Wesleyan Students Detained For City Street Chalk Message Protesting Need-Blind Admissions

Editor's Note: The Wesleyan University student-run blog, Wesleying.org, has allowed Middletown Patch to reprint a portion of this article which appeared today following an incident related to the need-blind issue. Students allege Wes should consider an applicant's financial situation when deciding a student's admission.

Two Wesleyan University students who were writing on Wyllys Avenue this weekend were stopped by President Michael Roth, who alerted campus security to take down their identification, according to Anwar Batte and Daniel Plafker.

The need-blind issue has been simmering on campus all semester after a series of articles in the Wesleyan Argus student newspaper and the Wesleyan student-run blog chronicle student reaction to Wesleyan University's decision to scale back on aid.

Last spring, Wesleyan's Board of Trustees voted to scale back need-blind admissions beginning with the class of 2017. The Office of Admissions will now take into account an applicant’s ability to pay once a financial aid cap is reached, according to the Argus.

"A need-aware admissions policy sends an inherently unfriendly message to applicants: you may be a great applicant, but we won’t accept you into our community because your family can’t pay enough. Or, you may be great applicant, but the deciding factor in accepting you is your money," says Benny Doctor and Leonid Liu in Wespeak: “Need-Blind Admissions: The Price Tag of Equality,” published Sept. 3.

Here is a portion of the Wesleying article:

"Yesterday morning, approximately ten years, two weeks, and three days after the chalking moratorium went into effect, a small group of chalking heads (including Wesleying’s A-Batte) brought a 'legal chalk-in' to Wyllys Avenue.

"The concept is simple. The Wesleyan Student Handbook prohibits chalking 'on university property'; since Wyllys Avenue is a public street, students called the Middletown government office to confirm that chalking is permitted citywide. (“Middletown not only allows chalking but distributes it to children on the Fourth of July,” Daniel Plafker ’15 tells me.) Hence: 'legal chalking.'

"What followed was a tense confrontation with President Roth, who physically grabbed at least one student, and two P-Safe officers, who confirmed that chalking is indeed permitted on public streets but not Wesleyan sidewalks. The end of that interaction appears on video, caught by Plafker. Scroll on for a first-person account by Evan Bieder ’15. (Words are his, hyperlinks are mine.)

"After chalking 'Keep Wes Need Blind' on the street, I looked up and saw President Roth escorting Anwar [Batte '13] over towards me holding him by the arm. I thought he was joking around because I didn’t think the president would actually restrain a student in this way, but he proceeded to grab me by the backpack and call over a P-Safe officer."

Read the full story here.

• Wesleyan Shines Light on Need-Blind Admissions: 46% of Students Get Aid [VIDEO]
• WESTROSPECTIVE: A Decade Without Chalking, Part One