Media notice from Occupy the Quad:
My name is Sofia Falasco, and I am a student at University of North Carolina Asheville. My friends and I are organizing a protest against the school to address the university’s lack of Title IX representation, poor administrative choices in handling sexual misconduct, harmful police practices, policy hypocrisy, and a culture of racism on our campus. UNCA prides itself on its diversity and its claim that it both protects and gives a voice to victims, but the students here would disagree with that. We’ve started an Instagram page, @occupythequad, and in the few days that this account has been up, we’ve received an overwhelming amount of responses from students who wish to report general misconduct of administration on campus as well as sexual misconduct of campus police. We currently have 272 followers who are ready to protest with us on Friday, April 12 at 2:30 p.m. on the campus quad.
As students, we are deeply saddened and angered by our university’s complete failure to protect victims of sexual assault. I, for one, am scared to be a student on a campus which allows assailants to walk free without punishment. We have also spoken to Makenzie Smith, an individual we believe is doing an article with Asheville Citizen Times about her Title IX case. While I am deeply disappointed in my school, I am proud of the students who are ready to stand together in order to bring about change.
I have attached our mission statement for our movement, “Occupy the Quad” which explains in detail our purpose for the protest. We hope that we can count on you in order to help share our story and get our school to finally take action against sexual assault so that UNCA can be the safe place it claims to be. There is strength in numbers and we are ready to do whatever it takes to be the change.
OTQ Mission Statement by Daniel Walton on Scribd
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