Students for Health Equity (SHE) and Fearless Leading by the Youth (FLY), a community-based youth organization, are hosting a flower vigil in remembrance of Chicago gun violence victims today at 12:30 in Harper Memorial Library. Members of both groups were present at the protest at the Center for Care and Discovery on Sunday.
During the vigil, a small group of students intend to go to President Zimmer’s office to make two demands: that the charges against the four protesters who were arrested on Sunday be dropped, and for a meeting with Sharon O’Keefe, president of UCMC, to request that the maximum age of patients treated at the children’s trauma center be raised from 16 to 21. Both concerns were listed on the petition given to Associate Dean of Students Belinda Vazquez and the University of Chicago Medical Center’s Vice President of Communications on Monday.
Provost Thomas Rosenbaum and Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Karen Warren Coleman released a statement earlier this week that discussed the University’s response to Sunday’s events.
“There are several processes underway to examine the incident itself, among University leadership, University of Chicago police and civil authorities. Supplementing the processes in place, we are initiating a transparent, faculty-led dialogue about University values that will unfold in the coming weeks,” the statement said.
Student Government (SG) is working with faculty and administration to facilitate the dialogue. According to SG’s Vice President of Administration Douglas Everson, Assistant Vice President for Student Life and Associate Dean of the College Eleanor Daugherty has been communicating with administrators, including chief of the UCPD Marlon C. Lynch, to coordinate small group discussions with various RSOs and the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (OMSA). These discussions will form the basis for a student-wide forum, set for sixth week. Everson listed questions such as “What is UCPD protocol? What is the Dean-on-Call’s job? How do you get access to the Dean-on-Call?” to be addressed in both the small group discussion and the forum.
Editors’ note: Douglas Everson is a Maroon Senior Editor.