In less than two weeks, I will cross the Agganis Arena stage and officially become a graduate of Emerson College. For many seniors, this transition to postgraduate life is filled with conflicting emotions—sadness that this chapter is closed, pride in coming this far, and excitement for the future. Many spend these last few weeks cramming in assignments, hanging out with friends, and creating the final memories of college that’ll last a lifetime. My experience hasn’t been the same.

On April 14, less than three weeks from graduation, I was terminated as a resident assistant for allegedly participating in a pro-Palestine demonstration that occurred on Feb. 21. My termination notice gave me seven days to vacate Emerson property and find my own housing and food for the remaining weeks. While the college claims to offer “pro-rated” charges for terminated RAs, they fail to acknowledge the financial stressors that would make this as a viable option. 

With no capacity to pay these charges, I had to move out by April 21, the same day that my senior capstone—a culmination of my three years of undergraduate study—was due. My week was spent scrambling to find adequate housing, packing my dorm, and spending what little mental energy I had left to finish my capstone strong. My final memories of Emerson College are not joyful—they are filled with distressing emotions, pain, and regret at choosing this school as the place to attend. I am now left with the uprooting of my life so close to the end, with no regard for my mental or physical safety, and with the true belief that Emerson Housing and Residential Education could care less about the safety and academic success of their student workers. 

Each summer, resident assistants return to campus two weeks before the semester starts for training and move-in. During these training sessions, we role-play how best to support students through stress and high emotions, which protocols to follow when policies are broken, and how to mentally prepare ourselves to assist residents during medical issues. While Emerson HRE creates these trainings, it is clear that they do not have experience on what it means to actually implement them. In the three semesters I served as a resident assistant I supported students in many ways: from handling roommate conflicts and sharing resources for resume and career readiness, to emotionally supporting my residents who were arrested during the Emerson encampment and helping first-year students seek medical support. 

Emerson HRE administrators know nothing about what it means to show up in a peer support role. Even more, they do not know what it means to view students as human first. My termination revealed the little to no care that this institution has for those that do the work of providing safe and enriching learning environments for their peers. I was treated as subhuman by housing administrators, and no follow up was done from any of them to ensure my access to housing and food. 

This disconnect with resident assistants is clear—we are workers, not students, first. 

It is written in the bargaining agreement made with the RA union that any violation of campus policies can be seen as a severe violation, as RAs are expected to uphold policies in order to be role models for residents. What does it mean to be a role model? Over the last three years, I have been a role model on this campus. 

I spent two years working with the Student Government Association, engaging in weekly assemblies and meeting with student organizations supporting projects and initiatives to get feedback from our campus community to make it more reflective of our wants and needs. I have been a leader in other student organizations, creating the environmental justice subcommittee for Emerson Green Collective, participating in poetry workshops with Emerson Poetry Project, and leading supportive spaces for creatives of color with Flawless Brown. As a Dean’s Fellow for Racial Equity and Leadership, I served as a representative for my department and created workshops for the Teach-in on Race, participated in faculty searches, and gave feedback on new courses for the upcoming school year. With the Marlboro Institute, I hosted social events to strengthen our small department, led student field trips, served as a leader during our annual Vermont excursion, and have spoken to incoming students at every prospective students event for the last two years. 

I became an RA because of these experiences. I knew that I had the skills to not only support a community of first-year students, excited and nervous to live in Boston, but to also provide academic and career support to the upperclassmen. And that’s exactly what I did. 

I have been a role model and it is disrespectful to disregard my leadership and accuse me of failing my community for allegedly choosing to act within my capacity as a student and an American within my constitutionally guaranteed First Amendment rights. 

If I failed so terribly in being a role model, why then was I not immediately terminated in February? If my presence to my community was so damaging, why was I not replaced by one of the hundreds of students on the alternative RA list? What cruelty and malicious intent do the administrators in HRE hold to fire a graduating senior less than three weeks from commencement? What did my residential community gain from my departure? What did my fellow students on staff gain except more of a workload at the end of the semester? 

Let it be known that the decision to go through with these terminations (because I wasn’t the only one, either) will have a chilling effect on this campus for the years to come. Emerson HRE has made it clear that they do not value the safety of their workers, and the larger institution has made it obvious that they will do anything to bow down to the Trump administration; that any support for Palestine, any disruption to the ongoing death and starvation of millions of people, should be punished.

Emerson College sells a false dream. The motto “expression necessary to evolution” is an obvious lie, as dissent is the college’s biggest fear and quelling you into silence is their greatest power. 

Now more than ever it is important for you to question your role as a student here. If holding dozens of leadership roles, providing necessary care and support to peers, and contributing to the things that make this college inviting to incoming students mean nothing to the Emerson administration, then you must create meaning for yourself. 

To my fellow RAs, student leaders, and peers: community is what makes us whole. As horrible as this situation has been, you all have kept my spirit alive. The check-ins, the letters, the donations, all helped me in making it to this point. I am forever thankful for the impact I’ve had on this campus and know that my work does not need recognition from administrators to be true. I am grateful for this loving community and I am also disheartened that it takes this much for us to show up for each other. 

How we care for each other is how we fight against fascism, colonialism, and oppression, as injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere. It is in the teachings of the Black Panther Party that we have found models of mutual aid. In Standing Rock where we witnessed the struggle for sovereignty and environmental protection against colonial rule. In the Walid Abu Daqqa alley, where we saw the commemoration of Palestinians whose lives were cut far too short. 

It takes all of us to push back against this culture of silence and conformity that we Americans are so accustomed to. It takes all of us to push against the violent terminations of student workers that leave us unhoused. It takes all of us to think and act beyond the limits set by this so-called liberal institution. 

I urge you to dream beyond Emerson College. To dream of a world that is truly free, where daring to support the existence and dignity of a people is not foreign, but the expectation of us all.