Brackett Denniston Has Made Kenyon Unsafe and Unhealthy.
Brackett Badger Denniston III has been Chair of Kenyon’s Board of Trustees since 2015. In that time, his administration has slashed and underfunded critical on-campus services, allowed our residential buildings to fall into disrepair, and watched idly as the mental health and sexual assault crisis on campus has drastically worsened. The results have been devastating, and our union demands accountability.
Brackett’s Path vs. Our Path
The ramifications of Brackett and his Board’s choices – cutting peer support services, understaffing the Health and Counseling Center and SASS, ignoring the needs of the College’s LGBTQ+ students and other marginalized communities, failing to invest in building safety and accessibility, holding existing federal money and aid hostage from the students who need it most – are deeply detrimental. These choices have impacted and damaged the lives of hundreds of students from year to year, often irreparably. This approach to running a college, which places institutional reputation and endless growth over student lives, pushes out those students who are most marginalized and struggling the most. Needlessly losing people like that is a tragedy for the whole community.
In response to “Brackett’s Path,” which broadly highlighted understaffing and lack of student support, the College’s primary defense was to say they had severely misreported their own staffing data. It should be easier for the College to respond to the points laid out in this addendum, as there is no misreporting years of student experience. Frankly, any response short of reversing the path Kenyon is currently taking would be shameful.
To Brackett Denniston and the Board of Trustees: Invest in the healthcare and mental health support students need. Prioritize safety and inclusivity for your most marginalized students. Safeguard the health and security of the students who work for you and the Kenyon community – healthcare support, paid time off, including sick, mental health and academic pay, guaranteed jobs for work-study students, a living and dignified wage, post-graduation security. Transform the lives of your students for the better, rather than for the worse.
Students have been asking the College to take responsibility for their health and safety long before K-SWOC existed. Often, these very students have had to assume the role of supporting and protecting their peers in the absence of institutional care. Rather than change course, Brackett’s Board has only made things worse. He has made it more difficult for students to support each other. He has done everything in his power to silence and push out students and staff members who advocate for themselves and for one another. He maintains his influence and his path – his uncaring, business-model vision for Kenyon – by making every one of us feel alone. That is why he is doing everything in his power to prevent us from taking our path – our union.