Oberlin College has cancelled classes for the day in the wake of “a report of a person wearing a hood and robe resembling a KKK outfit” walking around campus. But the cancellation isn’t a public-safety lockdown.

The KKK sighting, which is still under investigation, is the latest in a string of bias incidents on campus. On five separate occasions in February, graffiti bearing swastikas and racial and homophobic slurs were left at various campus locations, often defacing multicultural offices or event posters. On February 17, a student reported that he was robbed and knocked to the ground on campus by an assailant “who made a derogatory remark about his perceived ethnicity.”

In response to this string of incidents, the Oberlin administration has suspended “formal classes and all non-essential activities” for the day, and will be holding “a series of discussions of the challenging issues that have faced our community.”

Today’s events will include a noon teach-in by the Afrikana Studies department, a 2 pm “demonstration of solidarity,” and a 3 pm community convocation.

Tuesday Update | As many as a thousand students — one third of Oberlin’s enrolled student body — attended yesterday’s solidarity demonstration in opposition to the hate crimes of the last month, which culminated in a march through the city of Oberlin. Some five hundred students attended the earlier teach-in and planning session at the Afrikana Studies department.

Oberlin was one of the first racially integrated and co-educational colleges in the United States. It has admitted black students since 1835 and women since 1837.

This occasional roundup of student movement stories is put together by Isabelle Nastasia, a CUNY undergrad, New York Students Rising organizer, and friend of this site. 

Rest in Power, Trayvon Martin:

The Acts of Courage and Kindness that Came After Trayvon Martin’s Death – Colorlines

Marching to Sanford  (a short documentary featuring the Dream Defenders, a coalition of black and brown youth fighting for immigration reform and an end to the school to prison pipeline and the prison industrial complex.)

Updates on educational injustice:

[Trigger warning: racist costumes and racial exploitation] USC Frat Planned a ‘Racist Rager’ Until a Mexican-American Students Put Them on Blast – Colorlines

Batraville and Lew Dod are Shortsighted, Unethical – Yale Daily News (Sneak peek: “As early as this April, Yale plans to welcome a training center for interrogators to its campus.”)

The Latest Education Craze Could Very Well Worsen the Achievement Gap – Colorlines (Good analysis of whats wrong with MOOCs)

[Trigger warning: discussion of sexual assault and sexist university policy] UNC Sexual Assault Survivor Faces Honor Code Violation after Speaking publicly about Abuse – HuffPo (Think Progress wrote more about this, too)

Harvard Helps the Less Fortunate – Socialist Worker (Do not be deceived by the title…)

The Next Hate Fest  – NY Post (Alan Dershowitz sets his sights yet again on CUNY as he targets an upcoming Queer conference on “Homonationalism and Pinkwashing”)

Day Laborers Group Respond to Syracuse University Immigration Analysis – Syracuse

Don’t Be Misled by Tuition Equity – Daily Tangrum

Examples of radical student movement-building, tactics and strategy: 

Oregon House Passes Tuition Equity  – Oregon Live

Whither a Russian Student Movement? – The Nation

Quebec Students Protest Fee Hike – HuffPo

Les Bureaux De Leo Bureau Blouin et de Pierre Duchesne Vandalises – La Presse (In French but can be easily translated via google translation)

Les Medias Et la Hausse des Frais de Scolarite de 2005 a 2010 – IRIS (In French but can be easily translated via google translation)

Students Occupy University President’s Office to Protest Naming University Stadium After Private Prison Company – Think Progress

Games of Theories – Inside Higher Ed

A Protest Resignation – Inside Higher Ed

N.C. Students Sieze Power – Technician

Too Radical or Too Ineffective? Lets Just Tackle Apathy  – Technician

Building an Inclusive Climate Movement – The Nation (Report from the divestment and climate conference at Swarthmore this past weekend)

This occasional roundup of student movement stories is put together by Isabelle Nastasia, an undergraduate CUNY student, New York Student Rising organizer, and friend of this site.

Updates from Free Cooper Union:

Photos and Video: Cooper Union Students Vow to Stay Free or Die Tryin’ – East Village Blog NYT

Cooper Union Saga Continues… – HyperAllergic

Cooper Union Students Protest Delayed Early Admission Amid Tuition Fight – DNAInfo

And in other news:

A Melee Grows in Brooklyn – Chronicle for Higher Education (written by Paisley Currah, Chair of the Brooklyn College Political Science department, after his department at CUNY sponsored a BDS-related club event)

Dispatches from the Student Movement: February 15 – The Nation (edited by The Nation intern James Cersonsky who wrote the next article…)

Where are Student Voices in the Gun Control Debate? – AlterNet

What Happened to the Need-Blind Thing? – Wesleying

FSU Rallies Against Scott’s Policies – FSU News

Mass. Dept of Ed Issues Rules on Transgender Pupils –  AP

Five Myths of Talking about Race with Your Child – RIIS

What if Students Designed Their Own Schools? – GOOD

The 20 Companies with the Lowest Wages – Business Insider  (Note: Many of them can be found on campuses across the US!)

What’s Sequestration Mean in Real Life? – Colorlines (Spoiler: Budget cuts to education, healthcare, Section 8 vouchers, high levels of unemployment.)

UW Cut Ties to Adidas, Victory for Students – Seattle PI

(We’re thrilled to welcome Isabelle to the site. Stay tuned for more roundups in the coming days! —AJ)