Typically these problems, especially those associated with
international students, tend to get brought up with GESO representatives more so
than they're brought up with GSA representatives," he said.
And from today's guest-column by two HHH grad students:
When we first arrived in America, we heard a lot of talk about
the values of democracy. Unfortunately, as soon as we arrived in Yale's Helen
Hadley Hall, we began to experience something different: dictatorship and
discrimination.Most of the residents in graduate housing are international
students, because we cannot come and look for an apartment months before classes
begin. We are a captive market, and Yale has taken full advantage of this by
charging us about $500 per month for a tiny 10' x 10' room. We have no dining
hall, but share a kitchen with our floor's 35 other residents, who also share
one men's and one women's bathroom. Even worse, we are charged about $3,000 --
the full amount of one semester's rent, plus a $500 security deposit -- almost
as soon as we move in.This leaves us very vulnerable to abuse by management. For
example, one of our Chinese colleagues moved out of the dorm midyear, found a
replacement for her room as required by the rules and asked for her rent money
back. She was told that she would get no money back, because her "replacement"
had applied independently for a room, and so did not qualify as her
"replacement." This meant a potential loss of thousands of dollars. She had to
protest, causing management finally to return everything except about $300. They
have never explained why $300 was kept. There are no rules about this. It relies
simply upon the whims of the housing manager.Last May, there was a major water
leak in my room, just before I, Xiaoye, left for a trip home. I loaned my key to
a friend so he could protect my belongings. But loaning out keys is prohibited,
so the dorm manager sent me an e-mail that said my room "will be re-assigned to
an incoming student" and demanded, "You must let me know when you will be
available to remove all your belongings from the building." I found this very
threatening and stressful. By contrast, the non-Chinese residents are treated
leniently and do not have the rules so strictly enforced on them...
If the residents of the graduate dormitories were allowed to
elect representatives who made and enforced the rules, we would have fair rules
which protect the comfort and convenience of all the residents. Instead, we have
all types of unfair or unwritten rules being made up by a single dictator. This
needs to change now!We have found that there is only one way to make these
changes: Organize. Organize. Organize. We tried speaking politely with the
administration, and nothing has changed. So now we, together with our union,
GESO, are standing up to demand respect.It is hypocritical of Yale President
Richard Levin to push for greater political democracy far away in our home
country of China, while he himself refuses to allow democracy on his own campus,
where Chinese students are treated like second-class citizens. He should stop
taking advantage of us by charging us high rents for shabby rooms with unfair
conditions. He should also stop refusing to recognize the 60 percent of teaching
assistants who want a union. He should recognize us, and recognize our
union.
Amen.
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