The dean of students at California’s Claremont McKenna College has resigned after apparently referring to nonwhite students as individuals who “don’t fit our CMC mold” in an email, she announced in a statement Thursday. The incident involving dean Mary Spellman comes amid high-profile protests over racial discrimination at schools across the country, and Spellman’s ostensibly open-minded email was written in response to a student who had sent her a message about race-related issues:
Screenshot/The Student Life
From the Student Life, a news publication written by students at nearby Pomona College:
Taylor Lemmons CM ‘17 and Zain el-Jazara CM ‘16 started a hunger strike yesterday, Nov. 11, saying they would not eat solid food until Spellman had been removed from her position. Both students also called for Spellman to step down during a protest at CMC yesterday … Less than 24 hours after the protest and hunger strike, Spellman had resigned.
Spellman said in her statement that she believed her action was “the best way to gain closure of a controversy that has divided the student body and disrupted the mission of this fine institution.”
