Last week, there was a viewpoint published that expressed reservations about a group that calls itself WooSCRAM. In a pamphlet circulated this week, presumably in response to that viewpoint, WooSCRAM explains they are committed to the creation of “a radical left wing political culture on campus.” This goal represents a danger to our campus community and should not be allowed to gain traction. Students here have shown a clear desire to break free from the echo chamber that a small campus like this tends to create. We reach out to the world around us and attempt to engage in a constructive manner by grappling with ideas we do not agree with and becoming more knowledgeable on a range of different issues.
It is this attitude that makes College of Wooster students desirable to employers and society as a whole. By establishing a leftist culture on campus, we would dilute what makes us valuable members of society.
WooSCRAM will combat this point with an argument stating that by conforming to employers’ and society’s expectation for us, we are submitting to the social hierarchy forwarded by the capitalist system. They will continue by saying that by submitting ourselves to this system we are perpetuating it; thus, we are harming others through our participation.
This is categorically false. By working within the system that we have, we can address the same societal problems as WooSCRAM; including a lack of social justice and hatred and all forms of oppression (yes, even economic). Addressing the problems within our current system instead of destroying it and rebuilding it around a series of pie-in-the-sky ideals will afford people more opportunities and will allow us to more effectively create a lasting change.
WooSCRAM forwards several more points in their new-and-improved full-size pamphlet. While their old business cards failed to state any direct actions that they aimed to take, this pamphlet illustrates exactly what Tristan was quick to point out in last week’s paper: this group has no intention of being an official part of our campus community.
While they may attempt to justify their refusal to take part in our community, their refusal does raise a very important question; namely, why is a group that refuses to engage with the College surprised when their demands fall on deaf ears?
Whether WooSCRAM likes it or not, there is a process in place by which members of the campus community can submit their grievances to the administration. If that course of action fails, then there are other methods that can be used to affect change while still being an official part of the community. For example, WooSCRAM could organize protests, sit-ins or letter-writing campaigns. They have the ability to focus public attention on their cause via the use of social media, and if these actions do not return the desired result, then they have the ability to vote with their wallet and go to a school that is more affordable such as a publicly-funded state school; however, WooSCRAM is not interested in actually changing the world or our campus, they’re just interested in complaining about it.
That is why they will fade away as just another flash in the pan with nothing to show for their “action.”
Adam Gillmor, a Contributing Writer for the Voice, can be reached for comment at AGillmor19@wooster.edu.